NAPIER. 



691 



lordship declared his intention to make these two 

 points " subjects of discussion with the authori- 

 ties;" and with reference to the interdict of Chi- 

 nese servants and workmen, his lordship stated 

 that, with a view of remedying the inconvenience j 

 from the desertion of the Chinese servants, and to 

 afford a protection to the company's treasury, it 

 had been requested that a guard of marines might 

 be landed within the premises, and that H. M.'s 

 ships Imogene and Andromache might pass the 

 Bogue and take up a convenient position at 

 Whampoa, for the more efficient protection of 

 British subjects and their property. On the 7th of 

 September, H. M. ships Imogene and Andromache, 

 under the command of capt. Blackwood, got under 

 weigh to proceed through the Bogue. A stir was 

 immediately perceived among the war junks in 

 Anson's Bay, and the Chunpee and Taykoktay 

 forts. All of them at first commenced firing 

 blank cartridge, and the two forts followed it up 

 immediately with shot, which from the distance 

 fell far short and astern of the ships. The junks 

 (about a dozen), got as far as they could into the 

 shoally recesses of Anson's Bay. As the ships 

 got within range of the Bogue forts, the wind 

 suddenly shifted to the north, the Imogene stand- 

 ing towards Wangtong Fort on one tack, and the 

 Andromache towards Anunghoy on the other. 

 The Imogene waited until Wangtong had fired 

 several shots, when the last one having nearly 

 reached her was answered by two ; another was 

 answered by two more in quick succession ; the 

 Andromache, in the meanwhile, returning the fire 

 of the Anunghoy battery with several well-aimed 

 shot, some of which plunged into the parapet with 

 prodigious effect, and raised clouds of dust, while 

 others passed clean through the embrasures. The 

 British fire, while it lasted, silenced the forts ; but 

 as it soon appeared that any pause on the part of 

 the ships produced a renewal from the batteries, 

 it became necessary to discontinue the order to 

 " cease firing on the maindeck." The action was 

 most brisk on getting into the middle of the chan- 

 nel ; but the Chinese fired like men in a panic, 

 aiming very wild, or rather letting fly as the ships 

 arrived nearly at the line of fire for each gun as it 

 was laid. There could not have been much re- 

 loading or training of the guns, after the first dis- 

 charge. The only tolerable firing was on the part 

 of Wangtong fort, on the island, from which the 

 Imogene received several shot, one of them com- 

 ing through the side of the quarter-deck, knock- 

 ing down and slightly bruising a seaman with the 

 splinters, and grazing the fore part of the main- 

 mast, a great many more passed between the 

 hammocks and the awning. The whole of the 

 slow-working passage occupied nearly an hour 

 and three quarters, during which the frequent 

 tacks so often exposed H.M. ships to be raked by 

 the batteries, that the little or no damage experi- 

 enced from the enemy sufficiently demonstrates 

 their want of steadiness and skill. They ought to 

 have sunk both ships. The round stern arma- 

 ments proved extremely useful. The perfect in- 

 difference with which the Louisa cutter was man- 

 oeuvred through the passage by capt. Elliot sitting 

 upon deck under an umbrella, must have provoked 

 the spleen of the Chinese; for several of their shot 

 struck her, one of them cutting nearly a third 

 through the mast, and another injuring the gun- 

 wale of the jolly boat. The lascars behaved ex- 

 tremely well on this occasion, the cutter being, on 



some tacks, nearly as much exposed to the fire of 

 her friends as of the forts. Soon after having ef- 

 fected the passage and hammered the batteries to 

 their perfect satisfaction, the wind obliged H. M. 

 ships to anchor below Tiger Island. 



Perpetual calms or baffling airs kept them at 

 anchor here until the afternoon of the 9th, when 

 they weighed to pass Tiger Island. In the interim, 

 the Chinese were observed very busy in adding to 

 their means of annoyance ; a number of boats 

 bringing additional supplies of arms and men, and 

 a parade of some hundred matchlock men took 

 place on the rampart. As the ships got under 

 weigh with a fair breeze, the larboard guns were 

 duly trained and prepared. The battery reserved 

 its fire longer than was expected; but the moment 

 the first shot had passed the ships' bows, a most 

 tremendous and well-directed cannonade was 

 opened from them. The ships steered close under 

 the fort, not more than 200 yards from it, the 

 parapet overlooking them. The crews gave a 

 loud cheer just as they got in front of the battery, 

 and the effect was evident in slackening the ene- 

 my's fire. Some grape shot of a rude cast reached 

 the ships in a spent state, which was answered 

 with grape and canister, and the musquetry of the 

 marines and top-men. One of their shot killed 

 the captain of the Imogene's forecastle, and three 

 more were wounded, "but not severely. The 

 Andromache had a seaman killed on the maindeck 

 and three wounded. So many thirty-two pound- 

 ers entered the embrasures, or shattered the stone 

 parapet, that the Chinese loss must have been con- 

 siderable. A Jos house within the fort was a 

 heap of ruins. This battery got very severely 

 punished, more business having been done in a 

 shorter time than on the former occasion. The 

 ships then anchored below second bar from want 

 of wind. During these proceedings, all British 

 subjects were unmolested at Canton (except lord 

 Napier and his suite,) being attended by their 

 Chinese servants, and enjoying access to the 

 bazaar as usual. 



On the fourteenth of September, lord Napier 

 (who had begun to be indisposed) wrote to Mr 

 Boyd, stating that finding, from the edict of the 

 1 Itb, that " any further endeavour on his part to 

 urge on the government a more becoming line of 

 conduct would be quite superfluous," and it being 

 stated by the hoppo, in his reply of the 7th, that 

 the trade would be opened as soon as he took his 

 departure for Macao, be requested Mr Boyd to 

 move the proper authorities to order up the Bri- 

 tish cutter at Whampoa, that he might " carry 

 the same into effect." 



The indisposition of his lordship was augmented 

 by the continual worry of negotiations, and the 

 necessary attention to drafting letters and copy- 

 ing chops, rendered unavoidable by the absence of 

 the other superintendents and the secretary. His 

 lordship and suite, in pursuance of arrangements 

 with the Hong merchants, embarked in two chop 

 boats, provided by the government, at 7 P- M. on 

 the 21st of September; and immediately after, the 

 guard of marines (thirteen men) embarked in 

 another chop boat for Whampoa, bearing his lord- 

 ship's order for the frigates to move out to Lintin. 

 His lordship was obliged to be supported to his 

 boat, through weakness. The Canton Register 

 says, that " so far as lord Napier had quitted Can- 

 ton without being officially recognised by the 

 Chinese government," the result of his proceed. 

 2x2 



