180
Journal of Occurrences.
MARCH,
when the troops landed immediately, under the personal direction of his excellen- cy lieut.-general, sir Hugh Gough, x.c. ■., and, having taken possession of a small battery mounting four guns (which the Chinese had thrown up to enfilade the ap proaching reach of the river, but which they did not venture to defend), were lodg- ed for the night in a large temple or joss-house, situated on a hill which overlook- ed the town at the distance of less than half a mile. At daylight on the morning of the 28th, his excellency, the naval commander-in-chief, disembarked with the seamen and marines, and preparations were made for escalading, when some of the people came out and declared, that the garrison (stated to have consisted of 1200 regulars, and an equal number of militia) had quitted the town during the night, and that the gates were open. Our troops in one division, and the seamen and marines in another, accordingly marched in, and separated at the southern gate, to go round the town, along the ramparts. When the naval division had advanced part of the way, a fire of jinjails and matchlocks was opened on it, by a considerable body of Chinese soldiers, which had taken post outside the walls at a spot near the N. W. angle, where they were covered by a deep canal. It unavoid- ably occupied some little time for her majesty's forces to gain egress from the town by the northern gate, leading over the canal, and in the interim the enemy had decamped across the country. They were hotly pursued for 7 or 8 miles, during which, numbers of them threw away their arms and heavy clothes. A mili- tary position on which they retreated, about 5 miles from Yüyáu, was burned, and a very extensive barrack (temple) close to that town, containing a magazine of gunpowder, and great quantities of arms. clothing, and other munitions of war was subsequently set fire to and utterly destroyed. Twenty-eight prisoners were taken, amongst whom were several subordinate officers; and it is believed that from 75 to 100 of the enemy were killed and wounded duiring the affair. Had they only stood to allow H. M. forces to close with them, not a man could have escaped; but their local knowledge of the roads, combined with the fact of the whole country being knee-deep with frozen snow (which covered up and concealed the paths), gave them a decided advantage over their pursuers in their flight.
On the 29th, the city was examined, and an immense public granary of rice dis- covered, and given to the inhabitants to carry away. On the 13th, the small steam- crs descended the river, and rejoined the Sesostris; the three vessels anchored that afternoon on the nearest point to the city of Tsz'kí, which lies between 4 and 5 miles from the left bank, and which was found on the following morning (the 31st) to be deserted by the Chinese troops, and all the civil authorities. The public buildings were here destroyed, as far as that could be done without endangering the town; the population allowed to take the grain from the government granary, which was very large and quite full of rice; and the combined forces having reëm- barked, the steamers returned to Ningpd on the evening of the 31st of December. It affords her majesty's plenipotentiary extreme gratification to add, that not a single casualty occurred during these movements. Mr. midshipman Loch of H. M. ship Blenheim, was struck on the foot by a spent jinjall ball, but fortunately escaped with a slight contusion. The cold was intense during the whole period; the thermometer ranging at night 10 and 13 degrees below the freezing point; but notwithstanding this fact and the unavoidable exposure, the troops all came back in the highest health and spirits.
An unfavorable break in the weather prevented the intended movement on Fung- hwá being put into execution until the 10th instant. On that morning. the Phle- gethon and Nemesis started from Ningpò, and were brought up by a bridge across the river about noon. The land forces, with the lieut.-general commanding, here landed, whilst the seamen and marines, under his excellency the admiral, went some iniles further up the river in boats. The two divisions arrived simultaneous- ly at the city of Funghwa about dusk, and found it deserted by the Chinese au- thorities and troops. The same steps as were adopted at Tsz'ki with regard to the public buildings and granaries, were, next morning, adopted here, and the com bined forces returned to the steamers, on the afternoon of the 11th, and to Ningpo early on the 12th instant.
Although these operations are of no moment considered in a military point of view, yet their moral and political effect is highly important, and on that account her majesty's plenipotentiary deems it expedient to make the result of them pub