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several of them fled from Canton. But the foreign smugglers remained indifferent. Their armed boats continued to ply up and down the river in flagrant defiance of the law. It thus becoming evident to the local authorities that still more vivid object lessons were needed, they caused a Chinese opium-dealer to be conducted to Macao and there publicly strangled, while, at the same time, other native smugglers were seized and tortured, their boats destroyed and their sales checked. Yet even these measures proved ineffectual to convince Europeans and Americans. In vain the Hong Merchants, placed between the devil and the deep blue sea, between the anger of the mandarins and the indifference of the foreigners, addressed pitiful appeals to the latter: "Lately we have repeatedly received edicts from the governor and the Hoppo severely reprimanding us; and we have also written to you gentlemen of the different nations several times, giving you full information of the orders and regulations that you might perfectly obey them and manage accordingly. But you, gentlemen, continue wholly regardless." In vain the boats of native smugglers were destroyed and their owners tortured or otherwise punished. In vain the retail dealers in the drug at Canton were imprisoned and those found elsewhere led thither in chains. In vain news came from Hupeh that the local officials had adopted the strong expedient of mutilating the upper lips of smokers so