In this examination of the Spanish prisoners, though the Chinese had no reason in the main to doubt the account which was given them, yet there were two circumstances which appeared to them so singular as to deserve a more ample explanation. One of them was the great disproportion of men between the Centurion and the galleon, the other was the humanity with which the people of the galleon were treated after they were taken. The mandarins therefore asked the Spaniards how they came to be overpowered by so inferior a force, and how it happened, since the two nations were at war, that they were not put to death when they came into the hands of the English. To the first of these enquiries the Spanish replied that though they had more hands than the Centurion, yet she, being intended solely for war, had a great superiority in the size of her guns, and in many other articles, over the galleon, which was a vessel fitted out principally for traffic. And as to the second question, they told the Chinese that amongst the nations of Europe it was not customary to put to death those who submitted, though they readily owned that the Commodore, from the natural bias of his temper, had treated both them and their countrymen, who had formerly been in his power, with very unusual courtesy, much beyond what they could have expected, or than was required by the customs established between nations at war with each other. These replies fully satisfied the Chinese, and at the same time wrought very powerfully in the Commodore's favour. A MESSAGE FROM THE VICEROY. On the 20th of July, in the morning, three mandarins, with a great number of boats and a vast retinue, came on board the Centurion and delivered to the Commodore the Viceroy of Canton's order for a daily supply of provisions, and for pilots to carry the ships up the river as far as the second bar; and at the same time they delivered him a message from the Viceroy in answer to the letter sent to Canton. The substance of the message was that the Viceroy desired to be excused from receiving the Commodore's visit during the then excessive hot weather, because the assembling the mandarins and soldiers necessary to that ceremony would prove extremely inconvenient and fatiguing; but that in September, when the weather would be more temperate, he should be glad to see both the Commodore himself and the English captain of the other ship that was with him. As Mr. Anson knew that an express had been dispatched to the court at Peking with an account of the Centurion and her prize being arrived in the river of Canton, he had no doubt but the principal motive for putting off this visit was that the regency at Canton might gain time to receive the Emperor's instructions about their behaviour on this unusual affair.