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your Hoppo, but I will make him a bow while you knocky head.” With this, after some communication between the Mandarins and the security merchants, they appeared satisfied.
I now found they were in earnest as to my seeing the Hoppo, and there was much bustle in the palace; they were, however, determined I should not imagine that I had forced an interview, as I was given to understand that the Viceroy was going to pay his colleague, the Fyane, a visit, and that I should see him as he went out.
At this time there were in the great hall thirty or forty Mandarins of various ranks, all the security merchants, Mr. Perry, and myself, with many other persons belonging to the palace,—in all I should suppose, about a hundred and fifty in number.
The doors were shortly thrown open, and we observed a procession issuing from another large house, and crossing a court to the hall we were in; the guard passed on, and presently there appeared the Hoppo, borne in a most magnificent state chair by sixteen men richly dressed; the chair was very splendid, and the Hoppo one of the finest and noblest-looking Chinese I had ever seen, with a remarkably fine black beard. The moment he entered the hall, every person, except Mr. Perry and myself, threw themselves down as if they had been shot through the head, touched the ground with their forehead, and were up again in a moment, even my old friend Mowqua, though so advanced in years, was down and up again as nimbly as a boy; on my remarking this to him after the interview was over, his reply was, "Mister Commodore, I very much long time do that custom."
As the Hoppo approached to Mr. Perry and me, we made him a low bow. I then advanced, with my petition in my hand, to his chair, when he desired his bearers to stop, and, having called Mowqua, he required by him of me what I wanted? I said I had a petition which I was desirous of having the honour to deliver into his own hand. He asked if it was written in Chinese? I replied it was. He then put out his hand and took it from me, saying he was going to visit the Fyane, and that I should have an immediate
* The Fyane. Lindsay made another mistake here. The Viceroy was not involved in this particular incident. When Lindsay mentions the Viceroy he is muddling him up with the Hoppo. In this particular incident the Hoppo received the memorial and then took it to the Governor (Fyane= Fu-yuan Governor).
INCIDENT: H.K. MERCHANTS & B.E.I. CO.
57
your Hoppo, but I will make him a bow while you knocky head.” With this, after some communication between the Mandarins and the security merchants, they appeared satisfied.
I now found they were in earnest as to my seeing the Hoppo, and there was much bustle in the palace; they were, however, deter- mined I should not imagine that I had forced an interview, as I was given to understand that the Viceroy was going to pay his colleague, the Fyane, a visit, and that I should see him as he went out.
At this time there were in the great hall thirty or forty Man- darins of various ranks, all the security merchants, Mr. Perry, and myself, with many other persons belonging to the palace,-in all I should suppose, about a hundred and fifty in number.
The doors were shortly thrown open, and we observed a pro- cession issuing from another large house, and crossing a court to the hall we were in; the guard passed on, and presently there ap- peared the Hoppo, borne in a most magnificent state chair by six- teen men richly dressed; the chair was very splendid, and the Hoppo one of the finest and noblest-looking Chinese I had ever seen, with a remarkably fine black beard. The moment he entered the hall, every person, except Mr. Perry and myself, threw themselves down as if they had been shot through the head, touched the ground with their forehead, and were up again in a moment, even my old friend Mowqua, though so advanced in years, was down and up again as nimbly as a boy; on my remarking this to him after the interview was over, his reply was, "Mister Commodore, I very much long time do that custom."
As the Hoppo approached to Mr. Perry and me, we made him a low bow. I then advanced, with my petition in my hand, to his chair, when he desired his bearers to stop, and, having called Mowqua, he required by him of me what I wanted? I said I had a petition which I was desirous of having the honour to deliver into his own hand. He asked if it was written in Chinese? I replied it was. He then put out his hand and took it from me, saying he was going to visit the Fyane, and that I should have an immediate
* The Fyane. Lindsay made another mistake here. The Viceroy was not involved in this particular incident. When Lindsay mentions the Viceroy he is muddling him up with the Hoppo. In this particular incident the Hoppo received the memorial and then took it to the Governor (Fyane= Fu-yuan Governor).
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