Page 289 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

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Chinese policy, just as emphatically believed that foreigners

trading at Canton must obey Chinese law. This fundamental

disagreement between the English and Chinese signified the

clash of two different cultures. Neither understood the oth­

er, nor, in 1840, did either make the effort to do so.

By spring 1840, the English no longer cared to nego­

tiate the matter of trade with the Chinese. On June 9 their

fleet, consisting of three frigates, one troopship and two

transports, sailed into Chinese waters. By order of Commodore

Sir Gordon Bremer, the two ships-of-war already in China

blockaded the Bogue on June 28. Within a few days Adm. George

Elliot, cousin of the Superintendent, arrived to command the

English forces. During the next six months the foreign mer­

chants waited, the Americans now in residence at Macao and

the British on their vessels at the Outer Anchorage of Tongkoo

Bay, while the British fleet ventured north along the coast

of China. Adm. Elliot's mission was to deliver a letter from

the British government proposing negotiations to the Imperial
95
Court. The fleet returned in November. Negotiations began

but quickly reached a stalemate. In January 1841 the English

attacked Chinese batteries outside the Bogue. This show of

force persuaded the Chinese to sign an armistice ceding Hong

Kong to the British and reopening the trade at Whampoa. Yet

95
Letter, Houqua to J.C. Green, Jul. 5, 1840, Houqua•s
Letterbook. The English �irst tried to hand over the letter at
Amoy. Rebuffed, they sajled to the island of Chusan (near
Shanghai). Also rebuffed there, they reached the mouth of the
Peiho (at Tientsin), where an official accepted the letter for
transmission to the Imperial Court.