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Updated: June 18, 2025
The crisis had come. The Chinese had determined to drive away the "foreign devils" from their coasts, and the "foreign devils" had equally determined to show that they were a match for the Celestials. On 5th July 1840, Chusan, a small island in the Chinese sea, fell into the hands of the British.
Early in the year, Captain Hall and the officers and crew of the Nemesis had a spirited brush with the Chinese, to the north of Chusan. After this, the enemy kept at a distance from that place. Several attempts were made by the Chinese to destroy the ships of the squadron, each time defeated by the vigilance of the officers and crews.
In June, 1840, a British fleet of seventeen men-of-war and twenty-seven troopships arrived at Hongkong; Canton was blockaded; a port on the island of Chusan was subsequently occupied; and Lord Palmerston's letter to the Emperor was carried to Tientsin, and delivered there to the Viceroy of Chihli.
Chusan remained in our possession as a base of operations during the greater part of the war, but its insalubrity rather dissipated the reputation it had acquired as an advantageous and well- placed station for operations on the coast of China.
During our stay at Chusan we had made a party to go to the island of Poo-too, but we were hurried away sooner than we expected, and our design was frustrated. I will, however, give a description of the island of Poo-too, as described to me. This island is about forty miles from Chusan, and is inhabited solely by priests.
The scenery at the Bogue is very pretty; and the forts, if of no other advantage, form a picturesque feature, viewed while sailing past them. Not having visited Amoy, Foo Chow, Ning-po, Chusan, or Shang-Hae, I am unable to give any description of those places. I can, however, state what I have heard about them, and give the mercantile reader some idea of their importance as places of trade.
In accordance with these preliminary articles, Hongkong was proclaimed, on January 29, 1841, a British possession, and the troops evacuated Chusan to garrison the new station. It was not considered at the time that the acquisition was of much importance, and no one would have predicted for it the brilliant and prosperous position it has since attained.
On the reoccupation of Chusan, which it was decided to retain until a formal treaty had been concluded with the emperor, Sir Henry Pottinger issued a proclamation to the effect that years might elapse before that place would be restored to the emperor's authority, and many persons wished that it should be permanently annexed as the best base for commercial operations in China.
The Chinamen consider this no sacrilege, as they always use the temples as theatres themselves. During the winter months Chusan is very cold, and the snow lies on the ground. The country there abounds with game deer, swans, partridges, pheasants, and wild fowl of every description: the prices are very moderate; a fine buck may be purchased for a dollar, and a brace of pheasants for a rupee.
They put the converts at a larger number than I understood Mr. Russell to do, but otherwise their report did not differ materially from his. Chusan. March 21st. This is a most charming island. How any people, in their senses, could have preferred Hong-Kong to it, seems incredible. The people too, that is to say, the lower orders, seem really to like us.
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