Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 703

1841.

Journal of Occurrences.

685

common course of literary examinations. The subject of opening sundry mines has also been mooted.

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3. Keshen has again been called into the service of his country, but not in an official capacity. He was to accompany the majesty+ bearing generalissimo Yihking and the other commissioner on their new mission to Chekeang-at which place they had arrived early in this month: at least, so we are informed by letters from Ningpo,

4. Affairs in Chěkeäng are; in a very precarious state, so far as the Chinese government is concerned, as may be seen by the memno rial of Lew Yunko, and others which are in our possession. The defeat of the imperial forces, first at Tinghae on the 1st, and again at Chinhae on the 10th of October, gave a dreadful shock to the war party. In a memorial written by: general Yu Pooyun-one of the heroes of Leenchow, in the war of 1832-we have a most dolorous account of the state of things in and about Ningpo. The memorial was written after the fall of Chinhae, and before the advance.on Ningpo, but the date is not given, The old general labors to throw the responsibility of defending the city upon the prefect Tăng Ting- tsae. The consteruation was universal; and the cries of the people, flying in crowds in all directions, heart-rending.

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Tăng Tingtsae is a brother of our late governor Tăng Tingching, now in exile. Of Yu Pooyun we have heard, nothing since he left Ningpo. There is a report that Luh Tseihchang is dead.

5. Hangchow, according to dates from Ningpo to the 4th instant, had not been attacked; and large bodies of troops were being col lected. We do not know whether to give credit or not to a rumor of an intention to march on that place; had this been done immedi- ately after the fall of Ningpo, little resistance, would have been made, Unless the Chinese answer the demands made on them, the place we suppose must, during the winter or in the spring, share the same fate that has befallen Ningpo. Lew Yunko's solicitude, for the safety of the provincial capital, was not without cause..!

6. Ningpo, on the 4th, was remaining very quiet, and good order was preserved among the native inhabitants.. No ransom had been paid.

7. Chinhae. Regarding the storming and taking of this place, by the British forces, on the 10th of October, we have collected a few more particulars, which we here introduce. The conduct of the Chinese at the tower on the hill, commanding the town, and under which it was difficult anywhere to land, their steady adherence to their guns, under a heavy and well-directed fire from the two line-of- battle ships, and the Blonde and Modeste, was indeed wonderful. While shot and shells were falling thick about them, making almost a complete ruin of the temple within the tower, and while their tents were burning around them, they were steadily laboring to put out the fire, until they saw it was rapidly approaching the magazine. So long as any hope for them remained they stood; but the soldiers on the opposite side of the river having been dispersed, all the forts on the north side taken, and their commaiuder-in-chief with the imperial commissioner both disappearing, then these brave fellows fled.