fallen into Mr Anson’s power.  And on this occasion the prisoners were honest enough to declare, that as the kings of Great Britain and of Spain were at war, they had proposed to themselves the taking of the Centurion, and had bore down upon her with that view, but that the event had been contrary to their hopes:  However, they acknowledged that they had been treated by the commodore, much better than they believed they should have treated him, had he fallen into their hands.  This confession from an enemy had great weight with the Chinese, who, till then, though they had revered the commodore’s power, had yet suspected his morals, and had considered him rather as a lawless freebooter, than as one commissioned by the state for the revenge of public injuries.  But they now changed their opinion, and regarded him as a more important person; to which perhaps the vast treasure of his prize might not a little contribute; the acquisition of wealth being a matter greatly adapted to the estimation and reverence of the Chinese nation.

In this examination of the Spanish prisoners, though the Chinese had no reason in the main to doubt of the account which was given them, yet there were two circumstances which appeared to them so singular, as to deserve a more ample explanation; one of them was the great disproportion of men between the Centurion and the galleon; the other was the humanity with which the people of the galleon were treated after they were taken.  The mandarines therefore asked the Spaniards, how they came to be overpowered by so inferior a force; and how it happened, since the two nations were at war, that they were not put to death when they came into the hands of the English.  To the first of these enquiries the Spaniards replied, that though they had more hands than the Centurion, yet she being intended solely for war, had a great superiority in the size of her guns, and in many other articles, over the galleon, which was a vessel fitted out principally for traffic:  And as to the second question, they told the Chinese, that amongst the nations of Europe, it was not customary to put to death those who submitted; though they readily owned, that the commodore, from the natural bias of his temper, had treated both them and their countrymen, who had formerly been in his power, with very unusual courtesy, much beyond what they could have expected, or than was required by the customs established between nations at war with each other.  These replies fully satisfied the Chinese, and at the same time wrought very powerfully in the commodore’s favour.

On the 20th of July, in the morning, three mandarines, with a great number of boats, and a vast retinue, came on board the Centurion, and delivered to the commodore the viceroy of Canton’s order for a daily supply of provisions, and for pilots lo carry the ships up the river as far as the second bar; and at the same time they delivered him a message from the viceroy, in answer to the letter sent to Canton.