Viceroys, and an able and plucky man, though he does not understand foreign ways. You can stop the opium trade, but you cannot stop all our trade, for, if you do that, you will stop our means of subsistence; and we must struggle for trading privilegos with all our might. You are very wrong if you think we have come here out of any feeling of hostility towards the Viceroy Lin." Meanwhile the people of Chih Li and Shan Tang vied with each other in their representations of the modest character of the enemy; in consequence of which T‘ohunpu,[1] Governor of Shan Tung, sent presents to the foreign fleet, and then represented to the Emperor that the foreigners had come ashoro and made obeisance in a body! At the same time the new Viceroy, Iliang,[2] reported that half of our fleet which had been thrown out of commission at Canton, had fallen into the enemy's hands. In November K‘ishen arrived in Canton; and, finding the official despatches from Elliot surrendering the opium, tried to find faults in Lin conduct; but was unsuccessful. He then lost the good-will of the military by proposing to execute the captain who, as he made out, had provoked the naval engagement by firing the first shot. The consequence of this was that a number of Chinese braves were discharged and went over to the English; nay, even received posts
Page:Chinese account of the Opium war (IA chineseaccountof00parkrich).pdf/38
This page needs to be proofread.
