THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 9TH SEPTEMBER, 1899. 1475
The villagers, who appeared frightened at the sudden appearance of the troops, expressed great regret for what had happened, and the incident was considered closed.
After consultation with the Governor, who had decided to hoist the British Flag at Táipó Hü on the 17th April, and with his concurrence, I determined that it would be advisable to encamp half a battalion of the Hongkong Regiment in the District as soon as the flag was hoisted, and the necessary camps were selected accordingly.
On Friday morning, April 14th, 1 issued orders for one company of the Hong- kong Regiment under a British Officer (Captain BERGER) to proceed the following day by march route to Táipó Hu to make the necessary Military arrangements for the hoisting of the flag. On Friday night late I received information from the Governor that a party of police under the Captain Superintendent, who had that afternoon arrived at Táipó Hü in H.M.S. Fame, had been driven off by a large body of villagers, and that the matsheds had again been burnt down.
Feeling that the company of the Hongkong Regiment was sufficient to cope with the local rising that this was reported to be, I contented myself with directing Captain LONG, D.A.A.G., to proceed on Saturday, the 15th, to Táipó Hü, with orders that he was to see that the troops gave every assistance towards preparing the ground for the ceremonial of Monday.
Captain LONG arrived at Táipó Hü on H.M.S. Fame at 5.30 p.m. and found the position of affairs shortly as follows.
The Company Hongkong Regiment was in position on two small hills near the sea shore, one of which was that selected for the flagstaff and upon which the matsheds had been erected, the other a hill some 150 yards close by; while sur- rounding them on the hills to the West 500 yards distant and North-West some 1,500 yards were apparently some thousands of Chinese keeping up a continuous musketry fire assisted by artillery fire from guns of sorts, 12 in number. Captain LONG, who was the senior, having asked for and obtained the co-operation of the Officer Commanding H.M.S. Fame, and feeling the danger of having a large body. of an armed enemy at night in his immediate vicinity, determined that his wisest tactics would be to assume the offensive while daylight still served, with the result that he drove them off without any casualties to the troops, and a small loss to the Chinese, completely clearing the valley and so cowing them for the moment that the following day, Sunday the 16th, 1; was enabled, on behalf of the Governor, to raise the flag without opposition of any kind. This sudden rising made His Excellency the Governor determine to anticipate by one day the taking over of the Territory. I remained in camp that night and the villagers all appeared per- fectly quiet, but suddenly on Monday, the 17th, at 1 p.m. the exact hour originally named by His Excellency for the ceremony of raising the flag, the surrounding hills were found to be occupied by large bodies (several thousands) of armed men, with many pieces of heavy ordnance in position. They commenced firing at a very long range. Again feeling that offensive tactics were the only ones to be adopted, I ordered two companies of the Hongkong Regiment under Captain BERGER to clear the heights, sending forward also No.3 Company Hongkong-Singapore Battalion R.A. under Captain SIMMONDS to shell the insurgents' position. This work was most efficiently performed by the men of the Hongkong Regiment who not only got over the most difficult country at great speed, but also by making use of cover most efficiently, took the enemy completely by surprise.
The result was that the hills were entirely cleared, the rebels again suffering some loss, and several pieces of orduance and some flags fell into the hands of the troops. It was at this stage that Major BROWN, R.A.M C., was struck in the arm by a spent bullet and slightly wounded, the only other casualty being a man of the Hongkong Regiment similarly struck on the wrist.
The insurgents having retired in the direction of Deep Bay I handed over the command of this small column to Lt.-Col. THE O'Gorman, D.A.A.G., directing him not to lose touch of them and to endeavour to drive them Westward and myself came back to Hongkong to organize another Force to co-operate from the Deep Bay side. The difficulty of this was to keep it secret, but by the very able assistance of Capt. LONG, who was acting at the time as my C.S.O., I kept every one even the troops themselves in the dark as to my intentions, and starting during the night in small launches, being ably helped by Lieut. GOODENOUGH, R.N., who had