in 1832. In 1837 the Viceroy Têng T‘ing-chêng[1] re-established the cruising navy; but the Commodore Han Shao-k‘ing[2] arranged with the foreign ships to convoy the opium for a percentage, which percentage he represented as being captured opium, and even undertook the import of opium himself. For these eminent services he received a peacock's feather, and was made a rear-admiral; in consequenco of which the yearly import gradually reached a figure of 40,000 or 50,000 chests. The suggestion made by certain Peking officials that this opium should be regularly taxed as a drug was rejected; and in the spring of 1839 Commissioner Lin appeared upon the scene.
Lin called upon the hong merchant Ng I-wo[3] [Howqua] to deliver up Chatun[4] [Jardine] and Tinti[5] [Dent], who had been for many years in the habit of dealing in opium. Chatun, having got wind of this, had already mado his escape, but Tinti came with the English Company's Consul Ilut[6] [Elliot] from Macao to the Canton Foreign Factory. Lin Tsêh-sü sent a body of soldiers to keep a watch upon them there and to surround the Líptak[7] Fort, in the Canton River, with a cordon of rafts, so as to prevent communication therewith. He then ordered the surrender, within a given date, of all the opium on
