Читать книгу The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism (Vol. 1-4). The History of Sea Voyages, Discovery, Piracy and Maritime Warfare онлайн

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“May famine and death never visit you!”

Upon this the rams were immediately petrified into stone images. There is a “Temple of the Five Rams” close to one of the gates of Canton.

The river scene at Canton is most interesting. It is a floating town of huts built on rafts and on piles, with boats of every conceivable size, shape and use, lashed together. “It is,” says Dr. Milne, “an aquarium of human occupants.” Canton has probably a population of over a million. The entire circuit of city and suburbs cannot be far from ten miles.

Canton was bombarded in 1857–8 by an allied English and French force. Ten days were given to the stubborn Chinese minister, Yeh, to accede to the terms dictated by the Allies, and every means was taken to inform the native population of the real casus belli, and to advise them to remove from the scene of danger. Consul Parkes and Captain Hall were engaged among other colporteurs in the rather dangerous labour of distributing tracts and bills. In one of their rapid descents, Captain Hall caught a mandarin in his chair, not far from the city gate, and pasted him up in it with bills, then starting off the bearers to carry this new advertising van into the city! The Chinese crowd, always alive to a practical joke, roared with laughter. When the truce expired, more than 400 guns and mortars opened fire upon the city, great pains being taken only to injure the city walls, official Chinese residences, and hill forts. Then a force of 3,000 men was landed, and the city was between two fires. The hill-forts were soon taken, and an expedition planned and executed, chiefly to capture the native officials of high rank. Mr. Consul Parkes, with a party, burst into a yamun, an official residence, and in a few seconds Commissioner Yeh was in the hands of the English. An ambitious aide-de-camp of Yeh’s staff protested strongly that the captive was the wrong man, loudly stammering out, “Me Yeh! Me Yeh!” But this attempted deceit was of no avail; the prize was safely bagged, and shortly afterwards the terms of peace were arranged. The loss of life in the assault was not over 140 British and 30 French.