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commerce "so long as he received his pay and plunder." His lordship did more too. He appealed in the Chinese language to the Chinese people against their rulers. He published a document charging the viceroy with "ignorance and obstinacy," and affirming that he "would find it as easy to stop the current of the Canton River as to carry into effect the insane determination of the Hong." It might be difficult, as between the two dignitaries, to award the palm of civilised courtesy and prudence in this particular instance.

Thereafter a friendly adjustment became impossible. The viceroy not only stopped the trade, but also ordered natives and foreigners to boycott Lord Napier, and interdicted communication between the Factory and the shipping in the river. Thus deprived of provisions and of native servants and seeing his residence guarded by native soldiers, Lord Napier summoned a detachment of marines and directed two British frigates to sail up to the anchorage below the city. It had become a familiar spectacle in the Pearl River to see British men-of-war running the gauntlet of the Bocca Tigris^[1] forts and exchanging with them a cannonade that usually involved little loss of life on either side. The Imogene and the Andromache repeated this performance on the 7th of September, 1834, and on the 9th passed within pistol-shot of Tiger Island, "knocking the stones about the ears of the garrison." A week later Lord