Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/69

Rh left the Canton merchants for considerable periods without the protection of a single man-of-war. On one occasion in July, 1844, the British community owed their safety to an American brig of war which, on a riot occurring at the factory, promptly went to their assistance from Whampoa. At another period of emergency the situation was saved by the accidental arrival of a Danish man-of-war. Remonstrances were made by the British Cantonese against the apparent lack of consideration shown, but without much effect. The  at the time was to do nothing to arouse Chinese resentment, and so the little society of Britishers at Canton were left for a period very much to their own devices. That they could at a pinch very well take care of themselves was shown on July 8, 1846, when a vigorous attack was made by the mob on the factories. The merchants promptly stood to their arms, and, by shooting down about twenty of their assailants, carried terror into the ranks of the attacking party and saved the factory from destruction. But the policy of allowing outrages to continue practically without check was a mistaken one and bore its inevitable fruit afterwards. The difficulty no doubt was the weakness of the Chinese authority at this period. The local government was powerless against the wave of anti-foreign sentiment which under the stimulating influences of the secret societies was sweeping the province. It probably would have wished in its own interests to do nothing to arouse British anger; but in practice it found it easier to ride the storm than to direct it.

Happily the turbulent spirit so conspicuously manifested at Canton found little or no expression at other centres affected by the Treaty. There were difficulties, but they were not of a serious character, and were overcome by the exercise of tact and goodwill on both sides. Next to Canton, Shanghai was the port to which most importance was attached by the mercantile community. Though few at the time foresaw the great position it was ultimately to reach, traders were not slow to appreciate the splendid facilities for the extension of trade in the interior of China which the situation offered. A brief summary of its history may be appropriately given here. Shanghai, or Shanghae, the foreign settlement and treaty port, is included in the district of Shanghai in the province of Keeang-so. For a long period before the place attracted European notice it was an important centre of trade. Native vessels discharged here, and their cargoes were taken inland to the great emporium of Soochow, and were thence transhipped to the interior by way of the Grand Canal. The earliest British notice of the place is to be found in a memorandum drawn up in 1756 by Mr. Frederick Pigou, one of the members of the East India Company's service. At that time the Company were looking out for convenient outlets in the Far East for their trade, and Mr. Pigou recommended this port as one well deserving of attention. A good many years later the place was visited by the the Company's ship Lord Amherst, but with such unsatisfactory results that when Sir James Brabazon Urmston, president of the Company's factory, in 1833 published his "Observations on the China Trade and the importance of removing from Canton," he made no reference to Shanghai. It remained for Admiral Parker and Sir Hugh Gough in their Yangtse campaign of 1841 to discover the advantages of the situation. These officers were greatly struck with the position of Shanghai in its relation to the vast trade of the Yangtse, and its inclusion amongst the ports to be opened to British trade under the provisions of the Treaty of Nanking followed almost as a matter of course. When the ratifications of the Treaty had been exchanged Captain Balfour was sent as British Consul to establish the new settlement. "At this time," says a well known writer, "the native city and its suburbs lying on the W. bank of the river were separated by an expanse of some two miles of reedy marshland, partially cultivated and sparingly built upon, from a stream running into the Hwang-fu from the East, just at the point where the river makes an abrupt curve to the Eastward. This stream, known to foreigners as the Soochow Creek, was adopted by the British Consul as the boundary of the British Settlement which extended Southward for three-fifths of a mile to a narrow canal called the Yang-King-pang running parallel to the Northern boundary stream. The river formed the Eastern limit of the Settlement, whilst inland no boundaries were defined. A tract of land within the