May 24, 1858.] 
ADMIRALTY SURVEYS— SIAM. 
267 
the assault on Canton was determined on. Foremost as usual at the 
post of danger, he volunteered for the hazardous task of selecting a 
site for the scaling-ladders of the storming party, and in doing so 
approached so near to the city walls that he was shot dead on the 
spot. Thus was lost to his country as zealous a surveyor, as gallant 
an officer, and as good a Christian as any in Her Majesty’s service. 
He has left behind him in his works a monument more durable than 
brass. So long as the mariner’s route to China lies along the coast 
of Palawan, and that he can thread with safety that labyrinth of 
coral reefs that skirts its western shore, so long will the memory 
of this accomplished officer be held in esteem. In an unfinished 
letter to the Hydrographer to the Admiralty, found in his writing- 
desk after his death, Captain Bate says “ he hopes soon to sail for 
the Pratas, at the south-eastern approach to the China Sea, to deter- 
mine the best site for a light on that dangerous shoal, which has 
caused the wrecks of so many vessels.” As the light on Pedra 
Branca , at the south-western entrance of the China Seas, is known 
by the name of Horsburgh, whose Sailing Directory and Charts 
have long been the guide of the mariner in the East, so would it 
seem to be a fitting memorial to the gallant officer who has sacri- 
ficed his life in his country’s cause, that the lighthouse, shortly to 
be erected on the Pratas , should be known by his name, and that 
the mariner, who, by a friendly beacon, is thus warned off that 
dangerous shoal, should be reminded of him whose last thought 
was for the sailor’s benefit, and have cause to bless the name of 
Thornton Bate. 
Immediately after the capture of the city, our staff of surveyors 
under Lieutenant Bullock set to work, and have 1 now completed a 
trigonometrical survey of Canton ; and have finished what w T as for- 
merly left undone of the chart of the Chu-Kiang, or Eiver of Pearls, 
as far as Whampoa. They have also, under Mr. Frederick Kerr, 
made a track chart of the river to the west as far as Fatshan and 
Sam-shui. 
Siam . — The chart of the Gulf of Siam has been materially im- 
proved during the past year. Messrs. Kichards, Inskip, and Peed 
in the Saracen have again visited Bangkok, where, as before, they 
received every attention and assistance from the enlightened rulers 
of that country, the two Kings of Siam ; they have completed a 
plan of the city and of the river Menam, which has been published 
at the Admiralty, and they have determined the position of most 
of the islands, as well as many of the headlands and capes on the 
