July 3rd, 1840.
The 'Blonde,' Captain T. Bourchier, arrived off Amoy on the 2nd July,
for the purpose of opening communications with the authorities of the
place. An officer having been sent on shore with Mr. Thorn, the
interpreter attached to the ship, was received with abusive and
opprobrious language by the Chinese, and ordered to return. As the
day dawned on the 3rd, the Chinese were observed making preparations
to attack the ship. An encampment was formed on the beach, batteries
were being thrown up, and large armed junks had come out of the inner
harbour, while smaller ones were being filled with troops and placed
close to the ship. Unwilling to cause a rupture if it could be
avoided, Captain Bourchier got his ship under weigh as soon as the
sea-breeze set in, and running within 400 yards of the shore,
anchored with springs on his cable off an angle of a casement
battery, at the mouth of the inner harbour, so as to command it and
the junks at the same time. A boat was again sent on shore with a
flag of truce, when she was treacherously fired into. On this, the
flag of truce on board the 'Blonde' was hauled down, and she returned
the fire. Her first broadside dismounted the greater part of the
guns in the eastern battery, and the second silenced both, putting to
flight the troops formed in the neighbourhood. The fire of the
'Blonde' was then directed exclusively at the fort and armed junks.
The former was soon reduced to a heap of ruins, and all the latter,
with the exception of one, managed to make their escape up the
harbour. The only one which remained had been abandoned by her crew,
and an officer was forthwith sent on board, who hove her guns
overboard and set her on fire.
During the affair the neighbouring hills were covered with
spectators, who seemed scarcely to comprehend what was going on. The
war-junks had taken refuge among a fleet of trading-vessels which
crowded the inner harbour, and Captain Bourchier, unwilling to punish
the innocent as well as the guilty, refrained from pursuing them.
Not a man on board the 'Blonde' was injured, though she had inflicted
a severe chastisement on the Chinese, numbers of whose bodies strewed
the beach. Having performed this necessary though painful duty,
Captain Bourchier proceeded on his voyage.