Charles Elliott's Opium War

The History of China and the Opium War Part III

Qishan, the Emperor’s brand-new Governor General for Guangdong province, took 56 days to arrive in Guangzhou from Tianjin. This was 4 days faster than when Lin had taken to reach his assignment.  But still a long time when you consider that the island of Zhoushan was under foreign occupation.

The British fleet reached Macao on November 20th.

Qishan arrived in Guangzhou soon after, but did not officially announce himself until November 29th.

But his first month there did not resolve much. One Brit had been in custody for some months. He was released. 

Lin did not leave the city. He was still there while the British complaints were being investigated. But he had been relieved of command.

Qishan seems to have agreed to payment to the British of 5 million dollars. It was not clear where those funds would come from. Perhaps he intended to raise the funds locally.

Ending the Chinese tradition of unequal diplomatic communication, could be assented to, Qishan suggested.

But the granting of Hong Kong to the British was “really opposed to all that is reasonable”, he replied. 

Also, settlement and trade could not be done while Zhoushan was still occupied, he stressed.

The Emperor received reports from Qishan and replied from Beijing that the British were not being reasonable. “After prolonged negotiation has made them wary and exhausted, we can suddenly attack and thereby subdue them”, he wrote to Qishan.

So, the Emperor was no longer willing to soothe. He preferred to exterminate the British.

What is interesting, considering the final result, is how willing Elliott was to compromise. 

He dropped almost all of Lord Palmerston’s demands. Elliott did not think it was good for long-term relations to push on all topics. 

He did not think it necessary to have 5 ports opened or to have consular representation or extra-territorial jurisdiction over British in China. He thought that getting permission to trade at one or two other ports was a quiet improvement, much preferred to war. He wanted, if possible, to “have avoided the protraction of hostilities, with its certain consequences of deep hatred.”

But Elliott’s patience was not eternal. On Boxing Day, December 26th, after his troops had eaten roast beef and plum pudding, he threatened to resume hostilities at noon on December 28th if new trading posts had not been agreed to by then.

That did not happen and actually on January 7th 1841, about 10 days after the deadline, he started to move up the Pearl River towards Guangzhou. 

The river there has many channels. It was considered heavily fortified by the Qing. It had a series of forts on both sides of the approaches.

The defences were the strategy of Guan Tianpei, a Qing admiral. He was Commander in Chief of China’s naval forces. In 1834, following the Napier incidents, the Emperor had assigned him responsibility for improving the defences by Guangzhou. He had built up a network of granite forts. He complemented them with rows of chained together wooden rafts blocking passage. 

The forts were numerous, but with the same drawbacks. As already mentioned, they had no roofs to protect the soldiers. The cannons were antiquated and could not rotate. His soldiers had poor quality gunpowder. 

But he had given names to the forts like: Eternal Peace, Consolidated Security and Quelling Those from Afar.

He also planned to hire locals to approach on small boats and hurl flaming jars of oil at the British ship or to leap onto warships and win through hand-to-hand combat. Another plan was to row out fireships, heaped with dry grass and gunpowder with plans to chain them to British ships and to set them on fire.

But these plans were weak because it was unrealistic given the difference in heights to expect the Chinese to hurl objects into a British warship or to be able to climb aboard for hand-to-hand combat.

When Lin had been in charge, he had also considered and then rejected hiring practitioners of slow breathing techniques to drill underwater holes in the British ships. He gave up on the idea after realizing they could not hold their breath long enough. But he kept them on payroll nonetheless, so that they wouldn’t be tempted by British money.

Guan’s plans were also weak in that they expected the British to sail up to the chain of rafts and get fired upon by the forts while stuck in place.

The British were not going to fall for that. On January 7th, 1841, they set out methodically to capture the forts one by one and to clear the path to Guangzhou.

Before arriving at the first set of forts, they unloaded 1400 marines, soldiers and artillery on both sides. The fleet provided covering fire to protect their landing force. They were able to fire their land-based artillery at the first fort on the east bank. Then that landing force scaled the wall by land and within 25 minutes, the British flag was flying on the wall. The remaining Chinese troops at both forts then fled on foot. 

The next set of forts created a frightful scene. The British used a pincer movement to surround the forts. The defenders fought but were mowed down by gunfire. Some killed themselves by throwing themselves off the fort’s cliff. The commander, Chen fought until “every part of his skin was perforated with the gunfire that rained down on him.” There were brain splattered walls and charred human remains. The Chinese musketeers wore cotton padded uniforms. They strapped gunpowder to themselves for supply. That was a big risk if their matches fell or if they were exposed to fire for any reason.  

The British seem to have surprised and overwhelmed the defenders by the land-based attacks.

But they also had an unexpected advantage at sea. Their best ship was the Nemesis.  It was a brand-new iron clad steamer. It required tremendous amounts of coal to get to China (eleven tons a day). But now that it had arrived, its advantages were its iron sides, accuracy of fire and her shallow draught. That was particularly important in these river campaigns, where she could reach places that the Chinese never expected a sea vessel to be able to reach, since they are usually deeper bottomed. The Nemesis could tow ships when there was no wind at all. That was not only a real, but also psychological weapon.

Once the outer forts had been reduced to ruins by the British, the Nemesis then annihilated what fighting ships the Chinese had. The Chinese ships had been staying back in shallow waters where they believed they would be safe. But the Nemesis could proceed far closer than expected. Another British ship, the Larne, cut off any path of retreat for the Chinese fleet and therefore pinned them. The Nemesis fired a rocket and it must have been a lucky shot. There was a huge blast. That rocket must have reached some ammunition. The Chinese ship simply exploded with tremendous force. The crews of the other Chinese ships panicked and moved towards shore where the crews fled by land. The Nemesis then destroyed those abandoned ships by lunchtime.

After the first day of fighting, the Qing had lost about 280 dead and 462 wounded. The British had destroyed 173 Qing cannons and 11 Chinese war ships. The Nemesis had received some damage on her paddle box. Thirty-eight British soldiers were wounded, with no dead.

The next day, on January 8th, they proceeded towards the next set of forts and were met by a small boat, skiffed by an elderly woman. Her message from Admiral Guan was, “let us resume talks”.

Now, Chinese politics took over.

Lin was still in Guangzhou while the complaints against him were investigated. He jumped on the political offensive. 

He said the Chinese side had traitors, including Qishan at the top.

Qishan was vulnerable, since he was Governor General during this string of losses at the Chinese forts.  Qishan and not Lin was responsible for the defeat. Lin even suggested Qishan deliberately wrecked everything. He must have been allied with the British, it was suggested.

Lin said that the foreigners had not dared to attack Guangzhou when he was in charge, because the defences were strong.  Qishan, on the other hand, had sabotaged things, Lin accused.

Yuqian (who later also suffered a defeat to the British in southeast China) impeached Qishan to the Emperor. He alleged that Qishan had disbanded his units and they had then gone over to the enemy and attacked the forts from behind. These accusations seem completely unsubstantiated.

The conspiracy theory and blame on Qishan was easier for the Qing elite to stomach than the alternative, that they were badly outgunned by the British.

Qishan, on the other hand, blamed his own troops in his report to the Emperor. He also blamed their weapons, the vulnerability of the forts and naval crews prone to sea sickness. He said, about the provincial people in Guangdong, that their main characteristics were “falsehood, ingratitude and greed”. “They are used to mixing daily with the foreigners and regard them like brothers.”

By January 21, 1841, Qishan had received a draft treaty from Elliott but also the Emperor’s response sent in late December rejecting the British demands. The demands rejected by the Emperor and requested in the treaty were already water downed by Elliott. He had expressed that he was willing to settle for less than the demands by Lord Palmerston. Nevertheless, the Emperor found “the demands of the rebellious foreigners totally excessive...it’s time to dispatch a punitive mission to suppress them. If they try to hand over any more communications, you are not permitted to receive them. My mind is made up.” The Emperor wrote that before the forts were captured, but by the time it arrived, much had happened.

Qishan did not think it wise to follow the Emperor’s orders. 

Guan tried to prop up the defences and Qishan did accept British letters. He even banqueted Elliott face to face for the first time in 5 months.  Qishan later denied it to the Emperor and said he had happened to bump into Elliott and offered him some light refreshments.

Qishan stalled for time and fussed over language in the draft treaty and waited for news that the British had left Zhoushan, while installing new cannons and preparing as best he could for a further battle.

On February 13, 1841, Qishan received two letters. One was from Elliott asking him to sign the January 21st treaty document. The other was from the Emperor announcing that he would be replaced with the Emperor’s cousin Yishan, who was a veteran of 1830s wars in Xinjiang. 

On February 24th, 1841, the British troops ended their occupation of Zhoushan island, to meet the British obligations under the unsigned treaty.

On February 25th, the British started attacking again to clear the last lines of defence to Guangzhou. The British unloaded troops onto the fortress island of Anunghoy as well as at Wangtung. Many defenders fled, but others died fleeing down hillsides. The Nemesis tried to rescue those in the water, but many Chinese chose to hold themselves under water rather than be saved.

At Wangtung, the officers locked their soldiers inside the fort to prevent them escaping. But then the officers left by boat. Their own soldiers then fired the cannons towards the escaping officers.

At Wuyong, another fort, the Guangdong soldiers fled first, then followed by the Hunan reinforcements. When they bottlenecked at a bridge, some were forced into the water. Those that came behind used the heads of the first ones as stepping-stones. They drowned the other soldiers as they tried to pass over them.

By February 27, the forts of Eternal Peace, Consolidated Security and of Suppressing, of Over Aweing and of Quelling Those From Afar had all fallen, along with Admiral Guan. He tried to pay the defenders to stay and when they started to flee, he drew his sword and then was shot dead by a Brit. The British claimed to have killed 600 hundred Chinese and captured 460 cannon. The British reported having 5 wounded soldiers of their own.

Again, conspiracy and treachery were alleged by the officers. But the truth was probably that their cannons couldn’t swivel to do any real damage and many soldiers ran away.

Over the next three weeks, the British forces pushed through rice paddies and rivulets to burn forts and otherwise clear defences. Often, they were supported by locals who accepted to work for pay.

By March 13th, Elliott was back at the factories of Guangzhou and they believed the Qing had suffered 2000 fatalities, while the British had 4 dead.

But that was the day that the Emperor had Qishan removed from the city in chains. His property was confiscated, and he was being transported to Beijing for trial.

Qishan was interrogated for weeks and condemned to death. But that was commuted to banishment and by 1842, once the war was over, the Emperor reinstated him and he enjoyed numerous senior roles until his death in 1854.

Lin was exiled to Xinjiang, in the northwest of China.

It seems like most of the locals were willing to work for whomever paid them reasonably. Locals had been engaged in opium smuggling until that stopped. Then they were paid by the Qing to build defences. Then they were willing to work for the British again. The Guangdong residents would offer food and water or piloting services, even when it was prohibited by the Qing. 

Now, the Emperor was on to his third commander. The Emperor appointed his cousin Yishan and Yang Fang to Guangzhou, both as generals. This was in February 1841. 

General Yang had a good reputation of having quashed rebellions before. He had joined the army at 15 years old. He had particularly stood out in 1828, when he had captured Jehangir, the Central Asian leader who had a declared a jihad against the Qing. Yang sent him in Beijing for execution. He received the honour of becoming the Marquis of Resolute Bravery (third degree). He was however now 71 years old and had already been in retirement for 6 years when he was appointed by the Emperor. He was so deaf he communicated with his colleagues in writing. He also had not encountered Europeans before.

He arrived in Guangzhou in early March 1841. He immediately noted that “the foreigners cannon always strikes us. But ours cannot strike them back.”

So far so good with his analysis.

But then he continued; ”why have they been so successful against us?”

“They must be making use of the dark arts.”

He ordered women’s chamber pots collected and they were to be sent out on wooden rafts, to defend the city. He also had effigies created.

Battling supernatural forces was his plan.

Optimism towards him turned to mockery. He was noted to be buying watches and foreign goods all day.

And ultimately, when the British did advance, he was as scared as everyone else and retreated behind the city walls.

On March 18th, with the British flag flying above the factory outside Guangzhou, Elliott made written demands of Yang Fang. Trade needed to resume. 

Yang Fang answered on March 20th and trade with all nations did resume. The harbour was soon busy with trading business.

While the sides were still officially at war, trade was brisk. Opium was offloaded. Tea was uploaded. By the end of May, the British were purchasing and loading half a million pounds a day of tea there.

The Emperor’s orders to Yang Fang were to destroy the enemy. Apparently, he could not. So, instead, he too lied to the Emperor.

On March 12 (6 days before he allowed trade to resume), Yang Fang wrote to the Emperor and told an opposite story to what had occurred at Wuyong (when the fleeing Guangdong and Hunan soldiers had trampled each other.) The story he told the Emperor was that the British had suffered 416 casualties and said that was far higher than the Chinese casualties.

The Emperor informed his cabinet that Yang Fang was a military genius. He replied “I await news of your victory. My happiness is beyond expression.”

On March 17th, Yang Fang lied again that a British attempt to charge Guangzhou had resulted in a great Qing victory. He said that “two of their large warships, a steamer and a dozen smaller ships had tried to charge up the river. They were met by a hundred cannons firing in unison. He then said the British fled in terror, no longer daring to advance.”

But that lie caused new problems for Yang Fang. 

The Emperor couldn’t understand why he would not follow up on these supposed victories and strike a final blow against the British. The Emperor wrote to Yishan, “Yang Fang’s victory shows that Guangzhou has nothing to fear...you must hurry to find a way to cut off the foreigners’ retreat and ruthlessly exterminate them...to impress upon them how mighty we are.”

Yishan, the cousin of the Emperor and another General, was then arriving. Yishan was Yang Fang’s superior. Yishan was the descendant of a previous Emperor. He had been serving in Xinjiang, in northwest China for the previous 15 years overseeing the colonization of 30,000 acres of mountainous land. It may have been the distance between Xinjiang and Guangzhou that explains why he arrived second. 

But it was also, because before setting off for his new appointment in Guangzhou, he spent two weeks gathering a retinue and he set off with quite a fanfare on February 16th. His retinue had 50 people and he was carried, while others were on horseback or in carriages. A Russian observer found that strange. In Russia he said if a man receives orders, he just gallops off. This is not how things are done here.

Yishan arrived in the province of Guangdong after 46 days travel. He then waited a further 10 days just inside the provincial border. 

As we know, on March 18th, Elliott and the British had reached Guangzhou and demanded trade and Yang Fang had capitulated.

On March 22nd, Yang Fang tried to spin this in a report to the Emperor. He said they had turned up on that day begging for trade. “They no longer harbour unruly designs and only want the old system to resume”. 

The Emperor did not think such humility was sufficient and thought it a ruse. He insisted that Yang Fang cut off their retreat and storm Hong Kong.

On April 3rd, Yang Fang admitted to the Emperor that he had effectively authorized trade. That infuriated the Emperor who did not understand. 

Of course, the Emperor had not been informed of the true situation by his representatives, so he could not understand the concession.

On April 23rd, the Emperor announced the dismissal of Yang Fang but invited him to stay at Guangzhou to try to redeem himself.

The Emperor ordered 17000 troops to converge in Guangzhou and had allocated three million ounces of silver to finance the recapture of Hong Kong. He certainly wanted the British exterminated.

But how to do so? The forts had been taken and the cannons captured. The Qing had no navy capable of beating the British. 

The local population seemed more interested in trading than in pushing out the foreigners. 

Generally, the Qing officials also distrusted and disdained the locals. They considered them unreliable and in the view of some, the best outcome was to have them and the British kill each other. “Use poison against poison”, is how one official described the prospect of losing local volunteers. “A local evil can be removed.”

It was true that the Guangdong residents seemed to prefer trade and income to fighting.

Yishan and Yang Fang put up notices warning against collaboration.

The locals didn’t think any better of Yishan. They said he had no interest in logistics, battle plans, in learning the topography of the land or strategies. Instead, he preferred buying watches and woolens and giving or attending banquets.

As the 17000 troops arrived, it was clear they were not strong warriors. They were underfed, underpaid, undertrained and underequipped. Yang Fang wrote to the emperor that they were unaccustomed to naval warfare. He stalled for time, mentioning that troops from Hunan and Guangxi were still expected, as were saltpetre supplies.

Yishan did have a battle plan. It was a bold water attack. Assault teams on small ships, fireboats and rafts loaded with flammable materials would rush at the ships. They would be supported by land-based cannons.

There were two main problems with the plan. He did not trust the local population, so he wanted to rely on amphibious commandoes from Fujian and Zhejiang, two other coastal provinces. But by the day of the planned attack, he had less than 1000 of them. So, he added 700 extras from other areas like Szechuan, which is inland.

Also, the top-secret plan was not so secret. The British were easily able to see the troops and supplies arriving and the combustibles being stockpiled. Also, there were locals sharing or selling information to the British. Some people, like Howqua, the wealthiest Hong merchant quickly shared information with the British when they returned to the Factory outside Guangzhou.

Elliott had enough forewarning to tell British and American merchants to leave the factories before the counterattacks started. That level of detail likely would have come from a local informant.

The British navy was prepared, in the river and all was quiet until they saw several Chinese ships, chained together, being lit on fire and drifting towards the British vessels. More ships and rafts followed, stuffed with oil-soaked cotton. Chinese troops were moving towards them in the water too, perhaps planning on drilling holes in the British ships.

The British fired artillery, which put off the attackers and the British lead ship was able to maneuver enough to avoid the fire ships.

But the Chinese had also installed cannons among the houses and the fire from them was dangerous for the British. The air was very calm which restricted their ability to maneuver. 

The Nemesis, being steam powered, was not dependent on the wind and it was moving to reply to the Chinese cannons. But one of its lit rockets was stuck in its firing tube. That risked a serious explosion. But the British Captain Hall calmly reached down and dislodged it at the cost of serious burns to his hand. The Nemesis was back in business.

And before the Chinese fire ships could do damage, the Nemesis was on the move and firing. The ebb tide allowed the other British ships to pull back enough.

With the Nemesis and other British ships unharmed and firing, and British soldiers firing at the Chinese soldiers, the Chinese lost the initiative.

Later when the tide turned, the fire rafts were pulled back towards shore, they ended up lighting up the wooden southern suburbs.

The British had the full initiative now and landed two miles northwest of the city...further than they had been before. They unloaded howitzers and other field guns and rockets to the Mountain of Transcendant Excellence, a local hill near the centre of the northern part of the city wall...a few hundred feet up. 

By 10am on May 25th, the British controlled that hill and some further forts.

By May 26th, the British had their artillery pointed at Guangzhou from the hill and fortifications. They were finally able to see into the city and countryside that had been forbidden to them. No foreign trader had been allowed in Guangzhou, nor could they trade at any other port anywhere in China.

But the result in Guangzhou seemed to be a breakdown in order. By nighttime, fires were breaking out throughout the city. Much of this was likely from British bombardment.

But the Qing soldiers also looted the foreign factories and then the houses in Guangzhou. Many people, especially civilians but also some soldiers, fled the city to the countryside.

The potential for civil war was real. Tensions were particularly high between the Guangdong people and the Hunanese soldiers. It was said that the Hunanese had slept with female lepers and ate the flesh of children. So local soldiers murdered those so-called “Hunanese children eaters”. 

In spite of the chaos and before the British could cause further damage on Guangzhou with their artillery, a truce was agreed to. Elliott and the Qing officials came to terms. A six-million-dollar ransom and the non-Guangdong troops would withdraw at least sixty miles within six days. The hill the British had taken was renamed Truce Hill.

On May 29th, some British went exploring through the countryside. They entered temples and catacombs and opened some tombs. They looked at the embalmed and shrivelled bodies before returning to camp.

The next morning, 5000 peasant fighters, armed with spears, shields and swords had gathered behind the British camp. The British moved forward to disperse them, but then a heavy rainstorm began and it interfered with the British weapons. Seeing that the rain had stopped the British firearms, the locals attacked the British with spears. In the main group of English, one soldier was dead and another had suffered some cuts.

But a company had been separated and was seen to be surrounded. They had suffered another dead and fifteen wounded. They were rescued and the locals fled.

But the next day, 25,000 locals came out. This time the British issued a threat that they needed to disperse or else the city would be attacked and every neighbouring village burned. The Guangzhou Prefect Yu Baochun went out to the locals to explain that peace had been signed. You must let the foreigners go. 

On June 1st, 1841 the ransom was paid and the British, assisted by 800 local labourers, transported their weapons back to their ships.

Today, Chinese schoolchildren are taught about the Sanyuanli People’s Anti-British Struggle. To today’s Chinese Communist Party, this was the first time that rural peasants had self-organized to resist imperialism.

It seems like the British desecration of the dead was a major cause. There is also suggestion that looting and perhaps rape were additional causes.

Whatever happened around those villages caused a much more serious local resistance than what the British had seen before that.

In the area around Hong Kong and Guangzhou, when it was a purely military campaign between Qing and the British, the locals seemed willing to work with and trade with the British for income.

But here. When British behaviour worsened, then the locals’ anger could clearly be aroused. 

Now poems and stories have been written about those incidents.

But at that time, the locals felt anger towards both the British and the Qing officials. It was the prefect Yu Baochun who told the villagers to disperse. He was also the one who paid the ransom to the British. He must have sensed the shame of it because he did it in secret and in disguise.

But his identity was sufficiently known that three months later, examination students refused to have him officiate their exams. “We all know what integrity, righteousness and honour are. We will not sit exams adjudicated by that traitor.” They are reported to have said and to have hurled objects at him.

But anti-British sentiment was not universal following these events.

For example, on July 20th, Charles Elliott and General Bremer were travelling from Macao to Hong Kong. A typhoon struck. Some sailors were thrown overboard by the weather. The main mast had fallen and they narrowly avoided rocks. Ultimately, a dozen of them washed up on an island with very basic supplies. Elliott came across some Chinese men and he recognized one as a boatsman from Macao.

They agreed to a price for transportation to Macao.

The British were hidden in a shed until the weather improved. Then the price was tripled. Elliot agreed and they lay down in a boat, covered with mats. The ship was approached by an official Chinese vessel who asked if they’d come across any shipwrecks. The locals answered no and the official passed. They then continued on and transferred the British to a Portuguese ship outside Macao. But at no point, did the locals turn Elliott and the General over to the Qing officials.

The Qing were offering a reward for the capture of Elliott and Bremer. The official reward was much higher than the price that Elliott paid.

It might have been that the Chinese sailors ignored the government’s notices. Or they might not have felt that there was anything right in handing them over to the officials.

So, now Guangzhou was defenceless and only free from the British because of a paid ransom. Did the officials tell the Emperor what had happened? Nope. The lies continued.

Yishan’s reports of the events of May 21-27 were full of boasts. The Emperor’s cousin claimed that multiple British ships had been sunk and countless rebels killed. The Nemesis had been forced into retreat.

Yes, he admitted, the British had taken some hills because of the treachery of some locals, but according to Yishan, the British had then waved from the outside of the walls. They removed their hats and made obeisance. They hadn’t been allowed to trade and were facing bankruptcy. “Could they beg the General to ask the Great Emperor to take mercy on them to permit trade and to make the Hong merchants pay their debts? If so, they would immediately leave the river and not make any more trouble”, he added.

Cleverly, Yishan disguised the ransom as debts owing to the British by the Hong merchants. It worked.

The Emperor replied on June 18th:

“The nature of these foreigners...is like that of dogs and sheep. It isn’t worth trying to bargain or reason with them...Now they’ve taken their hats off and bowed, begging for imperial mercy...I forgive you.” And the merchants could cover those debts.

Yishan received this news on June 30th and replied that “the British commanders were overjoyed, removing their hats and prostrating themselves with emotion, crying out that they would never dare make trouble in the province again.”

That pleased the Emperor and he demobilized the forces he had convened over the last six months. Yishan was awarded the Order of the White Jade Feather and 554 of his subordinates received promotion or other rewards.

The Emperor thought it a good outcome. He could decrease his military expenses and the British were chastised and the only further pain was debts being paid by those traitors, the Hong merchants.

What the Emperor did not know, because Yishan hid it from him, was that the peace only applied in Guangdong province. 

Elliott said they would withdraw our troops from Guangdong. This province need not fear further injury.

Perhaps this local peace was one of the reasons why the Macao sailors had not turned over Elliott over to the Qing officials.

But now, Elliott was relieved of command by order from London. He was to be replaced. 

Opposition to Elliott had been building since October 1840 when his cousin, Lord Auckland, the Governor General of India, complained of how long this matter was taking.

The occupation of Zhoushan was a particular point of contention. It was costly in terms of disease and expense. 

Initially, Elliott’s cousin George Elliott, who was Admiral, carried more of the blame. But George Elliott had departed in December 1840 pleading ill health. After that, all recriminations were focused on Charles Elliott. Mostly for being too tender with the Chinese and for pulling his punches.

On April 20th, Lord Palmerston sent Elliott a two columned document comparing his original instructions with what he had actually achieved. “You seem to have considered that my instructions were waste paper”.

Elliott had not achieved reasonable tariffs for British imports, terms of diplomatic equality, opening of northern ports or abolishing the monopoly of the Hong merchants. And what he had in his treaty, had not even been ratified by the Qing.

The British traders did not seem satisfied that he had paused hostilities and gotten the usual trade seasons opened.

Elliott reasoned however, that the trading over two years was worth more than ten million pounds and had generated eight million pounds of custom duties against a half million pounds in expenditures on the expeditions.

Elliott considered the financial compensation, re-opening of trade and gain of Hong Kong to be a good outcome. It would not be overly harsh on the Chinese. He also predicted that Hong Kong, with its exceptional harbour and usefully close but safely distant location from the mainland, would become one of the most important and perhaps the most interesting possession of the British Crown.

On May 2, 1841, the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, was less critical of Elliott than was Lord Palmerston. He thought it better to wrap up the conflict and to show good faith and to honour a treaty rather than give other reasons to doubt that Britain would respect its promises and treaties.

He ended up getting a diplomatic position with Britain in Texas, but he did not consider that a plum assignment. After that, he was Governor of some islands in the Caribbean. 

Yishan, however, believed Elliott had been beheaded by Queen Victoria. He expressed sadness at that thought, as he believed Elliott to be a good man. There seem to have been a lot of misunderstandings and mysteries between China and Great Britain at that time.

By the early summer of 1841 Elliott was recalled and Henry Pottinger replaced him. 

The time for more gunboats and less diplomacy had arrived. 

The British wanted more war.

Image: "File:First Opium War 1839-42 Conflict Overview EN.svg" by Philg88 is licensed under CC BY 4.0.