Directory_and_Chronicle_1842 — Page 310

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Positions of the British and Chinese Forces.

MAY,

We have thus three modes of approaching Hángchau :—first, by the sea and the river of Tsientáng, a route which saud banks and rapid tides render most difficult, if not impracticable;-secondly, by inland water, from Chinhái and Ningpò to the shore opposite the capital, carrying us past Sháuhing and several other fortified towns, and meeting interruptions in some places of locks that must be as- cended; and thirdly, by land route from Chápú, upon a carefully pre- served causeway, whereof we possess rather well-drawn native maps, and which we have reason to believe good, and of sufficient width for artillery. Of these routes a question can scarcely arise as to which will be found the best to advance upon.

A distance of about fifty miles of sea, measured on a line drawn northward and westward, separates Chinhái from Chápú; and a somewhat greater distance of causeway has to be traveled over before reaching Hángchau from this latter place. But the town of Chápú once taken (and it can be come at by the guns of the British ships, as the Algerine proved in 1840), and its hills once crossed, there is little other than a large tract of plain ground, with perhaps only small streams intersecting it, to be passed over in the march thence upon Hángchau. The city of Kiáhing fú lies, however, not far from this route, nor many miles distant from Chápu, and here the main force of the Chinese left wing will have to be encountered. Its centre rests upon Hángchau, and "the rich and beautiful country about ninety miles in length," that lies between it and Súchau, on either side of the Grand canal. The chief position of its right wing is Sháuhing, a large city, situated, as already mentioned, on a branch of the river Tsáungò, and about midway between Ningpò and Hángchau,—from which advanced parties have been frequently pushed out to Yüyáu and Tsz’kí, chief towns of districts on the north bank of the Ningpò river, situated between that river and the sand banks of the embou- chure of the Tsientáng.

With the centre of this extended Chinese force we find, surround- ing himself with every sensual indulgence, the imperial high com- missioner, Yiking, "awe-inspiring general, a minister of the cabinet of six, a president of the Tribunal of Civil Office," and a nephew or cousin of the emperor,-attended by a galaxy of high provincial of- ficers, the Tartar-general, the governor, &c., &c., &c., and by two joint-commissioners, by name Teishun and Wan Wei, to whom a third has lately been added, and a multitude of "courtiers," or of ficers sent immediately from the presence of the emperor. Kishen, 190, would have been of the number. (for he is among the friends of