344 
VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. 
[May, 
issues this order to the Hong merchants, requiring them fully to 
understand it. It is authenticated that the Weigune of Macao 
has reported as follows : on the twenty-first of the present moon, 
the pilot Ho-Ching-Kwang reported that the American ship Po- 
tomac (in Chinese, Tang) arrived and anchored off Lintin. He 
went immediately to inquire the reason of her doing so. And it 
is authenticated, that the commodore of the said ship said that his 
ship had sailed from his own country on a cruise to other ports, 
and driven on by the wind, had come and anchored here for a 
time, and that when the wind should become fair, he would im- 
mediately get under way. The pilot also ascertained that there 
were on board five hundred men, sixty-four great guns, two hun- 
dred and fifty muskets, two hundred swords, twelve hundred cattys 
of gunpowder, and twelve hundred shot. This is the pilot's report, 
" This coming before me, the Hoppo, and being authenticated, I 
have examined. Since the said ship is not a merchant ship, nor a 
convoy of merchant ships, and has so many men, &c., it is inex- 
pedient that she should be allowed under assumed pretexts to 
anchor there (at Lintin), and so create disturbances. 
" Writing these circumstances, I issue this order for her expul- 
sion. When the order comes to the said Hong merchants, let them, 
in obedience to it, enjoin the order on the said nation's chief, that 
he compel her to set sail and return to her own country. Let 
her not, under any pretexts, loiter and create disturbances which 
will involve scrutiny and examination. Let the day of her de- 
parture be reported. Haste ! Haste ! a special order. 
" Taonkwang, twelfth year, fourth moon, twenty-sixth day." 
This order is always made to every armed vessel, though not 
the least attention is paid to the mandate of his celestial majesty's 
commissioner. Formerly men-of-war-junks were sent to watch, 
and order off vessels of war ; which custom we believe has been 
discontinued of late, on account of a number that were sunk by 
the British. 
Dn the commodore's return from Canton, a second party pre- 
pared to ascend the river in the same boat. It was nearly dark 
when they started ; but as the wind was fresh and fair, our little 
Sylph had, by twelve at night, reached the entrance of Canton 
river, which is formed by two points of land ; that on the west 
called Ty-cock-ton, and the one on the east called Anunghoy. 
