It Was Also Stated That "It Is Not The Intention Of Her
Majesty's Government To Undertake Any Land Operations In The Interior Of
The Country."
An event of superior, and, indeed, supreme importance occurred to arrest
the movement of the expedition to Canton.
When Lord Elgin reached
Singapore, on June 3, 1857, he found a letter waiting for him from Lord
Canning, then Governor-general of India, informing him of the outbreak of
the Indian Mutiny, and imploring him to send all his troops to Calcutta in
order to avert the overthrow of our authority in the valley of the Ganges,
where, "for a length of 750 miles, there were barely 1,000 European
soldiers." To such an urgent appeal there could only be one answer, and
the men who were to have chastised Commissioner Yeh followed Havelock to
Cawnpore and Lucknow. But while Lord Elgin sent his main force to
Calcutta, he himself proceeded to Hongkong, where he arrived in the first
week of July, and found that hostilities had proceeded to a still more
advanced stage than when Sir Michael Seymour wrote for re-enforcements.
The Chinese had become so confident during the winter that that officer
felt bound to resume offensive measures against them, and having been
joined by a few more men-of-war, and having also armed some merchant ships
of light draught, he attacked a main portion of the Chinese fleet
occupying a very strong position in Escape Creek. The attack was intrusted
to Commodore Elliott, who, with five gunboats and the galleys of the
larger men-of-war, carried out with complete success and little loss the
orders of his superior officer.
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