se engaged in the
traffic to incur all risks.

From the southern, it spread to the northern and eastern coasts.
Receiving vessels were stationed at Amoy, Fuh-Choo, Namoa, and Woosung,
with fast clippers to supply them from the principal depot at Hong-Kong;
and opium was smuggled almost within the precincts of the Imperial
Palace.

The government did all in its power to prevent its introduction and
sale, but its efforts were fruitless, until Commissioner Lin was sent to
Canton, empowered by the Emperor himself. By prompt and vigorous
measures, he succeeded in obtaining possession of two thousand two
hundred and eighty-three chests, which he publicly destroyed, and which
act was the cause of the rupture between England and China, justly
called the Opium War. This war was continued with much success by the
English, and a great deal of intriguing on the part of the Chinese,
until, on the twenty-ninth of August, 1842, after the British forces had
possessed themselves of nearly all the important towns on the coast,
and penetrated the Chinese empire as far as Nankin, a treaty was
concluded between the two nations on board H. B. M. ship Cornwallis,
which was to take effect from that date, after being signed and sealed
by the Plenipotentiaries of the respective parties. By this treaty, five
ports in China were to be opened to British subjects for residence and
trade. These are Canton, Amoy, Fuh-Choo, Ning-po, and Shanghae: six
millions of dollars paid as the value of the opium destroyed by Lin: the
system of Co-Hong abolished, and three millions paid for losses by the
Hong merchants to British subjects; twelve millions to defray the
expenses of the war; and the island of Hong-Kong ceded for ever to the
British government. By the cession of this island, all future attempts
of the Chinese government to prevent the introduction of opium are
frustrated. Previously, those who dealt in this article were confined to
the insecure depot of a receiving vessel, liable to attack, fire, and
wreck. Now they possess an island capable of a strong defence, where the
opium can be imported in any quantity, under the protection of the
English flag, and from whence it can be exported at leisure to any point
in China. Certainly, by the acquisition of Hong-Kong the British have
secured this trade; and henceforth the "flowing poison" must spread from
hence over the length and breadth of the "Central Flowery Land," unless
the Celestials, with one cons