The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-03-03 00:00:00

THE ATTACK ON CANTON

From Canton we have rather stirring intelligence,—of
attacks upon the Dutch Folly by masqued batteries, and
upon the Comas arid Hornet at the Barrier in the Macao
passage, upon Teetotum Fort, and upon the Encounter and
Niger at Shameen. The attack on Dutch Folly took place
on the afternoon of New Year's Day, six guns having been
mounted by the Chinese on the Honarri side of tho river,
and four on the Canton side. They were of course speedily
silenced, but not until several rockets had entered the fort,
to the great endangerment of the magazine, which is
not by any means bomb proof ; fortunately none of our
men were hurt. The attack by the junks occurred e'r.
Sunday, the 3rd Jan., when information was received on
board the Coromandel, of a large fleet being in the river
betwixt the Teetotum Fort and the Barrier. The Coro-
mandel instantly got under weigh, with Admiral Seymour,
Captain Hall, and Commander Bate on board, and towing
all the available boats Under command of Commander
Rowland of the Calcutta. As the steamer approached,
one division of war junks was found engaged with the
Hornet and Oomus, and keeping up a brisk ore; while ano-
ther division came up the river in admirable order and at-
tacked the Coromandel, the boats, and the Teetotum fort ;
these junks were very heavily armed, and some of them
had long snake-boats lashed to each side to row them
along. Tho fight continued-for some time, and, unfortu-
nately, Mr. Pearn, master's assistant of the Calcutta, while
lying alongside the Coromandel in the Calcutta's cutter,
was fatally wounded by a round-shot, which struck him on

the breast and carried away a portion of his right side; he
died the same evening. The Coromandel and boats had
now a warm time of it, for the junks fought well, and the
steamer is by no means built for fighting purposes!. Still
she plied them well with shot from her bowgun and rockets
frown her tubes. She was three times hultd, but
ferto-,faiy no one w's hurt by the shot, the only
accident on board being caused by the back fire
from a rocket tube having exploded several rockets,
by which one man was seriously, and several others
slightly, burnt. Meanwhile the Encounter had been
signalised to bear down to the assistanse of the boats, but
as she was about to do so, she saw another fleet of junks
coming down Sulphur Creek, evidently with the intention
of engaging the Niger and Encounter, and so preventing
them from rendering assistance to their consorts farther
down the river. This latter batch, some 20 junks, was
speedily disposed of, and driven helter skelter whence they
came ; but the Encounter most unfortunately got aground,
and 80 was unable to intercept the lower division of 120
junks, which, though severely handled, retreated in good
order into the creek, and are now at anchor, with others
that have since joined them, forming a fleet of 300 to 400
sail, up the Fuh,sshan Creak, about a mile and a half from
the main branch of the river, ready 10 pounce upon any
unt-trtimate vessel that may strike upon the sunken junks
opposite the creek in- which they are lying
With what intent ,he attack was male, whether to
retake thin Teetotum Fort, which is not likely. to drive away
the Hornet and Comus, and then block up the passage,
which is most likely ; or -imply to try their strength against
the steamer and sloop, in the expectation that, it being then
low wa'er, no assistance could be afforded them by the
other steamers—it is impossible to sly ; but the time was
exceedingly welt chosen, and the Cuinese showed no defi-
ciency in pluck, nor did they retire until warned of their
danger by the appearance of the Encounter and the rise in
..the tide.

News of an engagement which had taken place
,near Whampoa, between the Imperialists and
insurgents, in which the latter were-defeated, with
the loss of about one hundred men, had reached
Hong Kong. All communication, or nearly so,
had been stopped between Hong Kong and
Whampoa.
The China of the Bth January, publishes
particulars of the Thistle catastrophe, mention of
which was made by the telegraphic summary,
published in Thursday's paper. The Mail says :
A coroner's inquest has been sitting on the scorched
remains of a man found on board the vessel ; and from the
investigations it would appear that the attempt of the
Chinese ruffians could never have succeeded, had but very
ordinary precautions been adopted by tho.,7e on board. The
assassinations were accomplished by only eleven men—one
to each victim ; the assazsins being braves of the Che
Yeung. All the baggage was searched, but not the persons
of the Chinese ; and it seems a woman who accompanied
the gang, had a number of choppers concealed in a bundle..
Some detention took place after leaving Whampoa, and
after getting under weigh again, Captain Weiland was
looking down into the engine room, when he saw
an invalid Artilleryman opposite him stabbed in
the back ; he made a step forward to his
assistance, and was instantly stabbed in the back himself.
The Chief Engineer was in his cabin, and was easily over.
powered and sain ; as was also Don F. Diaz Sobre Cases,
a Spaniard, agent for the Coolie emigration to Havana,
then reading in the cabin, the steersmen at his pst, and
the other three Manilla sea cusnies. Sr. Diaz's Portugese
servant, being wounded, jumped overboard, and was
drowned. There is some doubt about the fate of t!-,
Second Engineer—whether he was killed or stowed himself
away in one of the coal-bunkers, and was suffocated or
burned there : and nothing seems to ba knowo of the mate.
Their bloody work accomplished, the braves ordered
the firemen to keep up steam, and the boat
was steered up the creek to a village
called Nam-kong-tow, where they drove the Chinese ashore,
set the steamer on fire, and deserted her, carrying with them
the heads of the unfortunate foreigners, tied in napkins,
and dangling from the ends of the ship's muskets; but
what 'bname of any cargo that might have been on board,
—whether it fell a prey to the villagers, or to the flames,
has not been ascertained. The villagers, however, extin-
guished the fire, and plundered the vessel of everything
worth carrying off, then towed her out to the mouth of the
creek, where she was found in a sinking state, and taken in
tow by H.M. steamer Barracouta. The decapitated trunks
of the Europeans were found half burnt.

It had been stated in our previous advices, that
Y.eh had been superseded in the Viceroy ship of
the Two Kwang, by one Elang, who is a Manchu,
far advanced in age, and of no extraordinary
repute, but such a rumour is now positively denied.
The Overland China Mail says :—" The supply of
provisions in Hong Kong has been partially
stopped, and our servants have been nrrlornel by
the Chinese authorities to quit their employers,
and return to their native places; and many of
them have been, however reluctantly., compelled
to obey "
The latest intelligence received at Hong Kong
by the Fei-Ma brought intelligence of the Admiral
having landed a body of men and fired the suburbs,
and that a great portion of them, estimated at from
2,000 to 3,000 houses, had been destroyed ; that the
rebel fleet at Whampoa had
,joined the Imperial-
ists ; and that the Admiral has withdrawn the
Svbille from Whampoa. All the chops, including
that of the British Vice Consul, left that Place this
morning for Hong Kong, and the Spanish steamer
Jorge Juan in tow of the Scipion for Macao ; so
that there is not now a single foreign vessel of any
description at Whampoa.
A proclamation has been issued by Haou, acting
magistrate of Heang Shung, in which that official
informs his people that the English hive at tacked
the chief city of the province, and enjoins them

therefore to have no commercial intercourse with
Hong Kong, as " it is necessary to stop all com-
munication and trade." All persons engaged in
such traffic, or employed in barbarian vessels, are
to return to their homes. " Goods are also forbid-
den to be taken to Macao, lest from that place Hong
Kong should get her supplies. Therefore all vessels
that proceed to Macao, Tumchai, and Hong Kong,
are ordered to stop from going. This matter has
been insisted on in the districts of Tungkwan
and Sin-gan. Supplies are cut off in those
districts," A furious and infuriating address has
been circulating among the Chinese both at Hong
Kong and Macao. It purports to have been issued
by Commissioner Yeh, and calls upon all the
celestial people to unite for a war of extermination.
The Friend of China expresses (Jan. 15) its
conviction that " Yeh is not the man to put forth
such a document." It states also that several
attempts had been made during the first week of
the new year to set Macao on fire. The Singapore
Straits Times, of January 22, makes the following
announcement ;
On the morning of the 15th January—the Madras mail
steamer left at two p.m.—the greater part of the European
residents at Hong Kong were attempted to be barbarously
murdered by arsenic put into bread, but happily
.tjap.,lll
judged quantity caused its rejection by the stomach; but
the effects of vomiting were widely and severely felt, and
some patients were in a delicate state when the mail left.
Hong Kong was literally under martial law. Whampoa
had been abandoned by all foreign shipping.)