By this means, the resolution of the English in mastering the fire, and their trusty and prudent conduct where they were employed as safeguards, was the general subject of conversation amongst the Chinese. And the next morning many of the principal inhabitants waited on the commodore to thank him for his assistance, frankly owning to him that he had preserved their city from being totally consumed, as they could never have extinguished the fire of themselves. Soon after, too, a message came to the commodore from the viceroy, appointing the 30th of November for his audience, which sudden resolution of the viceroy, in a matter that had been so long agitated in vain, was also owing to the signal services performed by Mr. Anson and his people at the fire; of which the viceroy himself had been in some measure an eye-witness.
The fixing this business of the audience was on every account a circumstance with which Mr. Anson was much pleased, since he was satisfied the Chinese Government would not have determined this point without having agreed among themselves to give up their pretensions to the duties they claimed, and to grant him all he could reasonably ask. For, as they well knew the commodore's sentiments, it would have been a piece of imprudence, not consistent with their refined cunning, to have admitted him to an audience only to have contested with him. Being therefore himself perfectly easy about the result of this visit, he made the necessary preparations against the day, and engaged Mr. Flint, whom I have mentioned before, to act as interpreter in the conference: and Mr. Flint, in this affair as in all others, acquitted himself much to the commodore's satisfaction, repeating with great boldness, and doubtless with exactness, whatever was given him in charge, a part which no Chinese linguist would have performed with any tolerable fidelity.
At ten o'clock in the morning, on the day appointed, a mandarine came to the commodore to let him know that the viceroy was prepared, and expected him, on which the commodore and his retinue immediately set out. As soon as he entered the outer gate of the city, he found a guard of two hundred soldiers ready to receive him; these attended him to the great parade before the emperor's palace, where the viceroy then resided. In this parade, a body of troops, to the number of ten thousand, were drawn up under arms, who made a very fine appearance, they being all of them new cloathed for this ceremony. Mr. Anson, with his retinue, having passed through the middle of them, he was then conducted to the great hall of audience, where he found the viceroy seated under a rich canopy in the emperor's chair of state, with all his council of mandarines attending. Here there was a vacant seat prepared for the commodore, in which he was placed on his arrival. He was ranked the third in order from the viceroy, there being above him only the two chiefs of the law and of the treasury, who in the Chinese Government have precedence of all military officers. When the commodore was seated, he addressed himself to the viceroy by his interpreter, and began with reciting the various methods he had formerly taken to get an audience; adding that he imputed the delays he had met with to the insincerity of those he had employed, and that he had therefore no other means left than to send, as he had done, his own officer with a letter to the gate. On the mention of this the viceroy interrupted the interpreter, and bid him assure Mr. Anson that the first knowledge they had of his being at Canton was from that letter. Mr. Anson then proceeded, and told him that the subjects of the King of Great Britain trading to China had complained to him, the commodore, of the vexatious impositions both of the merchants and inferior custom-house officers, to which they were frequently necessitated to submit, by reason of the difficulty of getting access to the mandarines, who alone could grant them redress. That it was his, Mr. Anson's, duty, as an officer of the King of Great Britain, to lay before the viceroy these grievances of the British subjects, which he hoped the viceroy would take into consideration, and would give orders that hereafter there should be no just reason for complaint. Here Mr. Anson paused, and waited some time in expectation of an answer, but nothing being said, he asked his interpreter if he was certain the viceroy understood what he had urged; the interpreter told him he was certain it was understood, but he believed no reply would be made to it. Mr. Anson then represented to the viceroy the case of the ship Haslingfield, which, having been dismasted on the coast of China, had arrived in the river of Canton but a few days before. The people on board this vessel had been great sufferers by the fire; the captain in particular had all his goods burnt, and had lost besides, in the confusion, a chest of treasure of four thousand five hundred tahel, which was supposed to be stolen by the Chinese boatmen. Mr. Anson therefore desired that the captain might have the assistance of the government, as it was apprehended the money could never be recovered without the interposition of the mandarines. And to this request the viceroy made answer that, in settling the emperor's customs for that ship, some abatement should be made in consideration of her losses.
And now the commodore having dispatched the business with which the officers of the East India Company had entrusted him, he entered on his own affairs, acquainting the viceroy that the proper season was already set in for returning to Europe, and that he wanted only a licence to ship off his provisions and stores, which were all ready; and that as soon as this should be granted him, and he should have gotten his necessaries on board, he intended to leave the river of Canton and to make the best of his way for England. The viceroy replied to this that the licence should be immediately issued, and that everything should be ordered on board the following day. And finding that Mr. Anson had nothing farther to insist on, the viceroy continued the conversation for some time, acknowledging in very civil terms how much the Chinese were obliged to him for his signal services at the fire, and owning that he had saved the city from being destroyed: then observing that the Centurion had been a good while on their coast, he closed his discourse by wishing the commodore a prosperous voyage to Europe, after which the commodore, thanking him for his civility and assistance, took his leave.
As soon as the commodore was out of the hall of audience, he was much pressed to go into a neighbouring apartment, where there was an entertainment provided; but finding, on enquiry, that the viceroy himself was not to be present, he declined the invitation and departed, attended in the same manner as at his arrival, only on his leaving the city he was saluted with three guns, which are as many as in that country are ever fired on any ceremony. Thus the commodore, to his great joy, at last finished this troublesome affair, which, for the preceding four months, had given him much disquietude. Indeed he was highly pleased with procuring a licence for the shipping off his stores and provisions, as thereby he was enabled to return to Great Britain with the first of the monsoons, and to prevent all intelligence of his being expected: but this, though a very important point, was not the circumstance which gave him the greatest satisfaction, for he was more particularly attentive to the authentic precedent established on this occasion, by which his Majesty's ships of war are for the future exempted from all demands of duty in any of the ports of China.
In pursuance of the promises of the viceroy, the provisions were begun to be sent on board the day succeeding the audience, and four days after, the commodore embarked at Canton for the Centurion. And now all the preparations for putting to sea were pursued with so much vigilance, and were so soon compleated, that the 7th of December the Centurion and her prize unmoored and stood down the river, passing through the Bocca Tigris on the 10th. On this occasion I must observe that the Chinese had taken care to man the two forts on each side of that passage with as many men as they could well contain, the greatest part of them armed with pikes and matchlock musquets. These garrisons affected to shew themselves as much as possible to the ships, and were doubtless intended to induce Mr. Anson to think more reverently than he had hitherto done of the Chinese military power. For this purpose they were equipped with extraordinary parade, having a great number of colours exposed to view; and on the castle in particular there was laid considerable heaps of large stones, and a soldier of unusual size, dressed in very sightly armour, stalked about on the parapet with a battle-ax in his hand, endeavouring to put on as important and martial an air as possible, though some of the observers on board the Centurion shrewdly suspected, from the appearance of his armour, that instead of steel it was composed only of a particular kind of glittering paper.
The Centurion and her prize being now without the river of Canton, and consequently upon the point of leaving the Chinese jurisdiction, I beg leave, before I quit all mention of the Chinese affairs, to subjoin a few remarks on the disposition and genius of that celebrated people. And though it may be supposed that observations made at Canton only, a place situated in a corner of the empire, are very imperfect materials on which to found any general conclusions, yet as those who have had opportunities of examining the inner parts of the country have been evidently influenced by very ridiculous prepossessions, and as the transactions of Mr. Anson with the regency of Canton were of an uncommon nature, in which many circumstances occurred different perhaps from any which have happened before, I hope the following reflections, many of them drawn from these incidents, will not be altogether unacceptable to the reader.
That the Chinese are a very ingenious and industrious people is sufficiently evinced from the great number of curious manufactures which are established amongst them, and which are eagerly sought for by the most distant nations; but though skill in the handicraft art seems to be the most valuable qualification of this people, yet their talents therein are but of a second-rate kind, for they are much outdone by the Japanese in those manufactures which are common to both countries, and they are in numerous instances incapable of rivalling the mechanic dexterity of the Europeans. Indeed, their principal excellency seems to be imitation, and they accordingly labour under that poverty of genius which constantly attends all servile imitators. This is most conspicuous in works which require great truth and accuracy, as in clocks, watches, fire-arms, etc., for in all these, though they can copy the different parts, and can form some resemblance of the whole, yet they never could arrive at such a justness in their fabric as was necessary to produce the desired effect. If we pass from those employed in manufactures to artists of a superior class, as painters, statuaries, etc., in these matters they seem to be still more defective; their painters, though very numerous and in great esteem, rarely succeeding in the drawing or colouring of human figures, or in the grouping of large compositions; and though in flowers and birds their performances are much more admired, yet even in these some part of the merit is rather to be imputed to the native brightness and excellency of the colours than to the skill of the painter, since it is very unusual to see the light and shade justly and naturally handled, or to find that ease and grace in the drawing which are to be met with in the works of European artists. In short, there is a stiffness and minuteness in most of the Chinese productions which are extremely displeasing: and it may perhaps be truly asserted that these defects in their arts are entirely owing to the peculiar turn of the people, amongst whom nothing great or spirited is to be met with.
If we next examine the Chinese literature (taking our accounts from the writers who have endeavoured to represent it in the most favourable light), we shall find that on this head their obstinacy and absurdity are most wonderful; since though, for many ages, they have been surrounded by nations to whom the use of letters was familiar, yet they, the Chinese alone, have hitherto neglected to avail themselves of that almost divine invention, and have continued to adhere to the rude and inartificial method of representing words by arbitrary mark—a method which necessarily renders the number of their characters too great for human memory to manage, makes writing to be an art that requires prodigious application, and in which no man can be otherwise than partially skilled; whilst all reading and understanding of what is written is attended with infinite obscurity and confusion, as the connexion between these marks and the words they represent cannot be retained in books, but must be delivered down from age to age by oral tradition—and how uncertain this must prove in such a complicated subject is sufficiently obvious to those who have attended to the variation which all verbal relations undergo when they are transmitted thro' three or four hands only. Hence it is easy to conclude that the history and inventions of past ages recorded by these perplexed symbols must frequently prove unintelligible, and consequently the learning and boasted antiquity of the nation must, in numerous instances, be extremely problematical.
However, we are told by many of the missionaries that tho' the skill of the Chinese in science is confessedly much inferior to that of the Europeans, yet the morality and justice taught and practised by them are most exemplary: so that from the description given by some of these good fathers, one should be induced to believe that the whole empire was a well-governed affectionate family, where the only contests were who should exert the most humanity and social virtue. But our preceding relation of the behaviour of the magistrates, merchants, and tradesmen at Canton sufficiently refutes these Jesuitical fictions. Beside, as to their theories of morality, if we may judge from the specimens exhibited in the works of the missionaries, we shall find them frequently employed in recommending ridiculous attachment to certain frivolous points, instead of discussing the proper criterion of human actions, and regulating the general conduct of mankind to one another on reasonable and equitable principles. Indeed, the only pretension of the Chinese to a more refined morality than their neighbours is founded not on their integrity or beneficence, but solely on the affected evenness of their demeanor, and their constant attention to suppress all symptoms of passion and violence. But it must be considered that hypocrisy and fraud are often not less mischievous to the general interests of mankind than impetuosity and vehemence of temper: since these, though usually liable to the imputation of imprudence, do not exclude sincerity, benevolence, resolution, nor many other laudable qualities. And perhaps, if this matter was examined to the bottom, it would appear that the calm and patient turn of the Chinese, on which they so much value themselves, and which distinguishes the nation from all others, is in reality the source of the most exceptionable part of their character; for it has been often observed by those who have attended to the nature of mankind, that it is difficult to curb the more robust and violent passions without augmenting, at the same time, the force of the selfish ones. So that the timidity, dissimulation, and dishonesty of the Chinese may, in some sort, be owing to the composure and external decency so universally prevailing in that empire.
Thus much for the general disposition of the people: but I cannot dismiss this subject without adding a few words about the Chinese Government, that too having been the subject of boundless panegyric. And on this head I must observe that the favourable accounts often given of their prudent regulations for the administration of their domestic affairs are sufficiently confuted by their transactions with Mr. Anson, as we have seen that their magistrates are corrupt, their people thievish, and their tribunals venal and abounding with artifice. Nor is the constitution of the empire, or the general orders of the state, less liable to exception, since that form of government which does not in the first place provide for the security of the public against the enterprizes of foreign powers is certainly a most defective institution: and yet this populous, this rich and extensive country, so pompously celebrated for its refined wisdom and policy, was conquered about an age since by a handful of Tartars; and even now, through the cowardice of the inhabitants, and the want of proper military regulations, it continues exposed not only to the attempts of any potent state, but to the ravages of every petty invader. I have already observed, on occasion of the commodore's disputes with the Chinese, that the Centurion alone was an overmatch for all the naval power of that empire. This perhaps may appear an extraordinary position, but it is unquestionable, for I have examined two of the vessels made use of by the Chinese. The first of these is a junk of about a hundred and twenty tuns burthen, and was what the Centurion hove down by; these are most used in the great rivers, tho' they sometimes serve for small coasting voyages. The other junk is about two hundred and eighty tuns burthen, and is of the same form with those in which they trade to Cochinchina, Manila, Batavia, and Japan, tho' some of their trading vessels are of a much larger size; its head is perfectly flat, and when the vessel is deep laden, the second or third plank of this flat surface is oft-times under water. The masts, sails, and rigging of these vessels are ruder than the built, for their masts are made of trees, no otherwise fashioned than by barking them and lopping off their branches. Each mast has only two shrouds of twisted rattan, which are often both shifted to the weather side; and the halyard, when the yard is up, serves instead of a third shroud. The sails are of mat, strengthened every three feet by an horizontal rib of bamboo; they run upon the mast with hoops, and when they are lowered down they fold upon the deck. These traders carry no cannon, and it appears from this whole description that they are utterly incapable of resisting any European armed vessel. Nor is the state provided with ships of considerable force, or of a better fabric, to protect their merchantmen: for at Canton, where doubtless their principal naval power is stationed, we saw no more than four men-of-war junks, of about three hundred tuns burthen, being of the make already described, and mounted only with eight or ten guns, the largest of which did not exceed a four-pounder. This may suffice to give an idea of the defenceless state of the Chinese Empire. But it is time to return to the commodore, whom I left with his two ships without the Bocca Tigris, and who, on the 12th of December, anchored before the town of Macao.
Whilst the ships lay there, the merchants of Macao finished their purchase of the galeon, for which they refused to give more than 6000 dollars: this was greatly short of her value, but the impatience of the commodore to get to sea, to which the merchants were no strangers, prompted them to insist on these unequal terms. Mr. Anson had learnt enough from the English at Canton to conjecture that the war with Spain was still continued, and that probably the French might engage in the assistance of Spain before he could arrive in Great Britain; and therefore, knowing that no intelligence could come to Europe of the prize he had taken and the treasure he had on board till the return of the merchantmen from Canton, he was resolved to make all possible expedition in getting back, that he might be himself the first messenger of his own good fortune, and might thereby prevent the enemy from forming any projects to intercept him. For these reasons, he, to avoid all delay, accepted of the sum offered for the galeon, and she being delivered to the merchants the 15th of December 1743, the Centurion the same day got under sail on her return to England. On the 3d of January she came to anchor at Prince's Island in the Streights of Sunda, and continued there wooding and watering till the 8th, when she weighed and stood for the Cape of Good Hope, where, on the 11th of March, she anchored in Table Bay.
The Cape of Good Hope is situated in a temperate climate, where the excesses of heat and cold are rarely known, and the Dutch inhabitants, who are numerous, and who here retain their native industry, have stocked it with prodigious plenty of all sorts of fruits and provision, most of which, either from the equality of the seasons, or the peculiarity of the soil, are more delicious in their kind than can be met with elsewhere: so that by these, and by the excellent water which abounds there, this settlement is the best provided of any in the known world for the refreshment of seamen after long voyages. Here the commodore continued till the beginning of April, highly delighted with the place, which, by its extraordinary accommodations, the healthiness of its air, and the picturesque appearance of the country, the whole enlivened too by the addition of a civilized colony, was not disgraced on a comparison with the vallies of Juan Fernandes and lawns of Tinian. During his stay he entered about forty new men, and having, by the 3d of April 1744, compleated his water and provision, he, on that day, weighed and put to sea. The 19th of April they saw the island of St. Helena, which, however, they did not touch at, but stood on their way, and arriving in soundings about the beginning of June, they, on the 10th of that month, spoke with an English ship bound for Philadelphia, from whom they received the first intelligence of a French war. By the 12th of June they got sight of the Lizard, and the 15th, in the evening, to their infinite joy, they came safe to an anchor at Spithead. But that the signal perils which had so often threatned them in the preceding part of the enterprize might pursue them to the very last, Mr. Anson learnt on his arrival that there was a French fleet of considerable force cruising in the chops of the Channel, which, from the account of their position, he found the Centurion had ran through, and had been all the time concealed by a fog. Thus was this expedition finished, when it had lasted three years and nine months, after having, by its event, strongly evinced this important truth, that though prudence, intrepidity, and perseverance united are not exempted from the blows of adverse fortune, yet in a long series of transactions they usually rise superior to its power, and in the end rarely fail of proving successful.
INDEX
Acapulco, 3, 13, 177, 178, 197, 208, 209, 211, 212, 213, 214, 216-238, 239, 242, 247, 249, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 283, 310, 339, 341, 349
Aguigan Island, 289
Alexander VI., Pope, 216
Andes, or Cordilleras Mountains, The, 32, 71, 89, 103, 105, 170, 173, 198
Anna, 41, 43, 57, 62, 66, 74, 78, 83, 123-159, 163
Araucos (Chilian Indian tribe), 92, 260, 261
Arranzazu, 161
Azores, 216
Bahia del todos Santos, 44, 170
Balchen, Admiral, 15, 18, 19, 26
Baldivia, 73, 85, 93, 104, 139, 140, 257, 258, 262, 265
Bamboo, Island of, 321
Barbadoes, 42
Barragan, Bay of, 30
Barranca, 166
Batan, Island of, 229
Birriborongo, 229
Boccadero, The, 222
Bocca Tigris, 353, 354, 355, 365, 379
Botel Tobago Xima Island, 317, 341, 342
Boyne, Battle of the, 101
Brazen Head, 24
Brazil, 29, 31, 38, 40, 44, 45, 48, 50, 52, 53, 55, 86, 91, 96, 141, 169, 170, 199, 257, 333
Brett, Lieut, (afterwards Capt.) Piercy, 9, 113, 166, 174, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 188, 189, 243, 244, 255, 300, 312, 365
Buenavista. See Tinian
Buenos Ayres, 28, 29, 32, 33, 34, 43, 52, 54, 59, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 126, 147
Butusan, 229
Cabouce, Island of, 321
California, 195, 196, 219, 222, 223, 225, 226
Callao, 126, 155, 156, 157, 159, 161, 163-167, 175, 177, 178, 188, 218, 219, 259, 263, 264
Campbell (midshipman), 145, 146, 147
Canal Bueno, 200
Canton, 310, 323, 324, 326, 328, 329, 330, 334, 335, 339, 353, 380
Canton, River, 62, 256, 321, 323, 324, 351, 353-380
Cape of Good Hope, 216, 218, 379
Carthagena, 196
Catanduanas, 229
Cavendish, Sir Thomas, 219
Centurion, H.M.S., 12, 19, 22, 25, 44, 47, 59, 64, 65, 66, 73, 74, 100, 101, 102, 123, 125, 128, 129, 130, 151, 153, 155, 158, 160, 163, 164, 165, 166, 168, 182, 185, 187, 189, 190, 191, 198, 199, 231, 232, 250, 251, 252, 255, 268, 271, 274, 275, 281, 288, 294-315, 324, 325, 326, 327, 330, 334, 335, 336, 339, 341, 344-352, 355, 356, 361, 367, 371, 373, 374, 375, 378, 379
Channel English, 18
Cheap, Lieut. (afterwards Capt.) David, 25, 66, 73, 138-147
Chequetan Harbour, 205, 236, 237, 238, 239-256
Cheripe, 206
Chili, 5, 13, 32, 33, 73, 105, 113, 149, 152, 155, 163, 258, 259, 261, 265
Chiloe Island, 104, 138, 140, 145, 146
China, 13, 59, 62, 225, 235, 248, 252, 256, 295, 316, 323, 324, 325, 332, 335, 340, 372, 374
Chonos, Islands of, 134
Clipperton, Capt., 179
Cochinchina, 378
Colan, 177
Columbus, Christopher, 52
Concord, 76
Cordilleras, The. See Andes
Corientes, Cape, 195, 208, 227
Coromandel, 221
Cowley, Capt., 91
Cracherode, Lieut.-Col. Mordaunt, 22, 73, 333
Cumberland Bay, 112
Dampier, William, 237, 242, 285, 341
Delango, Cape, 351
Dennis, Lieut., 167
Desire, Port, 67
Downs, The, 94
Drake, Sir Francis, 94
Duchess of Bristol, 257
Duke of Bristol, 257
East India Company, 43, 323, 327, 369, 373
East Indies, 13, 55, 173, 216, 314
Elizabeth, 9
Esperanza, 27 et seq.
Espiritu Santo, Cape, 225, 228, 251, 339, 341, 344, 349
Fonchiale, 24
Formosa, Island of, 309, 317, 318, 341
France, 266
Frezier, Amedée Francis, 7, 48, 50, 76, 84, 91, 94, 95, 264
Frio, Cape, 44
Gallicia, 38
Gallo, Island of, 198
Gasparico, Island of, 228