Directory_and_Chronicle_1842 — Page 496

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Summary of Official Documents.

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passing through the shallow water on the north shore. He was the next day joined by the joint commissioner, Tsishin, who forthwith proceed- ed to Chinkiáng, and thither, after writing to the emperor, the governor. general also followed him: for Ngópítsui, the best defense of the Yángtsz' kiáng, had been harmlessly passed. On the 13th two steamers reached Chünshán, and met with a brave resistance, which drove them back, after they had fired without success a rocket and a couple of shot. But on the 14th the whole fleet arrived, the river was filled with white sails, and all further resistance was ineffectual. The brave defenders of these two batteries, here retired behind the hills, to tempt the enemy on shore; but he would not come, till after dusk, when he landed only under cover of the darkness to destroy the guns.

guns. On the 15th, the steamers again procecd in advance of the fleet, and Tung- mátau also fell, the battery being destroyed by the vessel's fire, and three men being wounded, while en revanche they struck several times the steamers, and killed sundry of their men, the general Hailing himself looking on, from the north gate of Chinkiáng. On the 17th, other vessels came up to Kinshản; and on the 18th proceeded to stop the navigation of the river.

It was in the midst of these last events, that Tsishin arrived to as- sist the genera! Háiling, with his advice. The governor-general ar. rived at Chinkiáng on the night of the 13th, but passed on imme. diately to Nanking on the evening of the 14th. The commander-in- chief of Húpe, with his reinforceinent of 1000, arrived on the 16th. It was not till later, if at all, that a further reinforcement of 600 (out of 1000) Kiángsi men, dispatched on the 18th from Nanking, also arrived.

These reinforcements could afford, however, but little relief to the general Háiling, left alone in the midst of his difficulties to bear the brunt of the day,-deserted by the governor-general, and refused fur. ther help, as everything was required for the defense of Nanking. 'The fire vessels which the governor-gencral had left, too, under the charge of an officer of his own selection, and with special directions from himself, proved utter failures. Under these circumstances, the general shut the gates of the city, an act by which he incurred much ill feeling among the people, as he rendered it impossible for those within the walls to escape from the scene of action. In the midst of his perplexities, he wrote to the governor-general on the 18th, saying, "My force is indeed but fceble; of the commissariat office which you established, no person is present, nor is there any one, either at the district granary, or at the post station; the stores of grain and money