The Express.
London, England, 1851-11-18 00:00:00

GIIINA.

The news from Hong Kong is to Sept. 29. The
Friend of China says in its summary
• The rebellion in the south of China has now been
of such long duration, and the means of obtaining
correct reports of its progress are so meagre, that we
confess to being fairly tired at having to furnish
month after month detnils of such a vague nature
regarding it. Governor General Seu is now at Kou-
, chou-fu in the south west of the Kwang-tung pro-
! vince, from whence he has ordered out more troops,
and a body of several hundreds of Tung kwang dis-
trict men passed up the Canton river on the 20th
Sept., bound to Lo-ting-chau, about a degree and a
half north of Kou-chau, and immediately on the bor-
ders of Kwang-si. Kwei-lin-fu the capital, the taking
of which has been several times reported, is now
supposed to be indeed in the possession of the rebels.
We have a letter front a Kwang-si man stating
it as a fact that the place has fallen, and that
Tien-tch is gathering forces together with the view
of falling on Fuh-san, a short distance from Canton,
where Colonel Chesney and others were assaulted
some years back ; but the Canton merchants (the
cry of wolf having been raised so many times with-
out any apparent result) are much less fearful now
than they were a year ago. We are informed that
sometime during the sixth month (in July last), an
attempt was made to assassinate Yihchu (or, accord-
ing to the designation of his dynasty, Hirnfung),
which was frustrated by one of his Majesty's atten-
dants, who lost his arm in warding off the blow.
Eighteen high mandarins were implicated in the
matter, and, together with the whole of their
families, were immediately decapitated. Suspicion
had also fallen on some of the Emperor's uncles, on se-
veral court eunuchs, and on Keying and M uhcl tan agah.
The health of the troops in garrison is but indif-
ferent. Yesterday the number of sick amounted to
127, viz., of the 39th regiment 93—of the Ceylon
Rifles 17, and of the ordnance 17 ; the prevailing
disease among the Europeans being ague and bowel
complaint. The former is doubtless induced by
weakness after summer fever, the latter we fear from
the bad quality of the bread reported as again being
supplied by the commissariat contractor, all the
good flour obtainable, by Chinese, having been
exported from the colony to meet the sudden demand
for bread stuffs in New South Wales. Altogether
there have been seven deaths since our last report,
namely four of the 59th regiment (beside that of
Dr. Powell) one of the Ceylon Rifles, and two
Gun Lascars. This is just half the number
of deaths in the month of September last
year. On board the Minden there are about 130
convalescents, those from fever being said to recover
rapidly. On the whole there is an improvement in
the general health as compared with that of last
month, the average daily sick having been 103 only,
against (in August) 123. A report has reached us
by the way of Canton that the Spanish brig Bril-
lante, which left this port on the 10th of July last,
instead of being lust in a gale, as supposed, was
boarded by pirates, skuttled, and sunk off Limiting,
a few hours after leaving here, the crew being
all massacred. We aro told that some boxes of
treasure (part of a batch of 30,000 doll. shipped on
board on freight to Manila) have been taken posses-
sion of by the Mandarins, and that the matter is now
under investigation. Suspicion has fallen on the
pilot who brought the vessel into this harbour from
Whainpoa, and who is supposed to have given
the piratical crew a hint as to the valuable nature of
the cargo."