official documents in his possession, that the action of the Chinese Government, in praising and thanking the Portuguese Authorities for 'assisting them in driving forth the British people,' was no doubt an infamous calumny, which must have been a source of deep chagrin to the Governor. Here was another chance for the Portuguese Government of preventing, at the last moment, the establishment of a rival Colony at Hongkong, and of making the fortune of Macao. But Adriaŏ Accacio da Silveira Pinto, Governor of Macao and its Dependencies, impelled no doubt by foolish instructions from Lisbon, slammed the door in the face of the British community. He replied (September 3, 1839), in stiff but stately terms, that he could not cease to preserve the most strict neutrality between the Chinese and British nations, and added that the British subjects, having retired of their own accord from Macao with a view of not compromising the Portuguese establishment, had by this step placed themselves under the necessity of not landing there again so long as all the difficulties now existing between the Chinese and the English should continue unsettled. When Governor Pinto sealed this letter, he sealed the doom of Macao's prosperity as a Colony and virtually established Hongkong.
Nevertheless the time for Hongkong, though now seemingly near at hand, had not come yet. Elliot was, on the one hand, determined not to locate British trade again within the Bogue, but, on the other hand, he was averse to the idea of settling on the island of Hongkong, probably on account of its inability to furnish provisions and on account of the proximity of the Kowloon peninsula then occupied by Chinese troops. When Elliot, seeing the scarcity of provisions, went with Dr. Gützlaff in two small boats (September 4, 1839) to induce the villagers near Kowloon city to furnish the fleet with provisions, three Chinese war junks and the battery at Kowloon pier (still in existence) opened fire upon them, which was gallantly returned by Elliot's boats, and the junks were driven off. As to the merchants, they likewise do not appear to have entertained any
