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

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 observation, and to copy others would be inconsistent with the purpose of this narrative, so that I shall only observe, that the English, at this time, had no settled factory at Canton, being only permitted to hire large houses, called hongs, with convenient warehouses adjoining, for receiving their goods previous to their shipment. For these they pay rent to the proprietors, and either hire the same or others, as they think proper, next time they have occasion for the accommodation.
Notwithstanding my utmost diligence, the business I was engaged in kept me in a continual hurry till the ships were ready to depart, which was in December, 1721: At