Page:Chinese account of the Opium war (IA chineseaccountof00parkrich).pdf/52

 them, and captured two guns and 1,000 small-arms. hastened to the rescue, and, as the crowds of villagers became more numerous, had to seek the assistance of the prefect. At this moment only a quarter of the ransom money had been paid, and the Fu Kien marines just arrived that very day. If orders had been given to surround and slay the foreign soldiers and take the [civilian] foreigners prisoners, we might have held them as hostages, ordered the ships beyond the Bogue, and then discussed terms at leisure, entirely as it should have suited us. This is the seventh turning-point in Canton affairs. However, our generals had not the wit to see this, but sent the prefect to use his persuasive powers with the people. After a whole day, he at last succeeded in getting safely out of the crowd on board his ship. The foreign ships now left one after the other; some of the largest got ashore, and the country people offered to burn and plunder them; but would not hear of it. Notwithstanding, a military graduate did succeed in blowing up one of the foreign ships at Ch'ün-pi [Chuenpee] by means of some fire-ships he had got together, and all the others then made off. Another success was that of the Fatshan volunteers, who got to the windward of the Kwai-kong Fort, and killed a score more of the enemy by throwing a