PREPARATIONS FOR A VISIT TO CANTON.
The Commodore, towards the end of September, having found out (as has
been said) that those who had contracted to supply him with sea
provisions and stores had deceived him, and that the Viceroy had not sent
to him according to his promise, he saw it would be impossible for him to
surmount the embarrassment he was under without going himself to Canton,
and visiting the Viceroy. And therefore, on the 27th of September, he
sent a message to the mandarin who attended the Centurion to inform him
that he, the Commodore, intended on the 1st of October to proceed in his
boat to Canton, adding that the day after he got there he should notify
his arrival to the Viceroy, and should desire him to fix a time for his
audience; to which the mandarin returned no other answer than that he
would acquaint the Viceroy with the Commodore's intentions. In the
meantime all things were prepared for this expedition, and the boat's
crew in particular which Mr. Anson proposed to take with him, were
clothed in a uniform dress resembling that of the watermen on the Thames.
They were in number eighteen and a coxswain. They had scarlet jackets and
blue silk waistcoats, the whole trimmed with silver buttons, and with
silver badges on their jackets and caps.
A WISE PRECAUTION.
As it was apprehended, and even asserted, that the payment of the
customary duties for the Centurion and her prize would be demanded by the
Regency of Canton, and would be insisted on previous to the granting a
permission for victualling the ship for her future voyage, the Commodore,
who was resolved never to establish so dishonourable a precedent, took
all possible precautions to prevent the Chinese from facilitating the
success of their unreasonable pretentions by having him in their power at
Canton. And, therefore, for the security of his ship and the great
treasure on board her, he appointed his first lieutenant, Mr. Brett, to
be captain of the Centurion under him, giving him proper instructions for
his conduct, directing him particularly, if he, the Commodore, should be
detained at Canton on account of the duties in dispute, to take out the
men from the Centurion's prize and to destroy her, and then to proceed
down the river through the Bocca Tigris with the Centurion alone, and to
remain without that entrance till he received further orders from Mr.
Anson.
These necessary steps being taken, which were not unknown to the Chinese,
it should seem as if their deliberations were in some sort embarrassed
thereby. It is reasonable to imagine that they were in general very
desirous of getting the duties to be paid them, not perhaps solely in
consideration of the amount of those dues, but to keep up their
reputation for address and subtlety, and to avoid the imputation of
receding from claims on which they had already so frequently insisted.
However, as they now foresaw that they had no other method of succeeding
than by violence, and that even against this the Commodore was prepared,
they were at last disposed, I conceive, to let the affair drop, rather
than entangle themselves in a hostile measure which they found would only
expose them to the risk of having the whole navigation of their port
destroyed, without any certain prospect of gaining their favourite point
thereby.