[VOL I] THE IMOGENE AND ANDROMACHE PASSING THE BOCCA TIGRIS

THE IMOGENE AND ANDROMACHE PASSING THE BOCCA TIGRIS

Cover Image: The Imogene and Andromache passing Bocca Tigris / Humen DongGuan GuangDong China / Drawn by T.Allom Engraved by E.Brandard – ALAMY Image ID:2X3H910

*On September 2, 1834, the Governor-General of the Two Guangs (Guangdong and Guangxi) issued an order to suspend Sino-British trade. The British Superintendent of Trade in China, Lancelot Dent, ordered two warships, the “Imogene” and the “Andromache,” to sail to the Pearl River Estuary as a protest to the Qing government’s actions. These two warships arrived at Humen on September 5 and engaged in artillery exchanges with the shore batteries on September 7 and 9. / From a sketch on the spot by Lieut: White, Royal Marines.

How should the wit of Chinaman conceive
The thunder of Old England’s oaken war?
His puny flutt’ring fleet may deftly thieve;
His nautic empire raise or sink a Bar:
OUR LINE he never saw, – how then believe?
Nor heard of NELSON, or of TRAFALGAR.

C. J. C.

HAVING much confidence in “sound and fury,” the Chinese calculated upon exciting terror by noise and high-sounding epithets, and reverence by those of the most extravagant pretensions. Their emperor is styled Teaou-kwang, or Reason’s Glory; and dragon, serpent and tiger, are terms of frequent application, where strength, power, or punishment is implied. The costume of the Tartar soldier is made to resemble the skin of the spotted tiger; heads of the same fierce and active animal are represented on their shields, as well as on the embrasures of the batteries. The most famous fortress in all China is that on Tiger Island; and the narrow opening in the Canton river, which is protected by an amazing number of cannon, is designated Bocca Tigris, or the Tiger’s Mouth.

The great estuary of the Canton river, which, opposite or near to the Factories, assumes the name of Chou-keang, or the Pearl river, is contracted between the forts of Chuenpee or Shakok and Tycocktow (Great Rising Head), into a channel of about two miles in width. From the former of these points, the coast trends eastward, embracing the shallows known as Anson’s Bay, to the batteries of Anunghoy (Woman’s Shoe), just three miles from Chuenpee. Above Tycocktow are two rocky islets, South and North Wantong, between which and Anunghoy, rather less than two miles’ distance, is the celebrated throat of “Tiger’s Mouth;”（* Bocca tigris,or The Hoo-moon,or the Bogue.）and about two miles farther up the river, is situated Tiger Island, or Ty-hoo-tow. Anunghoy batteries have always been strongly garrisoned, and, before the last war, mounted one hundred and forty pieces of ordnance; the batteries of North Wantong, immediately opposite to them, mounted one hundred and sixty-five. Between the islet of South Wantong and the new fort of Anunghoy, a boom, consisting of powerful iron chains, partially sustained by wooden rafts, was raised at sunset. At this fort vessels were required to produce their permits; and those that happened to arrive at the Bocca after the boom was raised, were under the necessity of continuing outside until daylight. These forts were undoubtedly constructed more with a view of terrifying merchantmen, and extorting tribute, than with an expectation of obstructing an armed force; and Keshen, in his memorable defence, lays this fact before his imperial master. Whether, however, the commissioner’s statement was advanced in mitigation of punishment for his faults, or whether he spoke the historic truth, the forts of Bocca Tigris have not been able to check the British sailor, for the passage has been repeatedly forced by our vessels. When Lord Napier, the British Commissioner-General at Canton, became apprehensive of insult, he ordered the Andromache and Imogene to pass Bocca Tigris, and ascend the river to Whampoa. This achievement was performed with little difficulty, the discharge of a few broadsides having completely silenced the enemy’s fire, without any material injury to the works: these were spared, to add still further glory to the British arms at no distant period.

In the commencement of the year 1841, our envoy, disgusted by the faithlessness or fickleness of Chinese functionaries, directed the resumption of hostilities; and, in consequence of this determination, Commodore Sir J. G. Bremer was directed to take and destroy the forts of Anunghoy and Wantong, and force the passage of the Bogue. With a fleet of twelve sail-of-the-line and four steamers, even a less gallant officer would have felt little apprehension for the result; but the style in which these orders were executed, has justly associated the commodore’s name with those of our naval heroes. The forts on North Wantong were cannonaded by the Calliope and naval heroes. The forts on North Wantong were cannonaded by the Calliope and Samarang, while a battery of howitzers, established on the South island, a position most unaccountably neglected by the Chinese, opened their fire simultaneously. (*This battery was under the direction of Captain (now Colonel) Knowles, of the Royal Artillery, who, during the heavy fire that was kept up on his position, leaned with his elbow on the sand-bags of his field-work, directing his men to fire a little higher or lower, as he perceived the shells to take effect. —Commodore Bingham’s Narrative of the Expedition to China.) The quickness and precision of English gunners soon overpowered the brave efforts of the enemy; in a few minutes they were seen flying from their post, and a landing was effected without opposition. The scene of inhumanity that followed will always remain a subject of much regret to our brave officers. In endeavouring to escape from the works, the Chinese had fallen into the trenches, which were literally filled with them, and in that helpless condition they implored for mercy. In vain did our generous officers menace, command, entreat the sepoys to spare the prostrate foe; either from a settled hatred of the nation, or ignorance of the language in which the orders were given, they continued to fire without mercy upon these unresisting and defenceless masses of human beings. While this dreadful tragedy was being enacted, Sir H. E. Fleming Senhouse had been equally successful in his attack upon Anunghoy; and by the united exertions of these divisions of the expedition, the Bogue forts were captured and destroyed, the charm of their invincibility dissolved, British superiority in the art of war demonstrated, and the foundation laid for those concessions by China, which may yet terminate in a sincere alliance of esteem and friendship between the conquerors and the conquered.

What change will come over the trade of China, by our enjoyment of an asylum at Hong-kong; it would be difficult to foresee; but that the dependencies of Canton will be injured by the opening of other ports, is sufficiently obvious. At Whampoa a number of chops or jetties, formerly found employment in conveying the cargoes of large vessels to Canton; and there, also, a chop-house, where tolls were exacted, had a permanent establishment. But the commerce of Shing-hai, Ning-po, and Amoy, as well as that of Canton, will now probably adopt Hong-kong as a common entrepôt; and, if unrestricted intercourse with foreigners be permitted, steamers will navigate the passage above Whampoa with little apprehension, and pass the forts of the Bogue and Macao with the same indifference as they do the pagodas that distinguish their localities. When that day shall arrive, the Cantonese must fall back upon their own resources, and be content with the enjoyment which their beautiful country, genial climate, and fertile soil afford. Sugar and rice are the staple products of Whampoa island, and of the tract that bounds the estuary of the Chou-keang. Mr. Abed, who visited the sugar manufactories here, gives the following account of the primitive machinery employed in them:—“The simplicity and cheapness of the works were highly characteristic of Chinese taste and policy. The mill which expresses the liquor from the cane, was composed of three vertical cylinders, made of a coarse granite with wooden cogs. The coppers, as boilers are termed in other sugar-growing countries of less primitive pre-dilections, were made of cast iron, which they have the art of reducing almost to the texture of common paper, and of welding, when cracked or broken, with entire facility and firmness. These were arranged triangularly, and with little apparent regard to those principles of granulation which are elsewhere adopted. That nothing might reduce the quantum of manual labour where hands and mouths are so numerous, and wages so low, the mill was placed below the level of the boilers, and the liquor carried in tubs from the one to the other. As it attained its consistence in each of these vessels, instead of being passed through a strainer to the next, it was transferred by hand to another part of the building, whence, after the process of distillation, it was returned to its appropriate cauldron.”