It Was Due To His Great Heroism That They Escaped With Their
Lives And Without Any Serious Injury.
The incident, unpleasant in itself, might have been explained away and
closed without untoward consequences if Sir John Davis had not seized, as
he thought, a good opportunity of procuring greater liberty and security
for Englishmen at Canton.
He refused to see in this affair an accident,
but denounced it as an outrage, and proclaimed "that he would exact and
require from the Chinese government that British subjects should be as
free from molestation and insult in China as they would be in England."
This demand was both unreasonable and unjust. It was impossible that the
hated foreigner, or "foreign devil," as he was called, could wander about
the country in absolute security when the treaty wrung from the emperor as
the result of an arduous war confined him to five ports, and limited the
emperor's capacity to extend protection to those places. But Sir John
Davis determined to take this occasion of forcing events, so that he might
compel the Chinese to afford greater liberty to his countrymen, and thus
hasten the arrival of the day for the opening of the gates of Canton. On
the 1st of April all the available troops at Hongkong were warned for
immediate service, and on the following day the two regiments in garrison
left in three steamers and escorted by one man-of-war to attack Canton.
They landed at the Bogue forts, seized the batteries without opposition
and spiked the guns.
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Words from 118103 to 118360
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