Occasionally, during the month of August, we had requests for aid from merchant-captains arriving, who represented their crews in a state of mutiny. After the confinement of the men, a consular court is usually held on board to adjudicate the difficulty. I attended one of these, and was surprised to see what an entirely _ex-parte_ affair it is; the examination is absurd. The captain’s testimony is mainly if not entirely depended on, and if a bad man, may not only maltreat his crew, without any one to confront him effectively with the fact, but after having contracted with his men, for high wages perhaps, in California, on arriving in China, for some insubordination, prefers a charge of mutiny; the men are put in irons, the consul’s decision forfeits their wages, and thus a speculation is made for the owners. If not this, for the acts of one or two bad men in a ship, the whole crew are put in irons and punished indiscriminately. One fellow brought aboard of the Mississippi in irons, called a “mutineer,” and subsequently regularly shipped, would not have mutinied against a sheep.
We received almost daily rumors of contemplated attacks upon the hongs. The latter part of August, the English brig-of-war “Lily” (_painted?_) passed up the river to Canton, being of light draft. In the event of troubles, the custody of specie and silver-plate on board of these vessels, pays a handsome percentage to the commander. A survey of the Macao passage of the river was made with the hope that our steamer might be gotten up to Canton, but the collection of a bar at a barrier which had been made in the river during the war, by the Chinese, made the water too shoal to attempt it. We sent up a body of marines, and howitzers in the storeship Supply, which vessel lay for a long time off the city. The imperial authorities at the city were much excited; fleets of war-junks passed up and down the river in search of undiscoverable foes; and the governor of the city recommended to his pig-tail community not to celebrate the “Feast of the Lanterns,” as it might give the rebels an opportunity for outbreak, and also notified that in the event of an attack, it must be a _sauve qui peut_ business with them, as he could not extend them protection.