56 NOTES DURING THE PASSAGE OF H. M. S. ''FURIOUS" [Nov. 22, 1858. 



ences by a conference at Shanghai in the spring of the present 

 year, His Excellency Lord Elgin found himself compelled to pro- 

 ceed thence to Tientsin, on the Peiho Kiver, with a naval force, 

 so as to compel H. I. M. Hien-Fung the First, to listen to onr 

 demands.* 



H. M. S. Furious had already had for some months the honour of 

 carrying about the British ambassador and suite in Chinese waters ; 

 and replete with interest as had already been my cruise in the old 

 steam-frigate, the new ground upon which we were shortly to enter 

 rendered the voyage we were about to make a source of perfect 

 delight, and all our preparations for a prolonged stay in the Gulf of 

 Pecheli were expeditiously and zealously completed. Apart from 

 mere curiosity, the importance of reaching the near vicinity of the 

 Chinese capital, and of placing the ambassador in a position to 

 dictate his own terms, had long been patent to all ; and none but 

 those grown blind by gazing at Canton could help seeing that it 

 was unworthy of Great Britain to be merely squabbling with the 

 militia of a wretched Chinese city, two thousand miles distant from 

 the centre of government. 



Taking care to start from Hongkong at such a time as to give the 

 Furious the best chance of escaping the bad weather likely to occur 

 about the vernal equinox, we were enabled to visit Swatow, Amoy, 

 Fu-chow-fu, Ningpo, Shapu, and the whole Chusan Archipelago, 

 without encountering a single double reef topsail breeze to mar the 

 interest of the trip to my many guests, or prevent them by sea-sick- 

 ness from acquiring that local information from personal observation of 

 the resources and capabilities of the many places visited, which, 

 after all, is worth far more than reading whole libraries of travel or 

 history. 



After waiting at Shanghai from March 25th to April 8th for the 

 Admiral and gunboats to arrive. Lord Elgin induced Captain Sir 

 Frederick Nicolson of the Pique to proceed to the Gulf of Pecheli 

 without farther delay ; and a few days afterwards, April 10, 1858, 

 the Furious took the Slaney gunboat in tow, and weighed from 

 Shanghai to proceed down the Yang-ze-kiang Eiver for the same 

 destination. 



Of the queen of central China, the good city of Shanghai, I need 

 not say more, while so much has been written and is being written 

 of it, than that sixteen years ago I was one of some half-dozen 

 English boats' crews, under the present Commodore Watson, who 



* See 2nd Vol. of the " Proceedings" R. G. S., p. 201, for Mr. Wm. Lockhart's 

 Notice on China. — Ed, 



