332 DAVIS ON CANTON AND HONGKONG, [April 27, 1857. 



appearance at least, are extremely formidable. But they have been 

 three times taken — in 1841, by Sir Gordon Bremer; in 1847, by 

 the expedition which I took np myself; and again, in 1856, by Sir 

 Michael Seymour. A little higher to the left is a long battery on 

 Tiger Island, to which all ships are obliged to pass very close, on 

 account of the shoals on the left bank of the river. No other 

 defence occurs until the one called the First-bar Battery, on the 

 left bank, erected about the time when Sir Thomas Herbert's light 

 squadron routed the Chinese force in 1841. The principal defences 

 towards Canton are at the point called the Barrier, where the two 

 divided channels of the river unite, and where a barrier of stakes 

 has been long constructed. Here are about six batteries, and the 

 position would be impregnable were it not for the absurd manner 

 in which the forts are built, upon perfectly square plans ; so that if 

 you advance on an angle scarcely a gun can be brought to bear. 

 The embrasures, or rather windows, are almost large enough for a 

 lord mayor's coach, and furnished with folding-doors of wood, by 

 way of supplying plenty of splinters for the garrison. I have found 

 no reason to change the explanation which I gave in a work on 

 China, twenty-one years ago, of the unimproved condition of the 

 military resources of the country. First, that pride and conceit 

 which is a bar to all improvement in the arts, and, among the rest, 

 the art of war. Secondly, that jealousy of the Chinese population 

 which has prevented the Tartar Government from making of it 

 such efficient troops as it might ; for during the war we always found 

 the greatest possible difference between the Tartars and Chinese. 

 Thirdly, that overwhelming superiority which the empire has pos- 

 sessed over the petty and barbarous states on its frontiers, and 

 which has precluded any serious calls on its exertions. 



The remaining defences occur on reaching Canton. First, the 

 French Folly (the origin of the name altogether unknown), which 

 was on the east of the city, but which has been blown up and 

 demolished by Sir Michael Seymour ; the Dutch Folly, on an island 

 in the river, which was lately occupied by our force, and from 

 which the Viceroy's palace was bombarded and destroyed ; a thing 

 opposite the Foreign Quarter, very like a goose-pie, but named the 

 Red Fort ; and what is called the Shameen Fort, a little above the 

 Foreign Quarter. Since our discovery and navigation of Blenheim 

 Eeach, a fort or two have been there erected. In the continuation 

 of the same passage towards Canton is the Macao or Teatotum Fort 

 on an island (so called, perhaps, from its square or octagonal sides), 

 and the Bird's-n est Battery, a little higher up on the left bank. Sir 

 Michael Seymour, in temporarily leaving the Foreign Garden, as a 



