The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-15 00:00:00

The Welcome Guest. Part VI. Fleet-street.

This is a cheap and comprehensive weekly maga-
zine—excellently adapted to family reading. Tales,
sketches, poems, and all sorts of entertaining
articles are given for one penny weekly. Gustav'
Freytag's successful work of " Debit and Credit" is
being printed in it, and one or two of Longfellow's
short poems are given, so there is some really
standard literature included. It is in nothing more
remarkable than its contemporaries, but appears to
be quite equal to them ; and as the demand for these
publications is increasing, no doubt it will occupy
a permanent place among the cheap family journals.

211 E FRANCO-SPANISH EXPEDITIOY

TO COCHIN CHINA.

The Moniteur publishes the following report re-
ceived by the Minister of Marine from Vice Atha,
ral Rigault de Genouilly, the Conuriander in Chief
of the expedition in China :

" Bay of Tourane, Sept. 17.
" Monsieur le Ministre,—l have the honour to
inform you that the orders of the Emperor have
been executed as regards the capture and occupa-
tion of the forts of Tourane. The French naval di-
vision, which had. been joined by the Dordogne,
and by the Spanish steamer El Cano, having on
board 450 troops from,the Philippine Islands, left
Yu-li-Kan on the morning of the 30th ult., and an-
chored at Tourane on the evening of the following
day. On Sept. 1; I sent-a written summons to the
governor of the forts to deliver them up, and gate
him two hours to consider of it. Not receiving any.
reply I attacked all the forts which command the
anchorage, and the two built by French engineers,
which defend the entrance of the river. All the po-
sitions pointed out - for the different vessels were
taken up in perfect order. The moment the signal
to commence firing was seen at the masthead of the
Nemesis all the vessels opened their broadsides.
At the end of a vigorous cannonade of half an hour
the forts which defend the anchorage were silenced.
Detachments from the Nemesis, the Phlegethon,
and the Primauguet, under the command of Capt.
Reynaud, immediately landed, scaled the walls,
and carried them, amidst cries of Vive l'Empc-
reur I' I accompanied this column. A short time
after the Spanish and French troops landed, and
formed them into line close to the forts. While
these forts were being attacked by the large vessels,
three of our gunboats, the Mitraille, Fusee, and-
Alarme, and the Spanish steamer El Cano, cannon-
aded the forts at the entrance of the river. The
easternmost of those forts blew up in about half an
hour after the commencement of the attack, and the
greater part of the curtain was thrown into the
ditch. After having personally reconnoitred, under
the escort of a company of Spanish Chasseurs,
place suitable for a camp near the largest of the
forts, I therein established all the French troops
under the command of Lieut.-Col. Reybaud, and
Spanish battalion under Col. Oscaritz. The prin.,
cipal works were occupied. by the seamen under
the command of Capt. Ribourt. Although I had
taken the precaution not to move any of the troops
until sunset, and they had only two hours' march,
the heat was so severe that several of the soldiers
died from fatigue. In the night of the Ist Sept.
Commandant Reynaud, assisted by the Sub-Engi-
neer and Hydrographer Ploix, sounded the south-
western part of the bay, in order to be able on the
following morning to bring the gun-boats close
to the western fort, which still held ont. At day-
break the five gun-boats, the Alarm, Avalanche,
Dragonne, Fusee, and Mitraille, and the Spanish
steamer El Cano, under the direction of Capt. Rey-
naud, had taken up their new positions, and m_
abont half an hour after their fire had been opened.,
the fort blew up. Immediately afterwards, Com-
mandant Jauregniberry advanced up the river at
the head of a flotilla of armed boats, which had re-
mained stationed near the Eastern fort. The Dra-
gonne and the El Cano then left the Bay of
Tourane, and anchored near the camp, between the
peninsula and the island of Cham: Callao, thus
covering the left of the expeditionary corps, which
had its right supported by the Eastern Fort. Being
strongly fixed in this position, I waited the ap-
proach of the Annamite army, which according to
information collected by our missionaries was to
march on us with a force of 10,000 men. Up to the
present time this army has not made its appear-,
ance. The Western Fort and all other works were,
previous to the attack, in a perfect state of repair;
all of them were mounted with very heavy bronze
and iron guns. The former are the most numerous,
and in general they are very fine pieces. All of
them are fitted with the elevating screws, and the
whole materiel is far superior to any we have seen
in China. The Western Fort, in additioa to its
armament, contained a number of bronze six and
nine-pounder field pieces, and they are all mounted
on high-wheeled carriages, well suited for the bad
roads of the country. All the bronze guns have
been removed on board the vessels, but the iron
ones have been destroyed. I have put aside two
magnificent bronze pieces, one to be presented to
the Emperor and the other to the Queen of Spain.
The small arms found are not worthy of remark;
all of them are the common muskets manufactured
in France and Belgium. The powder, of which we
have taken a considerable quantity, is of English
manufacture, and has probably been purchased
either at Singapore or Hong Kong. All the pre-
parations which had been made show that the
Annamite Government expected an attack."

CRCSSED CIIEQUES.—A soldier's red coat, when
photographed, becomes black as a crow ; would it not be
wise for us to cross our cheques in red ink instead of black,
and Indeed any document relative to money transactions
whereby forgery by photography would be neutralised?
A red Government stamp for cheques, instead of the one at
present in use, would next issue be advisable.