The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1874-02-21
A TRIP TO PEKlN AND THE INTERIOR.

\ delightful trip of one afternoon and
night on the fine coast steamer Chill,
brought us to the bar off Taku, where we
were obliged to wait all day to tighten the
ship so as to float through the channel,
there being only eleven feet of water at
the highest point Of the tide, The forts
which presented such serious resistance to
the English and French fleets in 1859, and
which in the hands of Western power
would render the entrance oe hostile feet
impossible, are the only objects on the fat
shores that are seen outside the bar. Mod.
ern guns of the latest and most effective
kind have been added to these fortified
tons; and farther up the river military
works are in process Of erection, several
thousand men being employed in their
construction. These works are being car
ried on under the direction Of the Proyin-
cial Governor, Ii Hung Chang, who, as a
prominent and effective officer, has no
rival in the empire. China having at last
learned the lesson of her weakness as COM
pared to Western nations, is endeavoring
to command the approach to her capital.
Still, she does not yet realize how much
she has to learn before she can assume an
independent position among the nations
who are every year making their influence
more and more felt upon all classes of her
citizens.
At Tientsin we found the people in a
great state of excitement and consterna-
ton in consequence of the rising of the
waters of the river This is the third year
that these foods have devastated this
whole region, breaking away the banks Of
the river and spreading over immense
tracts of country, destroying crops, sweep
ing away whole villages, and affecting dis
astrously the material interests of the en-
tire province.
Leaving Tientsn for Pekin we passed
for several hours over the fields which a
few weeks ago were covered with rich
crops, the tall sorghum still appearing
above sthc urfacc of the water To the
west from this point there stretches as far
as the eye can reach a vast lake or sea, to
the distance of more than one hundred
miles. These repeated and unprecedented
calamities, the natives very generally at
tribute to the anger of heaven in conse-
quence of the sins of the inhabitants, and
not unfrequently reference is made to the
massacre Of the French in june Of 1871
rs the event which has brought upon them
such misery. The walls of the Roman
Catholic cathedral, just outside the city Of
Ticntsin, stand magnificent ruin, just as
they were left by the FIRE at the time of the
massacre. As our boat passed it, it pre-
scented scene Of desolation which | shall
not soon forget. 1t could not be approch-
ed except by boat, the water standing sew.
cral feet high in the entrance. The wal
of the adjacent burying-g ground had been
undermined and had fallen down, and the
beautiful monuments at the graves Of the
Sisters of Mercy so cruelty massacred three
years ago, only rose few feet above the de
vastating food.
Neither native nor foreign residents hav,
come to any agreement as to whether Thu
inundation is due to the unusual fall Of
rain in tho province, or to an influx O.
water from the sources Of the Yellow river
which have burst their banks and formed
new channels in this direction. Il is mos
probable that this effect has been produced
by both causes combined. Ono hundred
miles up the river, where the country i
higher aud the water had subsidized into
its ordinary channel VIC still found that q
large portion of the fields had been sweep
by che aood and the crops seriously in
jurcd and in some places destroyed. 4
good foreigH engineer to open new chan
nels for draining this country, is Its great
est want at present
Saturday night, Sept. 9Th, we reached