Macao pending the arrival of instructions from home, when trade could be re-opened. This is the fourth turning-point in Canton affairs.
Lin Tsêh-sü held, however, in view of the Emperor's recent instructions, that any divergence therefrom was inexpedient, and therefore repeated the interdiction in the strongest terms. Over ten ships then weighed anchor and went out to Ló-mán Shan,[1] where, in company with a number of new arrivals, they gave opium in exchange for provisions brought to them by the fishing boats. Lin Tsêh-sü was now made Viceroy, and arranged with Admiral Kwan a plan for utilizing the tanka boatmen and fishing-craft in an attack upon the disloyal junks, the Chinese war-junks being unfitted for the high seas. A number of boats were disposed in the various creeks and inlets, and it was arranged that an attack should be made simultaneously from four directions, going out and returning on one tide. Twenty-three junks, engaged in exchanging supplies for opium, were burnt at Ch‘ang-sha Wan,[2] in the month of March, a number of disloyal Chinese were burnt in their huts on shore, or drowned; and a dozen or so were taken prisoners. The foreign ships hurriedly moved off to escape the fire-boats. The eighteen months' law condemning opium-smokers to strangulation, and opium-dealers to decapitation had now been in
