28
W. C. HUNTER
One comes and says his cows are starving as the cow-man sent to look after them has run away. Mr. B appears and in great distress begs them to send a few coolies to wash out his Hong, it being unwashed for ten days. Mr. K wants a basket of oranges, and Mr. F comes to complain of some of the guard having been insolent, with threats of his being about to go and annihilate them with his stick, at which the linguists say, "Hae yaw? 42 How can do? Mandarin angry too muchee". Then Mr. C comes in with a bundle in his hand which proves to be a ragged jacket or two which he insists upon it must be mended instantly. Others come to hoax the poor fellows with threats of forcing their way up China Street which alarms them and brings out the usual, “Hae yaw? How can do? No good takee so?" Mr. B runs in and swears the rats are running away with everything movable in his Factory, and Mr. A tells them if they don't make the guard keep out strange dogs and strange cows and calves from wandering up his Hong, half starved and barking and bleating, that he will fire at them and they must take the consequences. A multitudinous (what a shocking long word) quantity of calls of this and every other nature keeps these poor fellows constantly busy and in trepidation. Besides the headmen each has from 6 to 12 clerks or pursers as we call them, and some 8 or 10 coolies constantly by, and they are kept on the go from daylight till late at night running from the tailors to the butchers, from the washerman to the shoemakers, from the market to [the] cow-keepers to supply the wants of some 350 imprisoned foreigners who cannot go beyond the Square in front of the Factories. But these linguists and all their assistants are the best natured set of fellows living. They laugh at us, they cannot help it; our situation is so entirely that of a closely confined prisoner and making known our wants excites their fun. But they do everything they can to relieve us and go on all manner of errands with great good will.
Sunday, 14 April, 6 p.m.
At 5 this afternoon Captain Elliot issued a circular in which he states he had received a letter from Johnston dated at Chumpee 8 p.m. of the 12th up to which time the Hercules and Austen had delivered 650 chests of opium to the Chinese officers and that they hoped to get on faster when more boats could be procured of which there was a great scarcity. The Commissioner and the Governor were both at the Bogue, and Captain Elliot also received