He arrived at Macau on 15 July 1834 on board the East India Company frigate Andromache, and reached Canton ten days later, with the mission of expanding British trade into inner China.

He sent the frigates Andromache and Imogene to Whampoa on 11 September,[4] defying an edict issued by Lu Kun, in a 'casualty-less' skirmish of cannon fire as the British warships breached defences at the Bocca Tigris.

After a prolonged stalemate, Lord Napier, sapped by typhus, was forced to retire to Macau in September 1834, where he died of the fever on 11 October.

[1] In a dispatch to Lord Palmerston on 14 August 1834, he suggested a commercial treaty, backed by an armed force, be done to secure the rights and interests of European merchants in China.

He recommended that a small British force "should take possession of the Island of Hongkong, in the eastern entrance of the Canton River, which is admirably adapted for every purpose".