The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1853-06-27
The China News. via California.
From the San Francisco Herald, Man. 2f


The late hour at which the jamestown arrived
from Horg Hong on Tuesday night compelled ua
to content ourselves yesterday with brief notice
OF the alarming progress made by the Chinese
rebels. We find many other matters of interest
referred to in files. Our dates are to April 7th
from Hong Kong, March 26th from Shanghai,
March goth from Singapore, and March 18th from
Malina.
The Hong Kong Gazette publishes letter from
Soochow, said to have been communicated By a
high imperial officer, named Tsow- minghow, and
dated on the fourth day OF the second moon,
March 49, which contains the following highly
| important statements. The Gazette, however,
does not vouch for the truth of them:
"The salt smugglers and local banditu at Nan
king having created disturbance, some rascas
inside the city avaled themselves of the opporu-
nifty to set fire to the powder magazine, which re-
suited in the destruction of street of houses a
mile in length. The alarm consequent thereon
was great that the whole city had nearly been
taken, when luckily the tarar, General Fun choo
lung a, and the treasurer of the province Kc sub
| tsaou, brought up some troops to the rescue, and
succeeded in putting out the fire. They had af-
forwards fight with the banditti, in which they
killed seven or eight hundred, and dispersed the
remainder; by which means the riot was quelled.
Having shut the gates, strict inquiry was made
after the rioters, when sixty or seventy men were
apprehended and put to death. The shutting of
the city gates merely with view to discover
the conspirators and not because of the anticipa
ted attack of the rebels.
''On the 2lst and 22d of the 1st moon, (Febru-
airy 9th and March lst,) the Generals Chow
t'heentscoh and Heang yung had battle with
the rebels at T'hae-pipg- Situated on the banks
of the Yangtsze -keang, about forty miles S. S. w.
of Nankng.) The fighting lasted from six O'Clock
in The morning of the Dist to ten O'Clock in the
morning of the 22d, when the 1mperialists sus
tanned considerable defeat losing three or four
thousand men, and twenty seven officers from the
rank of general downwards. just in the nick Of
time, however, a famous Peking general, named
Chin kin shaw, who had formerly been under the
command of Yang yu-chun, and was recently ap
pointed Imperial Commissioner, at the head OF
four hundred Tartar troops fresh for the conflict,
came into the field and turned the defeat into a
victory, killing upwards of nine thousand of the
rebels, and wounding two commanders of their
advanced guard one named Chin and the other
LIE.
son the 25th and Goth of the lst moon, (March
the 4th and 5th,) Seu kwapg-tam, at the head of
5000 Canton volunteers and 1000 Hoo kwang
soldiers, in conjunction with the Imperial Com :.
missioner from Honan, Ke shen, at the head of 300
enemy, and killed upwards of 10, 900 of them. 1t
lie said also that Hung tsenan, the rebel chief
was wounded and fled, but after wards taken
and beheaded."
Another letter contains the following:
ssOn the 18th day of the second moon, (March
20th,) the provincial treasurer received report
from Marking that Kesheng, Heang -yung, and
Scu-kwang .tsn had made united attack on the
rebels at Guan-k hing, when they obtained vic
tory; the rebels retreated in northwesterly drec
ton, leaving their boats and baggage in the hands
of the Imperialists. Thus Marking is for the pre-
zen preserved