Directory_and_Chronicle_1842 — Page 409

1842.

Letter of Wang Tinglan

891

whether it was practicable to advance far or not. Accordingly they moved along by slow degrees, having to employ small boats with Chi- nese traitors to take the soundings. On reaching those places where the junks loaded with stones had been sunk, not seeing there even one officer or one soldier, they at once removed the obstructions, and advanced as unconcernedly as if they had been entering an un- inhabited region. The authorities in Canton having caught a Chi- nese traitor, ascertained from him that there were sixteen of like character, who daily entered the city as spies. In the meantime, our own spies reported nothing but lies and nonsense, only calculated to frighten each other. And it was not until after the attack on the city, when the foreign ships of war were withdrawing from the river, that it was ascertained by us that there were shallows where the ves- sels could not move, and were required to be dragged by small boats and steamers. Now had there been only one or two persons able to have made this discovery half a month earlier, how easy it would have been to have employed some of our marines and made an attack with fast-boats and fire-ships, and burnt up the men of war while on those shallows! They had their spies who could act; but not one had we. They could employ traitorous Chinese; but not a single foreigner could we get to act in this capacity. This is the second of the things which are inexplicable.

After more than a hundred mat-dwellings had been built at Hong- kong, and a mock magistracy established, it was on a day reported by spies that more than half of those dwellings had been pulled down. It was also reported, that the foreign officers had in regular succes- sion embarked, that twenty ships of war, with steamers and many boats, were far on their way to Canton. At that time I chanced to be paying my morning visit to his excellency, the governor of Can- ton, and ventured to suggest that, as all the ships had left Hongkong, the place must necessarily be quite deserted, and that it would be practicable to send an army secretly to seize upon that robber's nest ; I also suggested that a very strong force should be placed at Níching [where sir H. Gough disembarked], so that when the robbers should have advanced to the attack, these soldiers could move out and cut off their retreat. Hemmed in thus, victory over then would not have been doubtful. But his excellency would consent to no such move- ments. However, after the affair was over, every one found fault with the tardy movement of our troops. Even after the robbers had entered the Bogue with their ships, they supposed the attack would be made on them, and not that they were to make the attack. Early