The Express.
London, England, 1860-10-17 00:00:00

they were carefully closed with shutter* on theeut- 1
side. Behind the southern fort is the town built
along the bank of the river, and separatkl PrOm the
country. on all the other sides by a lowniud fiat,
which is covered at high water. This mad it so'
thick and sticky as to be almost impassable
except for pedestrians, who can certainly contrive
to flounder through it—for carts or wheeled car-
riages of any kind it is impracticable. flus then,
you see, the approach to the town, V not hy the
river, can only be made by crossing this mud sea ;
and the only means of doing this is by a long
narrow causeway, which stretches for upwards of a
mile across the flat, and enters the town in the
centre of the west side. There is a ditch round the
outside of the town ; and where the causeway crosses
it there is a wooden bridge, surmounted by a large
gateway. From the above description you will
under/dead that there are two ways by which
the town might be assailed. One was by the gun-
boats only, which, crossing the bar at high water,
and running up between and part the forts where
the channel was known to be deep, would then be
able to attack the fortifications in reverse ; and as
it had been ascertained that they were quite open
in the rear, they would have been perfectly "al-
terable if exposed to fire from that direction. The
other plan of attack was to land a portion of the
army to the south of the Southern Fort on a keg
spit et land that runs oat to the south-east far into
the ma, and then advance acme the mud to the
, and entering. the town take the fort oa'
Wok at the river in the rear. The first of these
appears the simplest and easiest. The last is *e
one that was adopted. Tuesday, 31st of July, was
the day fixed for the landing, but owing to a high
wind end rough sea in the morning it was post-
poned. Wednesday, the Ist, though inhered in
with clouds and heavy rains, proved more favour-
able ; the clouds gradually broke and cleared
away, the sun shone out, and by ten o'clock the
expedition was in readiness. The 2nd brigade (Sut-
ten's) of the Ist divison was the one to which Was
assigned the honour of being the first to land.
The men were transferred from their transports to
gun and troop boats, there being 20 in the former
and 50 in each of the letter. When all was ready,
the signal to advents was made, and the gunboats
taking the troop baste in tow, went off in a long
line, headed by the admiral in the Coromandel,
towards the mouth of the river. Our allies, closely
packed in troop boats and junks towed by steamers,
farmed a parallel line, headed also by their admiral.,
1,1 was a beautiful sight. The sun was shining'
oat, and the breeze was fresh and cool,
ere the long line of gallant little gunboats,
each with its miniature fleet in tow, moved off to-
wards the mouth of the river. From the anchorage
nothing could be seen of the land ; but gradually
as we approached objects became visible. Nearer
and nearer. Now the dim round lumps seen a
little while ago on the horizon have grown into
dark looking bastions. Now the curtain which con-
ing% the bastions rises above the water. Nearer
still, and the outline; of the houses of the town,
tip embrasured of the forts, and the loopholes in
the parapets come into view. A little nearer, and
we are crossing the bar, and now we can discern
figures on the top of the ramparts, and Chinese
flags flying on the bastions. The embrasures are still
carefully closed. Many an eye is 'etching
them—many an anxious inquiry made, "WM
the fellows fight 1" The bar is tressed, and the
Coromandel has anchored within 2,000 yards of
the southern forts, the gunboats close up and
anchor in line, facing the mud fiat. On the cause-
way, at a dietaries of two miles or so, is a line of
Tartar cavalry, but in the mirage looking like trees,
oe camels, or anything the fancy chooses to imagine
them : their jlit up and down, and to and fro ; at
one moeseitZL:ppear to be lifted up from the
mound -fth the air, the next they
vanish tter and re-appear again in some
more contorted form. Still the embrasures re-
main closed and the forts make no sign.

The order was now given to land : the boats from
thsmen-of-war towed the troop boats towards the
sal, and as soon as they took the ground the
soldier leisurely got over the sides into water knee-
deep and Mud ankle-deep, and began to wade to-
wards the land. At the same time the Tartar
hoisemen went to the right•about, and filing away
into obscurity, were seen no more. It was
now evident that no opposition was intended,
and the disembarkation continued in a quiet
and orderly manner. The men, mostly taking
off their shoes and stockings, and tucking up
their trousers plodded slowly and labu-
rioualy through a mile of mud and water, and
formed up as they reached the dry land. Our
allies kept pace with us on the left, or rather out-
stripped us, as some of their troops wore the tine to
reach the shore. It was now past six o'clock, and
the remaining events of the night may be briefly
recorded. When all had landed the columns were
formed and advanced over the spit, a tolerably i•
ry
and utterly barren flat of baked mud, covered with
small tumuli, which every one calls salt hills,
and no one seems to know why ; on the other
side of the spit more mud, more water, more
floundering, and then the causeway was reached,
and the English bade bivouacked there for the
night, the commaer-in•chief, with some of his
staff, making their exceedingly uncomfortable distill)
beds within a few yards of the gate of the town.
The French force bivouacked on or left, on the
spit ; and half an hour after they halted, their
camp fires were blazing in all directions, though
where they procured fuel is a mystery I have not
yet solved, for the ground appeared to produce
nothing hut salt and a few stunted scrubby bushes.
The great
,Iry during the night was for water.
There was water, water, everywhere, but not
drop to drink." The pods on the spit were
.h—the men had soon emptied their
'here were no wells, and everybody

water

was thirsty. In the middle of the nights sup-
ply was brought from the ships by the coolie
carps, and there was a big drink all round. In the
wismihne Mr. Parkes, the well known allied emu-
minions? of Canton, who is at present attached to
Lord Elgin's embassy, had lauded and gone to
the gate of the town. There he found some
Chinese, and ascertained from them that the
fort was unoccupied, and that there was no
enemy in the place. On the strength of this aeon,
ance accompanied only by Captain Williams, of the
quartermaster-generals department, and a couple
of soldiers, he went boldly through the town,
taking with him such of the more respectable in-
habitants as he could get bold of, and arriving in
the fort gate and finding it closed, made the
Chinese break it open, snd walking in, took pos-
session, and hauled down the Chinese fiag. Unfor-
tunately he had no British ensign to ho:st in its
place, which led to a somewhat ludicrous mow-
rence in the morning. There was no means
at that late hoar of communicating with
the fleet, and consequently the admiral did not
know the forts were empty. Accordingly at midnight,
as had been previously arranged. a division of
French and English gunboats., prepared for action,
and taking every precaution to protect their men
from the fire expected from the ramparts, deemed
rapidly past the forts, and anchored in a bend of
the river above. At daylight they were again
under way, and we saw them from our bivouac
dropping cautiously down towards the forte, and
firing shells into them to drive out the imaginary
enemy. The Chinese inhabitants of the town, Of
whom there must have been nearly 20,000, say
there was never any intention to defend the
place, and that there have been no troops here
fur some time. Three mines were, however,
covered within the fort on the south side, one at
the foot of each ramp leading up to the two ben-
thaw, and one at the foot of the slope leading down
from the gate. Their construction was soniewheA
ingenious. In the bottom of • large square wooden
box, eased with tin, wasple, a loaded 19-lath
shell, with the fuse hole turned upwards. Between