The Press. — London, England, 1857-08-08 00:00:00

with the exception of one, the finest and heaviest armed war junk I have seen in Chins, which I hoped to be able to take away. The Chinese were utterly unprepared for this sudden meeting. The English boats fired all their guns, gave a cheer, and made a rush ; the Chinese jumped overboard without firing a shot. But the braves" of the town would not permit the junks to be captured or carried off with impunity : It soon became apparent that the Chinese troops were not going quietly to submit to this proceeding without further resistance, and the creek being narrow, with houses on either side, they had every facility to pick off our men. As we first passed up, only a few gingalls and matchlocks opened ; these increasing in number, presently gave con siderable annoyance, and it was necessary to keep up a continued fire with some of the boats' guns, from musketry, and from the Tribune's rocket-boat, which did good service, while other parties were employed destroying the j unks, which occupied some time, and it was necessary to burn those at the upper end of the town first, and so on in suc• cession, to enable our boats to get back. The chief attacks from the shore took place towards our rear, at the battery at the lower end of the town, where most of the casualties occurred. Commander Turnour was active and useful, and on two occasions landed in a very gallant manner with small parties of marines, under Lieut. G. L. Blake. R.M., charged some two hundred well. armed men, and drove them beyond the embankments. An attempt was made to tow down the fire war-junk already noticed, but she accidently caught fire, and she was therefore destroyed with the others. That being accom plished the boats returned down the creek. So ended this gallant but arduous operation. A few days afterwards it was succeeded by one which will long be remembered in the annals of Canton. Admiral Seymour in person commanded on this occasion, and, it is needless to say, was well supported by Commodores Keppel and Elliot. A powerful fleet of junks was known to be moored in a com manding position up the Fatshan Creek, above Hyacinth Island, and supported by batteries mount ing 6 and 19 guns respectively upon each river-bank. Seventy two junks, armed with 32-pounders in the bow, with from four to six 9-pound broadside guns, were so disposed across the channel as with the forts to completely command the passage. The 19- gun fort was the key of the position. On the Ist of June, a little after three a.m., the Coromandel, with Admiral Seymour aboard, towing the boats con taining the marines, who were to land under the fort and to carry it, weighed anchor, followed by the gunboats and favoured by the darkness. The plan of operations was simple. The Coromandel was to dash in among the junks, the gunboats and row boats following ; the marines were to be landed, the fort stormed, and as many junks captured as possible. But John Chinaman was not to be caught napping. When the steamer had arrived at some what less than a mile from the fort her advance was noted by the enemy. A rocket shot up into the air, and the action began When within about 1,500 yards of the fort the Coro tnandel grounded on a barrier of sunken junks filled with atones, and the enemy opened fire. Tho landing party of seamen and marines were immediately put in the boats and sent ahead, and under a very heavy fire of round and grape, in which the junk fleet joined, the fort was almost immediately in our possession, Commodore Elliot setting the good example of being one of the first in it. The landing was partially covered by the fire from the Haughty. One or two of the guns in the fort were immediately turned on the war junks. Happily this important service was effected without loss. The position was a remarkably strong one, and, defended by a body of resolute troops, might have bid defiance to any attack. The Haughty, having landed her party, went on with Commodore Elliot and the boats of the first division, to co-operate with Com modore Keppel. I ordered a portion of the Royal Marines, under Lieutenant and Adjutant Burton. to remain as a garrison in the fort, and sent Captain Boyle, with the remainder, about 150 in number, to the scene of opera tions by land, to cut off the enemy retreating from the junks, and to prevent the advancing boats being annoyed by gingalls or matchlocks fro u a large village adjoining—a favourite tactic with the Chinese. One half of this force was ultimately sent brck to the fort, and the remainder rejoined the souadron up the creek. As soon as Commodore the Hon. H. Keppel perceived the men of the first division ascending the heights, he advanced up the channel on the east side of Hyacinth Island, with the gun and other boats of the second, third, and fourth divisions, in the order stated in the programme. With the exception of the Haughty and Plorer, the gun. boats soon grounded, but, agreeably with my instructions, the boats were pushed ahead. The junks, which were admirably moored in position to enfilade the whole of the attacking force, soon opened a very heavy fire, keeping it up with great spirit until our boats were close alongside, when the crews commenced to abandon their vessels, and to effect their escape across the paddy fields. The blowing up of one or two junks hastened this movement. In about twenty minutes we had possession of fifty junks. Commodore Keppel, scenting more game higher up the creek, made his way past the six-gun fort, on the right channel, and past the burning junks, driving out the crews as he went. With seven boats THE PRESS, AUGUST 8, 1857. only he pulled away, apparently for the town of Fatshan, with its population of 200,000 inhabitants. His progress, however, was not uninterrupted. The Chinese had not so entirely relied on their position by Hyacinth Island as to neglect further precau tions. Four mites above the scene of the first engagement Keppel and his little company came upon an island, at the head of which twenty junks had been so moored that their fire was concentrated on the only available channel. Two funnel shaped passages appeared available, but one was staked and impassable, and the other had not water to carry two boats abreast : At this perilous passage Keppel and his crew now dashed. The three boomboats took the ground in attempt. ing to follow. The base of this triangular island consists of high land which the grounded boomboats could nut fire over, so their guns were ageless; the apex, or, to use my more familiar illustration, the knuckle part, was low paddy fields, which the junks' guns could not sweep across. It was a position worthy of a Carthaginian—focus inAidiis flatus. No sooner did the boats appear in the narrow passage than twenty 32-pounders sent twenty round shot, and a hundred smaller guns sent their full charges of grape and canister at a range of 500 yards right among them. The effect was terrible. Keppel was sounding with the boathook for water for the boomboats, and went back amid the storm to get them up. They start afresh, and make another effort to get through. The commodore pushes on ahead. There was Captain Leckie in his galley, with Major Kearney by his side. There was Captain Rolland in the laench of the Calcutta, and Lieutenant Seymour in the barge of the same ship. The Tribune's cutter was in among them. The Hongkong, who had worked herself up through the mud to within 500 yards of the scene of action, had sent her gig. Perhaps there were others, but amid so much smoke and fire even those who were in it cannot agree as to minute details. If the gunners of the Excellent had been in those Chinese junks, and had worked those 32. pounder guns, they could hardly have thrown the round shot straighter. Keppel's galley, not a large mark, is hit three times in two minutes; a 32 pounder shot strikes Major Kearney in the breast, tearing him to pieces. He must have died without a sensation. Young Barker, a midshipman of the Tribune, who wore upon his finger a ring bequeathed to him by his brother, who was killed at Inkermann, is down, mortally wounded. The commodore's coxswain is killed, and every man of his crew is wounded. But the miracle is not that the men are falling, but that any escape. The God of Battles is there, and wonderful are the instances of His merciful protection. Captain Cochrane has the sleeve of his coat torn away by a shot, which leaves him unharmed. A round shot enters the Tribune's boat and passes along her line of keel, from stem to stern, without touching a man. " That was close, Victor," said Keppel to his tlag•lieute• nant, as a cannon shot passed between their heads. Fortunately for himself, Victor (Prince Victor of Hohen lohe, as thorough and as unpretending a British seaman as if his name were Drake or .Jervis) was leaning forwards, and using his handkerchief as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding of a seaman whose hand had just been shot off, ether wise that ball must have taken Victor's head off. At this time the galley was disabled, and she was drifting down under the guns of the junks. Even Keppel saw that it would not do. The matter was, however, settled for him, for the next shot tore away the stern sheets of his galley while he was fortunately standing up with the tiller ropes in his hand, " Seymour, you must take me in," and he stepped from his sinking galley into the barge of the Calcutta. All the other occupants of the galley were also removed into the barge ; all except the 'paneled corpse of the coxswain and the favourite dog of the com modore, who had been accustomed to be tended by that man, and would not leave his body. With this freight the wreck of the galley drifted with the rising tide up towards the junks.— Times cor. Although he retired within sight, the gallant C01:12- modore was not beaten off. The tide rose in the afternoon, and with it the war junks slipped, and were off up the creek. Keppel in a moment was after them, and in a very short time there were only eight junks not hors de combat : The commodore was waiting for reinforcements and for more water in the river; and meanwhile he piped to dinner. The men were getting their rations, and were devouring them when the fire from the junks slackened. "Three cheers for the Blue," cried a Raleigh boat that now came up. Man the boats, lads; those rascals are getting afloat." Off they go again dinnerless, but in high spirits, and under a fire so hot that the Calcutta's launch is sunk, and Captain Rolland has to scramble into another boat. This time they find water enough in the narrow paaaage, and, dashing through the shot, find the enemy afloat and in movement. It has now become a chase. These junks, manned by from sixty to one hundred rowers, go faster than our heavy boomboats can follow. But shrapnell shell go faster than even a snake junk ; there are twistings in the creek that are not shown in the chart, and in following these windings pursuers and pursed often find themselves side by side with an interval of land between them. They fire at each other across these peninsulas, and the guns are so well served, and the shells are so terrifying, that every now and then the crews leap out and the junk is deserted. Spike the guns and posh on. Six miles this hot chase lasts, and there are now but eight junks oncaptured ; when rounding a sharp point pursued and pursuer.; rush almost together into the city of Fatshan. A Chinese town is not seen afar of; the pago la and the pawnbrokers' warehouses are the only high build ings. Three of the junks escape, the other five are headed and are abandoned. But the braves of Fatshan would 775 think it a shame that their fl►e junks should be taken from tinder their eyes. They turn out in martial array; they ring bells and beat gongs, they come filing down a fosse, so covered from view that only their waving banners and their brandished swords and shields are visible. "We are terrible ; flee before us !" they are supposed to sing or cry. Keppel has his own way of settling these matters. He turned his marines out of his boats, drew them up on the margin of the suburb, and poured into the Fatshsn militia such a volley of ,Minis balls that the Chinese army went quickly back up its fosse again.—Timer cur. he commodore wanted to land his howitzers and pass the night in the city, but the admiral refused his permission. However, five junks out of the remaining eight were captured, and towed off in triumph. " The result of the expedition," writes the admiral— Was the capture of between seventy and eighty heavily armed junks, mounting on an average from ten to fourteen guns (many of them long 3 . 2-pounders), nearly all of European manufacture. As no object would have been gained by removing the prizes, I caused them, with a few exceptions, to be burnt; and the flames and numerous heavy explosions must have been seen and heard far and wide. This engagement opens a new era in Chinese naval warfare. Ureat judgment was shown in selecting the position for the fleet, and the Chinese, particularly the last division attacked by Commodore Keppel, defended their ships with skill, courage, and effect. I inclose a list of casualties, which I regret to state is large, amount ing to three officers and ten seamen and marines killed, and four officers and forty seamen and marines wounded ; but it is to me a matter of surprise that, under the circum stances of the case, the loss was not greater. So ended one of the most brilliant cutting-out expeditions that have ever occurred lathe China seas. " The commodore (says the Times correspondent) bad his five junks towed out before him, and as be left the city he stood up in the stern-sheets of his boat, and shook his fist good humouredly, saying, You rascals, I'll come back again to you soon ;' and those extraordinary Chinese, they too laughed—a broad, good-humoured grin—and so they parted." It was three o'clock when Commodore Keppel re turned to the flagship, which was now anchored where tho Chinese admiral's junks had been moored at the commencement of the engagement. As be came down his lost dog recognised the yellow Raleigh boat, and swam off to his master. 4 rtlant. THE TRIAL OF STOLLEN for the murder of Mr. Little commenced yesterday in Dublin. A strong belief is said to exist in Dublin that the prisoner will be acquitted. FATHER CONWAY, about to be prosecuted for his conduct a► the Mayo election, has addressed a vigorous letter to Lord Palmerston upon the noble lord's remarks in supporting Mr. Scholefield's motion. The rev. father prophesies the failure. of this effort " to crush the spirit which has defied persecution and withstood the assaults of political and religious hate," and concludes : If you deem it politic, my lord, to increase my influence with the people, you are certainly adopting the proper course; but if by this means you design to stifle opinion, and remove all obstructions to your policy of fettering.the Irish Church, and giving a clear stage to your corrupt poli tical agents, you had better be undeceived. My lord, the day is passed in Mayo when unprincipled place.beggirs and pliant politicians,•the mercenary tools of an unscrupulous Minister, could find popular support. DR. CCLLEN has issued a pastoral principally devoted to attacks upon the system of " mixed educa tion," and upon the Divorce Bill now under dis cussion. A DkRLNG HIGHWAY ROBBERY AND AN ATTEMPT AT MURDER was effected near Clonmel the other even ing upon the person of Captain Inman, paymaster of the pensioners. The gallant oU.cer, though severely wounded with slug-shot, escaped with his life. THE SELECT COMMITTEE of the House of Commons, appointed to consider the case of M. Bertolacci and the Duchy of Lancaster, has reported that the case of M. Bertolacci, as developed by the evidence adduced before them, does not appear to require the? interference of the house. They opine, at the same time, that the presentation of the recent petition should not prejudice the present position or future- prospects of M. Bertolacci, still less derogate from former claims, for the committee think that through.. out, even when most clearly in error, M. Bertolacci acted bona fide according to his deeply seated and sincere conviction that in his person the privileges of the office of auditor of the Duchy of Lancaster had been infringed. M. Bertolacci is not satisfied with the report, and writes to the papers to say that the affair shall " not end here." • MR. ROUPEI.T.. M.P., was entertained by his sup porters at a pubic dinner at the Surrey-gardens, an Wednesday, in order to commemorate his triumph over the recent " election petitioners."