The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-28 00:00:00

chung Bay. As the water was known tco'shoal in
the bay,, commencing from the western point of
Chu-100-cock island andrunnieg south and westerly
to a projecting point in . Lantoa, the Eaglet was
ordered to go ahead sounding, until she got into
three fathoms,-when she was to hoist No. 3 pen
nant. Having felt her way into the required sound-.
ing, she ran on until she was in about eight feet of
water, which brought her within the range of five
.heavily. armed junks, when she anchored, and at
once opened fire on them. In about five minutes.
the junl.s and Eire battelies surrounding the bay-re-
plied. After about a quart rof an beitr's firing, H.
Ellis, master, in command of the Eaglet, got his
two boats out, hoping that the Auckland's boats
.vould'aleo be ready to shove off in support of him.
Uufortunately.the Auckland had . got aground and
was not prepared-to send her boats, and the fire. of,
the junks en the two boats was so hot, the water'
being dashed in the mesa's faces by the grape and
round: shot, to which the beats, having no guns,
could make no reply, that it was deemed best to
return and wait for the assistance of the sboaas of
the Auckland. After gettinion board, the 'Eaglet
resumed her firs, as did the Auckland, the latter
vessel firing over the Eaglet at the forts and junks.
The latter vessel was hit several times, but no lives
were lost. After three quarters of an hour's firing,
the aenmunition of the Eaglet, gave out, and wi h
only a few rounds in her magazine the-anchor was
lesesesurreautl- the b tat i stekideout, -keeping up hnr
fi 'e, to the Auckland. The cause of that steamer not
sending boats was then ascertained ;she was hard and
fait aground. As, however, night was approach-
ing no time was to be lost, the boats ware got out
a'id manned.. A pinnace, two cutters, and the gig
of the 'Auckland, ,and the gig and jolly boat of
the E 'Oa, were taken in tow by. the latter steamer,
which ag an ran iu towards the town. The boats
were cast off and pulled towards the junks, which
kept up a very hot fire, mortally wounding one,
and two severely. The fire was replied to by the
b ats until they were half-a-dozen lengths froth'
the enemy ; a cheer from them then sent all the
Chinese out of .their vessels, and not a.soul remained
.to oppose the boats taking possession. The junks
were found to be aground, and their starboard guns,
pointing to the laud, were manned by the boats'
crews and turned on' the forts, the town, and the
flying enemy. After a short :time the boats re-
men tied, and pushed for the nearest fort to the west
of the town. On ap et-ow:ling, it was found to be
des:ated ; the guns, thirty in number, were spiked,
ant the house and sheds in the enclosure set fire to.
It was now so dark that it was thought imprudent
to tike the men against the other forts, which were
situated at .about.a mile distant. They therefore
embarked, and pulled for the junks, which were set
on fire. Although this was done with as much pre-
caution as possible, that the boa's might have time
to pull off before the magazines exploded, it unfor-
tunately happened that the last fired bad some
ready communication with the magazine, and as
Mr. Ellis and Lieutenant De Belin of the Auckland
were descending the side into their boats, after
having seen the junk well on' fire, the magazine
exploded. The- two officers were thrown over the
boat some-distance,
.and were picked up stunned
and slightly, bruised ; the men in the boat also suf-
fered, • three of them having .been more or less'
wounded. The boats and the Eaglet then ran out
to the Auckland, and the two steamers lay together
until the morning, when it was seen that Ise euuks
were burnt down to-the water's edge. A boat came
off early in the morning with a peace offering of two
bullOcks and some pigs, and a-letter fr. 0.0 the elders,
begging the men- of war to spare their town. As
the admiral had ordered that the steamers should
be back in Hong-:Kong the previous evening, it
was thought be'st that the Eaglet should return at
once to take 'in coal and ammunition, and send
some assistance to get the Auckland off.
Having taken Mr. Caldwell on beard, the Eaglet
started for Hong Kong. In the Cup-suy-moon a
large boat fil!ed with men and heavily armed was
observed at anchor. Mr. Caldwell pronounced her
to be a passage boat, which it was unnecessary to
meddle with. As the Eaglet passed down the har-
bour with the Chinese admiral's flag flying at the
fore, she was lustily cheered by the merchant
ve-ssels.
Having reported the state of affairs, to the ad-
miral, he resolved to send the Niger to get the
Auckland off, but with instructions to leave Toon-
ehung alone, as no danger was to be apprehended
from that place after the destruction of the fleet.
The Niger got under weigh about one o'clock, and,
steaming through the Throat Crates, met the Auck-
land alining in ; she then saw the boat under sail
which the Eaglet lsal: pas-ed th it morning ; it was
hailed by the Chinese pilot to lower her sails and
helve to. No reply being given, a few musket shots
were fired at it with as little effect. On' this a gun
vas fired threitigh the boar, whicti had the effect of
bringing is to, when it was found that one man had
been killed (cut in two by the shot) and 3 wonnded.
After the latter were examined by the surgeon of the
Niger they were reurned on board. Tee boat was,
found to be what we have already stated—a " pas-
senger boat.' From the Calcutta the two steamers
were at once despatched to pick up a portion of the
pirate fleet, which it had been discovered were on
the -other tide of Chung-yue, better known as
" Pirates' Island," the next island to Stotaetutteee.
The Auckland went round to the west and the
Niger to the east of the island, and between them
they hemmed in eight junks. The Auckland seems
to have at once gone at them, and the crews of
three junks took to the land, where they were fol-
lowed by the small armed men, who killed and
wounded several, and took a prisoner: The same
dodge was tried on by the other boats with the
Niger as was done with Commodore Armstrong, a
Chinese coming on board dressed up in great style
to say that the junks were rebels. Mr. Caldwell,
who was on beard, Was not Commodore Armstrong,
and the Chinese commander was informed he was
a prisoner as a piiate.
As before stated, the Gaol brigade. behaved with
great courage, and therefore, deserve some remis-
sion of their sentences. The following are the
casualties
Aleman 0. S. •
Severely wounded—W. Harrison, A.B. J. Sul-
livan, 0. S.
Slightly wounded—Lieut. D'Belin ; D. Johnson,
A. B. ; H. Smith, A. B. ; P. Sykes, 0. S.
The above belong to the Auckland ; in addition,
Mr. T. H. Ellis, commanding E•aglet, was slightly
wounded when blown from the junk. •
The storehouse of Mr. Duddell, the government,
controctor, has been burnt down, with the destruc-
tion of some 700 barrels of flour, a particularly in-
convenient circumstance at 'the present time, and
entailing a most serious loss upon that gentleman.
A guard after the fire was placed over the ruins,
which we believe had been refused previous to the
catastrophe ; Mr. Duddell wa.e.ly thinking that, as
purveyor of bread to the troops, arc., and in the face
of the poisoning case, he was entitled to some pro-
tection from her Majesty's authorities. .

SEIZURE OF THE STEAMER QUEEN, AND
MURDER ,OF SEVERAL PASSENGERS.
(From the Chita Mail of Feb. 26.).
Another river steainer, the Queen, has fallen a
prey to the Chinese passengers and crew, through
the culpable negligence of the owners andi captain
—the former in not having her properly manned
and officered, the latter in not adopting the neces-
sary' precautions against such an occurrence. The
captain ha., indeed, paid the penalty with hig life,
but at the same time has sacrificed as well the lives
of his passengers, and a valuable cargo entrusted to
his care. ,There is no doubt whatever that a very
little c -infirm would have prevented the catastrophe,
for at,the time the Queen was brought bAck by the
Willamette, a week or two ago, and since, Captain
Wynn has been warned of the danger impending
over him, and that there could he no doubt what-
ever of complicity on the part of his crew in a pro-
jected attempt to take the steamer.
The Queen left this harbour for Macao on Mon-
day at noon, and had arrived by 3 o'clock off the
south-west end of Tai-yu-shan (Lantao), when Cap-
tain Wynn, with his engineer, and Mr. Weir, also an.
engineer, sat down to dinner, Mr. Osmond Cleverly,
a passenger, being likewise in the cabin. The upper
deck was deserted except by the steersman, and the
armschest kept there was consequoutly at the disposal
of the Chinese, who did not fail to avail themselves
of its contents. . What became bf the steersman is
' not known, but the steamer's gangway gun was
turned aft, and, with the muskets,° was discharged
into the cabin. Mr. Cleverly has his thighbone
fractured by a grapeshot ; but though then se-
verely wounded, ho was not entirely disabled, so
that with his revolver he managed to shoot two of
his assailants ; then, having bound up his leg, he
threw a chair overboard, and took to the water,
supporting himself upon the chair until picked up
by a _lorcha close by, and: in which he was taken to
Macao.
The following note by a correspondent give 4 a