The Sun.
London, England, 1853-11-04 00:00:00

THE REBELLION IN CHINA.

Private letters, received by the Overland mail,
via Marseilles, place us in possession of further par-
ticulars respecting the progress of the rebellion in
China. From Shanghai there were dates to the
29th August. The rebel army was said to have
reached Tien-tsin, the seaport town of Pekin, situ-
ate on the Peiho, and news of the taking of the
capital was daily expected. At Shanghai the Triad
Society men were beginning to be troublesome.
There were said to be 8,000 of them in the city,
and they contemplated a rise very shortly.
At Amoy there had been much bloodshed, but
letters from that place, dated August 30, state that
an early termination of the struggle between the
rebels and the Imperialists was looked forward to.
The approach of the Mandarins there had been

repeatedly announced, but so much delay had
occurred that it was for some time believed they
had abandoned altogether the idea of recapturing
the city. At daylight, however, on the 25th of
August, a fleet, consisting of 20 Canton and 14
Amoy junks, hove in sight, and shortly after noon
arrived off the 200-gun battery. An ineffective
cannonade was kept up until evening.

" Amoy, August 30.
" However, at daylight of the 25th a fleet, consisting
of 20 Canton and 14 Amoy junks, appeared. Shortly
after noon they arrived off the 200-gun battery, and till
evening an ineffective cannonade was kept up between
them and the rebel batteries at Emung-hang and Ko-
lan-soo, after which the Mandarins retired a few miles
and anchored for the night. The same afternoon an-
other fleet, consisting of 40 or 50 junks and large boats,
came round the west side of the island, where the passage
is very narrow, and destroyed several villages on the main
and, known, as rebel villages, and among them that-of
Boon-coon, the second chief, whose relations, it is said, were
all captured. On the 25th, with the exception of some
firing by the junks on the western side, matters remained
quiet till the afternoon, the rebels in the town evincing
little or no concern at the near approach of their ene-
mies. It seemed very generally believed by the rebels,
that the Canton junks were manned by members of the
Tien-ti society and that they would not fire in earnest
against them. This belief was assiduously spread by
the rebel chiefs, and while the statement was probably
made without any definite information on the point, with
the view of inspiring the rebel soldiers with confidence,
it was tolerably evident that some of the Canton junks
fired too wide of the mark to intend any damage. About
3 p.m. the fleet, which was at anchor off the 200-gun
battery, and which had been augmented during the night,
came round the south side of Ko-lan-soo, exchanging
shots with the batteries on that island and on the main.
It was supposed they would have come into the inner
harbour and engaged the rebel junks, which all got
under way ; but, after a good deal of ring between the
two fleets the Mandarins anchored near to the foreign
shipping, about a mile from the town, and close to where
their fleet, which came round the west side, had arrived.
The rebels again took up their anchorage immediately in
front of the foreign hongs. During the 27th nothing
was done, save the approach, to within four or five miles
of the city, of the troops, estimated at 5,000 or 6,000,
whose landing at the back of the island had been effected
during the previous two days. On the morning of the
28th some fighting took place near the Mandarin en-
campment, in which the rebels were said to have been
driven off. In the afternoon the fleet weighed, and
stood in to the upper end of the harbour, which it was
again supposed they would enter and occupy, but their
object appeared to have been the destruction of the west-
end of the suburbs, where the rebels had two batteries.
Between these and the junks a heavy and constant fire
was kept up for about 2 hours, but, as usual, without
any damage of consequence to the combatants. A great
many of the shot from the Canton junks on this occa-
sion, as well as on the 26th, appeared directed at and
over the houses, breaking a great many tiles, and fright-
ening the people from the roofs, where, at the com-
mencement, the inhabitants had placed themselves to
witness the fight. The firing ceased about 6 p.m., the
Mandarin junks retiring to their anchorage. The rebel
junks did not weigh, and altogether it was not supposed
that 20 men were killed on shore. The great noise
made by the guns of the Mandarin junks, added to their
evident superiority of force, appeared to have somewhat
disheartened the rebels, and several left the place on the
28th, while, during the night, the rebel chief's son, a lad
of 19 or 20 years of age, poisoned himself with opium.
He had been sick for some days, and is reported to have
at different times of late expressed himself despondingly
of the success of the rebels, and to have said, shortly
before his death, that, as he could not be attended to or
carried off, in case of the rebels having to take to flight,
it were better he should die. He was an only son.
On the morning of the 29th the Mandarin troops
gained considerable advantage over the rebel army. It
would appear that before daylight they surprised
about 400 rebels who were in advance of the main
body, capturing and beheading the greater portion of
them ; the few who escaped, and the main body of rebels
hastened back to the city, followed a considerable part of
the way by the Imperialists, who might have success-
fully invested the place, so panic-stricken were the
rebels. However, they contented themselves with de-
stroying the villages inhabited by the rebels, through
which they passed, four of which they burnt, killing, in
some instances, all the men and male children they
found. It being high-water at the time, some of the
Mandarin junks and boats proceeded up the creek,
which runs half-way across the island from the west end
of the town, and kept up a fire on the retreating rebels.
They also landed some men, who killed several strag-
glers. The Imperialist troops, after destroying and set-
ting on fire four villages, were returning to their camp
to breakfast, when the rebel army was, after much per-
suasion, induced to pursue them, and, though the Man-
darins do not appear to have retreated beyond their
camp, some 32 were captured -at least that number of
heads was exposed in the city. During the rest of the
day all remained quiet, many of the rebel outposts with-
drawing into the city. From the number of headless
bodies lying in and about the villages which were burnt,
a very large number of people must have been killed on
the 29th, and, for the sake of the head-money (the
rebels get 2/. for each head they bring in) many field
labourers, quite innocent of aiding either party, were sup-
posed to have been slain. Towards evening the rebel
troops retired into the city, many of them laden with
plunder from the destroyed villages, while the inhabi-
tants of the villages not yet destroyed by the Mandarins
poured into the town with such articles of furniture as
they could carry with them. On the morning of the
30th at daylight the junks commenced a heavy cannon-
ade on the western suburbs, which they kept up till-9
o'clock, but, beyond some injury to the houses, no ad-
vantage had been gained by them when the last account
left. The rebel soldiers appeared to be all withdrawn
into the city, nor had the Mandarin troops moved again.
It was supposed, however, that another body of troops
had been landed to the eastward, and that a simultaneous I
attack would be made on both sides, and some parts of j
the town, supposed to be occupied by rebels, destroyed. I
The rebel fleet, which might have been easily destroyed,
was apparently spared in order to encourage the flight of
the rebels. A good deal of anxiety was felt by the fo-
reign residents as to the manner in which this struggle
might end. The rebels said that, if defeated, they would
set fire to the city, while the Mandarins, it was under-
stood, intended to burn the western suburbs and Emung-
kang.

"-On the night of the 29th a report was made by the
merchants to Sir William Hosts to delay his departure
to Shanghai for a day or two, but he declined acceding
thereto, because her Majesty's Vice-Consul did not deem
the Spartan's presence indispensable."