Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 462

1841.

Edicts Relating to Military Operations.

No. 2.

443

An imperial edict to the following effect has just been received. Tăng Tingching, viceroy of Fuhkeën and Chokeäng has handed up to us, a me- morial, stating how that at Heämun (or Amoy) they had beat off an Eng- lish ship, &c., &c., of which the following is an extract:

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Upon this occasion (6th moon, 5th day, i. e. 3d July, 1840, an English ship of war sailed into the harbor of Amoy, under the pretence, as they said, that they wished for peace! At that time both civil and military of ficers went forward to impede their landing, and gave them a hearty scold- ing; they did not permit them to come on shore. Whereupon these rebel.. lious foreigners had the hardihood to change their flag and fire off their guns ; and a principal person of the ship, dressed in foreign clothes, but speaking the Flowery speech, came right before our fort, and alternately made use of the most bland and the most abusive language. Just then Chin Seenfuh, acting as major (or show pei) of the central division of the admiral's troops, let fly an arrow and hit him right in the hollow of the breast, when he fell dead, and our soldiers in succession firing off their matchlocks shot two of the foreigners who fell into the sea. Chin Shingyuen, acting as a tsan- tseäng (or colonel), who was cominanding on the occasion, seized a long spear, with which he run a white foreigner through the body and killed him ; and the people of our war ships afloat, and our mandarins and soldiers from the shore, firing off volley after volley of great guns and matchlocks, hit and wounded an immense number of the foreigners, &c. &c. &c."

By this it would appear that they have managed the business remarkably well. Let all the civil magistrates who have exerted themselves in the affair-such as Tsae Kinlung, acting sub-prefect of Amoy, Koo Keängchung, ci-devant sub-prefect of Amoy, Hoo Kwoyung, acting magistrate of the Tung-gan district, and Kin Kwangyaou, head of the cruizing-station of Yungshih,-be recominened to the Board of Appointments, that they be promoted and rewarded on an extra-liberal footing. Let the officer who commanded on the occasion,-Chin Shingyuen, acting as a tsantseäng (or colonel) of the admiral's troops for the defence of Haetan, but actually a showpei [or major] of the right division,-be promoted to the rank of a toosze [or lieutenant-colonel], and immediately employed as such, having first changed his button for a higher grade. Let Chin Seënfuh, acting as showpei [or major] of the central division of the admiral's troops, but actually a tseentsung (or captain] of the right division, be promoted to the rank of toosze [or lieutenant-colonel], and employed immediately as such, having first changed his button for a higher grade;—and let each of these officers have a peacock's feather bestowed upon him as a mark of our favor. At the same time let the following military officers who signalized themselves in attacking and beating off the enemy, viz., Lin Keënyew, Loo Szejin, and Ho Yewshe, and Hing Kwei, a weiyuen [or special deputy] of the haekwan (hoppo or collector of customs) of the Fuhkeën seas, be all promoted as vacancies may occur, and have honorable employment in