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On Friday morning, April 14th, I 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 Hü 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 Hu, 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 Hu 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, I 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 adoptel, 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 longkong 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 ordnance 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 eveu 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 been lent by the Commodore for the purpose, I landed a Force before daybreak on the Deep Bay side, and was completely successful in my operations, as the whole district was cleared at our approach, the insurgents being either driven into the Force operating under Col. THE O'GORMAN or over the border on to Chinese territory. This was really a very difficult operation even by day as the landing was extremely bad, and at night we went aground several times. It could only have been successful by perfect discipline and carefully thought out orders, each man knowing exactly where he was to go. These orders were so carefully conceived beforehand by Capt. LONG, that, although we made one or two false landings in the dark, yet the errors were discovered without confusion and the expedition as a whole resulted in the success I have mentioned.