62
Review of Public Occurrences
DEC.
21st. Sir Henry Pottinger arrived at Amoy, and had an inter- view with Iliáng, governor of Fukien and Chekiáng. His excel- lency issued the following proclamations regarding the treatment of the prisoners on-Formosa.
Sir Henry Pottinger, bart, her Britannic majesty's plenipotentiary in China, has, on his arrival at Amoy, learned, with extreme horror and asto- nishment, that many more than a hundred subjects of her Britannic majesty, who were wrecked in the ship Nerbudda and brig Ann, in the months of Sep- tember, 1841, and March, 1842, on the coast of the island of Formosa, have been recently put to death by the Chinese authorities on that island, who allege, that they perpetrated this cold-blooded act in obedience to the im- perial commands.
Had the unhappy people who have suffered on this occasion even been prisoners of war, taken whilst fighting with arms in their hands, their mas- sacre (which is aggravated by a lapse of time of nearly a year) would have been a most flagrant violation of the acknowledged and well-understood rules and feelings which distinguish warfare amongst civilized nations, and contrast it with the sanguinary and inhuman practices and ideas of mere savages; but, when her majesty's plenipotentiary calls to mind, that the un- fortunate individuals, on whoin this foul deed has been committed, were inoffensive camp followers and seamen, who neither were armed, nor had any means of defending themselves or of molesting others, and who were specially entitled, as distressed and shipwrecked men, both by the laws and usages of China, to kindness and protection, the plenipotentiary has no lan- gunge by which he can sufficiently proclaim the sentiments of abhorrence and detestation with which he views this lamentable affair, the recollection of which will remain as a stain and disgrace in the annals of the Chinese empire.
Her Britannic majesty's plenipotentiary has already obtained positive offi- cial proof, that the commands issued by the emperor for putting to death her Britannic majesty's subjects were drawn from his imperial majesty by the gross and merciless misrepresentations of the local authorities on Formosa, who, with the object of personal aggrandizement, basely and falsely reported to the Cabinet at Peking, that both the ship Nerbudda, and subsequently the brig Ann, had gone to that island, with hostile intention, an assertion not more lying and false, than manifestly absurd, since neither of those vessels were ships of war, or had, when wrecked, any troops or other fighting men on board of them. Her Britannic majesty's plenipotentiary now intends to respectfully, though firmly, submit the real facts of this dreadful affair to the special notice of the emperor, through the imperial commnissioners and minis- ters, and to demand, in the name of his sovereign, the queen of Great Bri- tain, that the local authorities on the island of Formosa, whose false and pitiless misrepresentations have led to the horrid event which has called for this proclamation, shall be degraded and (condignly) punished; and, further, that their property shall be confiscated, and its amount paid over to the offi- cers of the British government, to be applied to the relief and support of the families of the innocent men who have been put to death on false and foul accusation. Without this just atonement her Britannic majesty's plenipo- tentiary is not prepared to say, that the event which has occurred, and which it becomes the plenipotentiary's unwilling duty to report to her majesty's government, will not be the cause of a further serious misunderstanding, or that it may not even lead to a renewal of hostilities between the two empires, which would be greatly to be deplored, as involving this country and its people in fresh misery and evil, for the crimes of a few shameless and un-