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RUNJEET SINGH,

CHIEF OF LAHORE,
No. II.

RUNJEET SINGH knows nothing of reading, nor do his sons. He is nevertheless the chief administrator of justice in his kingdom, and General Allard states that his judgments are on all occasions just and prompt. The civil state is thus organized: each village has a chief or judge, who is empowered to decide minor questions: affairs of greater importance are decided by a judge whose jurisdiction is more extensive than that of the former. The next officer in rank is the king himself: the king is easily accessible, and any one of his subjects can plead his own cause before him. There is a guard at the gate of his maIf the jesty's palace, who announces the suitors. king cannot receive them, he says, "Come to-morrow." A child without a home, or a man without bread, can prefer his request to the rajah, and never fail of his application, if he should appear to be a worthy object of the king's bounty. He exercises wonderful judgment and sagacity in deciding between man and man, and he is rarely, if ever, deceived in his judgment.

According to the laws of the country the punishA criminal somement of death is never inflicted. times has his nose or his ears cut off, but never his head. It is also not uncommon to cut off the criminal's hands. In serious cases, and where the culprit has again committed the crime for which he has been already once punished, the tendon of Achilles is cut through. General Allard saw an unhappy wretch who was condemned to this punishment. This was a robber, who had had his two hands cut off for highway robbery. Thus mutilated, this man did not the less continue the exercise of a propensity which was irresistible with him. To his right arm a lance was firmly tied, and the bridle of his horse to the left arm: thus he went on the highway, and robbed almost as successfully as before. He was at length arrested and conducted before the king, who inflicted the punishment upon him which we have already noticed. Thus doubly mutilated, the robber was compelled to rest satisfied with the pension which Runjeet Singh allows to all the unhappy wretches whom justice has put out of a condition of gaining their livelihood except at the expense of others.

Runjeet Singh has not abolished the frightful custom whereby the women burn themselves after the death of their husbands. Runjeet Singh is a very courageous man; but he has not the courage to oppose himself to this shocking superstition of his subjects. In Lahore the women allow themselves to be burnt upon the funeral pile of their husbands, as was a few years ago the custom throughout Hindcostan; until, to the immortal honour of the English, this custom was abolished. In Lahore the women think it an honour thus to be immolated. This is a superstition which we fear will long resist all attempts to abolish it; since it renders of no avail the most powerful instinct of human nature, that of self-preservation and the love of life.

General Allard has in vain attempted the abrogation of this custom. Hearing one day that the widow of one of his officers had resolved to burn herself with the body of her husband, he sent for her and tried to shake her resolution; but in vain. He then threatened to oppose with an armed force this wicked and senseless suicide. The next day all his officers met in a body at his house, and represented to him The sinew which connects the heel of the foot with the leg.

firmly, but most respectfully, that they were ready to obey him in every thing that related to the military service out that they could not and would not accept his law and decision in a matter of conscience concerning their religion. This, of course, was not to be resisted, and the widow was burnt.

General Allard was present at one of these sacrifices. The victim was a young and beautiful woman. She approached the pile, tranquil in appearance; but her countenance betrayed the internal struggle between nature and mistaken duty. She spoke a few words which were greedily listened to by those around, and received as infallible oracles; being her last words, norissima verba! She was splendidly dressed and covered with jewels. She mounted the pile and stretched herself upon it in the midst of the joyous shouts of the assistants, and the noise of loud instruments of music: but one of the pieces of wood which formed part of the pile, stood higher up than the others; this incommoded her; she got up again, removed the carpet upon which she had been stretched, put the wood in its place, and again extended herself A large mass of fagots was placed on the pile. upon her, oil was poured upon them, and thus they were ignited. General Allard contemplated this horrible and strange scene from the back of his elephant. He saw this unhappy woman perish, and she did not utter a cry. The spectators appeared highly edified with the scene.

Another object of superstitious regard in this country is the Fakirs; who, in order to preserve during their whole lives the attitude of prayer, tie their arms to the branches of a tree, and remain in this posture during six months, until the muscles become so hardened and dried, that they can no longer change Such men are esteemed the position of their arms. holy, and are respected and fed by every one, so that they soon become fat. Some of the Fakirs preserve the use of their arms, and carry about with them a matchlock, whereby they plunder the travellers. The French traveller Jacquemont (many of whose relations have been confirmed by Allard), complains bitterly of these Fakirs, by whom it seems he was more than once robbed.

It is an extraordinary fact that General Allard has made the army of Lahore almost entirely French. Its uniform, weapons, military schools, and even its flag, are almost precisely those of the French army in the time of Napoleon. It has also its grenadiers, hussars, dragoons, and infantry; and even the words of command are given in French †.

Every recruit enters the army freely, and of his own accord but the people being warlike, and the occupation of soldier being the best of all occupaThe only difficulty the tions, recruits abound. recruiting officers have, is to know when and how to So that, refuse the numerous offers made to them. when the king of Lahore wishes to augment his army, he has only, we may almost say, to clap his hands, or to strike his foot upon the earth, and, thanks to his general, there come out battalions ready for the field.

The system of victualling the army is extremely simple: the government has nothing to do with it. The soldiers are paid so much per month, with which they are obliged to provide their own food, and forage for their horses.

If they are at war, they are fol

+ Jacquemont visited General Allard at Lahore. The latter entertained the traveller in a sumptuous manner. Jacquemont speaks particularly of the surprise and delight which he experienced one day, when seated at dinner with his host, at the sight of what appeared to be a French regiment, which surrounded their dininghall, and performed a variety of evolutions at words of command spoken by the native officers of Lahore in the language of France.

lowed by a band of merchants and of dealers of every description, who travel at their own cost, and sell on their own account, without being responsible to the officers of the army; except that the latter exert a sufficient authority to preserve order in these travelling caravansaries. The horse-soldiers have servants mounted like themselves, who provide forage for the horses. The facility with which an army of many thousands of men arriving in a country, which appears to offer no resources, and where human creatures would appear likely to perish for want of provisions, finds itself well victualled in a few hours, is, according to the recital of General Allard, an astonishing thing to behold; but, this it is, that has enabled the troops of the king of Lahore to undertake such extraordinary excursions, and to march into lands almost entirely unknown to the geographer, without ever experiencing those privations, which in other countries, so completely destroy military discipline.

The only essential difference between the costume of the troops of Runjeet-Singh and those of France is, that the former still wear the turban, with their long hair interlaced with folds of cachmire. The men pride themselves upon their hair; they connect with it the idea of strength and power. They also greatly respect the beard; a man is not thought to be such without it: young or old the beard must descend in streams of ebony, or of silver, upon the breast. General Allard has a long beard, which, when he was in France, he turned back behind his ears during meals. His uniform is that of a French general; his head-dress, a light helmet with loops of gold, of an elegant and commodious form.

Duelling is not known in the army of RunjeetSingh; the soldiers settle their disputes with their fists, a brutal, and equally unchristian, method of adjusting differences.

After a few months' stay in France, General Allard set out on his voyage back to Lahore, taking his wife with him, and leaving his children to be educated in the land of his fathers.

Before concluding, we should do well to observe, that the foregoing account does not contain the first instance of European skill and science, effecting great changes in the condition of any particular part of the world. The sovereign of Cochin-China, who had been dethroned by a party of his own subjects, in the year 1747, was enabled, by the assistance of Adran, a French missionary, to form, in the European style, a fine army and fleet, with which he not only recovered his own kingdom, but subdued those of his neighbours, southward of the empire of China.

THE ESCULENT SWALLOW,
(Hirundo Esculenta.)

THE esculent swallow is found in China, where it builds its singular nest in the rocky caverns on the sea coast; its nest has the appearance of hardened jelly or isinglass, and is esteemed by the natives of China, and other parts of Asia, as a great luxury; it is employed by them in the preparation of soups and other made-dishes. Marsden, in his History of Sumatra, says there are two sorts of nests; the white, which are less common, and the black or darkcoloured, which are more frequently met with. Some persons, however, believe that the difference in colour arises from accidental causes, such as the mixture of the dark-coloured feathers of the bird with the substance of which the nest is composed; and this belief is partly borne out by the fact, that if the dark

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In the small island called the Cap, near Sumatra, two caverns were discovered by the embassy of Earl Macartney, which contained an immense quantity of these nests; they were composed of very delicate filaments, united by a transparent viscous substance, much resembling the remains of those jelly-like animals, the medusa, which are frequently found on the sea shore. The nests adhered to each other as well and were placed in as to the sides of the caverns, uninterrupted ranks. An esculent swallow, apparently of another species, is also found in great abundance in deep caverns at the foot of the highest mountains in the interior of Java. This swallow is said to occupy two months in the preparation of its nest. The inhabitants of Java, who employ themselves in collecting these nests, (which, on account of the situations in which they are found, is rather a dangerous employment,) never begin their work without having in the first instance sacrificed a buffalo, and repeated a number of prayers; they then anoint their bodies with a sweet-scented oil, and after performing other superstitious ceremonies at the entrance to the cavern, they prepare for their descent. The fact of these caverns being situated in the centre of the island of Java, and not on the sea-coasts, seems to militate against the opinion that the birds collect the substances of which they form their nests on the shore; their nests are placed in these caverns in horizontal rows, from 50 to 500 feet in length.

Near some of these caverns a tutelar goddess is worshipped, whose priest burns incense and lays his protecting hands on every person prepared to descend into the cavern. A flambeau is carefully lighted at the same time, with a gum which exudes from a tree in the vicinity, and is not easily extinguished by the subterranean vapours.

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THE HONGS OR FACTORIES.

THE Word Hong is used by the Chinese to designate a commercial establishment or warehouse; and by this name the European factories at Canton have been designated. The hongs extend along the bank of the river between seven and eight hundred feet; they extend backwards in depth a hundred and thirty yards, into a long narrow lane, on each side of which are confined the abodes of foreigners. To the eastward, the line of factories is bounded by a narrow ditch or inlet from the river, serving to surround a portion of the city-wall, and to drain that portion of the town. All the factories communicate with the river by wooden stairs, from which the tea and other commodities are embarked; and the space which they occupy is traversed by three thoroughfares, leading direct from the river,-namely, China Street, New China Street, and Hog Lane, the latter being a narrow filthy passage, inhabited by low Chinese, who keep spirit-shops, into which they entice the sailors, and rob

them.

"The range of factories or hongs belonging to different nations," says Mr. Bennett, "having flag-staffs, on which the national colours are hoisted, from sun-rise to sun-set, are fine buildings, more particularly those belonging to the East India Company, which are of greater extent than the whole of the others. Several weeping willows are planted about the open space near the river, in front of the factories. The English and Dutch hongs have neat gardens laid out for a promenade, in front of them; but the VOL. XII.

open space before most of the others forms the 'quarterdeck, where, every evening, the European residents take their limited walk."

Mr. Abeel gives a very entertaining description of the appearance which the open space in front of the factories presents, at different hours of the day. He says, that it "is the rendezvous of multitudes of the natives, who assemble daily, to transact business, gratify curiosity, or murder time. It is level for a short distance, beyond which it stretches over a large pile of rubbish, deposited here after the desolating fire of 1822, and retained, notwithstanding numerous applications for its removal, as a lasting and growing nuisance to foreigners.

"As the morning opens upon this scene silence retires, and the ears of the stranger are assailed by a new and peculiar combination of sounds. Human voices of harsh, drawling tones, cries of confined dogs and cats, screams of roughly-handled poultry, notes of feathered songsters, some of them admirably gifted and trained, with, at times, an accompaniment of very unmusical instruments, all unite in this inharmonious concert. The occupations of the tradesmen are varied. Meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, drugs. manufactures; everything saleable is brought to this general market. A number convey their portable kitchens hither, and prepare such dishes as suit the palates and purses of this promiscuous concourse. Others plant their barber's shop, or its necessary apparatus, in a convenient place, and spend their leisure hours in lolling about and conversation. Those who frequent the place for trade are

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probably less numerous than the groups of idlers, who pass their time in listening to stories, witnessing juggling tricks, attending the operations and lectures of empirics, gaping at objects of novelty, and too frequently endeavouring to obtain each other's money by gambling.

"When the sun is oppressive the crowd retires, with the exception of the hucksters, who intercept his withering beams by temporary tilts. The erection of tents is a liberty not sanctioned by law, or, rather, contrary to the oral prohibitions of the petty officers who have the square in charge. Consequently, when men of authority make their appearance, the scene suddenly changes. From the moment of alarm there is the most hasty despatch until everything is removed that militates against their orders; their exit appears to be regarded as the signal of re-erection, and all things speedily revert to their former state. Such a show of subjection, with real contempt for authority, when it opposes individual gain, is said to be a prominent feature of the nation."

It is during the latter part of the day that this place is the general resort; in the cool of the evening the crowd becomes most concentrated, and, as a consequence, the clamour is quite deafening. Yet, tumultuous as is the concourse, it is said to be very free from contention or breaches of the peace. The least appearance of an unlawful commotion calls forth a public officer, who resides for the purpose, in full view, and is exceedingly efficient in quelling a riot and scattering offenders. This functionary, if occasion should arise, summons to his aid one or two lictors, who, armed with scourges, and apparently vested with a large discretionary power in the use of them, soon compel the unruly to make a precipitate retreat. The guilty are frequently chased, and when caught, dragged along to the hall of justice by the pendant queue, which is cruelly drawn over the front of the head, and made to press the face towards the ground.

"In surveying this mass of accountable beings," says the American Missionary, "there are many points of great interest to the eye of Christian compassion and benevolence. Independent of the associations which are common to all the heathen, there are facts of importance peculiar to this daily throng. Great numbers of them can read, and are attracted by every publication that meets their eyes. It is customary to paste up advertisements in the most public places of the square and the streets, and the groups generally found, through the day, gathered around them, show their eagerness to catch at every piece of information. What a place for the operations of the press, sacred to the cause of the Redeemer!"

The front part or entrance to the factories is near, and almost parallel to the bank of the river, and the intermediate space forms a general thoroughfare for persons who require any communication with the hongs, as well as those who have to embark and disembark at the different landingplaces in front of them. There is no regular thoroughfare from the suburbs to the river-side through the private hongs, for the doors at the end looking towards the suburbs are locked day and night, and the front entrances are open only during the day; but there are two intervening streets and a lane, inhabited by Chinese shopkeepers, namely, Old and New China Streets, and Hog Lane, which are the general thoroughfares during the day; these, however, are also shut at night, according to the Chinese custom.

Mr. Holman compares the foreign factories to a succession of private streets, with a few merchants residing in each, whose stores are contiguous to their dwelling houses. "Each hong has its respective designation; for instance, the first you arrive at on your right hand on coming up the river, where there is a landing-place directly in front of it, is called Creek Hong, in consequence of being next a creek that communicates from the river to the heart of the city. This creek is a great nuisance at high water to the neighbouring hong, for at such time it is covered with boats passing to and from the city, loaded either with merchandise coming in, or offal &c., going out. Other hongs crowd the bank as you advance, and are generally distinguished by the names of the respective nations whose flags they display. The English factory is best known by the name of the British hong, and is the most considerable of them all. From the advantage of its position it can at any time stop the general thoroughfare in front of the line of hongs: but this power is never exercised, except when there is a dispute with the Chinese, in which case the gates are strictly guarded to prevent the admission of obnoxious or turbulent persons. There is no Russian hong nor will the Chinese permit any

ships of that empire to visit Canton for the purposes of trade, assigning as a reason, that Russia already carries on a trade with them on the frontiers of their own country, and that they cannot be allowed to trade in two parts of the Celestial Empire." Mr. Holman gives the following list of these establishments, with the intervening thoroughfares, in the order in which they appear to a person coming up the river. 1. Creek Hong, Magniac and 8. Imperial Hong. Co. 9. Dent and Co. 10. American Hong.

2. Dutch Hong. 3. Dutch Factory. 4. British Factory.

HOG LANE.

5. Chow-Chow Hong. 6. Hired Factory.

7. Messrs. Russell and Co.

OLD CHINA STREET.

11. Hong Merchants.
12. French Hong.
13. Spanish Hong.

NEW CHINA STREET.

14. Danish Hong

COMMERCE.

"The Chinese, considered as traders," says Mr. Macculloch, 64 are eminently active, persevering, and intelligent. They are, in fact, a highly-commercial people; and the notion that was once very generally entertained of their being peculiarly characterized by a contempt of commerce and of strangers, is as utterly unfounded as any notion can possibly be. Business is transacted at Canton with great despatch; and it is affirmed by Mr. Milburn, and by most of the witnesses examined before the late parliamentary committees, that there is no part of the world where cargoes may be sold and bought, unloaded and loaded, with more business-like speed and activity."

An American writer gives the following illustration of this:-" :-"While our officers," he says, "were at dinner with Mr. Lattimer, Mr. L. left the table for a moment, and returned so soon that he was scarcely missed. He informed his guests that he had made a sale while absent, of opium to the amount of two thousand dollars, and assured them that the Chinese are remarkably expert in business. Shopkeepers, from whom you may buy the most trifling article, supply ships with cargoes, worth two hundred thousand dollars, and will contract to do so with all the necessary security, in the length of time he had been absent from the table. They will manage all the smuggling, if any be necessary; get all the chops for duties; and deliver the articles on board the ship at Lintin, Whampoa, or Macao!" Canton is very ill-suited to be the emporium of the British trade with China. In the first place the climate is comparatively hot, and secondly, the difficulties of conveying commodities thither from the interior of the country is very great. Two grounds are assigned for the policy which the native government have adopted within the last century, of confining the trade to this port. One is the desire to keep at a distance from the capital the danger of disputes arising out of intercourse with foreigners; and certainly Canton is very nearly at the farthest possible distance from the capital. The other is a desire to obtain the largest possible revenue from internal duties on the transit of goods; these are known to yield a considerable sum. Sir George Staunton mentions a "very ingenious memoir," written by a gentleman, formerly holding the appointment of Inspector of Teas to the East India Company, in China; clearly showing, upon an accurate and detailed comparison, between the expense of conveying black teas from the country where they are produced to Canton, and that of their conveyance from thence to the port of Fu-tcheou-foo, the capital of the province of Fo-kien, that the privilege of admission to the latter port would have been attended with a saving to the East India Company of £150,000 annually, in the purchase of that description of tea alone, besides affording us China of our manufactures and productions. Fu-tcheou-foo the advantage of another opening for the introduction into is but a short distance from the sea, in that part of the pro vince of Fo-kien which lies opposite to the northern extremity of the island of Formosa; the largest Chinese vessels can ascend the river Mingho, almost to the very walls of the city, which is built upon its banks.

BRITISH INTERCOURSE WITH CHINA.

"As regards China," observes Mr. Auber, "we resort to a country in which we have not a foot of ground, and where we are confined to one port, at which our permanent residence is doubtful. The habits, manners, and customs are quite foreign to our own. The laws of China have been compared to a collection of consecutive mathematical problems, with this additional circumstance of perplexity, that a just and entire comprehension of each section individually, requires

a general knowledge of those that follow no less than those which precede. Such laws are also frequently violated by those who are (appointed to be) their administrators and guardians; where their treatment of foreigners is proverbially contemptuous; and in their commercial dealings they have no scruple at imposition, if circumstances favour the practice. Such is the character of the people with whom we seek to maintain an intercourse. China has rejected every effort made by us, as well as by almost every other European state, to form a commercial intercourse with her, upon those principles which govern commercial relations in other countries."

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Sir George Staunton remarks, that upon the commencement of the present commercial intercourse of foreigners with the empire of China, nothing so much contributed to render them odious, both to the government and to the people in general, as their apparent disposition and tendency, upon almost all occasions, to a state of anarchy and disorder, The casual and unconnected adventurers who first traded to China, were entire strangers to the habits, customs, and language of the natives, as well as irreconcileably different from them in respect to all their national characteristics. It was obvious that to maintain order among such persons, and to regulate their intercourse with the natives, the ordinary rules and routine of Chinese justice would be, in most respects, utterly inadequate. As far, also, as the Chinese were enabled to judge, these foreigners were wholly without any internal government or system of control and subordination peculiar to themselves, which might have been capable of supplying the place, or at least, of coming in aid of the national laws; and which might, accordingly, have been accepted by the local authorities in China, as a sufficient substitute for those laws, in all cases in which their partial suspension or relaxation in favour of strangers was found unavoidable. Under the existing circumstances, therefore, the Chinese government deemed it necessary to supply the deficiency by the enactment of various new regulations and restrictions; and these were framed, as might naturally have been expected, with little regard to the feelings or interests of individuals who were not yet sufficiently powerful and united to command respect, nor sufficiently guarded and blameless in their general conduct to overcome prejudices and conciliate esteem. Thus, although the Chinese government did not absolutely prohibit foreign commerce, they resolved to provide against every hazard of ill consequences from its toleration, by the adoption and enforcement of the most jealous and vexatious precautions.

By the strict letter of these regulations, the continued residence of foreigners in China from year to year was totally forbidden; and during even the short period for which they were allowed to remain on shore, for the necessary purposes of their trade, they were required strictly to confine themselves to the small district which was allotted to them in the suburbs of the city of Canton. As a further security against turbulence and disorder, it was ordered that all foreign ships should be disarmed of their guns and other warlike stores, and that such articles should be retained in the custody of the government during the stay of the ships in port, and restored only at the moment of their departure. This order, though it has probably been but seldom enforced, and that only at a very early period of the trade, appears, nevertheless, to this day, unrepealed upon the Chinese statute-books In a printed collection of the edicts of the Emperor Keen-lung, (whose reign closed in 1795,) there is one which quotes this order; and after animadverting on its neglect, directs that it may be duly enforced in future.

Instead of foreigners being allowed to engage in anything like a free trade and intercourse with the natives generally, the whole of the foreign trade at the port of Canton was specially limited to ten or twelve Chinese merchants; and these merchants were required, in return for the licenses granted them, to undertake, jointly and severally, the most extensive responsibility to the government, not only for the due payment of all the duties and port-charges to which the foreigners might render themselves liable, but also generally for their orderly behaviour and good conduct. Besides these licensed merchants, a few other persons were permitted to attend upon foreigners in the capacity of linguists (interpreters), or compradores (victuallers); but with the exception of these persons and the individuals in their immediate employ, the natives in general were withheld, by the denunciation of very severe penalties, from either frequenting the houses of foreigners or holding any species of intercourse with them.

Such are the restrictions and disabilities originally im

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THE Portuguese were the first Europeans who traded direct to China. They visited various ports of the country for some time free from the competition of other nations; and in 1555 they appear to have concentrated themselves at Macao, where they established a settlement. We hear of their ships frequenting the port of Canton in 1578, and trading along the coast of China; but in 1631, in consequence of some disputes which had arisen with the natives, they were restricted to their own settlement at Macao.

Until the year 1637, the English trade with the Chinese was carried on indirectly, at the factories which the East India company had established in other parts of the East. In that year, Courteen's Association, which had recently obtained a patent from the crown, conferring upon them the same privileges as were enjoyed by the East India company, seeking to distinguish themselves by extraordinary enterprise, sent out a large adventure, under the management of Captain Weddell. On the 27th of June, he arrived with several vessels off Macao, and transmitted to the governor a letter from Charles the First. The Portuguese gave him a cold reception, complaining that the native authorities had made them responsible, and imposed a heavy fine on account of his unwelcome appearance. Finding that they were not allowed to communicate with Canton but by shallow straits, and were excluded from the spacious channel of the Bocca Tigris, he determined to trace out the latter passage for himself. He despatched a pinnace with fifty men, which in forty-eight hours reached the mouth of this estuary, and began to ascend. In a few days they were met by twenty junks, with a great mandarin on board, who called them into his presence, and began roughly to expostulate on their thus "searching out the prohibited entrances" into the dominions of so great a monarch. Yet, on their expressing friendly intentions, and an earnest desire to accomplish their object, they were allowed to proceed to the vicinity of Canton. There, however, the hoppo and some other chiefs persuaded them to return to Macao, making lavish promises, none of which were fulfilled; and the Portuguese having amused Weddell till their Japan fleet had sailed, issued an absolute interdict against his trading any longer there. Determined, however, not to be thus baffled, he immediately weighed anchor with his whole fleet for the river of Canton, and anchored in the vicinity of a "desolate castle," the extensive ruins of which, we are informed, may still be seen immediately within the entrance of the Bocca Tigris. The Portuguese, meantime, studiously infused into the mandarins the belief, "that the English were rogues, thieves, and beggars." This, according to Mr. Gutzlaff, was no difficult task; such a conviction in regard to every foreigner, being at all times rooted in the mind of the government. Under its impulse, they privily conveyed into the castle forty-six pieces of cannon; and, when their preparations were completed, opened a fire upon one of his barges. Weddell was not a man to submit to such an outrage. He immediately caused his whole fleet to "berth themselves before the castle," and commenced a formidable fire, which the other party returned; but none of their shot "touched so much as hull or rope;" and when they saw the English boats, having on board a hundred men, making for the shore, the fort was speedily evacuated. They forthwith opened a communication, requesting a deputation to be sent to Canton; and when Mounteney and Robinson, two supercargoes, repaired thither, the authorities threw the blame on the Portuguese, granted permission to trade, and even to fortify any position outside of the river. These gentlemen agreed to pay 10,000 reals in duties, and, without further negotiation, began to load their vessels. The storming of the castle, however, rankled in the mind of the natives, who soon repented of this good treatment. Seven fire-junks were sent down the river, to destroy, if possible. the English fleet; which, however, avoided their attack, but the supercargoes were thrown into prison and almost starved. Mounteney determined to extricate himself, set fire to his apartment, threatening to burn the city; and having thus

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