ABSTRACT
By early May 1841, events had begun more obviously to unravel; Chinese military preparations could no longer be ignored, and Chinese merchants began to leave Canton. Foreign merchants grew restless. They were laying bets that Captain Elliot would not go to Amoy, and not quit the Canton river. 1 And Auckland wrote to Minto of the situation as it stood on 3 May: ‘Chas Elliot speaks of trade being prosperous, the merchants there [?] give a very different history and probably the truth lies in between the two.’ 2
