had been well supplied with gunners and stores; and therefore, though
the pilot, after the Chinese officer had been on board, refused at
first to take charge of the ship, till he had leave from the forts,
yet as it was necessary to get through without any delay, for fear of
the bad weather which was hourly expected, the commodore weighed on
the 15th, and ordered the pilot to carry him by the forts, threatening
him that, if the ship ran aground, he would instantly hang him up
at the yard-arm. The pilot, awed by these threats, carried the ship
through safely, the forts not attempting to dispute the passage.
Indeed the poor pilot did not escape the resentment of his countrymen,
for when he came on shore, he was seized and sent to prison, and was
rigorously disciplined with the bamboo. However, he found means to
get at Mr Anson afterwards, to desire of him some recompence for
the chastisement he had undergone, and of which he then carried very
significant marks about him; and Mr Anson, in commiseration of his
sufferings, gave him such a sum of money, as would at any time have
enticed a Chinese to have undergone a dozen bastinadings.

Nor was the pilot the only person that suffered on this occasion;
for the commodore soon after seeing some royal junks pass by him from
Bocca Tigris towards Canton, he learnt, on enquiry, that the mandarine
commanding the forts was a prisoner on board them; that he was already
turned out, and was now carrying to Canton, where it was expected he
would be severely punished for having permitted the ships to pass; and
the commodore urging the unreasonableness of this procedure, from
the inability of the forts to have done otherwise, explaining to the
Chinese the great superiority his ships would have had over the forts,
by the number and size of their guns, the Chinese seemed to acquiesce
in his reasoning, and allowed that their forts could not have stopped
him; but they still asserted, that the mandarine would infallibly
suffer, for not having done what all his judges were convinced was
impossible. To such indefensible absurdities are those obliged to
submit who think themselves concerned to support their authority, when
the necessary force is wanting.

On the 16th of July the commodore sent his second lieutenant to
Canton, with a letter to the viceroy, informing him of the reason of
the Centurion's putting into that port; and that the commodore himself
soon proposed to repair to Canton, to pay