were each day increasing, hunger
would at last prove too strong for any restraint, and necessity was
acknowledged in all countries to be superior to every other law, and
therefore it could not be expected that his crew would long continue
to starve in the midst of that plenty to which their eyes were every
day witnesses. To this the commodore added, (though perhaps with a
less serious air,) that if by the delay of supplying him with fresh
provisions his men should be reduced to the necessity of turning
cannibals, and preying upon their own species, it was easy to be
foreseen, that, independent of their friendship to their comrades,
they would, in point of luxury, prefer the plump well-fed Chinese to
their own emaciated shipmates. The first mandarine acquiesced in the
justness of this reasoning, and told the commodore that he should that
night proceed for Canton; that on his arrival a counsel of mandarines
would be summoned, of which he himself was a member, and that by being
employed in the present commission, he was of course the commodore's
advocate; that, as he was fully convinced of the urgency of Mr Anson's
necessity, he did not doubt but on his representation the counsel
would be of the same opinion; and that all that was demanded would
be amply and speedily granted. And with regard to the commodore's
complaint of the custom-house of Macao, he undertook to rectify that
immediately by his own authority; for, desiring a list to be given him
of the quantity of provision necessary for the expense of the ship
for a day, he wrote a permit under it, and delivered it to one of his
attendants, directing him to see that quantity sent on board early
every morning; and this order, from that time forwards, was punctually
complied with.[8]

[Footnote 8: Captain Krusenstern, in his very interesting work already
referred to, relates an anecdote, which it may amuse the reader to
compare with the reasoning of Commodore Anson's now given:

"An English brig (The Harrier) of eighteen guns, sent by Captain Wood,
commanding a squadron on that station, to demand indemnification for
a Spanish prize stranded on the coast of China, and plundered by the
natives, had the audacity, in defiance of the laws of China, which
prohibit ships of war going up the Tigris, to force her way as high as
Whampoa. Two mandarines, as usual, went aboard the brig at the mouth
of the river, to enquire what her cargo was. The captain shewed them a
cannon-ball,