1832.] 
VISIT TO CANTON. 
343 
its profits, it is necessary to have a license from the mandarin. 
But Jemmy Thompson, and his partner, Sam Cock, spm-ning the 
trammels imposed on them by government, and despising the pil- 
fering of the mandarins, are what are termed outlaws, or hold 
smugglers ; and they manage to live very well, by bribing some, 
and bullying others ; and having no license, their profits on trade 
are all their own. 
These worthies contracted for watering the tanks, and for sup- 
plying the frigate with many articles ; but it was found necessary 
to employ a regular comprador from Macao, as neither of these 
executive characters could visit that place or Canton. They live, 
in fact, in their boats, and are occasionally on the Island of Lintin ; 
always starting in alarm at hearing the word mandarin. 
One day, when Jemmy was down in the steerage, loquaciously 
gabbling to the middies, a wag among the latter came down, and, 
with an air of the utmost seriousness, remarked — " What a beau- 
tiful mandarin boat is now coming alongside." Jemmy caught 
the sound, and without stopping to hear another word, or even to 
finish the sentence which he himself was uttering, darted like a 
terrified monkey up the companion-way, and in the next instant 
was over the ship's side into his boat ; and had already proceeded 
some distance before he perceived the joke which had been 
played upon him. 
The commodore and his party returned after an absence of 
about a week : during this time he had, through the facihties and 
kindness of pur countrymen located in Canton, seen all that is 
permitted to pass before the eye of a foreigner. The season of 
business had passed ; the English factory was closed ; their colours, 
as well as those of the Dutch and French, were down ; the Ameri- 
can was the only one seen up at the time. The late and serious 
difiiculties between the English East India Company and the au- 
thorities of Canton, and which for a time threatened the most dis- 
astrous consequences to the company's interest, had been in some 
measure arranged, but how far the conditions of that arrangement 
will tend to prevent the repetition of such difficulties in future, 
may not perhaps be so easily determined at this time. 
While the commodore was in Canton, a proclamation was 
handed to him, of which the following is a translation : — 
" Ching, imperial commissioner at the port of Canton, &c. &c., 
