2-995-851 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Fleet in China under Admiral Jones assembled off Kintang prior to the occupation of Chusan, 1860. Engraving from a sketch by Lieut. H. E. Sturt, on board the Imperieuse. 'Kintang, or Silver Island, off which the fleet under Admiral Jones, C.B., assembled prior to the occupation of Chusan, is one of a group of islands near the east coast of China. The fleet was composed of the Imperieuse, flag-ship, 51 guns; Scout, 21; Pearl, 21; Roebuck, dispatch gun-boat; Firm, Opossum, gun-boats; Duchayla, French frigate; l'Alarme and l'Avalanche, French gun-boats; the Grenada, having on board General Sir Hope Grant and Staff, and the transports Adventure, Tasmania, Gamecock, and Walmer Castle...The inhabitants are of a peaceable disposition. They came off and traded with the produce of their farms as though our forces were there as friends rather than enemies. It is a novel species of warfare when in one part of the country the inhabitants trade with, and in other instances apply for protection to, the people on whose heads in another part a price of 200 dollars is set...The island never looked more beautiful...[with] its irregular hills...covered with tea-plantations, shone out so green that one's eyes rejoiced in the brightness of the colour'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.