Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin Part 18

[Sidenote: Description of Hong-kong.]

_Head-Quarters House, Hong-kong.--November 22nd._--I wish you could take wings and join me here, if it were even for a few hours. We should first wander through these s.p.a.cious apartments. We should then stroll out on the verandah, or along the path of the little terrace garden which General Ashburnham has surrounded with a defensive wall, and from thence I should point out to you the harbour, bright as a flower-bed with the flags of many nations, the jutting promontory of Kowloon, and the barrier of bleak and jagged hills that bounds the prospect. A little later, when the sun began to sink, and the long shadows to fall from the mountain's side, we should set forth for a walk along a level pathway of about a quarter of a mile long, which is cut in its flank, and connects with this garden, and from thence we should watch this same circle of hills, now turned into a garland, and glowing in the sunset lights, crimson and purple, and blue and green, and colours for which a name has not yet been found, as they successively lit upon them. Perhaps we should be tempted to wait (and it would not be long to wait, for the night follows in these regions very closely on the heels of day), until, on these self-same hills, then gloomy and dark and sullen, tens of thousands of bright and silent stars were looking down calmly from heaven.

_Macao.--December 2nd._--Baron Gros and I have been settling our plans of proceeding, which we are conducting with a most cordial _entente_.... As he is well versed in all the forms and usages of diplomacy, he is very useful to me in such points.... I have been living here in the house of Mr. Dent, one of the merchant princes of China. He is very obliging, and I have remained at his request a day longer than I intended. I return, however, to-day. I like Macao with its air of antiquity, in some respects almost of decadence. It is more interesting than Hong-kong, which has only existed fifteen years, and is as go-a-head and upstart and staring as 'one of our cities,' as my American friend informed me a few days ago.

_Hong-kong.--December 5th._--When I went out to walk with Oliphant, I was informed by a person I met in a very public walk just out of the town, that a man had been robbed very near where we were. I met the person immediately afterwards. He was rather a _mesquin_-looking Portuguese, and he said that three Chinamen had rushed upon him, knocked him down, thrown a quant.i.ty of sand into his eyes, and carried off his watch. This sort of affair is not uncommon. I have bought a revolver, and am beginning to practise pistol-shooting.

[Sidenote: Preparation for action.]

_December 9th._--Baron Gros came here on Monday. We have been busy, and all our plans are settled. I sent up this evening to the Admiral my letter to Yeh, which is to be delivered on Sat.u.r.day the 12th. He is to have ten days to think over it, and if at the end of that time he does not give in, the city will be taken. We are in for it now. I have hardly alluded in my ultimatum to that wretched question of the 'Arrow,' which is a scandal to us, and is so considered, I have reason to know, by all except the few who are personally compromised. I have made as strong a case as I can on general grounds against Yeh, and my demands are most moderate. If he refuses to accede to them, which he probably will, this will, I hope, put us in the right when we proceed to extreme measures. The diplomatic position is excellent. The Russian has had a rebuff at the mouth of the Peiho; the American at the hands of Yeh. The Frenchman gives us a most valuable moral support by saying that he too has a sufficient ground of quarrel with Yeh. We stand towering above all, using calm and dignified language, moderate in our demands, but resolute in enforcing them. If such had been our att.i.tude from the beginning of this controversy it would have been well.

However, we cannot look back; we must do for the best, and trust in Providence to carry us through our difficulties.

[1] One of his Fifeshire neighbours.

[2] The Governor of the island.

[3] His brother, then Consul-general of Egypt.

[4] His eldest son.

[5] His birthday, and also his father's.

[6] Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission, i. 55.

[7] Life of Lady Rachel Russell.

[8] The death of his elder sister, Lady Matilda Maxwell.

CHAPTER VIII.

FIRST MISSION TO CHINA. CANTON.

IMPROVED PROSPECTS--ADVANCE ON CANTON--BOMBARDMENT AND CAPTURE--JOINT TRIBUNAL--MAINTENANCE OF ORDER--CANTON PRISONS--MOVE NORTHWARD--SWATOW--MR.

BURNS--FOOCHOW--NINGPO--CHU-SAN--POTOU--SHANGHAE--MISSIONARIES.

[Sidenote: Improved prospects.]

On the same day on which the ultimatum of the Envoys was delivered to Yeh, i.e. on the 12th of December, 1857, the glad news reached Lord Elgin that Lucknow had been relieved: the more welcome to him as carrying with it the promise of speedy reinforcement to himself, and deliverance from a situation of extreme difficulty and embarra.s.sment. 'Few people,' he might well say, 'had ever been in a position which required greater tact--four Amba.s.sadors, two Admirals, 'a General, and a Consul-general; and, notwithstanding 'this luxuriance of colleagues, no sufficient force.' And what he felt most in the insufficiency of the force was not the irksomeness of delay, still less any anxiety as to the success of his arms. 'My greatest difficulty.' he wrote, 'arises from my fear that we shall be led to 'attack Canton before we have all our force, and led 'therefore to destroy, if there is any resistance, both life 'and property to a greater extent than would otherwise 'be necessary.' The prospects of immediate reinforcements from India diminished his fears on this score, and sent him forward with a better hope of bringing the painful situation to a speedy and easy close.

[Sidenote: Changed quarters.]

_H.M.S. 'Furious,' Canton River.--December 17th.--_You see from my date that I am again in a new lodging. It promises to be, I think, more agreeable than any of our previous marine residences. We have paddles instead of a screw. Then the captain has not only given up to me all the stern accommodation, but he has also done everything in his power to make the place comfortable.... He is the Sherard Osborn of Arctic regions notoriety. I am on my way to join Gros, in order to decide on our future course of action. I mentioned yesterday that Honan was occupied, and that I had received a letter from Yeh, which must, I suppose, be considered a refusal. This was the fair side of the medal. The reverse was an ugly quarrel up the river, which ended in the loss of the lives of some sailors and the destruction of a village,--a quarrel for which our people were, I suspect, to some extent responsible. I fear that, under cover of the blockade inst.i.tuted by the Admiral, great abuses have taken place.... It makes one very indignant, but unfortunately it is very difficult to bring the matter home to the culprits. All this, however, makes it most important to bring the situation to a close as soon as possible. It is clear that there will be no peace till the two parties fight it out.

The Chinese do not want to fight, but they will not accept the position relatively to the strangers under which alone strangers will consent to live with them, till the strength of the two parties has been tested by fighting. The English do want to fight.

[Sidenote: Yeh's reply.]

_December 18th._--This does not promise to be a lively sojourn. We are anch.o.r.ed at present at a point where the river forks into the Whampoa and Blenheim reaches. We have the Blenheim reach, and my suite wish me to go up it to the Macao Fort, from which they think they would have a good view of what goes on when the city is attacked. I wish, however, to be with Gros, and he will go up the Whampoa reach as far as his great lumbering ship will go. Meanwhile we are here confined to our ships, as it would not of course do for me to go on sh.o.r.e to be caught. Poor Yeh would think me worth having at present. What will he do? His answer is very weak, and reads as if the writer was at his wits' end; but with that sort of stupid Chinese policy which consists in never yielding anything, he exposes himself to the worst consequences without making any preparations (so far as we can see) for resistance. Among other things in his letter he quotes a long extract from a Hong-kong paper describing Sir G. Bonham's invest.i.ture as K.C.B., and advises me to imitate him for my own interest, rather than Sir J. Davis, who was recalled. Davis, says Yeh, insisted on getting into the city, and Bonham gave up this demand. Hence his advice to me. All through the letter is sheer twaddle.

[Sidenote: Advance on Canton.]

_December 22nd._--On the afternoon of the 20th, I got into a gunboat with Commodore Elliot, and went a short way up towards the barrier forts, which were last winter destroyed by the Americans. When we reached this point, all was so quiet that we determined to go on, and we actually steamed past the city of Canton, along the whole front, within pistol-shot of the town. A line of English men-of-war are now anch.o.r.ed there in front of the town. I never felt so ashamed of myself in my life, and Elliot remarked that the trip seemed to have made me sad. There we were, acc.u.mulating the means of destruction under the very eyes, and within the reach, of a population of about 1,000,000 people, against whom these means of destruction were to be employed!

'Yes,' I said to Elliot, 'I am sad, because when I look at that town, I feel that I am earning for myself a place in the Litany, immediately after "plague, pestilence, and famine."' I believe however that, as far as I am concerned, it was impossible for me to do otherwise than as I have done. I could not have abandoned the demand to enter the city after what happened last winter, without compromising our position in China altogether, and opening the way to calamities even greater than those now before us. I made my demands on Yeh as moderate as I could, so as to give him a chance of accepting; although, if he had accepted, I knew that I should have brought on my head the imprecations both of the navy and army and of the civilians, the time being given by the missionaries and the women. And now Yeh having refused, I shall do whatever I can possibly do to secure the adoption of plans of attack, &c., which will lead to the least destruction of life and property.... The weather is charming; the thermometer about 60 in the shade in the morning; the sun powerful, and the atmosphere beautifully clear. When we steamed up to Canton, and saw the rich alluvial banks covered with the luxuriant evidences of unrivalled industry and natural fertility combined; beyond them, barren uplands, sprinkled with a soil of a reddish tint, which gave them the appearance of heather slopes in the Highlands; and beyond these again, the white cloud mountain range, standing out bold and blue in the clear sunshine,--I thought bitterly of those who, for the most selfish objects, are trampling under foot this ancient civilisation.

[Sidenote: Summons to Yeh.]

_December 24th_.--My letter telling Yeh that I had handed the affair over to the naval and military commanders, and Gros's to the same effect, were sent to him to-day; also a joint letter from the commanders, giving him forty-eight hours to deliver over the city, at the expiry of which time, if he does not do so, it will be attacked. I postponed the delivery of these letters till to-day, that the expiry of the forty-eight hours might not fall on Christmas Day. Now I hear that the commanders will not be ready till Monday, which the Calendar tells me is 'the Ma.s.sacre of the Innocents!' If we can take the city without much ma.s.sacre, I shall think the job a good one, because no doubt the relations of the Cantonese with the foreign population were very unsatisfactory, and a settlement was sooner or later inevitable.

But nothing could be more contemptible than the origin of our existing quarrel. We moved this evening to the Barrier Forts, within about two miles of Canton, and very near the place where the troops are to land for the attack on the city. I have been taking walks on sh.o.r.e the last two or three days on a little island called Dane's Island, formed of barren hills, with little patches of soil between them and on their flanks, cultivated in terraces by the industrious Chinese. The people seemed very poor and miserable, suffering, I fear, from this horrid war. The French Admiral sent on sh.o.r.e to Whampoa some casks of damaged biscuit the other day, and there was such a rush for it, that some people were, I believe, drowned. The head man came afterwards to the officer, expressed much grat.i.tude for the gift, but said that if it was repeated, he begged notice might be given to him, that he might make arrangements to prevent such disorder. The ships are surrounded by boats filled chiefly by women, who pick up orange-peel and offal, and everything that is thrown overboard. One of the gunboats got ash.o.r.e yesterday, within a stone's-throw of the town of Canton, and the officer had the coolness to call on a crowd of Chinese, who were on the quays, to pull her off, which they at once did! Fancy having to fight such people!

_Christmas Day_.--Who would have thought, when we were spending that cold snowy Christmas Day last year at Howick, that _this_ day would find us separated by almost as great a distance as is possible on the surface of our globe! and that I should be anch.o.r.ed, as I now am, within two miles of a great city, doomed, I fear, to destruction, from the folly of its own rulers and the vanity and levity of ours. We have moved a little farther up the river this morning, and as we are, like St. Paul, dropping an anchor from the stern, I have had over my head for several hours the incessant dancing about and clanking of a ponderous chain-cable, till my brains are nearly all shaken out of their place.

_December 26th._--I have a second letter from Yeh, which is even more twaddling than the first. They say that he is all day engaged in sacrificing to an idol, which represents the G.o.d of Physic, and which is so constructed that a stick in its hand traces figures on sand. In the figures so traced he is supposed to read his fate.

Early on Monday the 28th the attack began; and Lord Elgin was reluctantly compelled to witness what he had been reluctantly compelled to order--the bombardment of an unresisting town. Happily the damage both to life and property proved to be very much less serious than at the time he supposed it to be.

[Sidenote: Bombardment.]

_December 28th, Noon._--We have been throwing sh.e.l.ls, etc., into Canton since 6 A.M., without almost any reply from the town. I hate the whole thing so much, that I cannot trust myself to write about it.

_December 29th._--The mail was put off, and I add a line to say that I hope the Canton affair is over, and well over.... When I say this affair is over, perhaps I say too much. But the horrid bombardment has ceased, and we are in occupation of Magazine Hill, at the upper part of the city, within the walls.

[Sidenote: Capture of the city.]

[Sidenote: Looting.]

_H.M.S. 'Furious,' Canton River.--January 2nd, 1858._--The last week has been a very eventful one: not one of unmixed satisfaction to me, because of course there is a great deal that is painful about this war, but on the whole the results have been successful. On Monday last (the 28th) I was awakened at 6 A.M. by a cannon-shot, which was the commencement of a bombardment of the city, which lasted for 27 hours.

As the fire of the shipping was either not returned at all, or returned only by a very few shots, I confess that this proceeding gave me great pain at the time. But I find that much less damage has been done to the town than I expected, as the fire was confined to certain spots. I am on the whole, therefore, disposed to think that the measure proved to be a good one, as the terror which it has excited in the minds of the Cantonese is more than in proportion to the injury inflicted, and therefore it will have the effect, I trust, of preventing any attempts on their part to dislodge or attack us, which would entail very great calamities on themselves. At 10 A.M. on Monday the troops landed at a point about two miles east of the city, and marched up with very trifling resistance to Lin Fort, which they took, the French entering first, to the great disgust of our people. Next morning at 9 A.M., they advanced to the escalade of the city walls, and proceeded, with again very slight opposition, to the Magazine Hill, on which they hoisted the British and French flags. They then took Gough fort with little trouble, and there they were by 3 P.M. established in Canton. The poor stupid Chinese had placed some guns in position to resist an attack from the opposite quarter--the quarter, viz. from which Gough attacked the city; and some people suppose that if we had advanced from that side we should have met with some resistance. My own opinion is, that the resistance would have been no great matter in any case, although, no doubt, if we had made the attempt in summer, and with sailors only, as some proposed when I came here in July, we should probably have met with disaster. As it is, my difficulty has been to enforce the adoption of measures to keep our own people in order, and to prevent the wretched Cantonese from being plundered and bullied. This task is the more difficult from the very motley force with which we have to work, composed, firstly, of French and English; secondly, of sailors to a great extent--they being very imperfectly manageable on sh.o.r.e; all, moreover, having, I fear, a very low standard of morality in regard to stealing from the Chinese. There is a word called 'loot,' which gives, unfortunately, a venial character to what would, in common English, be styled robbery.... Add to this, that there is no flogging in the French army, so that it is impossible to punish men committing this cla.s.s of offences.... On the other hand, these incomprehensible Chinese, although they make no defence, do not come forward to capitulate; and I am in mortal terror lest the French Admiral, who is in the way of looking at these matters in a purely professional light, should succeed in inducing our chiefs to engage again in offensive operations, which would lead to an unnecessary destruction of life and property. I proposed to Gros that we should land on the first day of the year, and march up to Magazine Hill. He consented, and the chiefs agreed, so we landed about 1 P.M. at a point on the river bank immediately below the south-east angle of the city wall, which is now our line of communication between the river and Magazine Hill. As we landed, all the vessels in the river hoisted English and French flags, and fired salutes. We walked up to the hill along the top of the wall, which is a good wide road, and which was all lined with troops and sailors, who presented arms and cheered as we pa.s.sed. We reached the summit at about three. The British quarter, which is a sort of temple, stands on the highest point, the hill falling pretty precipitously from it on all sides. The view is one of the most extensive I ever saw. Towards the east and north barren hills of considerable height, and much of the character of those we see from Hong-kong. On the west, level lands cultivated in rice and otherwise.

Towards the south, the town lying still as a city of the dead. The silence was quite painful, especially when we returned about nightfall: but it is partly owing to the narrowness of the streets, which prevents one from seeing the circulation of population which may be going on within. We remained at the top of the hill till about half-past five, during which time we blew up the Blue Jacket Fort and Gough Fort, and got back to our ships about 8 P.M., having spent a very memorable first of January, and made a very interesting expedition; although I could not help feeling melancholy when I thought that we were so ruthlessly destroying the prestige of a place which had been, for so many centuries, intact and undefiled by the stranger, and exercising our valour against so contemptible a foe.

_January 4th._--I have not given you as full a description as I ought to have done of the views and ceremony of Friday, because I saw 'Our own Correspondent' there, and I think I can count on that being well done in the _Times_.... This day is a pour of rain, rather unusual for the season.... Some of the Chinese authorities are beginning to show a desire to treat, and some of the inhabitants are presenting pet.i.tions to us to protect them against robbers, native and foreign.

[Sidenote: Capture of Yeh.]

_January 6th_.--Yesterday was a great day. The chiefs made a move which was very judicious, I think, and which answered remarkably well.

They sent bodies of men at an early hour into the city from different points, and succeeded in capturing Yeh, the Lieutenant-Governor of the city, and the Tartar General, &c. This was done without a shot being fired, and I believe the troops behaved very well, abstaining from _loot_, &c. Altogether the thing was a complete success, and I give them great credit for it. Yeh has been carried on board the 'Inflexible' steamer as a prisoner of war. He is an enormous man. I can hardly speak to his appearance, as I only saw him for a moment as he pa.s.sed me in a chair on his way to his vessel. Morrison, who has taken a sketch of him, speaks favourably of him; but it is the fashion to abuse even his looks. The Lieutenant-General has been allowed to depart, but the Lieutenant-Governor and Tartar General are still in custody at head-quarters. At my suggestion a proposal was made to the Lieutenant-Governor to-day to continue to govern the city under us; but the stolidity of the Chinese is so great that there is no saying what he may do. We have given him till to-morrow to determine whether he will accept. My whole efforts have been directed to preserve the Cantonese from the evils of a military occupation; but their stupid apathetic arrogance makes it almost impossible to effect this object.

Yeh's tone when he was taken was to be rather b.u.mptious. The Admiral asked him about an old man of the name of Cooper, who was kidnapped.

At first he pretended that he knew nothing about him. When pressed he said, 'Oh! he was a prisoner of war. I took him when I drove you away from the city last winter. I took a great deal of trouble with him and the other European prisoners, but I could not keep them alive. They all died, and if you like I'll show you where I had them buried.'

Morrison says that when he saw him on board the 'Inflexible,' he was very civil and _piano_. He takes it easy, eats and drinks well, &c. He said to his captain, that if it was not an indiscreet question, he would be glad to know whether it was likely that we should kill him.

The captain had no difficulty in re-a.s.suring him on that point.

_January 8th_.--We had rather an important day's work yesterday. The Lieutenant-Governor showed some symptoms of a willingness to govern on our conditions. This gives some chance of our getting out of the difficulties of our situation. You may imagine what it is to undertake to govern some millions of people (the province contains upwards of 20,000,000), when we have _in all_ two or three people who understand the language! I never had so difficult a matter to arrange.... Each man has his own way of seeing things, and the real difficulties of the question being enormous, and the mysteries of the Chinese character almost unfathomable,... the problem is well nigh insoluble. However yesterday we seemed to make some progress towards an understanding. We walked up to the front along the wall as usual, and very hot it was; but we returned through the town itself with the General and Admiral and a large escort. I rode on a pony. It was a strange and sad sight.

The wretched-looking single-storied houses on either side of the narrow streets almost all shut up, only a few people making their appearance, and these for the most part wan and haggard, and here and there places which the fire from our ships had destroyed, all presented a very melancholy spectacle; and one could hardly help asking one's self, with some disgust, whether it was worth while to make all the row which we have been making, for the sake of getting into this miserable place. However, I presume that the better part of the population have either fled or hid themselves. I daresay if they had returned, and the shops had been opened, the aspect of the town would have been different.

[Sidenote: Establishment of a joint tribunal.]