Gazette Of The United States, & Daily Advertiser

LONDON, October 9.
Extract of a letter, from Canton, dated March 1, 1800.

"You will perhaps hear an affair spoken of in Europe, the consequences of, which might have been most fatal, and which neither humanity nor prudence can justify. I shall give you the details of it, which without doubt, cannot yet have come within your knowledge.

"While one of the King's schooners was anchored at Whampoa, its cables were cut two or three times during the night. The Commander of the schooner, a lieutenant of the Royal Navy, irritated at these repeated robberies, gave orders to his mate to fire upon the first boat which came near with the intention of cutting the cables. The orders was unfortunately executed on the 11th of February. A young Chinese, 15 years of age, who was in the boat, received a ball in the right side of the throat; it went out by the back at the distance of an inch from the spine.

"Iloll-tow, Viceroy of the provinces of Canton, and Quang-si ordered Ho-pow, Collector of the Customs, to publish on the 14th an Edict, by which the English were accused of having drowned one man and wounded another. It was enjoined the President of the Cohong, the Society of Traders, to communicate its contents to Mr. Hall, Chief of the English Factory, and to demand from him that the guilty should be given up to justice.

"The Committee chosen made vain remonstrances, viva voce. Captain Dilkes, of his majesty's ship the Madras, having arrived from Macao, prevailed on the traders of the factory to carry a letter to the Viceroy. This step, unexampled at Canton, was contrary to all ordinary customs. The letter was favourably received. Captain Dilkes complained of the robbery which had been committed, demanded an impartial examination, and prayed his Excellency to consider the affair as a national business, and having no connection whatever with the East India Company. The Viceroy did not consent to this last demand; but he sent a confidential Mandarin to confer with Captain Dilkes and Mr. Hall.—The parties concerned on both sides were present at the interview. The Viceroy at last decided, in conformity with the Chinese custom, that the affair should be first carried before an inferior Tribunal, in order to be finally brought before a Superior Court.

Capt. Dilkes, with the guilty person, a witness, and Mr. Staunton, in quality of interpreter, went into the town, where the people treated them with much indignity. After having waited for several hours for the Criminal judge of the province, they were brought into court. Capt. Dilkes insisted on the mate's being examined. The Judge refused, saying, that English sailors could not be believed; he added, that if the wounded person survived forty days, the laws of China only ordered banishment, and that the Magistrates would pass over this sentence in consideration that the guilty person was a foreigner.

Capt. Dilkes persisting in demanding the examination of the sailors, unfortunately raised his voice higher than what is permitted by the regulation of the court, immediately the judge made a signal to his officers, who seized capt. Dilkes by the shoulders, & pushed him violently out of the court, Mr. Staunton followed him. The two sailors were retained near a quarter of an hour, and were questioned upon different points, but their fright was so great that they remembered neither the questions nor their answers.

Capt. Dilkes wrote a second letter to the Viceroy complaining of his conduct, but this time he could not prevail on the traders of the Factory to take charge of it; and it is perhaps, happy for the English that the Chinese have declined any further inquiry, as neither the guilty person nor the witnesses could have deposed upon oath, that the men of the Chinese boats had been attacked in the acts of robbery. The Chinese still pretend that one of these men was drowned: but as they have not found the body, they have no proof of this. They suffered the Mate to leave Canton without molestation.—The young man who was wounded, was sent to us on the 13th, to be taken care of: and we have reason to hope that he will be cured.

"On the 27th, the Viceroy sent word, that in consideration of the Friendship subsisting between the English and the Chinese, he had dispensed with the Execution of the Law."