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

........
4th instant at J'allandur. There have been several fires
pre of late.
R. MONTGOMERY, Judicial Commissioner,

INDORE.
(From the Mofussilite, June A.)
Copy of electric telegraph message, received from Colo-
nel Durand, at Indore
"An express from Captain Lloyd, dated sbh, Chota
Jadree, reporting rise of Neemuch troops on the night of
3d inst. All joined. The Artillery commenced. Fort
gate opened by a native officer. Officers known to be
saved :—Captain Lloyd, Lieutenant Ritchie, Dr. Cotes,
Ist Cavalry, Captain Sir J. Hill, Lieutenant Ellice, Lieu-
tenant Stapleton, Quartermaster-serjeant and family.
"Artillery.—Lieutenant Walker and child, Dr. Clark,
Lieutenant Barnes. Sergeant, fate of family unknown.
" 7th Gwalior Infantry.— Captain M'Donald, Lieutenant
Bose, Lieutenant Gordon, Lieutenant Davenport.
The 72d officers safe with families.
" Dr. and Mrs, Hockin. at Jewud, Mrs. Ruston and
family at Jewud, Sergeant Brahyon, wife, and family, and
,(r. ►rilliams at Jadree.
"H. A. PRINSTP, Aide-de-Camp.
" June 8, 147."

CHINA.
HONG KONG, JUNE 5.
The Chinese fleet has been destroyed in two decisive
engagements, but the sentiment of our navy has under-
gone an entire change in respect of these "timid" b::rba-
rians. More Englishmen have been killed and wounded in
these two conflicts than were disabled before the walls of

Acre.
The first expedition was under Commodore Elliott, and
the operations lasted during the 25th, 26th, and 27th of
May. The second was under Commodores Keppell and
Elliott, commanded by the Admiral in person. The first
I can only relate from hearsay.
' If you will:refer to the small chart of the Canton river,
recently published by the Admiralty, and which, so far as
it gees, is very correct, you will see four creeks marked as
running from the Canton river eastward. The northern-
meet of these is Escape. Creek ; next, to the south, is
Tazekee Creek, which is, in fact, but part of Escape
Creek ; about four miles further to the south is an en-
trance called Second Bsr Creek, and four miles still south-
wards is a larger inlet celled Sawshee Channel. Only the
mouths of these four inlets are marked in the chart. They
were supposed to communicate with each other further
inland, but nothing certain was known upon the subject.
About live miles up Escape Creek a large fleet of Man-
darin junks had lain for some time, and here it was that
the operations commenced.
On the morning of Monday, the 25th of May, Commo-
dore Elliott, in the Hong Kong gunboat, followed by the
Bustard, the Staunch, the Starling, and the Forbes, and
towing the boats and boats' crews of the Inflexible, the
Hornet, and the Tribune, steamed into the creek, and
came upon 41 Men iarin junks, moored across the stream.
Each was armed with a long 24 or 3. pound gun forward,
and also with from four to six nine-pounders. The first
shot fired after she got within range struck the Hong
Kong, and for some minutes the shot came thick aboard
of her. The other gunboats now came up, and forming in
as loose order as possible immediately opened fire. The
junks stood for some time, and returned the fire with
spirit. It requires no small- amount of steadiness and
courage to work that large exposed gun, rising in the
bows of the junk and without a• scrap of protection to
the man who fires it. After some little time confusion
see ned to increase. They are all swift vessels, impelled
by oars or sails. Several of them got under way and
turned for flight up the creek. Immediately they
did so they were comparatively powerless,' for their
stern guns were of small calibre and were not well served.
The steamers pressed on in pursuit; but the waters shoaled.
The gunboats draw from 7ft. to lb. 6in. ; these flat-
bottomed junks can float in three feet. One by one the
steam gunboats grounded, but the Commodore's cry was,
" Never mind, push on." They had towed behind theta
the boats of the larger ships. Quickly as a steamer got
fast into the mud the men swarmed into the boats, manned
the gun in her bows, and rowed off in pursuit. At last
there was not. a steamer afloat, the junks were in full
flight up the creek, the rowboats ware in hot pursuit. It
was hard work, fur these are swift vessels, and with 40
Chinese pulling for dear life, they pass deftly through the
shallow and treacherous channels. The guns, however,
in the bows of the pursuers, told heavily, and when a boat
did get alongside the crows always fired a broadside of
grape, jumped out on the other side, swam ashore, and
. were lost in the paddy-fields.
. Sixteen junks were thus taken and destroyed in the
main creek. Thirteen escaped by dint of swift rowing.
The sun was tremendous, and cases of sunstroke were
occurring among the men- One junk in its terror turned
up a little inlet to the right, and being followed was
politely led out. A squadron of 10 went up a passage to
the left, which i 3 supposed to have a shallow channel up
to Canton. They were now, however, so utterly panic-
stricken that upon being approached by four boats they
were all abandoned and burnt upon the spot.
Thus ended the first day's wolk.
Commodore Elliott, however, was not satisfied about
those 13 junks. He had suspicions also that there were a
great many more in those creeks.
The next day was employed in stopping the four holes of
this rabbit warren. Captain Forsyth of, the Hornet was
now left te gnarl Eseepe Creek. The Inflexible had her
broadsides bearing upon the entrance to the Second Bar
Creek. Captain Eegell in the Tribune took charge of the
• Sawshee ()spanned. All the points of escape into Canton
river being thus closed, Commodore Elliott and his gun-
boats, with all the ships' boats of his squadron in tow, on
Wednesday morning set forth to explore the Sawshee
Channel. For twelve miles his gunboats found water—
but found nothing else ; but the Commodore saw a very
remarkable pagoda, which he ha I seen before when run-
sting up the Escape Creek, and he felt convinced that these
creeks were all in communication. He also met a China-
man who told him that four of his friends who escaped on
Monday had got away to a town whereof thispagoda laths
principal building, and which we now know t 3 be Tung-
koon. Abandoning his steamers, therefore, he took to his
boats, and after rowing for 12 miles between paddy fields
rounded a point of the creek and found himself close in
. with the town of Tang-keen, and also with a fleet of junks
(one of them of great size and splendour) and under a bat-
tery. The Chinese were utterly unprepared for this sudden
meeting. The English boats fired all their guns, gave a
se' cheer, and male a rash; the Chinese jumped overbear.'
without firing a shot. •
- - Now, howevenicame the worst part of the affair. It was
necessary to destroy these junks, and it was desirable to
take away the chief junk. But the boats were in the
midst of a city. The crews of thejunks established them-
selves in houses and fired upon the sailors with jingslls.
The Marines were obliged to form and charge in the streets.
Tee Mandarin junk was found to have powder upon her
deck and trains communieating between her and the streets.
Then a house close to her was set on fire, and up she went
nearly carrying an English pinnace up with her. Twelve
large junks were here destroyed. The sailors, who had no
sails in their row boats having now done their work,
tly cared to pull back again. Sails, therefore, were
improvised out of the mats and other spoil of the junks,
ane they came sailing down Sawshee channel in guisw,
which might have puzzled the master of each ship to re:.
cogniae his own boat.
in this affair one man out of every 10 engaged was hit
e-a large average even in European warfare. Stich was
the result of the expedition of the Escape Creek.
I shall describe the battle of Fatshan hi all its details,
net only because it was the most desperate cutting-out
affair that has happenee in these waters, but also because
it enables me to describe at the same time the theatre of
our operations and the present position of the British force
in China. I have sent home by this mail a plan of the
operations, and if Mr. Wyld will publish it in a cheap
form, and if people will refer to it while reading ray nar-
rative, I believe I can make the incidents clear to them.
If I do not it must lle my own fault, for no one had a bet-
_ ter opportunity of seeing them.
On 141riday, the 29th of May, at 9 o'clock in the morning
Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, Commanding in Chief, left
the Calcutta line-of-b sttle-ship and hoisted his flag on board
the Coromandel, a small paddle-wheel steamer which had
been a passenger boat, and was very weak both in scantling
and armament. She bad been brought when our force
here was too small for its work; and her recommendations
were that her draught of water is not great and her ma-
chinery tolerably trustworthy. The latter cannot be said
for the gunboats, which break down constantly. Their
boilers are worn out, but others are on their way, and all
will then be right. The Coromandel, however, is a lucky
boat. The Admiral uses her as a tends to the Calcutta,
and takes his little eggshell into a hot fire as confidently as
if she were a shotproof battery. She has been five times
in the thick of it, has been hulled over and over again,
but her vital part, her machinery, has never yet been hit.
The Admiral was accompanied by Commodore Reppel,
Commander Rolland, of the Calcutta; Mr. Fowler, flag-
lieutenant; Mr. Somerset, acting signal lieutenant ; and
Dr. Anderson, staff. surgeon. Lieutenant Douglas, of the
Calcutta, commanded the Coromandel. With the excep-
tion of Mr. Janes, the Admiral's Secretary, and of one in-
dividual who was there as the Admiral's guest, these were
the only occupants of the quarter-deck.
Bang goes the signal gun and the Coromandel is unti:e.
way. Four low, black, vixen looking screws immediately
show signs of movement and they are soon follewin; in the
wake of the Admiral. These are the Haughty, the Opos-
sum, the Forester, and the Plover gunboats. Two of
these are armed wi:h two long 3G's and one 68-pounder ;
the other two have not toeir large gun oa board.
Away we go, the Haughty holding her own well with the
flagship, and the others coming on some distance astern.
We pass.throtieh the archipelago of islands which lie in
the great estuary d the Mouth of the Canton River.
. We coast by the C +stle Peak Bay, a large inlet where 17
jun' s e ere eestroyel sums weeks since, and where those
papers were taken which have told us something of
the proceediegs of our enemies. We pass the pyramidal
• islet of Lintin —the great feature of the entrance of this
river ; and as we lose it behind us we begin to see main-
-14-V; or what ins teined to be mainland, on each side.
that are clouds upon the mountain tops, and lam told
that run is that inainh-nd there are creeks and channels
nic Infinitely reticulated convolutions and commu-
.
,ivaya'efaeihnapininat4eith large rivers which keep open the water
trafee 80 mile the country. Captain Keith Stewart pent-
populAion, but no them and found a civil and friendly
rint h. There is (a' Ma of any termination to the laby-
one of the junks ; but itnre map of them recently taken in
of a handful of r like a picture by a pre Raphaelite
'IA mires be an aide memoirs to a
man who knows sheU
pirates prowl't is of no use to a stranger.
Among them theta
jmiitani hide, and here, when
close pressed, the Man larin
lie and watch tilleof war take refuge.
also, they
Here,
riuoir ortunity, coming
do;en Su case of opportunity to
January,
as they
mobbed the Coroniaudel on the 4th c,ir
gh ,i,e,nuaawrrc,krd the
Cow us not lon . since, sending thrall
off a .sea Man's leg., went through a shot'
which tookchest of
and destroyee all the captaie's
rawer',crockery. What
we call " nets elan 1," therefore, is only the banks of the
channel which leads to Canton through this maze of shal-
low and loam w waters
Now we ,hug the right hand shore of this sickly pale
green river, and we Fuss a group of marnelons that mark
the entrance to a bay. This is Anson 's Bay, and low down,
nearly level with the water, is a line of stone embrasures,
at which 12 large guns show their muzzles. These are
hostile guns. This is i
the fort of Canenpee. There is a
sensible old Mandarin there who writes to Pekin that no
barbarian dares to look upon Chuenpee ; but he also gives
strict orders that no gun in Chuenpde shall ever be fired
on a barbarian ;so we have hither'o let him alone. We
were in close range some time, bat no Chinaman showed
his eye over his gun.
The channel contracts. Away to the 1-ft there is an un-
limited extent of rocks, shoals, and shallows ; but the
channel runs between two hills. Midway between these
high shores interpose two grien islets. At the bottom of
the hill which forms the right hand bank run two separate
lies of embrasures, built of very large
now knocked about in strange confusion. The islets have
similar lines of fortification, which circle their summits
like coronets. As we steam up between the islets and the
shore I look with horror on the place. Hera ale four bat-
teries, each having embrasures for a hundred monstrous