tus with which their countryman had been projected from the house, that the terrible Captain himself was in his rear, were seized with a panic, and in a few seconds not a soul was to be seen.
“Under any other than the very peculiar circumstances in which we were placed, such determined measures for maintaining our independence might have been questionable. As it was, however, we remained after these contests several months at Canton without receiving the slightest insult; and the gentlemen of the Factory declared, that they had never, till now, been treated even with common attention; and when at last the Embassy arrived from the interior, the Chinese vied with one another who should be most obliging. It must be remembered, in considering these questions, that England has no treaty with China: everything, therefore, relating to the intercourse of foreigners, being regulated by custom alone, it becomes really important, when an opportunity occurs, to establish convenient, instead of irksome usages. In this view. Captain Maxwell, the next day, explained in an official communication to the Chinese authorities, that as his Majesty’s ships had nothing to do with trade, none of their boats ever carried goods; and he pledged himself to take care that no smuggling occurred through their means: but he positively refused to allow a king’s boat, or a king’s officer, under any pretence whatsoever, to be searched. And although at a distance this may be thought an insignificant matter, it was considered a material point gained, in a country where such trifles take the place of more important affairs; and where, in fact, if they were not attended to from time to time, the life of a foreigner would soon become almost insupportable. In this point of view, it is extremely satisfactory to learn, that ever since the wholesome lessons which Captain Maxwell read to the Chinese on the score of good manners, there has been a remarkable improvement in the condition of all the foreign residents, who have the supreme happiness, as the Chinese express it, of being suffered to live in the Celestial Empire.
“So much has been written respecting China, and especially about Canton, that I shall be excused for not entering on so threadbare a subject. We were allowed to walk about the streets to a great distance from the Factory, without meeting any kind of obstruction or insult; and when we happened to come near the gates of the citadel or inner town, were warned off by sentinels with long poles, but no impediments were ever thrown in the way of our examining the shops, or the different manufactories, with which the other parts of this immense city abound; and as the sight of Europeans was familiar to the people, no notice was taken of us, and every one continued at his business as if no stranger was looking on. The gentlemen of the Embassy, when they returned from travelling upwards of a thousand miles through the interior of the country, declared that in a few days they had seen m Canton not only everything they had met with before, but could observe it to better purpose than during the journey.
“The only evil likely to attend these perambulations through the streets,