Cuar. XII.] THE OPIUM TRADE. 237 
A summons like this in former days might have 
had some weight, but now it had none; and the 
only answer the messengers carried back was, “‘ that 
the foreign vessels were well armed, and that they 
would not leave their anchorage.” This was quite 
sufficient to cool the courage of the admiral, who 
was now in a dilemma; he durst not fight the 
‘‘ barbarians,” and if he did not manage to get them 
out of the way, his character for courage would 
suffer when the affair was represented at head 
quarters. He therefore altered his tone, and re- 
quested the captains, as a great favour, to leave the 
anchorage and move outside for a day or two only, 
after which time they might return to their old 
quarters. This was agreed to on the part of the 
captains of the opium vessels, and on the following 
morning they got under weigh and went out to 
sea. The Chinese, who were on the look-out at 
the time, made a great noise by beating gongs 
and firing guns, and followed the opium ships 
until they were fairly outside. The admiral now 
sent up a report to his government to the effect 
that he had fought a great battle with the “ bar- 
barians,” and had driven them away from the shores; 
or very probably he said that he had blown some 
of their vessels to pieces, and sunk the rest in the 
depths of the sea. In the meantime, even before 
the report was half-way to Peking, the opium 
vessels had quietly taken up their old anchorage, 
and things were going on in the usual way! Such 
is a specimen of the way in which affairs are ma- 
naged in China. 
