500
Repulse of the Chinese at Ts:`ka.
Ser.
The exact strength of the enemy I can hardly estimate, as various accounts give it from 7 to 10 000 men. I conceive it to have been about 8,000 men: they were the élite of the Chinese army, including 500 of the imperial body guard, remarkably fine men; the Kansu troops from the frontiers of Turkistan, a strong and muscular race accustomed to border warfare, and reputed by the Chinese invincible; and the Shánsí troops, for whose arrival Yiking gave out that he had delayed his attack. Their loss must have been very great, not less than a thousand were killed upon the field or in the pursuit, and drowned in the canals; a great proportion of officers fell. These troops not having before met the English, apprehended, I presume, that we should give no quarter; and al. though the officers and men showed great forbearance, calling to the Chinese to surrender, very few prisoners were taken. We have, however, three officers, two from Káns, and one a lieutenant of the imperial body guard.
Fatigue parties from the several corps, together with the available native fol. lowers, were occupied in collecting guns, ginjals, and matchlocks, left in camp or thrown away during the flight, until 12 o'clock of the 16th, when I set fire to the encampments, and to the several houses that the Chinese had occupied as arsenals. At daylight in the morning, I had sent into the town to open the grain magazines to the populace, which eagerly flocked to them, and upon visiting them next morning, I found they had been completely emptied. From these and other causes, I could not commence my march before half past twelve o'clock, when the column moved for the Chángkí pass, which I determined to carry, in order to destroy this, as I understood, formidable position, and capture the treasure chest.
After a rapid march of three hours we reached the base of the hills under the pass. The position appeared remarkably strong, indeed almost impracticable from the front, as the hills are lofty and exceedingly steep, and the summits of the ridges were strongly intrenched. But here again, as at Segaon, I perceived that the position could be turned, and I at once directed the Royal Irish to ascend the hills on the left of the position, while I moved with the 26th Cameronians and 49th, supported by the naval brigade, and occupied a wooded spur which directly led up to the left of the encampment. On reaching the summit of this spur, I found that the enemy had retreated, taking with him his guns, and I regret to say, his treasure; but a considerable quantity of good bread was discovered, also some ammunition. We halted for a couple of hours, and as there was not sufficient cover for all the troops, the works were set fire to, together with the magazine and a large joss house where the officers resided. The column returned to Tsz'kí, which we did not reach until nine o'clock that night; all the villages in the neighbor- hood of our route were apparently deserted by the inhabitants; but I am happy to say, in no one instance was a house entered on our line of march, along which no trace was left betokening a movement of troops through a hostile country. Indeed, with the exception of a very few killed in houses, where the Chinese troops sought refuge the preceding day, I did not see amid the slain one individual that was not habited as a soldier, which, as the peasantry were in many instances intermingled with the fugitives, goes far to show the for. bearance and discrimination of our men even in the heat of pursuit.
On the 17th, I returned with the whole force to Ningpo, with the exception of two companies of the 26th, which I sent under captain Strange, accompani- ed by capt. Pears, direct to Chinhái, with a view to ascertain the fact of a canal communication between that place and Tsz'kí, and to clear the country of any