New Orleans daily crescent., 1859-11-15
Letter from Cf,ina-Prosyrezs OF aIr. Ward
to Pek7n.
lyrotn The Philadelphia L<.dSsrsI


received a letter from Goyernor-Genersl Hang, Of
the Province Of Pei>CIi, and that the 9Th instant
had been determined upon as the day for the pro.
posed interview at the northern entrance>'' 1t |
being desirable ts get as near the new poss az
possStc, TINS ship anl the Toey-wan were aDt |
Snaer weigh on the 7Eh inst, steamed 1--WE miles,
ahe q, thsn anchored just near enough to "PeiTsng'
to enable Us to three moeks objects upor, tie
noftaSsesseTn horizon Of a clear aay-tnesc were |
the NORTHERN fortsr dfUpEers1e by US per pay /
last ps1.sY, a and the tows near them PeiTangy I
English and it reads: northern smbankm kmenta
just as Pes-king means 1ogsleys Royal Citv.
Is Pekinp should therefore se written Pet Rin1
Royal City Tor capital) Of the North And "a With |
sNaDkinf which should be Van KiYar or south 4
er'n capital. |
After feeling tue ground and snchorir,c the Pow
batan in good " ater, the Faeg-2an kept away in
the direction Of Pei-Toesy, hoIing- to encounter
ssne junk roaa which to obtain applet, promised
in the letter Of the GovernorGeaeral: !: but, being
unaeqIainted with the soundings, she siloaled
to nine feet of water, which being only one foot
than she drew, of course turned us to the
rightabout in. det.be-quick time. A boat gas now
lowered and sent with two of the interpreters to
junk anchored uis9er the land where several man
darins were found in most uneasy situation. 1T
seems they had been dispatched the dry before
with nilot for u.s. but that they had been unable
to beat to windward in their clumsy vessel: and
they frankly acknowledged that, had we net come
to them, it would have been difficult to when
they should, have been able to come to u.s. The
poor fellows complained most feelingy of the
usual sensation Of sca-sckness: gladly turned over
to us the pilot and eumshaw (present) ofsweet
meats: and, hosting their sails to free wind.
back toward. the river with evident satisfaction.
We now learned from the pilot that had left the
channel far to. the southward, and that, had we
gone ships length farther, the Toey-wan would
have been piled high ard dry.
That night VIC returned to this ship, and the next
morning, after an carly breakfast were again on
board the ToeN-wan, heading in for the river, un-
der charge of the pilot. We found ten feet to be
the least water the bar, and were informed that
at spring tides much as tretce could be carried
over with safety. At the end of two hours we an
chored near large junk within two miles Of the
forts, to which we were invited to transfer our
| selves, as there was not enough room for the
steamer inside. This VIC subsequently found to be
untrue; but one must not notice such innocent
| discoveries in China. Like other diplomatists,
they often prefer pleasant lie instead of an uil-
| pleasant truth.
We (the Minister and flag officer, with their res
pectye suites) We're received in grand style by the
mandarns of the highly decorated junk, treated to
/ tea, and finally landed in the presence of His Ex-
ceilency the Goyernor-GeneEal. The name Of this
! distinguished Celestial was Hang, and he was the
most smootll-spoken soldier that have seen for q
I long time. To look at him, however, one might
have asked, Hang, my friend, where is your mas
ter, the INDECENT country lamyer?' So much more
did he resemble the clerk of such character than
the conlinander-in-ehief of o large army and the
encouragement OF province as large as Pennsyl-
yana and Maryland joined together.
The interview which now followed was extremely
I. ".
cur being promised that within less than ten days
we should be startingj for Pei-King. Hang was
evidently disposed to be friendly, and though we
were in momentary fear of hearing asked some
such question this, .'Why did your small steamer
tow the English reserves into battle on the 25th
ult2" still we heard nothing but compliments and
assurances of goodwill. Hang was evidently
anxious to avoid unpleasant topics. and we in turn
took care to follow his example. Thus we did moi
ask him why it was that We had been refused a
pilot by the officials of the forts the 24th ut.
why they had lied in saying that there We're nt
mandarins there at the time or why they had also
lied in saying that there room inside the
forts for the Toey-wan.
In short mutually respected each others pc
culiar .Tailings and thus separated the best oil
frepds-friends in diplomatic pont of view
mean. 1t is worthy of remark here that while we
were in the midst of this interview the first and
second officers OF the Fe!ho forts were introduced
They were presented as the men who had Tough,
them against the English with much success, anG
were readily recognised by the interpreters as tt
re,,y Coolies who had received them the day
before the battle. In fact the first officer OBJ
before'' Then, he said he was Coolie, no,s h
had on the blue button of mandarin of the thir
order.
ssHad taxed him with his untruth," observe
Mr. Martin, The would have been at no loss for al
answer He would have replied, gracefully, tha
\ then he was Coolie, and that his button was TIL
: reward of his poor services on the 18th.
/ So much for this important interview. The sam
=
I, awaiting the expiration of the ten days.
, July 10, Evening. bservng junk beating to
ward us from PeTang, the flag officer sent th
Tocy-wan to tow her up. She proved to contain
a second "cumshaw' of provisions, which we re
ceived for fear of being considered unfriendly, bu
for which we will pay in the shape of hundret
dollars presented to the poor of Pe-Tang through
5 the local magistrate. Of course that officer vii
) purposes. trhere is no manner of doubt upo
this point the same thing having been done owe
and over again. But this is none of our business
July llth.- To-day we were visited by the Eng
lish steam sloop Cruiser and the gun boats Foreste
and Janus. They are the last of the hostile flee
remaining in these waters. They anchored nea
us for an hour, during which time we shared ou
last '.cuuslaw'' with them, and then steamed afte
the Admiral, to the southwark. They were scarce
ly out of sight when another junk was reported b,
the qnartermaster as "beating toward us from Pei
! Tang and the Toey-wan was sent for her also
= She proved to be the bearer of message from
: the Governor General to Mr.. Ward, to the follow
ing effect:
/, g He was anxiously expecting an answer fror
+ the Emperor granting the necessary permissio
for us to visit Pei-King. He had favor to ask
the Americans. On the 25tll ult two prisoners lla
, been taken from the English, one of whom wa
: badly wounded, and the other of whom was III
p : hurt. The wounded man was thought to be a
: officer, and did not seem to improve, though the
had exhausted the medical knowledge of China
i his favor. Would not the Americans inform IL
4. English of this SO that they might send surgeo
4 | to examine MS wounds! -
y The foregoing was the substance of this lette
. and must confess that it is a strange communici
. . ton to come out of China Time will, perhaps
= = account for such ae,ausu0ihuRanNy We told tn
mandarians that the English had all gone; but tha
:, simply from ,a0tnes Of humanity, we would lill
!, !; to send on surgeon in to see the wounded mai
i i "Nery we they replied, " the day after to-no
y row we will bring him down to Pei-Tang."
> July l5th.-ln consequence OF the foregoing, tn
! Toey wan, with Drs. Fox and Williamson and tn
u interpreters on board, steamed into Pei-Tang o.
the 18th inst Soon after anchoring they wer
l. boarded by the "humane mandarins, y and learned
to their boundess disgust, that they would not b.
allowed to see the wounded man. 1t would be to
d long a story to explain the why and wherefore o
e this change Ii is sufficient to say that their OBJ
q cct was to open communications with the English
IS and as the English were no longer present, thi
s object could not be advanced by permitting al
IS American surgeon to see the wounded man. henc
d the American surgeon did not the wounde
j. man. This was Il great disappointment to us q
e we had hoped, after dressing his wound, to b
n allowed to take him on parole on board the Pow
/ hatan. Every argument that humanity could sng
c gest was advanced by the Rev. Mr.. Martin to gai
e the Doctors access to the wounded Englishman.
:, I'VE are friendly TO you as we'll as to the Eng
glish, lie said: "our surgeons may therefore, as
e sist your wounded also"
; "Oh!'' they laughed, '' re have no wounded
d No one was hurt upon side.i Notwithstanding
e which the officers Of the Toey-wan had thei
:, throwing their dead over the walls of the forts.
e ask again, g Is not humane and honest exercis
OF force the only method of dealing with such III
charitable and lying beings?'' Just us all effort
> to succeed in die object Of the visit had failed,