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nese, completely misled by Portuguese slanders, made preparations to attack the new-comers, and finally opened fire on one of their boats. The result was signal and sudden. Weighing anchor, the four ships went up with the flood and selected convenient berths near the fort, "from whence came many shot, yet not any that touched so much as hull or rope; whereupon, not being able to endure their bravadoes any longer, each ship began to play furiously upon them with its broadsides." Two or three hours of such play sufficed, after which there was the usual sequel,—a landing party, the dismantling of the fort, and the "demolition of what they could." With such an object lesson as to the consequences of resistance, and being also informed, it is said, that Captain Weddel and his people had been maligned, the Chinese agreed that the goods brought by the ships might be sold and cargoes obtained in exchange, the British, on their side, restoring the fort's guns as well as the junks and other objects seized by them. English annals assert a belief that the Chinese were ultimately convinced of the new-comers' peaceful objects, but no solid grounds exist for such a theory. The more probable account is that the Chinese did not distinguish Captain Weddel's men from Dutchmen, and that the memory of their violence survived all other impressions.

Represented by the Portuguese to be "rogues, thieves, and beggars," and proved by their own