464
Review of Public Occurrences During the
SEP
3d. To the above note, of the 1st, his excellency the Portuguese governor, made reply thus, under this date
..
The undersigned, governor of Macao and its dependencies, has the honor to acknowledge receipt of the note addressed to him by the most illustrious Mr. Charles Elliot, superintendent of British commerce in China. dated in the bay of Hongkong, the 1st of September; and in reply thereto, he has to repeat what he has already officially declared more than once since the arrival at Canton of the lugh commissioner sent by the emperor of China expressly for the suppression of the prohibited trade in opium. And it is this, that without receiving from lus government express and definitive orders, he cannot cease to preserve the most strict neutrality between the two nations, the English, with which his own has been so long and so intimately allied, and the Chinese, from motives well known to all. The undersigned cannot at the same time let slip this occasion afforded by the superintendent to express anew, in the name of his government, his very great and well-merited thanks for the frank and generous coöperation which has been afforded, but of which he is not able to avail himself for the reasons above stated.
The British subjects retired of their own accord from Macao, with a view of not compromising this establishment, and by this step have placed themselves under the necessity of not landing here so long as all the difficulties now existing shall continue unsettled; which difficulties the undersigned hopes to see terminat- ed satisfactorily for all parties, it not being allowable for him to vary in anything from the maintenance of the neutrality above stated, until he shall receive express orders from his government in that respect. The "chops" of the officers, of which with reason the superintendent complains, have been answered to the high commissioner in a manner definite and positive, making him perceive that the British subjects retired of their own accord, and in this the undersigned judges that the British subjects and the dignity of the Portuguese government will be equally satisfied. The superintendent and all the British subjects were aware of the lively feelings with which the undersigned saw them depart, and all knew that what protection was possible in the circumstances in which we are here placed was given, and of this the superintendent was convinced; and it appears to the undersigned that the note already cited is thus satisfactorily answered, it only remaining for him to renew the expression of his highest esteem and consideration.
The governor,
-Corresp. pp. 445–446.
(Signed)
"ADRIAO A. DA SILVEIRA PINTO."
2d.
The following note will sufficiently explain the reasons for its appearance; it was written at Hongkong to dissuade the people from poisoning the water.
"A placard, said to be posted on shore at Hongkong, to the following effect, has this day been exhibited to Elliot, the English superintendent:- Poison has been put into this water, which will destroy the bowels if it be drunk. Let none He knows that the higher officers are incapable of our people take it to drink.' of issuing such shameful papers, and that they are the work of low and designing Elliot now exhorts all the good and peaceable natives of the neighborhood not to lend themselves to such practices, so sure to draw down the just wrath of the great emperor, and to lead to conflict with the foreign men.
Here are several thousands of persons who have done no evil, but who, on the contrary.
men.