174 WANDERINGS IN CHINA. Chap. X. 
Majesty under the penalty of being completely annihi- 
lated. 
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 
requested 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 Avas 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 "barbarians," 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 mean time, 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 managed in China. 
