former closed in upon Canton from all sides and commenced a blockade of the Canton River which caused the junk trade of Canton city to migrate for a time to Hongkong. Owing to the general increase of piracy and the facilities for smuggling afforded by the general paralysis of the Imperial revenue service, there sprang up in Hongkong a strong demand for small European vessels (lorchas) which were chartered or purchased by local Chinese firms to convoy fleets of junks or to engage in an irregular coasting trade. Sir J. Bowring fostered this movement by passing two Ordinances (No. 4 of 1855 and No. 9 of 1856) which granted a Colonial register, and the use of the British flag, to vessels owned by such Chinese residents as were registered lessees of Crown lands within the Colony. The capture, by the Taipings, of the Hoifung and Lukfung district cities (in the N.E. of Hongkong) in September, 1854, seriously interfered, for a time, with the market supplies of the Colony. Armed bands of Taipings also paraded the streets occasionally, until the police (December 21, 1854) stopped it by arresting, in the Lower Bazaar, several hundred armed Rebels who were about to embark to attack Kowloon city. About the same time, the Governor issued a Neutrality Ordinance (No. 1 of 1855) to regulate the exclusion from the harbour of armed vessels under the contending Chinese flags and the manufacture and sale of arms and ammunition. Since September, 1854, there was at anchor in the harbour a fleet of war-junks under the command of an alleged prince (Hung Seu-tsung) of the Taiping Dynasty who, with his officers, fraternized with the local Chinese Christians and some of the Missionaries. More than a week elapsed after the passing of that Ordinance without its being acted upon and meanwhile the Colony narrowly escaped (January 23, 1855) the danger of a naval battle being waged in the harbour, as nine war-junks, carrying 2,000 Imperialist soldiers, arrived and anchored west of the Lower Bazaar whilst a large number of Taiping war-junks were lying close to the Hospital-ship Minden. After much delay, however, both parties were ordered off and peacefully departed in different directions.
