The formal drawing out of the definitive treaty was hastened on, in order that every excuse for further delay on the part of Keshen might be removed. Indeed, ten days had only been fixed as the _longest_ period, within which, if the treaty were not executed, hostilities would be renewed. Perhaps, after all, it redounded to our credit that extreme measures were only at length adopted, when every other means of effecting a settlement had been tried in vain. Forbearance towards a feeble enemy, as long as there was the faintest hope of bringing him to reason by simpler means, will redound more to our honour in the pages of future history, than a precipitate display of our energy and our power. At all events the treaty which was ultimately concluded was much more advantageous to commerce and civilization in general than it would probably have been had an earlier settlement taken place. The Chinese were brought to yield by _degrees_, and, therefore, the compact is much more likely to be durable than if it had been wrung from them by an earlier and more sudden emergency. Nevertheless, before even the draught of the proposed treaty had been fully drawn up at Macao, rumours were continually brought concerning the extensive preparations for defence which were still going on up the river. Some naval and military officers were accordingly sent up to the Bogue, to ascertain how far these rumours might be well founded; and it was now discovered "that military works upon a great scale were in progress, that troops were collected upon the heights, that entrenched camps were being formed on both sides of the river, and that the island of North Wantung was bristling with cannon." These preparations certainly looked very unlike the preliminaries to the signature of a treaty of peace; "and from this moment," says Sir Gordon Bremer, "I must confess that my faith in the sincerity of the Chinese commissioner was completely destroyed." It was in fact to be no longer doubted that hostilities would be speedily resumed. And although the orders of the emperor to Keshen to cancel the treaty agreed on, and to provide means for the immediate extermination of the foreigners had not then been made public, enough was already known to make it evident that the intentions of the government were very far from being of a peaceful nature. On his side, Captain Elliot had done his utmost to impress the Chinese with a confidence in his "good faith;" and so anxious was he to hasten the evacuation of Chusan, that he had not only sent up a vessel of war to convey the necessary orders, but had also forwarded an _overland despatch_, by the hands of a Chinese special messenger, to the same purport.