The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-02 00:00:00

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THE AMERICAN MINISTER IN CIIINA.i

TI ILs.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW YORE:
Sir,—l have just received. a letter from Mr.
Ward, our Minister in China, which, though not
intended for publication, contains so much that is
interesting to the world, and especially to the
American world, that I cannot refrain from send-
ing you some part of it for publication in your
widely read paper. M.
" United States' frigate Powhattan, off
the Peiho River, June 30.
" My dear —, —On the morning of the IGth
we left Shanghai for the mouth of the Peiho river,
having in tow the Toey-wan, a boat chartered by
Commodore Tatnall, in which I was to ascend. the
Peiho as far as Tien-tsin. We arrived here on Tues-
day morning, the 21st -inst., just before daylight.
We found near us the following vessels :—Her Brie
tannic Majesty's ships Chesapeake, Highflyer,
Fury, Magicienne, Cruiser, Nimrod, Cormoran.t,
transport ship Assistance (steam), steam storeship
Hesper, Plover, a gunboat, and the Coromandel,
tender to the Chesapeake; French steam frigate
Du Chayla, and her tender, the Nosogary. These
vessels, with the Powhattan, were all anchored
about ten miles from the forts at the mouth of the
river, which have been rebuilt since last year. The
coast is so. shallow as to render nearer approach im-
possible for large vessels.
" About three miles from the mouth of the river
and from the forts there is a bank about a mile
wide, across which no vessels of greater draught
than 10 feet can go even at high water. When that
bank has been passed, you are in the channel of the
river, distant from its mouth about three miles in
a direct line from the forts. On our arrival here
the following vessels were anchored over that bar,
within about two miles from the forts :—The gun-
boats Kestrel, Janus, Forester, Haughty, Lee,
Opossum, Starling, and Banterer.
" The day we arrived the wind was so high that
nothing could be done. The next day, Wednesday,
it was blowing a gale and raining very hard. On
Thursday the English Admiral called upon me, and
said be had been up to the mouth of the river, and.
found it so obstructed by chains as to render fur-
ther progress impossible without their removal ;
that he had sent his boat on shore to say that the
English and French Ministers had arrived on their
way to Pekin, and to require that the obstructions
should be removed, so as to enable them to proceed.
The reply was that these obstructions had been.
placed there, not to prevent the Ministers from
going to Pekin, but to keep out the rebels ; which
was of course untrue, as the rebels_ have no boats
and never approach by water. They said also that
this was not the mouth of the Peiho—that the en-
- trance to the Peiho was 10 or 15 miles north, and
there the Ministers must goif they wished to reach
Pekin. For this northern entrance I refer you to
my official letter to the Secretary of State. They
promised, however, to remove the obstructions, but
instead of performing their promise they went on
completing them. The Admiral also informed me
that he had subsequently given the Chinese notiee
that he would proceed to remove these obstructions
himself on Saturday morning, the 25th inst., as
Messrs. Bruce and De Bourboulon, finding the doors
closed upon their, had instructed himto open them.
" I frankly told the Admiral that my position
was very different from that of the. English and
French Ministers ; that their treaties were made
at a time when they were at war with the Chinese
—and. that if their provisions were violated they
might consider themselves thrown back into
the wit which had been terminated or suspended
by the treaty ; that the American treaty, on the con-
trary, had been made with a nation with whom
we had never been at war, and that if any of its
provisions were violated the proper remedy must be
judged of by our Government, to which I should
refer the matter, but that I had been instructed by
the President of the United States to go to Pekin,
and that I should go until stopped by a force which
I could not overcome ; that Commodore Tatnall and
I would, the next day, cross the bank in the Toey-
wan and proceed as far as we could, or until -we
were fired upon.
" The next morning, Friday, the 24th, Commo-
dore Tatnall, with his flag-lieutenant, and I, with
my brother, the interpreters and attaches of the
Legation, went on board the Toey-wan about 8 a.m.,
and proceeded towards the river. We passed at
anchor outside the bank the Cruiser and the steam
storeship Hesper. .
" After passing the bank we found at anchor about
a mile a half' from the mouth of the river the gun-
boats heretofore mentioned as over the bank, and
also the Coromandel, to which the Admiral's flag
had been transferred, the Nimrod and the Plover;
and the French gunboat Nosogaray, making in all
10 gunboats and three small vessels, carrying about
40 guns and 600 men. Anchored with these vessels
were three large junks, of which the English had
taken possession, and upon which they had about
700 Men intended as recruits fur the vessels, and as
a force with which at a proper time an attack by
land was to be made upon the forts. We passed all
these vessels on our way, determined not to be
stopped except by actual force. Fortunately for us
we ran aground when within half a mile of the forts.
This was not to be wondered at, as no officer on
board the Toey-wan had ever crossed the bank or
bar.
" At the time we grounded the tide was falling
rapidly. The English Admiral immediately sent
his Lag-lieutenant in the Plover to say that he ex-
pected to see us fired upon at every moment, and
when the tide fell the boat would probably keel
over: He tendered to Commodore Tatnall the
use of the Plover, requesting him to hoist the
American ensign at the peak and his own flag at
the mizenmast. The commodore declined to accept
this kind offer, but said he would be glad of the
services-of tile boat to pull him off. An effort to do
this was made,butwasunsuccessful, and the Plover
left us and returned to the line which the admiral
was forming.
" About 2 p.m. the flag-lieutenant of Commodore
Tatnall was sent on shore with the interpreters to
inform them that I was on board the steamer on
my way to Pekin. The reply I received was that
we could not go by that river—that there was no
officer of any rank there—that those who were
them could receive no communication of any kind
whatever—indeed, that there was no one there who
. could read or write—that they had heard that the
Emperor had ordered the Governor-General to meet
the !Ministers at whatthcy called-the north entrance
to the river, which they said was ten miles distant.
They thought that the Governor-General would
probably be there that day or the next.
" About 8 o'clock in the evening we fortunately
succeeded in getting the steamer off. By that time
the-Admiral had formed a line extending from the
junks to our position. The commodore, fearing that
a light moving about our boat during the night
might be mistaken for some signal in the admiral's
squadron, ordered the steamer to drop below the
line and anchor near the junks. About 12 o'clock
we heard an explosion. This was the blowing up
of the first barrier across the river, and it was fol-
lowed by two guns from the forts. The rest of the
night everything was quiet.
" It was evident in tho morning, from the posi-
tion of the vessels, that the battle- would be com-
menced some time during the day. All the vessels
mentioned as over the bar were as near to the en-
trance of the river as they could get. It was ascer-
tained that three barriers hod been erected across
the river at the distance of 20 yards from each other.
Oa the left bank of the river were three or four
large forts admirably built of mud, and connected
with each other by shore batteries. At the mouth
of -the river was one very large fort, from which
the heaviest guns were fired. On the right-hand
side of the river were three forts, conuected
by
shore batteries. Within these forts and batteries it
was afterwards ascertained there must have been
from 20,000 to 25,000 men. At 2.45 p.m. the Star-
ling, having the Admiral's flag flying, commenced
ascending the river, followed by the Plover, the
other vessels remaining at anchor. As soon as the
Starling had passed the barrier blown up during
the night the forts commenced firing. All the ves-
sels returned the fire, and the balls flew around
like hailstones. Before the firing- had lasted half an
hour, however, we could. see from our vessels that
the English were suffering far beyond their antici-
pations, and the Comniodore said to me, "Those
forts cannot be taken wills the force they have.'
We could see the shot destroying the vessels, while
the
forts were scarcely injured by the small bat-
tery of the English. About five o'clock a young
man came to 'us
blood. upon -his "mn
the Admiral's ship, with
wZ.;aricd. and brow,e7ll,,r poor fellow, and looking
exhausted. He told the Commodore
that the AdmiralNv
the deck of his ves-
sel severely 'voun.led ; that his captain had had his
head shot off, and that ho hid ut three men left
capable of'do.ng- duty. ne Admiral had sent for
reinforcements to -relieve him,
butb the wind and tide
were so strong against the beats it would. be impos-
sible, without the assistance of steam '' ,to get them
op-in time to be of any use. He had had two boats
shot away under him, and he reached us in the
third, hearing the request that the Commodore
would tow up their boats: By this time the tide
was falling very fast, and two of the gunboats had
grounded just where we had been.eces the day before,
t Commodore
and were literally hemp. shot to p
licatren that
Tatnall consulted with me on the app
had been wade to him. It was a question not with-
out difficulty. As neutrals we had no right to in-
to either party.
terfere, or to render the smallest aid _ party
y.
could we be regarded strictly as neutrals ? re
were in cornany with the other Powers not by our
I own choice. had desired to avoid all complication
with them, and xp secure this end I had left Hong