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STEPHEN UHALLEY, JR.
about in the preceding three days, beginning with a request apparently from the Ch'ing tao-t'ai of Ningpo for British and French naval support for his impending attack on the city. Consul Harvey noted that this was "an extraordinary coincidence," and one that "was far too good an opportunity to be thrown aside and lost." The attack was to consist primarily of the vessels of a famous pirate of the region by the name of Apak who had gone over to the Manchus. Some effort was made to conceal the joint nature of the attack at the outset, for Captain Dew wrote for the record that he told his Ch'ing collaborators that since the rebels had refused his demands he had no objection to their fleet passing up river, "but that they were not to open fire till well clear of our men of war."28 The fiction of this position was made clear by subsequent events, and by other evidence. The ultimatum of May 8, stated that had the demands been agreed to, the English and French should have felt bound in honour to prevent an attack on the Taipings from the settlement side by approaching Ch'ing forces "which in countless numbers and heavily armed ships advance to attack you." The ultimatum proclaimed neutrality unless fire came from the battery or walls opposite the settlement on the advancing Ch'ing forces "(thereby endangering the lives of our men and people in the foreign settlement)."29
It is of interest to note how this exchange of correspondence was characterized by Consul Harvey and Captain Dew. Harvey said that "... the whole tenour of their letters was as bad and sarcastic as it was defiant,” and he assured his respondent “that nothing could have been more friendly, reasonable, and patient than the tone of our letters, as well as of all our demands on the Taipings."30 Dew was a bit more candid, for as he reported later: "I now commenced a lengthy correspondence with the Taiping chiefs, which was met on their side by the most subtle reasoning and arguments soon convincing me that but one argument, viz: that of cannon balls would avail with them...." The two men substantiated their interpretation of events and attitude in the correspondence with two memoranda written by an interpreter. The first, based upon "information supplied by certain respectable natives," claimed that General Fan had been sent from Nanking “to turn the foreigners out of Ningpo."32 The second memorandum purported to be extracts of a speech made by General Huang
31