The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-03 00:00:00

THE CHINESE INBURuENTS.

From Shanghai we receive the following account
of the approach and repulse of the Tae-ping insur-
gents :—" Sunday morning broke on a scene of
conflagration and destruction. During the night
the enemy had advanced in large numbers to the
water suburb, firing a few gingalls at the south
gate en passant. A large number, too, concealed
themselves in the ruins both at the south and west
gates during the morning, but far some two or three
hours during which time the Rev. J. Hobson read
his usual service, no firing was kept up. The in
surgmts had, however, worked their way round
almost to the French quarter, and had planted some
flags on the temple of the Queen of Heaven. Our
gallant allies set to work, in a manner peculiar to
themselves, to drive away the danger, and to prevent
its recurrence fired the suburb, which is by far the
richest and most important collection of native
houses. It is here that the Chinese wholesale
merchants live ; an immense quantity of goods,
especially sugar, was stored there, and as the con-
flagration in its rapid progress licked up a sugar
hong or soy factory, the flames sprang up with
fearful grandeur. About 2 o'clock the Kestrel and
Hong Kong came steaming down against a strong
tide past the burning suburb with the news that
the rebels had evacuated Sungkiang, and could
not be heard of near there. Twelve conflagra-
tions that were burning round the city told them
that they would not have to go far for them now.
The firing too had recommenced at the South Gates
from double-shotted guns and howitzers. Driven
from their cover by these means, and compelled to
take up a new position, the enemy laid himself open
to some fine rifle practice. Macintyre's guns were
too well handled to let them hide in any of the
buildings yet standing, and Lieut. O'Grady, with
some marines, opened a most destructive fire from
the " look out." This gallant officer is really an
excellent shot ; the braves at Canton have some
cause to remember him, and we believe it is reckoned
that in this affair 20 men fell to his rifle with
scarcely one intervening miss. The immense range
of the Enfield bothered the enemy terribly and they
soon became anxious to get beyond it. On
Sunday night they were quiet enough, and it was
a very striking sight to see their camp fires dotting
for an immense distance the country on the south-
west, while on the east the fire raised by the French
was burning with great brilliancy, leading the
foreigners fo believe from the noise made by the
falling houses that the musketry had recommenced.
On Monday morning, the 20th August, the
enemy had advanced in greater strength than ever.
It was really a curious sight to see them moving
along, every one of the little paths which run
parallel to the city walls, each man carrying a
flag, and all moving in Indian file, but in excel-
lent order and quite calm and steady. On they
came without hesitation, perfectly within range,
and seemed to direct their attention principally
to the west gate. Lieutenant O'Grady had been
sent there with some marines, to assist Captain
Cavanagh, and the Madras Artillerymen having
rigged up a Chinese gun, a heavy fire was kept up,
and the insurgents have to thank the nature of the
ground that their loss was not very large. Strange
to say, scarcely a shot was returned, and the im-
perialist soldiers, after firing a couple of times, got
up on the battlements of the wall, hung their legs
over, and smoked away without any apparent fear,
although the foe was lurking among the graves and
rushes below. The cracking of the rifles seemed to
have had no effect in changing the line of march of
the insurgents, who now seemed to threaten the
English settlement in great numbers. They
actually planted some flags within a couple of hun-
dred yards of the Race Course Stand, but were met
with a shell or two from a gun commanded by
Lieutenant Williams. Lieutenant Crease fired a
couple of rockets at them too, so they gradually
retired. During the night, the despatch boat
Pioneer had proceeded up the river, and began
dropping 13-inch shells in among the rebel flags.
One of these exploded right in the centre of about
100 red banners, which immediately afterwards
disappeared. About 1 o'clock, the despatch boat
Nimrod threw a shell clean over the settlement
away out into the fields an astonishing distance.
This practice was kept up slowly for about two
hours, when the insurgents retreated out of range.
The Pioneer continued firing until the evening had
far advanced, but the enemy had had enough of it,
and retreated so far out towards Zee-ka-wei that
they were out of all possible danger.
On Tuesday but very little work took place, as
the rebels had retreated quite out of range, and
with the exception of one or two small bodies
none were seen near enough to fire at. The
conflagration raised by the French in the water
suburb was still raging, and it was melancholy to
see hong after hong full of valuable goods falling a
prey to the devouring element. But nothing could
possibly be done to stop it, as the houses are con-
structed of the most inflammable materials and
crowded together as thick as possible.
On Wednesday Mr. Forrest volunteered to take
to the insurgents the despatches that had been sent
to Sungkeang in the Kestrel and Hongkong. His
offer was accepted, and every aid afforded him for
effecting what seemed a sufficiently daring ride.
Accompanied by a single soldier named Phillips,
who had a white napkin attached to his bayonet,
Mr. Forrest rode out of the south gate, skirted the
city wall to the south-west angle, and then rode for
the bridge which crosses the Zee-ka-wei canal. A
good system of signals had been arranged with the
west gate, one dip of the flag on the bayonet mean-
ing all right, and three dips all wrong. Finding no
one at the bridge, it was determined to proceed to
the rebel camp which was about a mile ahead. On
nearing the flags a man was observed on the roof of
a house, and on being hailed by Mr. Forrest, de-
scended, and by the appearance of many soldiers
running to the camp, evidently gave the alarm.
The two foreigners thereupon rode through the
first lot of flags up to the gate of the camp, and
were met by several soldiers, almost all having
European arms in their possession. On the re-
quest being made that some
sent for, a mass of about twooficuenrdsred inhould be
rebelS
whit© flag, the
came down, bearing a huge
centre of which was painted the "pa kua," and
i
a fine daring-looking man, dressed n purple silk,
then presented himself aslaainn officer. After the usual
ed of the resistance that
civilities the officer comp
the foreigners had offered
to them, asserting at the
same time that the insurgents had been invited to
Shanghai by foreigners of all nations. Mr. Forrest
was pressed to proceed to Zee-ka-wei aad see the
Chung-wang, but declining the request, that gen-
tleman delivered his despatches, and m. ade his way
city wall, making the signal that all
back to the
was well. About 20 corpses were passed on the
path alone, by the tainted atmosphere the locality
of many snore was designated where they could not
be seen, and the loss of the insurgents, taking what
was seen on this ride as evidence, could not have
been inconsiderable.