Page:Chinese account of the Opium war (IA chineseaccountof00parkrich).pdf/39

 of trust from them. The sunken piles were removed from the river at Wáng-tong, and several interviews. were had with at the Bogue, in consequence of which the foreign ships were able to survey the river and make charts, not to mention finding out all about our dispositions. On the advice of the Salt Comptroller, the services of all the civil and military officials were dispensed with, and communications were entrusted entirely to a wretch- ed Chinese traitor named, who had once been the pet boy of the traitor, and whom regarded as a menial, conceiving thereupon a greater contempt for China's resources in men than ever. wrote to, "If you increase the number of your soldiers against us, I will not consent to peace;" and the result was that we dared not re-engage the discharged men. Whenever the traitorous spies were denounced, the denouncers were accused of being spies; and whenever persons offered information about the foreigners, they were told:– "I am not like Viceroy, who, as one of China's great officers, kept spying upon the foreigners all day." In short, the whole policy of the former incumbents was reversed. Perhaps the idea in all this was to captivate the foreign mind; but the real fact was that the enemy was manufacturing a still larger number of boats and junks of all shapes and