The Mission to Siam, and Hué, the Capital of Cochin China, in the Years 1821-2. Finlayson George
On the 26th we gained the mouth of the straits at the distance of a few miles only from the shore. We had cloudy and rather damp weather, but the temperature exceedingly agreeable, and almost invariable during the day and night, at least the variation did not exceed three or four degrees. It seemed in every respect congenial to the human frame. We had again to remark the unaccountable paucity of sea-fowl in these latitudes. At noon we fell in with His Majesty’s frigate Topaze, Captain Richardson, from Canton and Manilla. The Captain sent a polite invitation to such of us as might choose to visit his ship. I went on board, accompanied by Rutherfurd.
During the period of his stay in China, the natives of that country had, as usual, assumed a tone of insolence and presumption too marked and too humiliating to be quietly submitted to by a commander in his majesty’s navy. This led to representations on the part of Captain Richardson, which were as bold as they were displeasing to the Chinese. At length the Chinese in a tumultuous manner made a wanton and unprovoked attack upon his men on shore in their boat unarmed, drove them into the sea, and wounded a considerable number of them. The first lieutenant seeing the disturbance from the ship, immediately beat to arms, fired grape shot amongst the Chinese, and sent armed boats to the assistance of the men in the water; on the approach of which the Chinese speedily dispersed. The lieutenant thought that the Chinese were beyond the reach of the shot. It appears, however, that at least five persons were killed, and several wounded.
This affair was no sooner made known to the Chinese in authority, than they put an immediate stop to the trade with the English, and demanded from the frigate a number of men equal to that of the Chinese who had been killed.
The captain resisted the proposal with indignation, and in his turn demanded of them justice and an apology for the unprovoked affront and unwarrantable attack on his men. In proportion as he remained firm and resolute, they became the less urgent in their demands. They even proposed to make the matter up, by suggesting that the captain should sign a paper which they brought ready prepared, to the effect that those who had actually killed the Chinese had either died of wounds, had fallen overboard, or otherwise perished. As he would not incur certain disgrace to himself and to his country, by asserting a palpable falsehood, the matter remained still unsettled, and the trade suspended, when he set out for Manilla.
In the evening, it being calm, mild, and agreeable, we landed in a spacious bay, with a sandy beach, interspersed with rocks, within a few miles of the extreme point of the peninsula. We found the rocks to consist entirely of horn-stone porphyry. We traced this rock to the extent of upwards of two miles, in the course of which it presents no appreciable difference. Large surfaces, divided into innumerable irregular masses, for the most part oblong, and occasionally brick-shaped, with an ochry fracture, presented themselves. The rock is extremely hard.
The land was, as usual, thickly covered with wood.
Forest, on the coast, formed chiefly of the following trees:—
Casuarina.
Hibiscus, two arborescent species.
Scævola.
Calophyllum inophyllum. This generally grows close by the sea-side, its roots being washed by the tide at high water.
Cycas revoluta. Very abundant; a more handsome palm than the C. circinalis. It was now in flower. The quantity of pollen discharged by the stameniferous plant was uncommonly great, and of an oppressively powerful odour. It appeared to us, on examining their structure, not at all extraordinary that this plant should long have been taken for a fern of gigantic size. A large, yellow-coloured, pine-shaped, squamate cone terminates the stameniferous plant. Each scale is somewhat of a triangular shape, the apex joining the central stem. On the under surface of the scale are innumerable sessile and minute globules, which burst exactly in the manner of many of the ferns, and discharge a fine, strong-scented, yellow pollen. This palm rarely exceeds ten or twelve feet in height.
Besides these we observed a species of slender Caryota.
Also Nipa fruticans,
And a species of Calamus; and another of Urtica.
We caught several fish in the seine on the 27th and 28th February.
We stood over towards the coast of Borneo, with the wind strong, and quite against us. We now had a heavy swell and rough sea, which soon affected the less experienced amongst us with sickness to a distressing degree.
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