The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1857-04-16
LATER FROM CHINA.
CANTON FIRED BY THE BRITISH.
HORRIBLE ATROCITIES:
Insurgenf T~riumpiss!


from the tenor OF the news IL WOuIQ seem that the
masses of the Chinese people were up in arms against
the English, the officials being powerless. We find
no note of the progress of the American forces, but
suppose they have not been idle. We condense the
following summary of operations at Canton.
Our last dates were to the Sd of December. On
the 4th, the British men-of-war Encounter and Bar
rocouta opened on the French Folly Fort, which was
quickly responded to. After % brisk action it was
taken. The guns of the fort were then turned en-
their former possessors, and n magazine within the
city walls was blown up and two thousand Chinese
dislodged from adjacent position. This fort, which
was a compact and strong building, with granite walls
twelve feet thick, mounting twenty-seven guns, was
then mined and blown up. The city was then an
moved with rockets which fired Il block Of buildings.
On the 9th, Capt. Cowper, Of the Engineers, who had
been engaged i'll breaking a road through from old
China street to the American Hong, IN the western
part of Canton, was fatally injured by q beam falling
on him and breaking his spine. He died in two hours.
On the 5th, a marine, who had landed near the
Macao Fort, was taken by the Chinese and b%eheaded;
for which, the ensuing day the BIrracouta destroyed
the village of Slm-Shak-Kjp. Speaking of the cap
ture of the French Folly, the Friend of China, of the
18th, saws:
"We have no change in the temper OF the Chinese
Government to report; Yeh, backed by the gentry ana
people, is as Obdurate as ever; he Will make no sign,
and nothing but the EXTREMIST measures can now
produce the result desired. The only event of impor-
lance has been the capture and demolition OF the
French Folly Fort, with a loss ON our side OF one
marine, private, The destruction of the fort was most
complete. In each Of seventeen mines n hundred
pounds of powder was buried, and at the hour of noon
the whole was exploded, leaving hardly one stone
square upon another. Our gallant brothers in arms,
the Americans, have been less successful in their
operations on the Barrier Fcrts-the indiscreet use of
o crowbar on a charged mine sending three to eternity
at once, and WOunding half u dozen others who were
standing by. Nevertheless, they, too, have we'll per-
formed their work of destruction, if it can be thought
well to destroy forts (the two southernmOst especially
that might have been easily held, and would have
proved useful.
During the week ending December Doth, the sailors
and marines succeeded in demolis!,ing the transit duty
houses, which were in the way of the guns of the
English breastworks outside the town.
The foreign factories, which had been deserted on
the 18th November, were destroyed by incendiarism
on the part of the Chinese, on the night OF the 10Th,
leaving none standing, except those of Wardley & Co.'S
and Ezrah s. Judahs. These were subsequently de-
stroyed by Chinese plundcrers. The following are
the particulars:
About h~alfpast II O'Clock, last night. December
18th, } Admiral Seymour looked out of his bedroom
window, and saw some Chinese with fambeaux and
re-ballS setting fire to the remains or the Chinese
houses in thirteen Factory street i'll the rear of MeSsrs.
Bent & Co.'S. A light south wind was blowing at
the time, and the flames soon crawled to windward,
into New China street, the want of water, tide being
low, rendering it quite inn Ossible to put q stop to
them. By daylight the fire was at its height, APP
preaching the ruins of Hog Lane. At ten O'Clock it
was determined to blow up the Parsonage House, in
order to keep the fire from the British factories-the
windows of the Oriental Bank and Messrs. Holiday,
Wise & Co.'S, Notwithstanding, being kept in q
'char' by the constant pouring on of water, the hose
was ably directed by Capt. Cochrane and Capt. Hall.
The Lilly leaves at three, and will report the fire as
having consumed every thing west of the British
factories, as far as one or two streets beyond Mowqua
street-say- from Hog Lane to the lately pulled down
transit duty lower house, excepting only the front
parts of Messrs. Russell & Co. s house, and Mr.. Fisch-
er's, together with the Club House, and the house in
Teh-hing-kie, lately occupied by Messrs. Angler &
AllansOn.
To the above we have to add, that when the postal
steamer Thistle lett, every factory was more or less
in fumes, and sad to relate, Mr.. Odearne I. Lane,
Sir John BOwring's nephew, second assistant in the
British Consulate, has just met his death, by the fall
of n house or him.
ten feet wide, along the whole length of the gardens
and across to the wall of Messrs. AlvOrd 81 Co.'S old
house, line of n little under three hundred yards,
passing between the French and American fag-masts,
with q covering bastiOn in rear of the church-the
earth eXcavated, faced up with brick and stone, form
ing a breastwOrk along the line.
On Tuesday. Oath, the postal steamer Thistle,
whilst towing u British lorcha to the Bogue, with the
steamer Queen, was fired into, at midnight, by IL fleet
of one hundred Chinese junks. killing three and
woun1ing two Chinese passengers.
At Whampoa, on the evening of the 10Th, Mr.. Cow
per, the father of the ship-builder, was kidnapped
from his own house by a gang of Cinnamon, and has
not since been heard Of Howqua is III custody rs q
hostage.
Man:festionso of bad feeling against foreigners hav-
ing been made at Annoy and FoochOwfoo, the British
steamer Sampson was sent to the former and the U.
s. sloop-of-war Portsmouth to the latter.
During the week, ending Jan. Sd, an Intellectual
attempt was made to blow up the British steamer
Tiger.
On the 31st of Dec. news reached Victoria that the
hordes of Chinese pirates bad taken the postal steamer
Thistle and murdered the officers and passengers,
eleven souls, in cold blood. The pirates took the YES
sci and endeavored to sink her, but the war-steamer
BIrrGcOHtG retook her. All the bodies found on
board were h~eldless, The assaSsins were the militia
under the control Of the Mingling-tong, a Canton
society which has always displayed great hostility to
foreigners. Among those maSsacred were the Spanish
Consul at Macao. This outrage created great excite
ment.
During the week ending January 10th, the Chinese
made a plucky attempt to retake the Teetotum Forts,
by means of n feet of junks, but were repulsed with
considerable loss. On the 81 forty armed boats at
tempted to capture the steamer 7reinq, but did not
succeed. On the 4th DIR. Ryder's shop keeper, at
Whampoa, a Hungarian of the name of Bishop, was
murdered in his bed-blood and hair on the deck
showing where he had been decapitated-blood on
the port sill indicating how the body was disposed of.
On the 9th Messrs. Hunt s. Co.'S Cutter Excelsior
was captured by two Mandarin boats, near Second
Bar, and her crew held to ransom.
The Friend. of the 14th January, gives the follow
ing summary of local news thus:
Capture of men with jars of gunpowder; shooting
by the French marine of four men, at East Point,
found with fre-balls on them; temporary stupefaction
of two or three Europeans, after eating soup, believed
to have had poison in it.
The people of Hongkong are considerably alarmed
p IN 4. al -: