The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-08 00:00:00

at the first firing. In this creek is also a considerable I every quarter assembled together: Oa the night of the
quantity of fine timber, and several large junks—eomc 17th, and during the first watch, the Governor fired off
quite new, others nearly completed. his line of signal guns, and taking his flag on horseback.
September lste—Permission has been given to the Chi- with him, he in person directed the ranks to make an im-
nese to take away the grain, under- the impression that mediate attack upon the barbarians. On the night the
if we do not give it them they will take it themselves. north-east wind blew exceedingly strong, and there was
Since the commencement of this (i. e. on the 30th of a vast abundance of small rain. On a sudden in front of
August) the guard has been withdrawn, and now the the ranks a company of troops was perceived, which was
pillaging is going on to an immense extent; indeed it may headed by a single individual, whose head was adorned
be fairly calculated that, before the lapse of, another day, with a blue button, and his hand grasped a long lance.
the whole town will be entirely gutted, if not totally This was understood to be the soul of the venerable
destroyed, by fire. We can see the. Chinese, like a hill Chang-yen, who came to fight at the head of the ranks. On
of ants, loading their boats and sailing off to the neigh- that night, the barbarians were sound asleep, but sud-
bouring coast. denly hearing of the gathering together of our land and
The guard was withdrawn on the evening of the 30th, naval forces, the barbarian military chief issued orders
when it was determined to keep the island called Koo- to fire their cannon and summoned his troops to Hew-
lang-soo or Collun-sou, which lies about 1,200 yards shay-poo, and then with our troops they joined in mu-
from the City, within range of our shells. The war- tual conflict. Then was to be seen the soul of the ve-
junks are removed for the present to the island. The nerable Chang-yen aiding us, and all the barbarians
Druid frigate and Pylades sloop of war are to be left be- falling down with dizziness found' it difficult to serve
hind to hold our own, with full orders to shell the town their guns, and we put to death and arrested them
on the first attempt to rebuild any of the batteries, or without number. Our Admiral perceiving the barbarian
other demonstration of hostilities ; 500 men taken from ships at anchor in the bay at the end of Sha-po, ordered
the 18th and 26th Regiments, and a few Artillery, re- the guns to be made to bear upon them. The barbarians
main on the island, where there are good quarters for also wished to return the fire, when suddenly was seen
them, with excellent water and whole acres of sweet one of the gods with dishevelled hair and bare feet
potatoes and other vegetables just now ripe—with all holding a sword in his hand and descending from heaven,
this of course they do not like being left behind. We leading a numerous host of brave soldiery. At this the,
hope to leave for Ningpo and Chusan to-morrow (2d) ; souls of the barbarian troops were affrighted out of
take and occupy those places, and winter at Chusan ; their bodies, and being set upon by the Celestial corps
thus we shall conclude the season, as it is quite impossible were unable to work their guns. Our troops without in-
to go farther north this year. termission played upon them with several tens of great
Now for the exact correctness of all this, especially guns. We destroyed eight three-masted ships, six two-
where numbers are concerned, I cannot exactly vouch, masted vessels, four fire wheel ships, and upwards of
but I know it is very near ; and I believe, if anything, twenty ships' boats. Of the barbarian troops that were
in every instance rather under than above the mark. slain it would be impossible to state the number. Of
will just give you the surmises of the population of the camp followers there fell more than 200, while upwards
place, the number of the army, and of the killed and of 700 white devils, and more than 900 black devils
wounded, all of which are by the most knowing but (Sipahis) were slain.
mere surmises, for nothing certain can be known. The The Commander-in-Chief, with the chief officer of
population of the city and suburbs is stated at between Kinmun, fought up to the third watch, and then ascended
60,000 and 70,000 (quite that I should think) ; the the hill with the Governor, and in a body entered the
whole army at about 10,000 or above, 6,000 of which are city. The barbarian troops having not yet fled, our sol-
said to have occupied the long battery on the right, the diers proceeded to arrest them all, after having put to
rest distributed among the other works. In all I should death between three and four hundred. There were
not think there have been killed above 100, or at most seven military Chiefs who were taken alive. The trans-
-150 ; and in the batteries, by cannon shot or shell, not ports which escaped destruction, perceiving the victory
on the whole a dozen. The greater number of the sol- to be lost, forthwith proceeded out to sea.
diers that were killed fell from the musketry ; the list That Amoy was re-captured on the 17th was owing,
of 150, if filled up, must, however, consist chiefly of those first, to the aid of the gods ; second, to the assistance
who were not engaged in the battle, being killed by shot afforded by the soul of the venerable Chang-yen ; and,
and shell sent into the town. third, to the love which the governor cherished for his
When the troops landed the Mandarin second in corn- country and the people.
mand rushed before them into the sea, and drowned him- At present the various seaports are guarded by our
self, rather than fall by our hands ; another Mandarin troops and are in a state of preparedness should the bar-
was seen to cut his throat, and fell before our men. barians again return, and within the river the fort of
The Viceroy of the Province was here, and viewed Sha-po is mounted with more than a thousand cannon.
all the affair from the hill. I hope he was pleased ; un- When the barbarians captured the forts they did not in-
fortunately both he and all the Mandarins escaped to the jure a single gun, and now we have all back again with-
main land. out loss.—Canton Press.
I must mention one circumstance, so highly creditable [Our Bombay Correspondent doubts the genuineness of
to the 18th and other troops : every drop of sham-shu this document, but we give it, because if spurious, it is
they found they immediately brought to their officers to at least characteristic. The Mandarins, after re-occupy-
destroy, not one man was
.intoxicated with it, I under- ing the ruined fortifications which the British had aban-
stand ! Poor fellows ! they bought their experience doned, would not dare to say anything else for fear of
rather dearly at Chusan last year ; still it is wonderful being sawed in two. There can be no doubt in any case
to see a soldier profit even by experience. that the real facts would reach Pekin.]
I mast here give you some short account of this long•
talked-of place, and really by no means undeservedly
so. Even with my explanation lam sure you will find it
difficult to understand my shocking bad map on the
other side, which is meant to represent the bare outline
of a sort of bird's-eye view of the city, harbour of Amoy,
and adjacent country. To commence with the harbour.
From "islands at entrance of harbour" to Koo-tang-soo
Island is, I should think, about four miles, good anchor-
age all the way up for line-of battle ships to about 400
or 500 yards from the shore. On all the " islands at
entrance" are placed batteries, which are the ones that
fired upon us when we came in. The first battery on
the right is one that has not yet beeu touched, having
passed it by till we came to " the long battery," which
in the straight line contains 76 guns, 40 feet between
each, making it more than half a mile long ; this bat-
tery is built of solid granite work, being about fifteen
feet thick at the bottom and nine at the top, and about
fifteen feet high. Excepting at the embrasures for the
guns it is entirely faced with a coating of mud quite
two feet thick ; above the embrasures is also a coating
of the same. The masonry is beautiful and quite solid,
none of your grouting, and all who have seen it declare
they have never seen anything so strong or well built ;
indeed the proof is that, after four hours hard firing
not one single breach was made in it by our guns,
though placed at point-blank range. On each side of
their guns several sand bags are placed, so as to protect
them when loading and firing ; so, in fact, we might
have battered away till doomsday without injuring them.
At the end farthest from the town is built a strong gra-
nite wall, about half a mile long, with loopholes at the
top for their matchlocks, but no guns. It is about ten or
fifteen feet high, and was of course intended to protect
their flank from our troops.
Two semi-circular batteries are in the middle of the
wall, and at the end nearest the town one larger one,
which is built of granite, covered with chunam. it is
supposed that several of the Mandarins occupied it, and
certainly they did great credit to their buttons, for they
continued firing to the very last, when some of their
guns were dismounted, the walls nearly quite knocked
down, and long after our troops had landed and hoisted
the ensign at the other end of the wall.
The " high hill" runs along the coast and comes
abruptly down behind the long battery, and divides the
town, or rather its suburbs, into two parts ; the walled
city, which certainly is not more than a sixth of the
whole, is on the other side of the hill.
The island " Koo-lang soo" or" Coliun-sou" is about'
three quarters of a mile long ; like everything else here
composed underneath entirely of granite, but now nearly
covered with fields containing sweet potatoes, water me-
lons, &c. The island of Amoy itself' is but little culti-
vated, being chiefly nothing but barren granite rocks ;
however, we understand that in ordinary times there are
plenty of supplies sent from the neighbouring land.
The small island which we call Pagoda Island has
nothing about it further than a lofty pagoda on its sum-
mit worthy of notice, except that with Koo-lang-soo it
marks the entrance to the river, on which about eight
miles from here is situated the city of Chin-cow-foo, of
which Amoy is a dependency.
The Phlegethon went up the river to look at this city,
with some view, I suppose of taking it ; the water is
very shallow, so much so that a frigate could not approach
within three or four miles.

CHINESE FALSEHOOD.
Nothing in the annals of falsehood can beat, we think,
the Chinese account of the re-capture of Amoy, a trans-
lation of which is published in the last Canton press.
What can be done with a Government, the highest offi-
cers of which can write and circulate such unblushing
nonsense ? The fabulous days of Amadis of Gaul or of
Palmerin of England appear to be realised in China. All
Government is founded on opinion. When that is lost
the Government falls, and from the extract of a letter
from Amoy, in our last number, our readers will learn
that the people of that district have already offered to
put themselves under British protection, while we have
been told that even Hong Kong is rapidly flourishing.
—Canton Register, Sept. 28.
WHAT WILL BE THE END OF THE CHINA WAR ?
It is becoming a singular speculation what will be the
end of this beginning of war with China. Our own
opinion is that the Mantchow dynasty should be over-
thrown, another placed on the throne, and China be
thrown open to all the world. This end, we •think,
would be infinitely preferable than to possess any por-
tion of its territory under the present dynasty.—lbid,
October 5.

CHINESE RECRUITING.—We are informed by a native
that Yih-shan and the Governor are again recruiting for
stout and valiant troops and arming them with muskets,
which we expect they handle like cows.—lbid.
THE MARIA.—The schooner Maria grounded some
days back, in a dark night, on Chuenpe ; at daylight a
number of Chinese attacked and wounded the crew of
fourteen hands, and a Parsee passenger, named Merwan-
jee Nourajee. This passenger was badly wounded in
several places. lie and seven of the crew eventually ar-
rived at Whampoa ; the seven Lascars were brought
down to Macao on Sunday, in a lorcha. The rest of the
crew have not yet been heard of. We think we have
before recommended that no passage-boat should sail for
the river without being well armed.—lbid.
LATEST ITEMS.—We have not any news to communi-
cate either from Canton, Hong-Kong, Amoy, Ningpo, or
Chusan ; all is, as we stated last week, quiet at Amoy ;
and there is no doubt but that the fleet reached Chusan
about the middle 9f last month. —lbid.

INTERESTING FACTS AND OCCURRENCES.—Number of
bayonets landed on the first day, in all not exceeding
2,000. On the night of the 26th, that of the fight, as the
Nemesis was towing some boats carrying the 55th Regi-
ment, in passing round the Sesostris, the last boat con-
taining eighteen men, ran foul, and was swamped ; three
men were drowned. On the 27th, in accidentally dis-
charging some gunpowder and rockets belonging to the
Chinese, four men got a good deal burnt, but no life
lost. September 4.—The wind is fair ; the troops are
embarking, and we sail to-morrow for Chusan. Last
night nearly all the Government junks and gunboats,
and a quantity of timber, were burnt. "Pour quoi, je
ne se pas."
Some of the 18th, who led in the battery, were
wounded, but none dangerously. Some of the 49th
were blown up by the explosion of a magazine, and five
of the 55th were drowned by the upsetting of a boat in
tow of the Nemesis. Most of. the ships were hit, but
only one man (in the Bentinck) received a severe wound;
he lost his arm. On the morning of the 27th the troops
who had bivouacked on the heights above the city the
night before, advanced to the city wall, and at once es-
caladed it, meeting With little opposition ; but all the
authorities had left the city, taking the treasure with
them. The Viceroy was ascertained to have been in the
city on the day of the fight, but had bolted, and the
sycee was ascertained to have been carried off in hollow
limbs of trees, whilst the troops were actually in posses-
sion of the town, ignorant of the valuable nature of the,
billets of firewood. The city itself is not large, the
circuit of the wall being but little more than a mile.
Yet the suburbs, which are very extensive, make it
a populous place. A miserable system of plunder has
been going on since we took the town, both within
and without the walls; gangs of fellows breaking open
the houses and ill-using the inhabitants, so that at night
the city is a scene of tumult and rapine. No Mandarins
have appeared to make terms for the city, and at one
time, in consequence, it was the intention of the Plenipo-
tentiary to destroy It; but they have altered their inten-
tions, and made up their minds to hold the place until we
return- from the northward. Accordingly, the Druid,
Pylades, and Alg,,erine remain behind, as also 400 of the
18th Regiment, and about 130 of the 26th, with a few
Madras Artillery. _ . - •

NINE, P.M., SEPT. 3.—The Arsenal is now burning a
grand blaze, and the whole of the war junks have been
towed away from the merchant junks, and are to be
burned to-night or to-morrow morning. The Chinese
Admiral is at s?,a with his squadron, and they say will
return here immediately and destroy us all! Ay,ab! 4th,
Seven, P.M.—The winds have drawn more in the east-
ward (southerly), and the signal was made at one P.M.
for all the troops in the city to embark. They are now
on board the steamers, being distributed among their re-
spective ships, and the poor town is in the hands of the
ladrons, who have been waiting for the troops to move
out to have their share of the plunder. We leave this to-
morrow morning for Chinhae. It has been blowing very
fresh outside.
It EPORT OF THE FOKIEN MANDARINS RE-
SPECTING THE CAPTURE AND RE-CAP-
TURE OF AMOY.
The English barbarians on the 7th moon and 9th day
(25th August,
.1840) proceeded to attack Hea man
(Amoy) and on the 10th they ascended the hills from the.
river Shea keang, and seized the fortifications of the city.
Their Excellencies You the Governor, and Lew the
Taou tae withdrew into Fung an, and on the 16th sum-
moned forward Tseun chow troops 4,000, from Chang
chow 2,000, villages braves 6,000, and from the various
villages of Chang chow 4,000 brave militia. There were
military lieu graduates and military Lew graduates,
who become the patriotic leaders of the people. From
Kin mun there were also 1,200 troops and 4,000 brave
seamen from Yuan(T, and while seven tkousand out-
laws of Hea mon 'banded themselves together for
opposition, the troops and the militia of Chang
chow and Kin mun proceeded without delay, having
combustibles .and arms, in small boats, each of
which had seventy or eighty oars, and carrying powder,
sulphur, muskets, and shields. From the road of Pib
ship tow and Koo lang yu they made their entrance.
When the Admiral heard this, he took more than ten
war ships, with which he had been searching for pirates,
and straightway entered Taetan, and from the Tsing-le
gate he advanced to the attack. His Excellency Yu-poo-
wun, commander of the land forces, leading his troops,
and forming a junction with the Governor, crossed over
the Woottung lake and fixed his quarters at Kin-ke. _

The commander of the Yungan'encampments receiving
the summons of the Governor, led in person the troops
and militia over Woo-umg to Kaou-ke, and directly en-
tered the mouth of the river, and both divisions forming
a junction, advanced. The sea and land forces from