The Sun.
London, England, 1857-08-01 00:00:00

now reached there is an island shaped like a leg of mutton
placed lengthway in the river. The broad part is towards
the British boats, and across the knuckle end 20 large
junks lie moored to the shore and aground. The conse-
quence of this position is, that to attack them the British
boats must pass through one of two passages, both of which
narrow to a funnel ; and upon that narrow neck of water
the whole fire of the twenty junks will be concentrated,
One of these funnel passages has been staked
and is impassable. Two other has not water
to carry two boats abreast. At this perilous pas-
sage Keppel and his crew now dashed. The three
boomboats took the ground in attempting to follow. The
base of this triangular island consists of high land which
the grounded boomboats could not fire over, so their guns
were useless; the apex, or to use my more familiar illus-
tration, the knuckle part, was low paddy fields, which the
junks' guns could not sweep across. It was a position
worthy of a Carthaginian—locus insidiis natus.
Na sooner did the boats appear in the narrow passage
than 20 32-pounders sent 20 round shot, and a hundred
smaller guns sent their full charges of grape and canister
at a range of 500 yards right among them. The effect was
terrible. Keppel was sounding with the boathook for
water for the boomboats and went back amid the storm to
get them up. They start afresh, and make another effort
to get through. The Commodore pushes on a-head. There
was Captain Leckie in his galley, with Major Kearney by
his side. Thera was Captain Rolland in the launch of the
Calcutta, and Lieutenant Seymourin thebarge of thesame
ship. The Tribune's cutter wasin among them. The Hong
Kong, who had worked herself up through the mud to
within 500 yards of the scene of action, had sent her gig.
Perhaps there were others, bat amid so much smoke and
fire even those who were in it cannot agree as to minute
details. If the gunners of the Excellent had been in those
Chinese junks, and had worked these 32-pounder guns, they
could hardly have thrown the round shot straighter. Kep
pel's galley, not a largo mark, is hit three times in two mi-
nutes • a 32-pounder shot strikes Major Kearney in the
breast, tearing him to pieces. He must have died without
a sensation. Young Barker, a midshipman of the Tri-
bune, who wore upon his finger a ring bequeathed to him
by his brother, who was killed at Inkerman, is down, mor-
tally wounded. The Commodore's coxswain is killed, and
every man of his crew is wounded. But the miracle is not
that the men are falling, but that any escape. The God of
Battles is there, and wonderful are the instances of His
merciful protection. Captain Cochrane has the sleeve of
his coat torn away by a shot, which leaves him unharmed.
A. round shot enters the Tribune's boat and passes along
her line of keel, from stem to stern, without touching is
man. " That was close, Victor," said Keppel to his flag-
lieutenant, as a cannon shot passed between their heads.
Fortunately for himself, Victor (Prince Victor of Hohen-
lohe, as thorough and as unpretending a British seaman as
if his name were Drake or Jervis) .was leaning forwards,
and using his handkerchiefas a tourniquet stop the
bleeding of a seaman whose hand had just been shot off,
otherwise that ball must have taken Victor's head off. At
this time the galley was disabled, and she was drifting
down under the guns of the junks. Even Keppel
saw that it would not do. The matter was, however,
settled for him, for the next shot tore away the stern
sheets of his galley while he was fortunately stand-
ing up with the tiller ropes in his hand, " Seymour, you
must take me in," and he stepped from his sinking galley
into the barge of the Calcutta. All the other occupants
of the galley wore also removed into the barge ; all except
the mangled corpse of the coxswain and the favourite dog
of the Commodore, who had been accustomed to be tended
by that man, and would not leave his body. With this
freight the wreck of the galley drifted with the rising
tide up towards the junks.
Now the boats retired amid a sounding of gongs, strange
shouts of triumph, and a redoubled fire. They retired to
the Hong Kong, which was aground astern ; but, sup-
ported by the Starling, threw shot and shell up among the
junks, and received from them a full equivalent for their fi re.
The Commodore was waiting for reinforcements and for
more water in the river; meanwhile be piped to
dinner. The men were getting their rations, and were
devouring them when the fire from the junks slackened.
" Three cheers for the Igue," cried a Raleigh boat that
' that now came up. " Man the boats, lads ; those rascals
are getting afloat." Off they go again dinnerless, but in
high spirits, and under a fire so hot that the dalcutta's
launch is sunk, and Captain Rolland has to scramble into
another boat.
This time they find water enough in the narrow pas-
sage, and, dashing through the shot, find the enemy
afloat and in movement. It has now becomes a chase.
These junks, manned by from 60 to 100 rowers, go faster
than our heavy boomboats can follow. But shrapnell shell
go faster than even a snake junk ; there are twistings in
the creek that are not shown in the chart, and in following
these windings pursuers and pursued often find themselves
side by side with an interval of land between them. They
fire at each other across these peninsulas, and the guns are
so well served, and the shells are so terrifying, that every
now and then the crews leap out and the junk is deserted.
Spike the guns and push on. Six miles this hot chase
lasts, and there are now but eight junks uncaptured ;
when rounding a sharp point pursued and pursuers rush
almost together into the city of Fatshan. A. Chinese town
is not seen afar off ; the pagoda and the pawnbrokers'
warehouses are the only high buildings. Three of the
junks escape, the other five are headed and are abandoned.
But the braves of Fatshan would think it a shame that
their five junks should be taken from under their eyes.
They turn out in martial array ; they ring bells and beat
gongs, they come filing down a fosse, so covered from view
that only their waving banners and their brandished
swords and shields are visible. "We are terrible ; flee
before us !" they are supposed to sing or cry. Koppel has
his own way of settling these matters. He turned his
marines out of his boats, drew them up on the margin of
the suburb and poured into the Fatshau militia such a
volley of Minie balls that the Chinese army went quickly
back up its fosse again. He proposed to land his howit-
zers and pass the night in the city—a daring scheme,
which might have produced a ransom of half a million of
dollars or utter destruction, as the fortune of war might
incline. A. message from the Admiral, however, recalled
him He had his five junks towed out before him, and as
ho left the city he stood up in the stern-sheets of his boat
and shook his fist good-humouredly, saying, " You rascals,
I'll come back again to you soon ;" and those extraordi-
nary Chinese, they, too, laughed —a broad, good-humoured
grin--and so they parted.
It was 3 o'clock when Commodore Koppel returned to
the flag-ship, which was now anchored where the Chinese
Admiral's junks had been moored at the commencement
of the engagement, As be came down his lost dog recog-
nised the yellow Raleigh boat, and swam off to his master.
Not a junk was preserved. Their materials are so in-
flammable that they readily igeite one another, and as
we can make uo use of them they were not worth saving
at the price of danger to the men. As it was, the
shot from their heated guns rushed about in a most
unpleasant manner. At sundown the view from the
deck of the flagship was a mixture of the grotesque
and the sublime. The boats were all adorned with bar-
baric spoils; banners of every amplitude, some of them
adorned with colossal pictures of the fat god Fo, flaunted
upon the breeze. Mandarins' coats and mandarins' breeches
were freely worn. Commodore Elliott's crew were equipped
each with a mandarin's hat and foxes' tails. They had
dutifully reserved one r the Commodore, but I must
confess I did not see him put it on. Around, far as the
eye could reach, following the windings of this maze of
creeks 89 war junks were smouldering or blazing, and
every five minutes an explosion shook the sir. The Can-
tonese hal said that Commodore Elliott's expedition in
Escape-creek only capfured a few deserted fishing boats.
From their own verandahs they could see and hear what
had been done in Fatshan branch. It was bruited in
Hongkong that a mandarin of high rank, one greater than
Yeh, had come from Pekin to Canton. If Igo, he has now
gained his first experience. Then came Dr. Anderson's
sad labour of marshalling the wounded for transport and
collecting the reports of the assistant-surgeons. But the
public despatches will tell all this; enough for me to state
that in these two battles of Tung-koon and Fatshan 84
men have bean killed and wounded. That night the two
Commodores slept, side by side, the sleep of the weary on
the deck of the Coromandel, and so ended the let of Tune.
Next morning as we passed down the river, two war-
junks appeared three miles astern, and fired a gun. They
wore chasing tho barbarian fleet.

JUNE 9

When the Admiral had returned to his anchorage a
naval court-martial was held on board the Sybille upon
e rs eonft
form.to s 7: u yw theas
chieflyspr.t remark-
able rendered
Commodore Koppel and his craw for the lose of the Raleigh.
aformillomacettrthe Commodore, who appeared with
his breast quite covered with orders and medals, and
Tt hhi es
reftfroitrial
lar
at s 1
pot
most
speech
oshht e
never allu tied in any way to himself during the whole of
his defence. The fact is 119 great loss has been sustained
in the Raleigh. For modern naval warfare, and especially
in these seas your old 50-gun sailing ships are useless. They
are pleasant as marine residences, but for fighting you
might as as well arm your men with bows and arrows. The
Commodore received back his sword, and is left in co in-
mand up the river.
To-day I visited the wounded men. All the severe
cases are on board the Hercules. With the exception of
two cases—one where the poor creature has the back of
his head shot away, and lingers still with half a brain--the
men are all doing well. The main deck of the Hercules
might be envied as a hospital ward by the surgeons of
Guy's or Bartholomew's. Many of the wounds aro of the
most frightful description. They are all caused either
by-cannon shot or jagged pieces of iron. It is wonderful
to find the men so cheerful under the pressure of
such wounds. I hoard no moan or sob all the time I was
in the ship. Yet there was one poor fellow who was even
then having extracted from his shoulder small bits of a
comrade's skull, which had been smashed and scattered in
splinters by a round shot.' I talked much to Jenkins, the
seaman of Keppers piker, whose life Prince Victor saved
by timely twisting his haukerchief over the stump. Jen-
kins is a very intelligent fellow ; he looks calmly at his
stamp—perhaps he thinks of England and Greenwich, and
strikes a balance in his mind. Upon the whole I must re-
port that up to this present time no wounded men could
possibly be better cared for than those of this Chinese
squadron.
in Hongkong we are now listening for the gun which
will announce the arrival of the mail. It is a great incon-
venience to every one here that it is so arranged by the
authorities that one mail comes in either about 12 hours
before the other goes out, or about 12 hours after it is gone,
thus causing uncertainty and most precipitous haste in all
matters mercantile. Why not arrange the arrivals and
departures for alternate weeks ? I dare say there is some
stupid clerk in some inaccessible office who has some stupid
reason for inflicting this annoyance upon us.
The merchants have at length resolved to make a demon-
stration upon the Chinese question. It appears singular
that they have not done so before; but the politics of
Hongkong are very intricate, and there were objections to
all previous propositions. The Dents have now taken the
matter in hand, and an address to Lord Elgin is in course
of signature.
After the usual congratulations, the address proceeds
thus :
" We venture upon no opinion at present respecting the
readjustment of our relations with the empire at large,
though always prepared to hold our advice and experience
at your Lordship's command; but upon that branch of the
question which we distinguish as the Canton difficulty, we
would take this, the earliest opportunity, of recording our
opinion—an opinion founded upon long, reluctant, and we
msy add traditional experience—that any compromise of
it, or any sort of settlement which shall stop short of the
complete humiliation of the Cantonese—which shall fail
to teach them a wholesome respect for the obligations of
their own Government in its relations with independent
Powers, and a more hospitable reception of the fc.reigner
who resorts to their shores for the peaceable purposes of
trade, will only result in further, suffering to themselves
and further disastrous interruptions to us.
"Many of as have already been heavy sufferers by the
present difficulty. It must be apparent to your lordship
that our best interests lie upon the side of peace, and upon
the earliest solid peace that can be obtained. But, not-
withstanding this, we would most earnestly depreeato any
settlement of the question which should not have elimin-
ated from it the very last element. of future disorder."
This means, " You must take Canton, my lord, and
negotiate at Pekin, with Canton in your possession." Such