A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 11 | Page 9

would aid me so far as to compel them to
remain in my ship; and the officers commanding the English ships
could not afford me the help they might have been inclined to give, lest
the supercargoes might represent their conduct to the East India
Company. And these last, who superintend the English trade at this port,
seemed even inclined to have refused me a passage in one of their ships,
and even treated me as one enemy would treat another in a neutral port;
looking on me in that light for presuming to come within the limits of
the Company, without considering the necessity by which I had been
compelled to take that step.
When Captains Hill and Newsham came to visit me, they were
astonished at the ruinous condition of my ship, and could scarcely think
it possible for her to have made so long a passage. The rottenness of her
cordage, and the raggedness of her sails, filled them with surprise and
pity for my condition. When I had given them a short history of the
voyage, and requested they would receive my officers and company,
with their effects, they at once said, That they saw plainly my ship was
in no condition to be carried any farther, and they were willing to
receive us all as soon as we pleased, on payment of our passage. But
the supercargoes were displeased that I had not applied to them, as they
are the chief men here, though only passengers when aboard; so that I
was quite neglected, and the English captains were ordered to fall down
with their ships five or six miles below where I lay. I was thus left

destitute in the company of five foreign ships; yet their officers, seeing
me deserted by my countrymen, kindly offered me their services, and
assisted me as much as they could, and without them I know not what
might have been my fate, as I was under perpetual apprehensions that
the Chinese would have seized my ship.
After the murder of the custom-house officer seemed to have been quite
forgotten, a magistrate, called a Little Mandarin, committed the
following outrageous action:--At the beginning of the troubles,
occasioned by that murder, he had received orders to apprehend all the
English he could find, which he neglected till all was over. He then one
day, while passing the European factories, ordered his attendants to
seize on all the English he could see in the adjoining shops, and took
hold of nine or ten, French as well as English, whom he carried, with
halters about their necks, to the palace of the Chantock, or viceroy.
Application was then made to the Hoppo, or chief customer, who
represented matters to the viceroy in favour of the injured Europeans;
on which the mandarin was sent for, and being unable to vindicate
himself was degraded from his post, subjected to the bamboo, a severe
punishment, and rendered incapable of acting again as a magistrate; the
Europeans being immediately liberated. It appears to me, however, that
the English are tyrannized over by the Chinese, and exposed to the
caprices of every magistrate, wherefore I was the more urgent to be on
board one of the European ships. I had now discovered my error in
addressing the captains, and now sent a letter to the supercargoes,
demanding a passage for myself, my officers, and ship's company,
which I was sensible they could not refuse: but their compliance was
clogged with a charge to the captains not to receive any thing belonging
to us, unless consigned to the company in England.
The hoppo now made a demand upon me for anchorage in the river,
amounting to no less than 6000 tahel, and, to quicken the payment,
annexed a penalty to this extortion of 500 tahel for every day the
payment was delayed. There were no means to avoid this gross
imposition; and though a day necessarily elapsed before I could send
up the money, I had to add the penalty of that day, so that he received
6500 tahel, or L. 2166:13:4 sterling;[4] being about six times as much
as was paid for the Cadogan, the largest English ship there at the time,
and which measured a third larger than mine. I soon after sold my ship

for 2000 tahel, or L. 666, 13s. 4d. sterling, which money was consigned
to the India Company, along with all the rest of my effects, and I
prevailed on most of my officers and men to take their passage in the
English homeward-bound ships.
[Footnote 4: At these proportions, the Chinese tahel is exactly 6s. 8d.
sterling.--E.]
Considering my short stay in China, and my bad health, I cannot be
expected to give any tolerable account of this place from my own