Captain Elliot and the Founding of Hong Kong

by Captain Elliot

  You will be distressed to hear that I have fancied (and the fancy is terrible) that my mind is not quite steady. For God’s sake do not mention this. I have had great difficulty at times in preserving a hold, a firm hold over my thoughts. This is a heavy wretchedness dear Emy but perhaps it is only fancy and I strive to keep myself calm.36

  The British expeditionary force which reached the waters off Macao during the last week of June comprised vessels from Calcutta, Trincomalee and England. The majority of the ships had assembled at Singapore. They included the returning line-of-battle ship Wellesley (74 guns), two sixth rate frigates Alligator (28) and Conway (26), the brig-sloop Algerine (10), the sloop Larne (18), two East India Company steamships Atalanta and Madagascar, and some twenty or more transports and storeships. They carried three British and Irish infantry regiments along with marines, sepoys, artillery, engineers, and miners, a total of more than 3,500 men. What they did not have, however, was the expedition’s designated commander. That responsibility fell first to the commander-in-chief of the East Indies and China station, Rear Admiral Sir Frederick Maitland, who with many others on the Wellesley – his flagship – had died of illness on the voyage from India. His replacement was another of Charles Elliot’s first cousins, Rear Admiral George Elliot, commander-in-chief of the Cape station.37 The appointment was not particularly welcome to Charles; he confided to Emma that:

  Poor old Maitland’s death was a sad stroke to me for he was very kind to me. I could have managed him more easily than I may be able to Cousin George who will probably follow him. He is a good fellow but I have no opinion of his capacity. His gravity indeed is considerable, but gravity is only the varnish of wisdom.38

  When he was appointed to succeed Maitland, Admiral Elliot was at sea. He did not know of his assignment in time to rendezvous with the main force at Singapore, which sailed for the Gulf of Canton under the command of the most senior officer, Commodore Sir James Gordon Bremer. When Bremer arrived in HMS Wellesley off Macao, Charles Elliot’s immediate task was to confer with him about the objectives and direction of the forthcoming campaign. The basis of their discussion was three communications from the Foreign Secretary, of which one was for the Chinese government and two were for the Elliots, now appointed, unusually, Joint Plenipotentiaries. The intention, it seemed, was that the admiral should be in overall command of the expeditionary force, but that Charles should have particular responsibility for political and diplomatic interaction with the Chinese. Such an arrangement was potentially fraught with scope for disagreement and consequent indecision, but in the event, perhaps because of kinship, there was little difficulty. In the meantime, pending Admiral Elliot’s arrival, Palmerston’s instructions were received by Charles Elliot and the commodore with some reservations on Elliot’s part. Unlike the Foreign Secretary’s earlier briefings they were operationally specific. The force was to establish a blockade of the Pearl River and then go north; it was to blockade key ports on the way, occupy the island of Zhoushan, and advance to the mouth of the Beihe River where, in addition to copies to be passed to the Chinese en route, the terms of a treaty prepared by Palmerston were to be delivered for onward transmission to the Emperor. The plan was based in large measure on advice given to Palmerston earlier by Jardine.

  Despite his previous advocacy of prompt and overwhelmingly decisive action, Elliot’s approach to the application of military force now reflected his overall strategy for dealings with the Chinese. Progress would best be achieved gradually and in order; there would need to be clear evidence of the seriousness of British intent, and attempting to engage Beijing without first fully controlling Canton and, preferably, part of the Yangtse basin, was in his view unlikely to succeed. Hastily imposed (and perhaps not wholly effective) blockades along the coast would not, in Elliot’s view, be enough. On this occasion, however, there was unequivocally no room for discretion. The expedition set off on the 800 mile voyage to Zhoushan, which it reached on 1 July. Bremer had meanwhile ordered five ships, led by HMS Druid (46 guns), to enforce a blockade of the Pearl River.

  Charles Elliot had not been the only one to be contemplating British offensive action in the Pearl River. Lin Zexu, now appointed substantive Governor General of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, had authorised the reinforcement of defensive installations on the approaches to Canton, and when the British ships departed (he knew not where to) he found no difficulty in reporting that they had been deterred by the strength of the Chinese fortifications.39 Chinese officials at Zhoushan also misinterpreted British intentions; used to equating the number of visiting foreign ships with possibilities for trade and profit they were, on seeing so great a number of vessels,

  At first … rather puzzled. But the explanation soon occurred to them, and they guffawed with joy. Obviously the ships had assembled because of the cessation of trade at Canton. They rejoiced that “Ding-hai [Zhoushan’s main town] will become a great trading centre, and we shall all make more and more money out of them day by day”.40

  With the arrival on 6 July of HMS Melville (74 guns), the flagship carrying the two Elliots, the British force at Zhoushan comprised fifteen armed ships and twenty-six troopships and transports. It had taken less than ten minutes’ bombardment the previous day by just a few British men-of-war to end the resistance – spirited though it was – of the Chinese. There had been prior negotiation to see if conflict could be avoided, but although the local commander recognised that his guns and troops would be no match for the British force, he had felt duty-bound to fight. Before British infantry went ashore most of the population of Ding-hai had fled, leaving the town to looters and enabling many soldiers of the British force, when they arrived, to drink themselves senseless on the local liquor.41

  With little delay the Joint Plenipotentiaries set sail for the Beihe River, but not before they had been obliged to transfer from the Melville, which had struck a rock and required extensive repairs, to the Wellesley. Elliot had sent an upbeat message to Clara, who wrote to Emma en voyage from Singapore to Calcutta:

  Thank God on 13th August, 2 days before we left Singapore, I received a joyful letter from Charlie imploring me to keep up my own spirits & to rejoice with him on the safe arrival of the Admiral and expedition in China & upon his high and new office of ‘Plenipotentiary’. He tells me nothing could have been more kind & wise too than Lord Palmerston’s support. In the event of any accident to the Admiral he is to have the entire management of the diplomatic post of the expedition and not the next in command.42

  Clara was also more sanguine now about Charles’s safety and her own future, and his absence made her heart grow fonder:

  Perhaps you may be surprised when I tell you the most painful part of my suspense is over. So long as Charlie remained in Macao with placards posted about offering a reward for his head there might be some danger, but now that I know he is on board a 74 surrounded by such friends, I laugh at the idea of the Chinese getting hold of him…

  …If about February there be no chance of a return to China, I will take my passage for England and try to find consolation at least in the charge of our darlings. I cannot bring myself to hope for this. Is it not flattering & surprising too that the love of the Wife should be so much stronger than that of the mother of such 3 children.43

  The flotilla that arrived at the mouth of the Beihe River at the end of the first week in August 1840 comprised Her Britannic Majesty’s Ships Wellesley, Blonde (46 guns), Volage, Modeste (18) and Pylades (18), the Madagascar steamer and three transports – more than enough firepower to counter any Chinese attack; but the purpose of the Plenipotentiaries was negotiation and such aggression was not expected. For the British it was to be a visit of much waiting around, either requiring the necessary patience when dealing with the Chinese or involving intolerable frustration, according to temperament and point of view. The shallow waters and mud flats of the Beihe estuary obliged the ships to keep their distance from the coast for fear of running aground. When the tides allowed, Charles
Elliot and Lieutenant Bingham of the Modeste set off with a number of ships’ boats to deliver a request that the Chinese government receive Palmerston’s communication. The request was granted, though the British had to wait two days for this news. It would take another twelve days for the Foreign Secretary’s letter to be conveyed to Beijing, considered, and answered. The reply, inviting the British to a meeting at a hastily constructed venue near the mouth of the river, arrived as Admiral Elliot, having lost patience, was about to order an attack on the Chinese forts.

  Charles Elliot’s Chinese interlocutor on 30 August was Qishan, Viceroy of the local province of Zhili. Eleven years older than Elliot, Qishan had, with support in high places, risen effortlessly through the ranks of Chinese officialdom. His diplomatic skills were well developed, and his approach to negotiation with the British visitors was emollient. In the Chinese tradition of hospitality to foreigners they were guests, not intruders; if they were treated calmly and civilly the heat would go out of the situation and an amicable solution would be found. There was moreover no hurry so far as Qishan was concerned. Elliot, also (up to a point) a relatively patient man, and Qishan established a measure of rapport, but the Viceroy could not enter into any commitment. After six hours the meeting ended with nothing agreed except that the British would withdraw from Zhoushan once there was a settlement, and that negotiations should continue where all the difficulties had first arisen, at Canton.

  Palmerston’s letter, which was before Elliot and Qishan in the original and in translation, began by summarising the general objectives of the British:

  Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain has sent a Naval and Military Force to the Coast of China, to demand from The Emperor satisfaction and redress for injuries inflicted by Chinese Authorities upon British subjects resident in China, and for insults offered by the same Authorities to the British Crown.44

  It continued with some background – from the British point of view – before registering strong objection to Chinese hypocrisy, as the British saw it, over action against the opium trade. Why had the Chinese government moved against foreigners while doing nothing about widespread encouragement of opium importing, in defiance of Chinese law, by its own officers? At the very least, action should have been taken to seize the opium, not to subject merchants to violence. The conduct of the Chief Superintendent was supported by Her Majesty’s Government; he should not have been made to do the Chinese government’s work by arranging the surrender of the opium, and he had had no choice, as the Queen’s representative, but to seek to protect British subjects.

  The British demands made no mention of the future of the opium trade, focusing on reparation for the insult and indignity directed at British subjects and the Crown and seeking guarantees for British commerce in general:

  that the Ransom [opium] which was exacted as the price for the lives of the Superintendent, and of the imprisoned British merchants, shall be restored to the persons who paid it, and if … they cannot be restored to their owners in the same state in which they were given up, then the British Government demands and requires that the value of those goods shall be paid back by the Government of China to the British Government, in order that it may be paid over to the parties entitled to receive it. … The British Government demands satisfaction from the Government of China for the affront offered to the Crown of Great Britain, by the indignities to which Her Majesty’s Superintendent has been subjected; and the British Government requires that in future the officer employed by Her Majesty … shall be treated … in a manner consistent with the usages of civilized Nations, and with the respect due to the Dignity of the British Crown. … The British Government demands security for the future, that British Subjects … shall not again be exposed to violence and injustice while engaged in their lawful pursuits of Commerce. For this purpose … the British Government demands that one or more sufficiently large and properly situated Islands on the Coast of China, to be fixed upon by the British Plenipotentiaries, shall be permanently given up to the British Government as a place of residence and of commerce for British Subjects; where their persons may be safe from molestation, and where their Property may be secure.45

  The letter also demanded that the Chinese Government recompense the British merchants for debts they had incurred from transactions with those Hong merchants who had become insolvent. Palmerston indicated that such was the importance of the matter that the naval and military force had been sent without waiting for a reply to the demands, and that its Commander had orders not just to approach within a short distance of Beijing, but before that to blockade Chinese ports, detain Chinese vessels, and occupy a convenient piece of Chinese territory.

  It was hardly surprising that Qishan could not react positively to any of this. Equally, Elliot could not react entirely negatively to Qishan’s stance. For practical reasons – the geography of the Beihe delta, the supply situation, the poor health of some of the troops and crew – the expedition was in no position to advance upriver, and in any case Elliot sought to avoid conflict if possible. Both Elliot and Qishan were trying to find a solution; precipitate action did not commend itself to either of them. This cautious approach, continued over the next few months, would cause both men difficulties with their respective governments.

  When the British ships cast anchor at Zhoushan on the return voyage south they found that a measure of civil normality had resumed. Many who had fled at the time of the British attack had come back, and supply routines had been reinstated. The garrison, however, was in a poor state; more than a third of the occupying force were now invalids or had died and hospital care was seriously deficient. Charles Elliot had one important task, to seek the release of five Britons who had been captured and imprisoned at Ningbo. He was doubtless greatly disappointed that he was not successful; he would have been personally sympathetic to their plight as human beings, and the humiliation of British subjects abroad was something to which he, like Palmerston, reacted strongly.46

  The Elliots reached the Gulf of Canton on 20 November. Qishan arrived nine days later, but they did not then meet. Charles conducted the British side of the negotiation from the Wellesley, corresponding with Qishan via messenger. The arrangement allowed considered thought to be given to each communication, but was vulnerable to delays in reply. Agreement was reached on the amount of compensation ($6 million) to be paid for the confiscated opium and for money owing from the Hong merchants, but there was a long silence from Qishan when the question of a further British trading port or ports on the China coast was raised. As the end of the year approached there had still been no more progress and Elliot’s patience was wearing thin. He was now without his erstwhile adversary Lin, who had been dismissed for failing to eliminate the opium trade and expel the foreigners and had been replaced as commissioner by Qishan. He was also no longer in joint charge with his cousin the admiral, who because of continuing illness had resigned his command and left on the Volage. Buoyed up by his new found freedom of manoeuvre, Elliot moved the fleet upriver to a point south of the Bogue.

  The second Battle of Chuanbi was to be, predictably, as one-sided as the first. The British ships now included the recently arrived Nemesis, a revolutionary new iron paddle steamer armed with heavy cannon, swivel guns and a rocket launcher, whose shallow draught allowed her to manoeuvre easily in rivers and creeks. A combined land and sea assault under Bremer’s command was launched against the two outer forts. A force of some 1,500 marines, armed seamen and sepoys took the first (Chuanbi) with the support of bombardment from the sea by the Nemesis and another steamer, the Queen. The second fort (Taikoktow (Dajiaotou)) was swiftly put out of action by broadsides from the Druid, the 28-gun sixth-rate Samarang, and two 18-gun sloops Modeste and Columbine. The Nemesis wreaked havoc on a fleet of around fifteen war junks assembled in Anson’s Bay, just upriver of the Chuanbi fort on the eastern side of the Bogue.

  Elliot saw no need to inflict more destruction on the Chinese than was necessary. Wanting now to see whether Qi
shan was prepared to progress to a settlement, he sent word to Admiral Guan Tianpei from the Wellesley that if the Chinese were to announce a ceasefire, the British would halt their action. James Matheson thought that ‘Both the Commodore and Captain Elliot appeared to have a compunctious feeling, not perhaps unnatural, at having to attack and slaughter beings so helpless and incapable of defending themselves as the Chinese’.47 Guan obliged, enabling Elliot and Qishan to continue their exchanges. Now demonstrably able to call all the shots, Elliot steered the negotiations to a point at which a provisional agreement was reached.

  The Convention of Chuanbi provided for diplomatic relations between Britain and China to be on the basis of equality; for the resumption of trade at Canton; for payment of $6million indemnity; and for the cession of the island of Hong Kong to the British. Zhoushan would be returned to China. Aware that he had come away from the Beihe without having achieved what Palmerston had required, and doubtless also that there were those of his countrymen who had become impatient with what they regarded as his vacillating behaviour, Elliot was now keen to be able to demonstrate a positive outcome. After a reconnoitre by Captain Edward Belcher and the survey ship HMS Sulphur the day before, possession of Hong Kong was formally taken on 26 January 1841 by Commodore Bremer, accompanied by a large contingent of naval officers and marines.

  The declaration of possession was followed three days later by a proclamation by Elliot that the government of Hong Kong would be the responsibility of the Chief Superintendent of Trade and that the Chinese population would be subject to Chinese law, except that all forms of torture were prohibited. The British and other non-Chinese would be subject to English law.