The immediate effect of this notice was to bring the Chinese, in some measure, to their senses; their proclamations against Englishmen were withdrawn--provisions were no longer prohibited; and, consequently, Captain Smith very properly withdrew his notice of blockade. Negotiations were entered into, and it was at length agreed that trade should be resumed _outside_ the port of Canton. Yet, all on a sudden, even this arrangement was violated by the Chinese; and, on the 26th October, notice was issued that they now required that ships should enter _within_ the port of Canton--that is, within the Bocca Tigris. They repeated the demand for the murderer of Lin Wiehe to be given up, and that a bond should be signed by all, agreeing to be tried by _Chinese officers for offences declared by them, before trial, to be capital_. If this mandate were not obeyed, the whole of the foreign ships were to depart within three days, under a threat of immediate destruction. The whole fleet, therefore, was now recommended to anchor in Tongkoo Bay, or Urmston's Harbour, which afterwards became the rendezvous of all the ships of war. It is not necessary here to enter into minute details; it will be sufficient for the full understanding of the future operations to state that difficulties continued to increase on both sides, without much prospect of any solution. The Hyacinth having now arrived and joined the Volage on the 29th October, these two vessels proceeded with Captain Elliot to Chuenpee, some distance below the Bogue, to endeavour to obtain from the commissioner some explicit declaration of his intentions. On the 3rd of November they were attacked by the Chinese admiral with twenty-nine sail of war-junks, which, of course, they soon beat off: and thus occurred the first direct hostile encounter between the armed forces of the two nations. War now became more than ever inevitable. Yet, at the end of the following month, these two ships of war were again compelled to proceed to the Bogue, in consequence of the seizure of a British subject by the Chinese (not engaged in selling opium) at the anchorage of Tongkoo Bay. The blockade of the river and port of Canton was therefore renewed by Captain Smith on the 15th January, 1840; but the gentleman who had been seized, Mr. Gribble, was at once restored, and the blockade was consequently raised. Scarcely had this taken place, when down came to Macao a new Chinese governor of that district, and issued a positive edict for the immediate expulsion of all the English. Captain Smith, with becoming spirit, instantly ordered the Hyacinth, Captain Warren, to proceed into the inner harbour for the protection of his countrymen, which measure seemed to give great umbrage to the Portuguese governor, Da Silveira Pinto; and, in consequence of his representations, she was withdrawn on the following morning.