China in Convulsion

CHAPTER 1. Remoter Sources of Antipathy

REMOTER SOURCES OF ANTIPATHY

WHEN a relatively sudden and comprehensive movement like that of the Boxers in China ap-pears in the course of current history, it be-hooves those who wish to look beneath the surface to inquire what it is and why it is ; for only so will they be prepared for the third step, which is to ascertain, What then?

China is a vast Empire, proverbially difficult to under-stand, no matter what the length of time may be which has been spent in it. As Mr. A. R. Colquhoun has so well put it, immense and indefinite duration multiplied by incomputable numbers of population must make an ag-gregate literally incomprehensible. On this account, if on no other, it is important to be on one's guard against those cheap and easy solutions of a difficult and complex problem which, by misrepresenting some of the factors, omitting others, and remaining in total ignorance of yet more, may be able satisfactorily to explain everything about the late uprising in China in a few succinct and well-turned paragraphs.

Who are the Chinese? They are an incomparably nu-merous and homogeneous race of mankind, composed in-

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deed of different elements slowly digested into a whole, and occupying one of those sections of the earth's surface — of which there are not too many — where the inhabi-tants appear to be independent of the rest of the universe. Undoubtedly the Chinese must have come from some-where, but it is not agreed what their origin was, and considering that the question takes us back, say four millenniums, into primeval history, it cannot be said to be an essential one to answer. Entering China on the west, they occupied the valleys of the rivers, and spread into the regions now known as Shensi and Shansi. It was long before their territory was extended so as to take in what is now vaguely termed the Yangtze valley, and to a Chinese it seems but a short time (a matter of a thou-sand years more or less) since the " southern barbarians," in what are now the provinces of Fukien and Kuangtung, were reduced to order and " civilized."

The ancient Chinese were contemporary with the an-cient Egyptians, and Egypt was isolated from the lands about it, as China from its neighbouring territories. But the separations of Egypt were in reality ties which bound it to the rest of the world. Its isthmus became a highway for the nations, and Egyptian history was inextricably linked with that of the other empires of the time. The barriers in China, on the contrary, were real. The vast deserts behind proved almost as much of a protection as the illimitable ocean in front, and there were gigantic mountain ranges which stood as sentinels of her fertile plains. She did not altogether escape invasion, but she did escape absorption into the currents of the contempo-raneous life of mankind. Her Mongol dynasty, with its Genghis Khan, overran China, but it appeared and it dis-appeared, while China continued as it was. To the north there were vast steppes stretching to the Amur valley,

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and beyond them — nothing. To the west there were the nomads of Central Asia, whose very names the Chinese wrote with the radical signifying a dog. Pride of race is neither a new nor an insignificant factor in the history of mankind, and surely if the superiority of a people to the inferiority of its neighbours affords a natural ground for pride, the Chinese were entitled to be proud. They were first, and there was no second to be found. This is, indeed, the most dangerous because the most subtle of all flatteries, but it is not on that account the less real, and it is one to which the Chinese have never ceased to be subject until within a period so short that, measured against their almost geologic ages of national history, it seems trifling.

It is necessary also to take account of what, for lack of a more discriminating term, we may call the Chinese temperament. It is one of the points at which it is next to impossible for the Chinese and the Anglo-Saxon to come to terms, that a civilized, cultivated, prolific, and enterprising race of creatures can exist upon the planet and yet have no thirst to modify existing conditions so as to bring in some state of things more nearly ideal. How Chinese institutions came to be what they are, it is beyond the power of any one now to say. But it is very certain that all those institutions are distinctly an evolution, and that they followed from antecedent causes by an inevitable sequence, as every other development of human history is known to do, leaving, of course, full play for the choice of free volition and the wide varieties of mental preference.

What the Occidental insists upon knowing, however, is why the Chinese did not continue to improve when they had once entered upon the upward path. And this is one of the standing puzzles of Chinese his-tory. To the Chinese, however, there is no mystery,

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and nothing whatever to be explained. It was a pithy saying of President Wayland to a class of "boys whom he addressed, that " when a thing is as good as it can be, you cannot make it any better." If Dr. Wayland had been the first of the long line of Chinese sages, he could not more aptly have expressed the underlying subsump-tion which has always dwelt in the Chinese national con-sciousness.

And this leads me to speak of Chinese ideals. They have the loftiest moral code which the human mind unaided by divine revelation has ever produced, and its crystalline precepts have been the rich inheritance of every successive present from every successive past. The certainty that this is the best system of hu-man thought as regards the relations of man to man is as much a part of the thinking of every educated Chinese as his vertebrae are a part of his skeleton ; and the same may be said of the uneducated Chinese when the word feeling is substituted for thinking. The scholar feels because he thinks, the peasant feels without think-ing, but their feeling is in the same direction, and not infrequently of a like intensity when the roots of their natures are reached. Perhaps this is a phenomenon not to be found outside of the Celestial Empire; but within it, one might almost say that there are no exceptions to this broad generalization. The Copernican system of as-tronomy as distinct from the Ptolemaic is not more firmly accepted in Western lands than are the tenets of Confu-cianism, as a whole and in details, intellectually and psy-chologically appropriated by the Chinese as on a par with a law of nature. The comparison itself is strikingly in-adequate, however, for to this day there are parts even of the United States where school-teachers have been known to offer " to teach round or flat as parents prefer,"

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and where men can be found willing- to take the affirma-tive in a public debate upon the proposition that the sun daily revolves about the earth. All that was said by the sages is true : therefore all truth was spoken by the sages. To a Chinese these are almost identical propositions. There are now no sages, and for this reason the Golden Age of the Chinese is in the remote past.

The bearing of these potent facts upon the present topic is immediate and vital. Whatever tends to swing the Chinese race out of line with the past is for that reason alone to be tabooed. This is, in the first instance, not a matter for argument, but it is decided by an instinct like that by which the eagle refuses to dive into the water for the fish which it wants but cannot take, and by which the fish declines to try life upon dry land to escape its finny foes. It was a pregnant saying of one of the great Emperors of the T'ang dynasty (more than a thousand years ago) that the tenets of the sages are adapted to the Chinese as the water is adapted to the fish, and the relation of the Chinese to the sages is that of the fish to the water — when the one dries up, the other dies. It is for this reason that, while every Chinese may employ Buddhist or Taoist priests to perform religious ceremo-nials supposed to be required, without being in any sense a Buddhist or a Taoist, he is ex officio a Confucianist. If he departs from Confucianism, he is like an asteroid which forsakes the planet to which it belongs — it must be due to an overwhelming attraction in another direction.

The Chinese have an instinctive and hereditary aversion to war. In case of emergency they can fight, and do fight, and have done so with more or less success for ages. But fighting is not their normal state of activity, and the mili-tary is regarded as distinctly lower than the civil official in every point of view. The Chinese invented gun-

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powder, but they have never used it as the cement by which to hold together institutions and races that would otherwise have fallen into disunity. Had the Chinese been a military people by instinct or by choice, it is obvious that they might have overrun the earth. But probably no such ambition or even conception has ever entered into the mind of any Chinese ruler or general. Whenever the particular disorganization for which the army was called out was remedied, things went on again in the same old way. The effort of the Chinese in the fighting of the past has not been to introduce ameliorations of what was felt to be intolerable, but to hold the present to the traditions of a previous past. A military life, being regarded as unworthy of the educated Chinese, was usually left to those who had failed of success in the civil examinations, and many high in military posts could not so much as read or write. The ordinary soldiers were drawn largely from the restless, luckless, discontented classes, weary of the dull routine of home life, thirsting for variety and perhaps adventure. It is proverbial that good men do not become soldiers. Such being the Chinese view of the military arm of the State, it is not surprising that it has simply been treated as a necessary evil, with no attempt at improvement and no correction of long-standing abuses. Modern contact with the nations of the West for more than a century has constantly tended to show the Chinese that their position in an appeal to arms was distinctly and inevitably inferior to that of their opponents in respect of equipment, yet the Chinese never appear to have entertained the smallest doubt that, all things considered, they were incomparably superior to any foreign people, and must in the end be victorious. But the necessity of making the appeal to arms was to the Chinese in many ways distasteful. They did not

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wish to fight, but merely to be let alone. The felt neces-sity of dealing with those whose presence might at any time become, and often was, a menace, became to the Chinese irksome in a high degree.

If there are any spheres of activity for which the Chinese race appears to be by nature especially fitted, they may be comprehensively classified under the terms pro-duction and exchange. A Chinese knows how to make the most of materials which he has, and he knows how to carry the products of his industry to the places where he will be likely to receive the greatest return for his pains. He is ready to go on long journeys, undergo ex-treme toil and danger, submit to inconveniences and hard-ships of every kind for long periods together, and to do it as a business, for the sake of small rewards. He is a born producer, and he is an instinctive and highly skilled trader. Yet, for all this, the Chinese do not place a high value upon trade as such. Attention has often been called to the instructive fact that, of the four classes into which they divide the inhabitants of the Central Empire, Scholars are named first, Farmers second, Workmen third, and Traders last. Chinese officials have always adopted the tone of lofty contempt for the trad-ing classes whenever there was any provocation to do so.

In the case of the foreigner, who came to the Chinese in the first instance simply and solely as a dealer in goods and as a medium of exchange, there was from the beginning a temptation to do this. For many decades the foreigners were few in numbers and the volume of trade was trifling, but it tended always to increase, the profits on each side being immense. It was to the Chinese Government as well as to the Chinese traders a highly advantageous intercourse, but this fact was never for a moment even implicitly admitted by the former, which

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invariably assumed a tone of lordly condescension in even tolerating the presence of the " Barbarian," and in indulging the weakness of such of its own subjects as had dealings with him. The Chinese have always exhibited a singular timidity upon the sea. Although undoubtedly discoverers of the mariner's compass, the use which they have always made of it has found expression in the clumsy and unseaworthy junk, which still lingers as a maritime absurdity. Partly on account of their own dread of the ocean, they could not under-stand the persistent restlessness of foreign merchants which incessantly impelled them to visit the China coast. The only explanation credible, or indeed conceivable, to the Chinese was the theory that the foreigner came be-cause he was compelled to do so. He dwelt in a remote, circumscribed, unproductive, and impoverished corner of the earth, which produced neither tea-leaves nor rhubarb. Without tea he would have nothing to drink. Without rhubarb he was absolutely unable to digest his food. Commerce with China was to him, therefore, a condition of existence, else why did he so persistently and insist-ently come back after each repulse? To the Chinese, on the other hand, this commercial intercourse was a mere amusement, a bringing from afar of " ivory, apes, and peacocks," which at best were but far-fetched and use-less luxuries, not infrequently proving noisy, mischievous, and troublesome.

All this was the common feeling, at the beginning of the present century, in the limited region and among the conceited Chinese where alone such trade was permitted. After a hundred years of enlightenment, however, many Chinese fans still continue to represent their illustrious Empire as large enough to cover four-fifths of the whole number of ribs, the remaining fragment being devoted

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to "Ocean," " Ying-Kuo " (England), "Fa-Kuo" (France), and " Hui-Hui " (Mohammedans), omitting the rest of the globe as unknown or irrelevant. Geo-graphical knowledge has penetrated even into Chinese yamens, and has illuminated innumerable officials, who, in time of " Reform " enthusiasm, go so far as to purchase, in large quantities, books on Western learning from mis-sionaries. Yet it is scarce a year since one of these men, a native of Peking, of considerable ability and high schol-arship, issued, within the missionary field of the writer of this paper, an elaborate pamphlet, intended for the edi-fication and guidance of the scholars of his county, in the opening sentences of which he repeated the statement already cited, that the foreigners came from an over-crowded land in which it was impossible for them to make a living, to the great Chinese Empire, in which they were allowed by the grace of the Emperor to stay and to trade. The fact that in this particular district the population is in parts above two thousand to the square mile ; that the people are so poor as to be barely able by the hardest toil to keep the wolf from their door; that no foreign trade is known in any form ; and that the handful of for-eigners who reside within that general region draw such support as they may have, not in any wise from China, but from the overcrowded land whence they came, is not more worthy of notice than that an intelligent Chinese mandarin addressing privately the best-instructed men in his county should put this explanation in the opening sentences of his pamphlet of advice and instruc-tion.

More and more toward the close of the century is the Occidental world frank in avowing that without foreign trade it is impossible for nations to continue their exist-ence. In sharp contrast with all this is the undoubted

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feeling on the part of innumerable Chinese that it would be a good thing for China if all its foreign commerce were absolutely wiped out. It is easy to point out the absurdity of such a theory, and to show how, by means of this intercourse alone, Shanghai has grown from an obscure county-seat into the great commercial capital of the Far East, some of its once useless real estate now rivaling in value the most costly sites in London; how Chefoo, from an unknown fishing village, has developed into a great port, the door of entry for a large region and an immense population; how Tientsin, which only a generation ago was a congeries of cabbage patches, is now the metropolis of the four northern provinces of the Empire, and second in importance only to Shanghai itself. All this and much else can be shown, proved, established, demonstrated apodeictically, and illustrated abundantly. But cui bono? The foreigner does not need the demonstration, and the Chinese, for the most part, does not care for it. It is never safe to generalize in China, and it is proverbially impossible to ascertain what a Chinese thinks or means by what he says. Yet it is frequently quite practicable to come at it by an examina-tion of what he does. Have not the Chinese in each of these treaty ports, as well as in many others, repeatedly and by unmistakable object-lessons made it clear that, if it were left to a vote of the Chinese themselves, scholars, farmers, workmen, and traders included, the foreigner would go?

It has been the fashion to infer that the phenomena which appeared to indicate this feeling were isolated, sporadic, occasional, and transient. The Tientsin massa-cre was due to the peculiarly violent rowdies of that city, nicknamed " Turbid-Stars ; " the sudden whirlwind Which came near wiping out the foreign settlement at Chinkiang was on account of the unmanageable boatmen

REMOTER SOURCES OF "ANTIPATHY 13

on the rice-junks ; a like unannounced and destructive irruption at the distant Yangtze port of I Ch'ang Fu was devised and managed by Imperial, and therefore unruly, troops ; the turbulence of the people in Fu Chou is because they are " the Irishmen of China," and does not carry within it any deep meaning; the destructive and often repeated hurricanes of passion and ruin at Canton are the heritage of a century of misunderstandings and hatred, and not typical occurrences; while the furious ebulli-tions of the wheelbarrow-men, or the whole class of Ningpo men, in Shanghai, at different times and for dif-ferent causes, are supposed to illustrate merely the con-centration of power in a Chinese labour strike, and the cohesive force resident in the action of a strong provincial guild, moved by considerations of sentiment and of inter-est under peculiar conditions.

Such opinions have been widely held by some who have considerable knowledge of China and the Chinese. But it is impossible, upon an impartial view of all the facts, not to consider them as altogether inadequate and untenable. When an archipelago of islands is found to have, here and there, volcanoes in various stages of ac-tivity, it is not unreasonable to infer that there is a con-nection between the eruptions, whether they do or do not chance all to take place simultaneously. The causes for the extensive outbreaks in China which have already been considered are only the more remote and perhaps less obvious ones, and may be summarized as what phy-sicians term predisposing rather than efficient. The more proximate and immediate sources are to be found in a variety of phenomena, the complexity of which it is not easy to unravel, and of which perhaps no single individual is competent to give an entirely adequate account. Yet an attempt, at least, at such an unraveling will be found in the ensuing chapters.

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CHAPTER 2. International Complications

INTERNATIONAL COMPLICATIONS

WHOEVER will take the trouble to consult any compendious history of foreign relations with the Chinese Empire cannot fail to be struck by the fact that the present treaties are the product of in-numerable forces slowly working through long periods of time. As the foreigners originally came to China for the sake of trade, so they have always fought, when there has been any righting, for the right of treaty relations, primarily with a view to the rights of commerce. The Chinese were willing enough to allow commercial inter-course, but they would tolerate it only at the greatest possible distance from the seat of government at Peking, to wit, the city of Canton, on the extreme southeastern coast of China. Many years ago the writer, while travel-ling in the province of Shensi, was offered at the capital, Hsi An Fu, an old document which proved to be the orig-inal instructions to the first regularly accredited Minister from the United States to China, Mr. John W. Davis. In this letter the President of the United States informs his " great and good friend," the Emperor Tao Kuang, that he has commissioned Mr. Davis to bear the Presi-dent's good wishes to the Emperor, and " to be near your Majesty." This may have been what President Polk was inaccurately aiming at in commissioning Mr. Davis; it certainly was not what the Emperor meant by receiving him at Canton, and keeping him, together with all other diplomatic representatives, at the same spot.

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INTERNATIONAL COMPLICATIONS 15

It is difficult even to read with, patience the recital of what foreigners went through with the Chinese at that early day. The conceit of the Chinese Government and of all its officials from top to bottom was simply colossal and insufferable. To us it now seems that no self-respect-ing nation would have put up with it for a year. Such, however, was the unwillingness to bring on a collision with the Chinese authorities that upon one occasion, when an American sailor had accidentally dropped a dish upon the head of an old boatwoman who was under the ship's side, the commander of the vessel actually submitted to the Chinese demand and sent the poor fellow into the city to be tried by the Chinese, where he was promptly bow-strung! The whole tangled relation of the East India Company to the Chinese was full of potential and in-evitable disputes with the authorities. The Governor-General of the two Kuang provinces — " Viceroy " he is still inaccurately termed — was generally chosen for his skill in dealing with the fierce and intractable Barbarian, who was to be tolerated, snubbed, and bled.

Under these conditions it is a wonder that the war of 1840-42 did not come about earlier. The Chinese had been for decades in the habit of using opium, would not, and probably could not, give it up, and had begun to feel the need of getting it in larger quantities. The British trade in this drug was very large, and was di-rectly concerned in bringing on the war when it occurred (though it must have come sooner or later). Many of England's most candid writers and statesmen have not only admitted but declared in Parliament and in many public ways that in that war the case of the Chinese made a better showing, considered in itself, than that of Great Britain. " Considered in itself " — but no war of this sort can be " considered in itself," and there were

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graver issues than the opium trade involved, which con-cerned the whole future of China, little as the ignorant and obstinate men who ruled her comprehended that fact. For the peace of the world and for the welfare of the Chinese Empire itself, it was indispensable that the in-tolerable pride of the Chinese should receive a decisive overthrow by the only means which people and Emperor alike were able to comprehend — military force. This was eventually accomplished, albeit with great delibera-tion, and by the sole agency of Great Britain. This im-portant fact is too often lost sight of by those whose main idea seems to be to exploit the Chinese Empire for their own exclusive benefit, shutting out all others.

The signing of the Treaty of Nanking in the spring of 1842 is justly regarded by Dr. Williams, whether from the political, commercial, moral, or intellectual stand-point, as " one of the turning-points in the history of man-kind, involving the welfare of all nations in its wide-reaching consequences." By it the Emperor of China was punished for refusing to treat the foreigners with common humanity, for cutting off their access to the Chinese with whom they wished to trade, for spurning foreign ambassadors, and for denying that intercourse with the rest of the world which they felt to be a natural right. Four new ports were opened, for the reason that the British had already seized them and could not be expelled. The British required a port for refitting ships, and as they had already to some extent occupied the island of Hongkong, it was ceded to them. Twenty years later this demand was followed by the cession of a terri-tory on the mainland needed for expansion. Plats of land were set aside for the use of foreigners in each of the new ports, to be governed by the various nationalities.

As no foreigner could submit to the execution of

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Chinese laws by Chinese processes, this course was a necessity so far as exterritoriality goes, but it soon showed itself as a great evil. As the settlements became more prosperous, business multiplied, and tens of thou-sands of Chinese crowded into the foreign settlement of Shanghai, over whom their own officials exercised but a limited and circuitous jurisdiction. The friction attend-ing such an imperium in imperio is to a certain extent inevitable, and it is greatly augmented whenever either the foreign or the Chinese officials concerned in the resul-tant " mixed courts " prove unreasonable or obstructive. The Chinese are far less sensitive to the inequality and incidental injustice associated with ex-territorial rights than the Japanese, who, after energetic struggles, have rid themselves of it altogether; but there is no doubt that it has been as vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes of hundreds of Chinese officials, to tens of thousands of subjects, and not less so to the central Government itself, which is thus perpetually reminded of its own shortsightedness, weakness, and inferiority to other " sister nations."

The same treaty of 1842 granted the right of entering the city of Canton, as was done in all the other ports. But the local officials would not, and probably in any case could not, control the people in this particular, and for five years the right of entry was in abeyance, when a British captain, with several vessels of war, captured all the guns in the forts at the Bogue commanding the Pearl River, and forced the authorities to grant larger space for residences and warehouses, and to agree that within two years the city gates should be unconditionally opened, as elsewhere, to all foreigners. But at the expi-ration of the period named the Emperor ordered the Gov-ernor-General to heed the wishes of the people and to

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ignore the engagement. As the rights claimed did not seem to have been explicitly enough defined to make the British case absolutely clear, the authorities, acting under orders from London, did not press the matter, and it was not until after the capture of Canton in 1857-58 that the right of free entry to the city was finally conceded.

From this single instance of Canton it is easy for the discriminating reader to perceive that, while external con-ditions were perpetually altering by the pressure of the irresistible foreign force employed, Chinese resistance remained the same in essence that it had ever been. Within less than fifteen years after China was held to be definitely " opened," the items of complaint on the part of the British had so accumulated, with aggravated and mordant concomitants, that another war was inevit-able. With the same disregard of the claims of the Chinese and the same carelessness as to the opinions of the rest of the world which were displayed in the open-ing of the previous war, this one was begun upon a technicality, and was so conducted at many points as to give occasion for just criticism. Mr. Justin McCarthy will not be suspected of partiality toward the Chinese, but in his " History of Our Own Times," he declared that " the truth is, there has seldom been so flagrant and so inexcusable an example of high-handed lawlessness in the dealings of a strong with a weak nation." The gen-eral position and claim of the British were right, and the war was inevitable, but it was full of incidents to be regretted, all of which left behind a sting in the national self-consciousness of the Chinese, who continued to act in defiance of their own repeated and explicit en-gagements. In the year 1858 the Taku forts were captured after slight resistance, and a treaty was nego-tiated at Tientsin soon after, the Chinese yielding for fear

TAKU FORTS, OUTSIDE VIEW

TAKU FORTS, INSIDE VIEW

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of worse consequences if they did not. Lord Elgin men-tions in his Diary feeling " the painfulness of the position of a negotiator who has to treat with persons who yield nothing to reason and everything to fear, and who are at the same time profoundly ignorant of the subjects under discussion and of their own real interests."

The next year the ratifications of the British, French, and American treaties were to be exchanged, and for the first two of them Peking had been expressly designated as the place. This point the Chinese had yielded because there seemed no other way, but they had meanwhile greatly strengthened the Taku forts, stretching a boom across the Pei Ho, and when the British fleet advanced to proceed to Tientsin as agreed, it met with a stubborn resistance, for which it was not prepared, and on attempt-ing to land, the forces were repulsed, with the serious loss of 89 killed and 345 wounded.

It was not until more than a year later that the British and French as allies once more took the Taku forts (from the rear), and, forcing their way to the capital of the Empire, compelled the signing of a new treaty, which was to mark a new era. This important event was at-tended by many of those singular phenomena which seem to differentiate the Chinese from the rest of the race. Tientsin and T'ung Chou, the only cities on the way to Peking, capitulated on their own account, furnishing sup-plies to the invading army, on condition that the cities themselves should not be disturbed. One of the most useful arms of the British service was the Hongkong coolie regiment, which did valuable and indispensable work with great cheerfulness and success. When some of these were captured by the Chinese generals, instead of being promptly beheaded, they were sent back minus their cues. The treachery of the Chinese in seizing Mr.

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Parkes and others who had gone on to T'ung Chou to arrange the terms of peace was punished by the total destruction of the Emperor's Summer Palace, as well as other places of Imperial resort in the neighbourhood, as " a solemn act of retribution," and it is only within re-cent years that the destruction thus wrought by whole-sale— for which there was undoubtedly abundant provo-cation— has been partially repaired.

Thus, much against its will, the Chinese Government had been forced into relations with the rest of the world, by means of a series of treaties which, through the fav-oured-nation clause, enabled each to partake of all the advantages of the rest, as vessels, to quote Dr. Martin's felicitous simile, are all raised to the same level by the small quantity of water in a single lock.

In order to estimate aright the subsequent behaviour of the Chinese, it is necessary to take account of the Chinese point of view in regard to a great variety of matters, all of which were brought within the purview of the treaties, and each one of which made endless dis-cussions and perpetual friction. The Treaty of Tientsin was made with four Powers, and the tariff was incor-porated as a constituent part of it, so that, unless all these Powers could at some future time be brought to unite upon a revision, for which no provision was made, there could be no relief for the inequalities and injustice of the rate, and for numerous other galling provisos, in regard to which the Chinese knew next to nothing, but by which, once adopted, they were tied hand and foot. This state of things still continues, and it is impossible to say how much influence it has had upon successive generations of Chinese in making them restive under restrictions im-posed ab extra, and rigidly enforced. If we suppose the case reversed, and our own country compelled to admit

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every class of goods at a uniform rate of five per cent. ad valorem duty, it will be readily perceived that we should soon have abundant work cut out for the Secre-taries of State, of War, and of the Navy.

The coolie traffic which had sprung up in the south of China, and which had its centre at the port of Macao, was the occasion of immitigable woe to China, scarcely excelled by anything within contemporaneous history. Special commissioners have been sent to Cuba and to Peru within the period since the Treaty of Tientsin has been in operation, and their reports have fully sustained the worst charges against this species of " labour system " and its concomitants. The Chinese theory has always been, in effect, that those subjects who voluntarily ex-patriated themselves thereby forfeited protection, and whatever befell them concerned themselves only, and not the Manchu Government in Peking. But when inter-national law began to be imparted to the Chinese as a text-book, they gradually awakened to a sense of the grievous wrongs which their people had suffered and are still at intervals undergoing in the United States and Australia. When individual Americans have been ill treated in China, the United States Government has made it a " case," and prosecuted it to a successful issue. When Chinese in Rock Springs and many other mining towns have been murdered wholesale, it has often been thought sufficient to point out to the Chinese Ambassador, or to any inquisitive Chinese officials, like Li Hung Chang, that this particular act was wrought in " a Territory," which is a partly settled region over which the governmental con-trol is loose and imperfect, or else that these acts hap-pened in a " a State," over which, by the Constitution of the United States, the General Government has no juris-diction at all. In either case, the friends of the killed or

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injured Chinese returned to their own land filled witK enthusiasm 'for the " equal rights " which are demanded abroad and denied at home. The growing influence and largely increased circulation of native newspapers, a9 full of sensational falsehoods as the most " yellow jour-nals " of our advanced civilization, give to complaints of this sort a weight which a generation since they wholly lacked, and a single reported instance of this kind may be the fertile microbe out of which there later springs a harvest of whirlwind.

It may be said that by this Treaty of Tientsin, the Empire of China was introduced, by no wish of her own, and against her will, into what was termed the " sister-hood of nations " — a relationship of which the rulers of China knew nothing and for which they cared less. But, having been forced into it, the Chinese, with their native pliability, proceeded to adapt themselves to their new en-vironment. The forty years remaining, between the sign-ing of the Treaty of Tientsin and the Boxer uprising in the spring of 1900, may for convenience be divided into five principal periods, the close of each marked with some event of capital importance to China and to foreigners. Of these periods the first extends from i860 to the Tien-tsin massacre in June, 1870. During the first half of this decade China was still struggling with the Taiping re-bellion. In the second half the Burlingame Mission was despatched to Western lands to emphasize and expand the " sisterhood of nations " idea, but the death of its principal agent, for whom it was named, put an end to the hopes built upon it.

The second of the five periods named wa§ from 1870 to 1875, when the murder, by the criminal connivance of local Chinese mandarins, of a young British officer named Margary, on an official tour through Yunnan to the border

INTERNATIONAL COMPLICATIONS 23

of Burmah, almost brought about a rupture between China and Great Britain. Sir Thomas Wade hauled down his Legation flag and left Peking for Chefoo, where he was followed not long after by Li Hung Chang, upon whom for a quarter of a century the burden of " peace-talking " under difficult conditions has been thrust. Sir Thomas was an " old China hand " of long experience and great knowledge of the country and its language, but he was violent in temper and often eccentric in judgment. It is vain now to raise questions as to the might-have-beens, yet, in view of the prestige of Great Britain at that time, and the absence from the diplomatic stage as important factors of several Powers which have since become influential, not to say dominant, it is difficult to resist the conclusion that an invaluable opportunity to sow the seeds of great changes and reforms in China was lost, with almost no gain but the opening of a few more treaty ports.

It was in this period that the famous Educational Mis-sion was sent to the United States, mainly through the influence of Mr. Yung Wing, who was at once a Chinese and an American, a graduate of Yale University, and a true lover of his people. The plan was that a select body of young Chinese should be educated in Western fashion so as to be ready to take prominent places in the regenera-tion of the new China. It was carried out with zeal, discrimination, and success, but this very success was eventually an allotropic form of failure. The young men became Americanized, clearly recognized the error of Chinese traditional ideas, and were filled with enthusiasm for permeating at once the inert mass of Chinese con-servatism with the leaven of their new conceptions and convictions. As soon as this was clearly perceived by a new commissioner, all the students were straightway

24 CHINA IN CONVULSION

ordered home, where they were literally young men with-out a country, the butt of the tyranny of narrow-minded and obstructive Taotais who wished to make them realize that their newly acquired foreign notions could not and would not be tolerated in old China. Their subsequent career was disappointing alike to themselves and to the promoters of the Mission. Many of them did good serv-ice in a limited way, but not one enjoyed the oppor-tunities or exerted the influence which had been justly expected. One of the most courageous and hopeful of the number, Mr. Kin Ta T'ing, was shot, probably by mistake, during the attack on the foreign settlement of Tientsin.

There can be little doubt that one lamentable and un-foreseen effect of this promising effort to enlighten the darkness of China was to make a large circle of influ-ential Chinese officials perceive with increased clearness the " irreconcilable conflict " of ideas between the East and the West, and to increase the bitterness of their feel-ings toward the domineering Occidentals. This was rec-ognized to some extent, although imperfectly at the time, and later became still more evident.

The end of this period was marked by a long and desultory war with France, caused on the Chinese side by the aggressions of France, and on the side of France by Chinese obstinacy and deceit. The Chinese for the first time learned to discriminate one nationality from another while hostilities were in progress, but protected all non-combatants alike, even the French. By agreement of the Powers Shanghai was left undisturbed, and hos-tilities were confined to ports of minor importance. The Chinese were accused by the French of having con-tributed to the defeat at Langson, the principal fortress of the northern frontier of Tongking, from which the French

INTERNATIONAL COMPLICATIONS 25

had been repulsed with heavy loss. The Chinese offered to renew negotiations, but the French were greatly ex-asperated, and demanded an indemnity from the Chinese Government. When this was refused the matter was put into the hands of Admiral Courbet, who first blockaded the coast of Formosa, and then took up his position ten miles below the city of Fu Chou, where he drew up his nine vessels opposite the eleven wooden boats of the Chinese, demanding the immediate surrender of the forts and the fleet, although there had been no declaration of war up to that time. All but one of the Chinese ships were destroyed within a few minutes, and 3,000 Chinese were killed. Pres. Geo. B. Smyth, of the Anglo Chinese College at Fu Chou, mentioned in an article in the North American Review, that " The bodies of the dead floated out to sea on the tide, many of them being borne back on the returning current, and for days it was hardly pos-sible to cross the river anywhere between the anchorage and the sea, twenty miles below, without seeing some of those dreadful reminders of French treachery and bru-tality. The people of the city were roused to fury, and the foreigners would have been attacked but for the pres-ence of American and British gunboats anchored off the settlement to protect them." To the Chinese this pro-tracted scufrle with France was of importance as showing that foreigners were no longer irresistible and invincible, while impartial spectators were agreed that China had much just ground for national resentment.

After the ensuing peace, China muddled on in the old way. Influential memorials insisted upon railways, the telegraph having already been widely extended a few years previous. Other influential memorials presented counter considerations, and although formal Imperial permission was given about this time for a railway from

26 CHINA IN CONVULSION '

Tientsin to Peking, action and reaction just balancing and neutralizing each other, nothing was done. But the few miles of railway from the Tangshan mines to the head of a canal connecting with the Pei Ho, under the wary and sagacious management of Mr. Kinder, the British engineer in charge, gradually developed into a line cov-ering the whole distance to Tientsin, superseding the canal, and teaching a valuable object-lesson. If other introducers of Western innovations into China had been as patient, as resourceful, and as tactful as Mr. Kinder, the resultant friction would have been far less and the forward progress far greater.

In the summer of 1891 occurred a series of terrible riots in the Yangtze Valley, which destroyed several foreign lives (not all the victims being missionaries) and much property. The events of that year have an im-portant bearing upon the great outbreak nine years later, most of the underlying causes being general and perma-nent. These will be referred to in detail later on, but it is well to note here that in the copious discussion which ensued among well-informed residents in China there was great divergence of opinion both as to the causes and as to the true significance of the events themselves. This fact is of special interest as illustrating the extraordinary difficulty of comprehending the complex phenomena of Chinese contemporaneous history and the necessity for a cautious suspense of judgment.

The war with Japan (1893-94), which marks the close of a fourth period, was of momentous results to China. It pricked " the China bubble," and demonstrated, to such Chinese as knew the facts, that their country was fitly symbolized by the forty-eight wooden shutters to the ports of the towers over the massive gates of Peking, which are decorated with the painted muzzles of large cannon.

INTERNATIONAL COMPLICATIONS 27

China was shown to be a hollow sham, a painted gun on a wooden background, a giant manacled by a race of " pygmy dwarfs." Her unpaid, ilJbfed, ill-armed, ill-drilled, and badly led troops were simply forced to fly. What else could they do? All the best friends of China, who had hoped for her own sake to see her rally, were grievously disappointed, and most of them speechless with disgust at the revelation of her hopeless corruption. (This was not true, however, of them all. The late Professor Park defended his former views on the ground that he had always maintained that, in the long run, the Chinese would come out ahead!) It is a time-honoured saying that Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other. Despite the past, there seemed every reason to suppose that now at last this would be true of China. No one has written an autobiographical account of the sensations and emotions of a whale with a harpoon in its back and a boatload of whalers at the end of the rope. In the case of China there were several boats' crews all bent on large consignments of oil from the stranded monster. Formosa was lost, an enormous indemnity was to be paid in " spot cash," and a greater peril than either or both was just coming into clear sight. Some able men in China clearly perceived the root of her troubles, and numerous memorials suggested many remedies, or rather alleviations, of her ills. It is not difficult to see where a boat took the wrong channel and drifted into rapids ; but to be able against the irresistible current to get it out is another matter.

During all this later period, one of the chronic sources of misunderstanding — or rather of irreconcilable controversy — between Western nations and the Chinese has been the Audience question. To the uninstructed in Oriental affairs it might seem a minor matter with what cere-monies Foreign Ministers are received at Peking, when

28 CHINA IN CONVULSION

once they are allowed to be received at all. But the governments of all nations, rightly apprehending the im-portance of a precedent which should not only omit the " kotow," but sharply differentiate equal nations from the numerous dependent and tributary States with which Chinese history is filled, united to make common cause, and in June, 1873, the young Emperor received the en-voys from Western lands in the manner befitting their rank and office as legates from sister powers. But even this victory, after a long and fiercely contested battle, was not regarded as complete, on account of the unsuitability of the particular building chosen, which was held to have associations with tribute and inferiority. Little by little these difficulties have been overcome, until the climax of triumph was attained in the early months of 1899, when the Empress Dowager herself received the wives of the Foreign Ministers in a special place, and with every token of cordiality and esteem, personally welcoming every one of them, and murmuring gently to each one the assuring aphorism that we are all " one family," dis-missing them, after some hours, with a handsome pres-ent, full of admiration for her Majesty and hopes for China. At the instance of the foreign ladies of the Le-gations, this touching interview was repeated at the be-ginning of the year 1900, under like conditions. Five months later her Majesty was issuing edicts which ordered her troops, in large numbers and constantly recruited with fresh men, to throw Krupp shells and fire Mauser and Mannlicher bullets into the dwelling-places of these same ladies from the West, with a view to their speedy extinction, thus leaving only the Chinese (and Manchu) contingent of the " one family " surviving.

This, then, was the outcome of thirty-five years of the compulsory " sisterhood of nations " business. From the

INTERNATIONAL COMPLICATIONS 29

standpoint of the wise and impartial foreigner (if there is such a one) China's calamities " served her right." She should have kept her treaties, listened to reason, and taken sound advice while it was yet time. From the point of view of the Chinese, most of her troubles had themselves come directly through treaties which she did not want but could not escape, the meshes of which were steadily becoming smaller in size and more closely drawn. Is it surprising that, from Chinese premises and with Chinese limitations of experience, knowledge, foresight, and in-sight, they should hate the very name " treaty," and be filled with wrath and bitterness toward those who had chained China to the bond-service of this capacious and rapacious tyrant, always demanding what was impossible to grant, and then extorting more because something had been refused or left unfulfilled ? " Who yield nothing to reason and everything to fear," were the pregnant words of Lord Elgin, already cited — comprising within them-selves the entire future history of China to the end of the century.

The brief but important years since the treaty of Shi-monoseki are still more replete with events directly con-ducing or indirectly contributing to the late cataclysm. These, however, may be best treated by themselves in a later chapter.

Ill

CHAPTER 3. Protestants in China

PROTESTANTS IN CHINA

IN considering the animosity of the Chinese. towards the men from the West it is neither possible nor desirable to attempt to run too sharp a line of cleavage between them, for in the essentials they are all alike on the same footing. No further rationale of the dislike of a Chinese for those who are not Chinese is necessary than the mere statement that they are not Chinese. Whatever may have been the case in earlier dynasties, during the domination of the Manchu Tartars outsiders have been looked upon with jealousy and dis-trust. The Manchu rulers remember how their own an-cestors stepped into an imperial city and a splendid palace without the smallest effort, and, with a not unnatural jealousy, they wish to keep at a distance any Power which showed itself able to do the same. This strong feeling of the Imperial family, shared by the princes and nobles, was easily communicable to the rest of the people of the Empire, for in China the prince is the dish and the people are the water: if the dish is round, the water will be round; if the dish is square, the water will be square also.

But in the case of Christianity, it must be admitted that there are certain special reasons for distrust. The terrible Taiping rebellion, which overspread the greater part of the Empire, devastated the fairest provinces and ruined the largest cities for the period of fifteen years, may be said to owe its origin solely to an impulse re-

30

PROTESTANTS IN CHINA 31

ceived by its founder, Hung Hsiu Ch'tian, from reading Christian books and conversing with Chinese Christians and an American missionary named Roberts. It had for one of its objects the destruction of idols and the sub-stitution of a different form of worship, which speedily became corrupt, egotistical, and blasphemous. Yet it was many months before the true nature of this great movement disclosed itself, and in the meantime there were many foreigners who looked upon it with undisguised favour, hoping that, if guided aright, it might prove the means of regenerating the Empire and of putting aside the reigning dynasty. But the extravagant pretensions and preposterous claims of the Taiping leaders soon ren-dered this impossible; and all foreign interest in the re-bellion as a movement soon fell to forty degrees below zero. But there were many foreign adventurers who helped it on from mercenary motives, and the whole train of circumstances connected with the movement cannot have been without its influence in creating antipathy to Westerners, and suspicion of Christian teaching.

The Chinese have been more or less familiar with the religion of the " Lord of Heaven " for many hundred years, whereas the Protestant faith has been widely dif-fused only within the past half-century — a short period measured on the dial-plate of Chinese chronology. The Roman Catholic Church has an external and a visible unity which appears to be totally lacking in the Protest-ants, who came from nobody knows where, for nobody can say what reason, settling at frequent intervals of space all over the Eighteen Provinces, having previously journeyed everywhere, generally selling books, often dis-pensing medicines, constantly preaching, and keeping the minds of the multitude in more or less of a ferment as to what it is all about. More than thirteen years since,

32 CHINA IN CONVULSION

the writer, with a companion, was travelling on one of the principal highways of the province toward the capital of Shantung. An old man squatting by the roadside peered at the party in a surly manner, muttering to himself as we passed : " One unceasing stream ! " It was easy to read his thought in his face — by no means a uni-versal experience in China. He could remember when there were no foreigners throughout the whole region; then there was one a year, or three in two years. After that they began to appear in pairs, later still in droves, with women and children, and now it is " one unceasing 6tream." He did not like it — why, he might or might not have been able to tell, but it was evident that he thought he had fallen upon evil days, and that the old were better.

To the instinctive national dislike of the intrusion of the men from beyond the Ocean is to be added the yet more pronounced antipathy of the literary class of China to any and all who seem to them to be endeavouring to introduce into China any " instruction " which shall in any wise come into competition with that of the sages of antiquity. To suppose that anything could be added to their wisdom is as arrogant an assumption to the ortho-dox Confucianist as it would be to a Christian for one to claim that an appendix to the New Testament is to be looked for which shall be of equal value and authority with its twenty-seven books. The scornful wonder with which the very conception of such supplementary teaching is greeted by the typical Confucianist contains in itself the germs of all the troubles which missionaries experi-ence in China ; just as a barrel of whisky was declared by an experienced North American Indian to hold " a thou-sand songs and fifty fights." For in China the balance of social power is always with the representatives of the

PROTESTANTS IN CHINA 33

literary class, from the common school-teachers and graduates up to the retired officials who are at the head of the gentry of the region in which they live. When-ever the actual officials and the literary class not in office unite in any view of a practical matter, they are as sure to carry the people with them as strong gusts from the mountains are certain to stir the waters of shallow lakes. " The wind blows and the grass bends." It is probably too wide a generalization to say that there are no anti-missionary riots which are not directly incited by scholars, although this is sometimes claimed ; but the general rule is unmistakable.

In so much promiscuous preaching as is done by Prot-estant missionaries, mingling at all times with all classes of the people all over China, it is impossible that there should not be many occasions for offense on the part of the most self-restrained Confucianist. Not all mission-aries are equally prudent and experienced, and it is quite possible by an unguarded expression to alienate the sym-pathy of even the most friendly Chinese — and few Chinese can be said to be truly friendly at the outset, an impartial neutrality being the most that can be hoped for. That Protestant missionaries are in the habit of speaking slight-ingly of Confucius and Mencius, or of undervaluing their inestimable service to China, is not to be lightly charged or readily believed; but such cases there have been and there are, and very unfortunate results might follow from any one of them. Indeed, there are many missionaries who have been long in China to whom it becomes more and more difficult (and not more and more easy, as might be expected) to speak of the history and the litera-ture of China to non-Christian hearers without saying either too much or too little.

The fact that Christians refuse to conform to the cus-

34 CHINA IN CONVULSION

toms of the country is, to the literati especially, a heinous, an unpardonable, offense. It is a saying of great antiq-uity in China that upon entering a village one should learn what is customary, and upon entering a country ascertain what is forbidden — with a view, that is, to con-forming to the custom, and eschewing what is for any reason taboo. But here is a set of teachers, alien to China, who deliberately narcotize the Chinese themselves, so that they presently become obstinate nonconformists. In some parts of the Empire temple worship and idola-trous rites are of far greater importance than in other parts, but everywhere the crucial question is, What shall be done with regard to ancestral worship? and upon this point the rigid demands of custom and the verdict of the enlightened Chinese conscience remain at variance.

There is probably much that is infelicitous in the mode of discussing this subject with the Chinese, and many un-proved assumptions are not improbably made; especially as the questions which Christianity immediately raises in regard to these rites are such as the Chinese have never formulated for themselves, and perhaps imperfectly com-prehend when they are explained. There is also an in-herent ambiguity in the Chinese words which must of necessity be employed, as when the character translated " worship " also denotes " to pay one's respects," or " to behave with propriety." Perhaps the best possible way of dealing with the difficult topic would be the historical one, in which it may be shown (as has been done by Christian Chinese scholars) that the present usages are neither ancient nor authoritative, and that the real mean-ing which underlies the Chinese idea in ancestral worship is not ignored by Christianity, and can be actually ex-pressed in its completeness without any violation of con-science. But to this method of procedure there are seri-

PROTESTANTS IN CHINA 35

ous if not fatal obstacles. The mass of those who can be induced to listen to the claims of Christianity are not those with whom the historical method is possible, since the greater part of them have no education and many of them cannot even read. With such it is literally indis-pensable to deal as with children, imparting first so much of instruction as may enable them to comprehend the moral demand made upon them, and following with the " categorical imperative " — Thou shalt, or Thou shalt not — the reasons for which are apprehended only at a later stage.

We are not concerned at this time either to defend the almost universal judgment of the Christian Church in China in regard to the worship of ancestors, or to inquire by what means some via media may be employed to com-bine reverence to man and worship to God, so that neither shall infringe upon the other. Our object is simply to make it clear that we recognize the present attitude of the Christian Church (Protestant and Catholic alike) as a great bar to the spread of the Gospel in China, and per-haps the most potent single cause of Chinese hostility.

In one of his wonderfully informing and frank volumes concerning the progress of " Christianity in China, Tar-tary, and Thibet," the Abbe Hue relates a conversation held by his Majesty K'ang Hsi with Monseigneur Maig-rot, Bishop of Colon, upon the true value of the Chinese ancestral rites. Having argued a long time with the in-flexible bishop, the Emperor, wishing to test his alleged knowledge of the Chinese language, proposed to him to read the four characters inscribed over the Hall of Audi-ence. The prelate, according to his adversaries the Jesuits, could read only two of them, and could not explain any (a circumstance which did not in the least prejudice his character as a man fully qualified to come to an opinion

36 CHINA IN CONVULSION

upon this subject, or even as one having a good ac-quaintance with Chinese). The assumption of the Em-peror would certainly be, however, that a European who could not interpret an inscription had no right to assume to teach the scholars of China what their own usages mean. Monseigneur Maigrot was no doubt morti-fied and properly extinguished, and K'ang Hsi was tri-umphant (as an Emperor ought to be) ; but the former certainly had his private thoughts, and one of them was that a question of this nature is not to be finally decided in this way. Neither the dictum of an Emperor nor the bull of a Pope will in the end fetter the educated con-science of the Chinese race. Meantime Christianity is seriously handicapped, and many who know nothing of the Chinese language, who have never studied the sub-ject of ancestral worship at first hand, and who have no overmastering scruples of their own, find no difficulty in demonstrating to their own satisfaction that the whole trouble arises from the unreasonable obstinacy of the foreign missionary and the excessive ductility of the Chinese who follow him.

The refusal of the Christians to perform ceremonies which they regard as idolatrous at the New Year season, at the spring festival when the sacrifices are offered at the graves, at weddings, and especially at funerals, ren-ders them liable to severe persecution, sometimes to the extent of being driven from their homes, deprived of all rights of property, and expelled from the clan to which they belong and from the district in which they were born. It is hard for those who are their shepherds to witness such occurrences (which, with varying degrees of severity, are of constant occurrence) without endeavouring to rectify matters in accordance with the rights expressly guaranteed to Chinese Christians by treaty. In many in-

PROTESTANTS IN CHINA 37

stances this is accomplished after a more or less severe struggle, and a measure of liberty may be secured for the Church as a result. In many other cases, however, the best that can be obtained is a cessation of active hostilities, with a threat of renewal whenever it suits the convenience of the anti-Christian party. Persecution which has dis-tinct reference to acts of the kind named is generally ac-companied with much that is so entangled with the rights of property and numerous, often well-nigh hopeless, com-plications that it is often exceedingly difficult to know what is best to be done. Those who are most opposed to entering a Chinese yamen find themselves at times forced to do so, and the line between the case which must be taken up and that which is better let alone is sometimes as difficult to determine as a parallel of latitude.

One of the best traits in the Chinese character is a talent for extreme forbearance with ills which cannot be cured. Another characteristic of capital importance (and never more so than during the current year) is the thirst for revenge, which is sometimes cherished for a lifetime, or even for successive generations. It must needs be that offenses come by means of those who, in a society like that of China, enter another society like that of the Christian Church. The occasions for these offenses are as numerous and as diversified as the in-terests with which human beings have to do. The Chris-tian may have absolute right upon his side, he may have been outraged in some peculiarly shameful manner, as by interference with a wedding, or, even worse, a funeral, and have received no redress. But if he has attempted to secure it, he has not improbably made a mortal foe of his persecutors, and when their opportunity comes they will repay him with compound interest, as has been the case everywhere during the Boxer uprising. That he is

38 CHINA IN CONVULSION

absolutely innocent even of any intent of wrong will not save him, any more than it saved his Master, or has saved His disciples in any age of the world since. But it is seldom that any Chinese case is free from embarrassments arising from the indiscreet acts or words of those con-cerned. The ingenuity, the malevolence, the pertinacity, and the insincerity of many Chinese when once aroused to attack a foe, is such that if the fire has but been started it must burn itself out, and " whether the stone hits the pitcher, or the pitcher hits the stone, it goes ill with the pitcher.,, All the preceding paragraph applies equally to troubles in any branch of the Christian Church.

In a large and rapidly growing body like the Protest-ant Church of China it is impossible that there should not be some unworthy men whose motives are other than that of the " pursuit of doctrine/' and who perceive the lever-age which the connection with influential and presump-tively opulent foreigners will give. Some of these men will inevitably bring the body to which they have joined themselves into disrepute before they can be discovered and expelled. So far as we know, it is the universal prac-tice of all Protestant branches of the Christian Church to give to men of this stamp no encouragement whatever, yet it cannot be doubted that they have done the churches much harm, both directly and indirectly; and in a time of general hostility to the " foreign instruction " no such instance will be forgotten or forgiven. The magistrate whose prejudice, partiality, injustice, and inefficiency have been disturbed by those who insist upon having wrongs righted, has no love for the unwelcome intruders. While all is fair weather he represents himself to the Protest-ants as their fast friend (although opposed to the grasp-ing demands of the French) ; but once the storm has broken, this same official summons the gentry and the

PROTESTANTS IN CHINA 39

village headmen by turns, and imparts to each of them the information that his own views have always been unreservedly hostile to every species of the foreign devil genus, and that now is the time to be rid of them once for all.

Wherever there has been friction in securing property, which is not unlikely to have been the case wherever any mission has had occasion to buy, there are always old scores which some one is glad to settle by the lurid light of a riot. The neglect of, or, still more, the refusal to participate in, temple worship, while of much less im-portance than is the case with what pertains to the clan, is certain to incur criticism and the active ill will of those who are interested in the financial aspects of " a creed outworn."

Persistent resistance to demands for pro rata contribu-tions to the fund for holding theatrical exhibitions or the performance of the Taoist high mass necessarily irritates a wide circle of Chinese. Should the proposed celebra-tion be given up for this reason, the animosity felt toward the cause of this undesirable result is shared by the main participants, and also by the public, which is always athirst for some excitement in the dead level of the mo-notonous Chinese daily life. If the Christians stand aloof and withhold their quota, others must pay so much the more; and as the passion for theatricals is such that a Chinese as a rule can no more withstand the temptation to witness a performance than he can help shaking when set upon an insulating stool with a stream of electricity pouring through his body, it will be singular if his pres-ence even on the outskirts of the crowd does not lead to trouble. That the Buddhist and Taoist priests have not sooner and more generally recognized the " divisive and perversive " nature of Christianity in relation to those

4o CHINA IN CONVULSION

religions, only displays the intellectual imbecility of those who are thought sufficient to represent these faiths in the care of the temples and the public ceremonials. It has been generally noticed that during the Boxer disturbances priests have often been prominent, sometimes as leaders. The only wonder is that this has not happened long ago.

It would be unfair not to point out that when a large body of Occidentals, imperfectly acquainted with the Chinese language, etiquette, modes of thought, and in-tellectual presuppositions, begins on a large and indeed universal scale, the preaching of an uncompromising system of morals and doctrines like Christianity, there must be much which, unconsciously to them, arouses Chinese prejudices. How best to present the Gospel to non-Christian Chinese is a question upon which few who have given their lives to the task are willing to admit that they have reached a definite conclusion. However the lofty claims of Christianity may be set forth, they cannot fail in China, as they have never failed elsewhere, to give offense. Perhaps there is no single objection to Christianity in this Empire which has not been often urged in other ages under other skies; but that circum-stance does not make the propounder of these claims in China any the less of a Barbarian, or more worthy of thoughtful attention.

The literature of Protestant missions in China may be regarded from quite different points of view. When it is compared with the needs of the teeming millions for whom it is prepared, its poverty and inadequacy are keenly recognized. When it is considered that a litera-ture is a growth and not a manufacture, the progress al-ready made seems at least hopeful. But it cannot be denied that, taken as a whole, it resembles the image made for Nebuchadnezzar, in that it is composed of gold, silver,

PROTESTANTS IN CHINA 41

brass, iron — and mud. The foreign-educated author of a bitter diatribe against Christianity which appeared nine years ago in a Shanghai daily newspaper termed this literature a " mass of impenetrable darkness " — a charge which refutes itself, since masses of darkness at least do no harm, and with the introduction of light, automatically disappear. During the past few decades the amount of books of all sorts circulated by the various Tract So-cieties and Bible Societies throughout China is well-nigh incomputable. It is impossible to say what effect they have had, but it is certain that much light has been dif-fused and many torpid intellects and spirits have been aroused. On the other hand, there are distinct indica-tions that an unwonted activity in the circulation of Christian literature was the efficient cause of the produc-tion of the acrid and obscene Hunan pamphlets. This may be held to show how effective the distributing ma-chinery has become, but it likewise imposes upon the wise the severest self-restraint lest the incidental evil overbalance the direct good.

The almost universal use of Western medicine as the handmaid of Christianity has done more to abate the prejudice of the Chinese than any other single cause, yet it has not been an unmixed benefit. Large numbers of those interested in the Chinese practice of medicine, and in the sale of Chinese drugs have done their best to prej-udice a suspicious and a credulous people against for-eigners, especially in their crafty plans to " buy the hearts of the people." The failure to relieve incurables, occas-ional unfortunate results from surgical operations, and, most of all, the steady flow of undiluted falsehoods re-garding foreigners, their methods and their designs, even in the immediate presence of wide and brilliantly success-ful medical work, show how hard is the problem which

42 CHINA IN CONVULSION

hospitals and dispensaries help to solve. Collating the data for half a century, aggregating the number of treat-ments, making a reasonable estimate of the prejudices which have been gradually dissolved and the animosities changed to warm friendship by means of the medical work, one is justly delighted at the total result. Yet when the blind fury of the multitude was once aroused, dispensaries and hospitals were wrecked perhaps first of all, and no voice was found to remonstrate on the ground that they had proved themselves worthy of confidence and continuance. It has not infrequently happened that the literati have opposed the erection of these buildings by every art within their power. On the other hand, officials of all ranks have been their patrons and their friends, and the good which has been accomplished through this agency during the past generation is immeasurable, and will yet bear a rich harvest.

The diversity of Protestant organizations has been al-ready mentioned as the source of some confusion to the Chinese by reason of the lack of co-ordination in their movements and methods. Yet it is important to guard against the widespread fallacy that the Chinese infer from the phenomena which they see that Christianity is full of self-contradictions and that its mutual claims refute one another. This, we have no hesitation in saying, is a West-ern idea attributed to the Chinese, as distinguished from one which naturally occurs to the Chinese mind. Diversity in unity is the keynote of much which relates to China and the Chinese. They are no more surprised or offended at seeing Christianity presented in many varying lights than they are with their own " Eight Diagram " sects, each one of which is a segment of a mystic whole, which is only completed by the sum of all its parts. It is when the various divisions of Protestants ignore, or possibly

PROTESTANTS IN CHINA 43

antagonize, one another, that the Chinese sense of unity is offended — as is our own. It is, therefore, on every account important that advantage should be taken of the present effacement of old landmarks to set the new ones in the places where they ought to be with a view to the highest efficiency and the greatest economy of labour, so as to secure the best results.

The constitution and the methods of the Protestant churches which have been long working in China have freed them from any reasonable suspicion of being politi-cal agencies of any kind. There have been and still con-tinue to be many infelicities, imperfections, and faults in their administration, and in the incidental relations to the non-Christian Chinese. Yet, after the worst has been said which can truthfully be charged, it remains a fact that the evils complained of were minor and subsidiary, most of which would naturally become less and less with the lapse of time, and no one of which, nor all of them combined, threatened the interruption of the growing friendliness of the people and the more tolerant attitude of the intelligent officials.

In the five years which had elapsed since the close of the war with Japan, the change on the part of the Chinese in the direction of a better understanding of the nature and aims of Protestant missions was marked. The litera-ture issued by them, especially that part of it prepared by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge among the Chinese, had penetrated the Imperial Palace, and was eagerly perused in the intensely anti-foreign province of Hunan. Had the reforms planned by the Emperor in 1898 been carried into even partial execution, the influ-ence which must have been exerted by the writings and the teachings of Protestant missionaries would have been formative and directive at a critical period of Chinese his-

44 CHINA IN CONVULSION

tory. For the precipitation of the tremendous crisis which has occurred, the proportion of responsibility of Protest-ant missions is undoubtedly real, but it is a small and a relatively insignificant factor.

IV,

CHAPTER 4. Roman Catholics in China

ROMAN CATHOLICS IN CHINA

FOR a Protestant missionary to discuss impartially the causes of Chinese animosity to foreigners, and to Roman Catholics in particular, may be considered difficult, owing to his liability to be influenced by what Herbert Spencer calls " the bias of class." There is another embarrassment, however, far more serious, which it is impossible to escape. In any controversy it is important to hear both sides before coming to a de-cision. But the Chinese side of their differences with the Catholics is the only side of which, as a rule, foreign-ers in China outside of that Church ever hear anything. It is the more necessary, therefore, to exercise caution in the examination of a subject some of whose elements are unknown, and the conclusion at which we may arrive will be one of probability rather than of demonstrated certainty.

There is a considerable literature dealing more or less directly with the subject, and those who wish for a fuller discussion than the mere outline here possible may find material in numerous special works upon China, in books of travel, and in the current periodical literature of the Far East. In addition to the excellent essays of the Rev. Gilbert Reid, mention may be made of two pamphlets by Mr. Alexander Michie, recently republished in book form in the United States with the title " China and Chris-tianity." These, while suggestive and free from partisan-ship, prove nothing, lead nowhere, and are as full of un-

45

46 CHINA IN CONVULSION

proved assumptions as a shad is of small bones. To a friend who remarked to him that many of his arguments are very easily answered, the author genially replied that he was quite aware of it, and had some thoughts of re-plying to them himself!

One of the important documents in the comprehension of this theme is a Memorandum or Circular of the Chinese Government through the Tsung Li Yamen, communi-cated to the French Charge d'Aff aires in the year 1871. It is printed in full in Mr. Michie's book, and a brief sum-mary of its conclusions may be found in Mr. Frederick Williams's " History of China." This paper is said to have been prepared by Wen Hsiang, " the most liberal, fair, and open-minded Minister that has ever been in the Foreign Board." Mr. Michie thinks it " almost the only example of true initiative with which it can be credited." It by no means follows, because a formal set of charges is made in a Chinese state paper, that the allegations are true; yet when they are incorporated in a minute pre-pared by a man of the type of Wen Hsiang, and com-municated to the French Government in a friendly manner at a time when there is no specific case pending, and with the avowed object of preventing the recurrence of a dis-aster such as the Tientsin massacre (which had just hap-pened), the presumption is that the Chinese Government believed the statements to be facts. I am not aware that the specific instances quoted have been disproved, as after the lapse of nearly thirty years they still continue to be cited in every fresh discussion of the subject. The Memorandum suggests eight rules by the observance of which the difficulties already experienced might be done away with, and each is supported by alleged instances of Roman Catholic aggression. The whole paper is directed at that Church, the Protestant Churches at that time not

ROMAN CATHOLICS IN CHINA 47

having assumed sufficient prominence to be an object of governmental notice. The foreign Ministers, for the most part, delayed their replies for such a length of time that there were, unfortunately, no practical results from the presentation of the Circular, but it remains a land-mark in the history of missionary relations with China. Without examining in detail the specific recommendations of the Yamen (which would occupy too much space), it will be sufficient to cite passages here and there, while summarizing what we suppose to be the grounds upon which the Roman Catholic Church is specially disliked by the Chinese.

In the first place, it is believed to have a political aim, and to be itself a political agent. This ineradicable con-viction dates back to the days of the early emperors of the present dynasty, even if it were not held by the Mings. It was directly connected with the decision of the Pope against the authority of the greatest monarch who ever occupied the throne of China, that the rites involved in ancestral worship are idolatrous, and therefore inter-dicted; whereas K'ang Hsi himself expressly declared that these rites were civil and in no way religious. The fact that several Pontiffs had successively boxed the com-pass on this point did not in the least mend the matter; the essential consideration was that an Italian gentleman assumed, and successfully assumed, to tell the subjects of the Emperor of China that the Emperor was wrong on a technical matter of Chinese interpretation. K'ang Hsi was scarcely buried before his son and successor pro-ceeded to set in motion the persecuting powers of the State against the Catholics, and these persecutions have been going on with intermittent sequence ever since. This fact of itself absolutely negatives the facile supposi-tion that Roman Catholic aggressions are the main feature

48 CHINA IN CONVULSION

in the present troubles. To prove too much is to prove nothing. The Chinese are shrewd observers, and they have seen that the presence of a Roman Catholic Bishop in Annam was the thin end of a wedge which has split that country in twain, and brought a part of it under the domination of France. They know that France ex-pelled the Jesuits from her own borders, and that France is the protector of Jesuit and other Catholic missions in China, and they have good ground to suppose that for this significant fact there are substantial reasons.

There is no country where the line between the officials and the people is more sharply drawn than in China. The Roman Catholic Church is a mighty and an ancient hierarchy, and from the point of view of its representa-tives it is probably not only natural but inevitable that those who wield powers so absolute should openly and universally assume them. Thus the bishops, the spiritual rulers of the whole of a broad province, adopt the rank of a Chinese Governor, and wear a button on their caps indicative of that fact, travelling in a chair with the number of bearers appropriate to that rank, with out-riders and attendants on foot, an umbrella of honour borne in front, and a cannon discharged upon their arrival and departure. Into these details the Tsung Li Yamen Cir-cular does not go, but it especially objects to the use of official seals as a mark of rank, citing cases of their employment. All this, and much else, is a part of the settled policy of the Church, and not an accident of this place or of that, and it is a policy which is in many ways repellent to Chinese pride and repugnant to their sense of propriety and fitness. Officials of whatever rank, in whose jurisdiction these ostentatious claims are per-petually made, naturally feel and are at no pains to

ROMAN CATHOLICS IN CHINA 49

conceal a jealousy which is all the more difficult to com-bat because founded in reason.

By the steady pressure of the French Legation, the claims which the Church has always made for itself were on the 15th of March, 1899, officially granted by the Chinese Government. The edict then issued gave a political status to the ecclesiastics of the Church of a far-reaching character. As soon as these great con-cessions became known, there ensued a vigorous dis-cussion among the Protestant missionaries in China as to what they were to do in the premises, since it was reported to be the wish of the Chinese Government that a privilege which, for reasons best known to themselves, they had been induced to grant to one set of missionaries, should not be held as a mon-opoly by them alone. There is to Protestantism no head-centre, and no one is authorized to speak for all branches, or even for any one branch, of the Church; but the con-sensus of opinion was remarkable that this is a most dan-gerous privilege, certain to be abused, and inconsistent with the simplicity and the purity of the Protestant Churches.

To realize the nature of the stupendous power thus placed in the hands of Catholic missionaries, it is neces-sary to take account of a second and cognate reason for Chinese dislike of their organization. In an edict issued nearly ten years before the Memorandum of the Yamen occur the words : " The foreign missionary is not an official, and cannot interfere in public affairs. " But the Memorandum a decade afterwards charges that they do thus interfere : " From the information which the Prince and the Yamen have gathered [respecting the duties im-posed upon them by their priesthood] , these persons [seem

5o CHINA IN CONVULSION

to] found, as it were, among us an undetermined number of States within the State." This means that the Church takes the direction of the acts of the convert, sometimes against the orders of his immediate magistrate, making him feel that his primary allegiance is to the Church, which saves his soul, rather than to the State. This is not given as the Roman Catholic version of the duties of Chinese to China and its rulers, but it is given as the conception which many Roman Catholic Christians natur-ally come to entertain, and as the view which is almost universally taken by Chinese officials when they are free to express it.

Broadly speaking, it may be said that there is in Chinese courts no such thing as justice. Those who are the spiritual leaders of Chinese Christians find themselves, whenever appealed to for advice in the complicated con-ditions which perpetually arise, in a dilemma. To allow one's flock to be torn in pieces by the " tigers and wolves " of the Yamens is repugnant to the sense of justice which Christianity engenders, and to the innate instincts of the Christian heart. To undertake to defend them in their relations to the network of injustice by which Chinese subjects are enmeshed is to begin a work the consequences of which no man can foresee.

We have no means of knowing upon what theory the Catholic Church proceeds except by her practice, which is sufficiently well known. Every Catholic headquarters is served by able Chinese, some of whom are expert in yamen affairs, and act as lawyers for whoever has a case on hand. This is probably a wise provision, but it is one liable to great abuse. It is common for those who are acting as advance agents of the Catholic Church, in fresh woods and pastures new, to let it be known that, whatever happens to those who identify themselves with

ROMAN CATHOLICS IN CHINA 51

that organization, they will be protected in their lawsuits. It is not claimed that this is done by the orders of any priest, nor is it certain that any priest knows anything of such offers. But that the proposition is constantly made and constantly accepted is certain. No one with any con-siderable acquaintance with Chinese character would be at a loss to predict the results which must and which do follow. The Chinese bully is a feature of Chinese society. No Chinese bully is so arrogant and so insufferable as he who thinks he has an irresistible foreign backing. In this way lawsuits begin as mold forms in the damp heats of August without assignable cause, all at once and every-where. Before matters have progressed far the foreign priest appears upon the scene, and the case has become a serious one. It is a perpetual and, so far as appears to an unenlightened observer, an insoluble puzzle by what means the Catholic priest, without visible prestige and often (nay, generally) far from being a persona grata to the local magistrate, is able to secure the results which he actually does secure. It is true that he often fails, but then his case is taken up in a manner very different from that which is seen in the instance, say, of a British subject or an American citizen.

It is impossible in a paper like the present to enter into details, but it must suffice to say that, in a somewhat intimate knowledge of mission affairs in several score of counties both in the provinces of Chihli and Shantung, the writer has everywhere heard the charge that the Roman Catholic proceedings at law are unfair and tyran-nous. These allegations are often supported by specifi-cations so full and so precise, often so authenticated by corroborative testimony, that it is impossible not to be-lieve them. In a certain county near to the home of the writer the Catholics once had a strong foothold and lost

52 CHINA IN CONVULSION

it. The reason universally given, after the lapse of a generation, was the advocacy of a particularly outrage-ous claim against a non-Christian on the part of a Catho-lic aided by a priest. The magistrate, who disliked to antagonize the Church for fear of consequences the nature of which to him at least were not obscure, yet refused to give his decision for a palpable outrage, and, in the presence of the foreign priest, told the parties to the suit that he was incompetent to decide it, and that they must go to the temple of the city-god, each make his oath there, and leave the settlement to high Heaven. The moral effect of this occurrence was to put an end to the Roman Catholic in that county until the present time.

It is a matter of capital importance in connection with this subject that, both by the people and by the officials, the Roman Catholic Church is believed to be the refuge of bad men who can thus evade the laws of China, and, under the shelter of a foreign protection, behave sub-stantially as they please. It is by no means necessary to suppose that the administrators of the affairs of the Church intend that it should be so; we are concerned only to show that it is believed to be true, and that to a certain extent it is true. The Tsung Li Yamen Memo-randum contains specifications under this head to which it is not necessary to refer in detail. Without entering more fully into the subject, it must suffice to say that there is an amount of weighty testimony upon this head, which can be collected from all parts of China, much more than sufficient to substantiate the charge.

As an example of the impression which these constant phenomena make upon well-informed and presumptively impartial observers may be cited the following extract from " Overland to China " by Mr. A. R. Colquhoun,

ROMAN CATHOLICS IN CHINA 53

whose wide knowledge of the Chinese Empire, is mani-fest in this and his previous book, " China in Trans-formation : "

" The blood of the martyrs is in China the seed of French aggrandizement. France uses the missionaries and the native Christians as agents-provocateurs ; and out-rages and martyrdoms are her political harvest. What the preponderance of her commerce does for England the Catholic protectorate does for France, so that the influ-ence of their respective positions vis-a-vis of the Chinese is nearly balanced; but France makes ten times more capital out of her religious material than Great Britain has ever done out of her commercial. Under the foster-ing care of the French Government the Catholics have become a veritable imperium in imperio, disregarding local laws and customs, domineering over their pagan neighbours, and overriding the law of the land. When-ever a Christian has a dispute with a heathen, no matter what the subject in question may be, the quarrel is promptly taken up by the priest, who, if he cannot him-self intimidate the local officials and compel them to give right to the Christian, represents the case as one of per-secution, when the French consul is appealed to. Then is redress rigorously extorted, without the least reference to the justice of the demand. The assurance that this kind of interference on the part of the foreign power is certain to follow leads, of course, to the grossest abuses being perpetrated by the Christians, and while the French missionary may go far, the native Christian goes infinitely further, in browbeating the authorities and tyrannizing over the people." Then follows the detail of a specific case, and the remark : " It is not surprising that arbitrary proceedings like this should cause the Christians to be

54 CHINA IN CONVULSION

feared and hated, and we need not wonder at the occa-sional murder of a priest when such feelings are spread generally throughout the country."

In nearly all the cases relating to the Chinese and the Roman Catholics, we are at the disadvantage of know-ing only a portion of the case, although the facts are not for that reason invalidated. But there is an important and unfortunately a growing list of causes in which Catholics have deliberately set themselves to injure and sometimes to outrage Protestants, the details of which are wholly within the field of our inquiry, and where we tread upon sure ground. Two such instances may be cited as examples.

In an article published in the " Chinese Recorder " in November, 1899, tne ^ev- Immanuel Genahr, of the Rhenish Mission, who had been in China sixteen years, gives the details of a shameful attack by a Catholic priest named Julien upon the Rev. Franz Zahn and his native assistants, in which the latter were set upon, knocked down, bound with chains, and treated as criminals un-worthy of being allowed to live, all on a fictitious charge of leading a band of robbers, whereas the priest Julien was himself the leader of such a band, which despoiled a village, sacking the houses of Protestant inquirers and converts, doing damage to the extent of thousands of dollars.

These facts were subsequently established in a judicial inquiry held by the French and German Consuls, who agreed that M. Julien should apologize in the presence of the Consuls and Mr. Zahn, which he did, after admitting that he himself led the party which attacked and looted the village in question. He was also required to pay an indemnity, to restore the stolen watch and other articles of property in question, and it was agreed that he should

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be transferred to another sphere of labour. In comment-ing upon this typical case, Mr. Genahr says : " This policy of ' screening infamous men under the protecting banner ' of the Church is much to be deplored by every one who is really solicitous for the welfare of the Church; and the fact itself cannot be gainsaid. The eighteen provinces of China echo with the complaints to which it gives rise. Protestant missionaries have learned to reckon with it; and the great Conference in Shanghai in 1901 will have to define its position with regard to this policy."

" During the year 1896 four articles appeared in the " Chinese Recorder " from the pen of the Rev. William Ashmore, D.D., giving a detailed account of " Outrages upon the American Baptist Mission near Swatow," com-mitted by Roman Catholic members, abetted by their priests, involving robbery and virtual rebellion against the local authorities. The matter was taken before the United States Consul at Canton, Mr. Seymour, and from there referred to Peking, where it was investigated by Mr. Denby, the Minister. The facts were proved beyond the possibility of refutation, but the French Minister re-fused to consider the evidence, and rather than take the matter into the Tsung Li Yamen, where the influence of the French was too complete to be counteracted, the parties to the case were obliged to consent to a weak compromise, by which, the innocent Chinese being re-leased, the guilty criminals were also let out of jail and escaped scot free. In the comments made upon this famous case at the time it was pointed out that such acts are two-edged swords, working ruin in both directions— a prophecy which has since been abundantly fulfilled. Within the past few years the foreign journals in China have contained detailed accounts of numerous instances similar to the foregoing, sometimes in Manchuria, and

56 CHINA IN CONVULSION

again (one of the most noted) in Chekiang, in which the author of specific charges against the Roman Catholics was the Right Rev. Bishop Moule, of the Church Mission, and his opponent the Catholic Bishop of the province.

A potent source of Chinese animosity to the Roman Catholics is to be found in the fact that by the treaty of i860 extensive property formerly belonging to the Church was to be restored upon presentation of evidence of the fact of previous possession. Fifteen years before this date, however, a rescript of the Emperor Tao Kuang had allowed the justice of such claims, but specially excepted property which had been converted into temples and dwelling-houses for the people. In the later treaty this exception was omitted, with the result that there has been more or less friction ever since. The Memorandum of the Tsung Li Yamen admits that there is in China a great deal of this property, mentioning that it has often changed owners many times, and had frequently been greatly improved or even rebuilt. " The missionaries take no account of all this ; they exact a restitution, and do not even offer the least indemnity. Sometimes they even ask for repairs to be made, or, if not, for a sum of money. Such conduct excites the indignation of the people, who look with no favourable eye upon the mis-sionaries. Such being the case, no friendship can exist."

There are many prominent structures in China which are a constant irritation to the Chinese and an incitement to attack simply from the memories of the past. One of these is the Cathedral at the junction of the Peiho and the Grand Canal at Tientsin, referred to elsewhere, which was erected in 1865 upon ground reclaimed from the Chinese, was destroyed by a mob in 1870, was again seri-ously threatened when rebuilt in 1897, and is now once more in ruins in 1900. Perhaps there is no cathedral in

ROMAN CATHOLICS IN CHINA 57

the whole Empire against which the feeling of the Chinese is so intensely bitter as the massive, fort-like structure in Canton, which stands upon the site of the former yamen of the Governor-General, Yeh, who was captured by the British when Canton was taken, and was carried to Cal-cutta, where he died. No one can see this building with-out perceiving the evident intention to enable it to resist attack, however violent. Mr. Noyes, one of the senior missionaries in Canton, mentions, in an article on " Five Storms of Wrath" in that city (Chinese Recorder, Feb., 1895), that a very intelligent man was heard to say: " We Chinese say that that Cathedral must come down, even if it need be one hundred years hence."

The method of securing property by purchase fre-quently leaves much bitterness in the minds of the Chinese, which comes to a focus whenever there is an opportunity for the expression of discontent. As a rule, the Chinese dislike to have foreigners buy land and put up permanent buildings anywhere, and it is easy for them to give reasons which from their point of view are con-clusive against the use of any particular site which may be chosen. Experience has shown that the highly rudi-mentary " science " of Fengshui, or geomancy, is never so potent as when used to prevent foreigners from getting a foothold. It is everywhere objected to the Roman Catholics that they have persistently offended the Chinese in this particular, both by insisting upon occupying sites to which there has been on the part of the Chinese violent objection, and by the erection of lofty and substantial structures in commanding positions, where they appear to the Chinese as a perpetual evidence of national humili-ation and a constant reminder of foreign aggression. It was the judicious advice of the British Government, in a circular issued a few years since for the information

58 CHINA IN CONVULSION

of missionary societies, " that Chinese prejudice and superstitions should be more carefully considered in the forms and heights of the buildings erected."

The Roman Catholic Church is one of the largest property-owners in some settlements of the open ports of China, as in the French concession of Tientsin, and in Chinkiang, often being the principal landlord. The in-come from these enormous possessions is used for the support of the Church, in default of those annual contri-butions upon which Protestants rely. In the interior of the Empire a similar phenomenon is observed in the ag-gregation of considerable areas of land under the control of the priests, thus gathering small Christian communities. In time of famine we have known small loans made to any who would conform to the conditions, which included definite attendance at religious services, study of the cate-chism, etc., and the mortgaging to the Church of the land of the person benefited at a fixed rate according to the amount of the loan, with annual grain taxes paid to the Church until the sum should be refunded. Such a mix-ture of benevolence and business may have its advantages, but it is also certain to cause the shrewd and suspicious Chinese to be more sure than ever that the Church is not only a political but also a landed and a financial power, and in the end the result is morally certain to make it more than ever an object of hostility, as the writer has had occasion himself to know.

The very first of the eight Regulations proposed by the Tsung Li Yamen relates to the subject of Catholic orphanages in China, which have probably excited more ill feeling and led to more attacks upon Catholic life and property than any other single cause. The riot at Tien-tsin in 1870, and those in the Valley of the Yangtze in

ROMAN CATHOLICS IN CHINA 59

1 89 1, were in several instances directly due to inflamma-tory tales circulated about these institutions, to the man-agement of which both the Tsung Li Yamen Memoran-dum and popular clamour make strenuous objection. It is impossible for the Chinese to understand the motive for wholesale benevolence of this sort; and the presence of so many helpless infants, especially when, as some-times happens, the mortality is large, is immediately con-nected with the invincible superstition that foreigners wish to mutilate the bodies for the purposes of alchemy, thus turning lead into silver.

The Yamen wish many changes in the management of these orphanages, but their abolition is most desired. " Once the child has entered the house other persons are not allowed to adopt it, nor are the parents permitted to take it back again, nor even to visit it. All this nourishes suspicion and excites the hatred of the people, and by degrees a case like that of Tientsin [the massacre] is arrived at. Although we have denied in a report all those rumours of the tearing out of eyes and hearts, the people, however, still preserve doubts on the subject, and even if we succeed in closing their lips we cannot drive away these doubts from their minds. It is this Kind of uneasiness which gives rise to terrible events. It would be a good thing to abolish the foreign orphan-ages and to transport them to Europe, where they could practice their charity at their ease; it would then belong to the Chinese to come to the aid of these children. Be-sides, in every province we have numerous orphanages, and yet the foreigners wish to lend us at any price an assistance of which we have not the slightest need. It is certainly with good intentions the foreigners thus act, but it is not the less true that their conduct produces

60 CHINA IN CONVULSION

suspicion and excites anger. It would be far preferable if each one exercised his charity in his own country, and then no lamentable event could arise."

The care of the helpless waifs and strays of Chinese infancy, for whom the Chinese have always done next to nothing, is one of the most gracious of charities, but it has been misunderstood, in part willfully so, by the Chinese from the first, and so it remains to this present time. It is difficult to believe that by the use of wise and conciliatory methods this state of feeling on the part of the Chinese might not be essentially modified, so as at length wholly to disappear.

The fact that the Catholic fathers do not open their chapels for preaching to outsiders, that they conduct no medical work for the people at large, and that they spend their time in comparative seclusion, greatly stimulates the suspicious nature of the Chinese mind to account for what seems to them so strange and so unnatural a life. Mr. Reid quotes a Bible agent who had penetrated to Heng Chou Fu, in Hunan, who remarked that, although foreign priests had been resident there for over two cen-turies, he never visited a city where the foreigner was a greater curiosity, and adds : ° They live in a state of mysterious seclusion which the native vainly attempts to penetrate, and about which he invents the most won-derful stories." Whatever the grounds for so great secrecy about the Catholic establishments and the doings of those who there spend their lives, the general effect upon the outsiders is unhappy in the extreme, and can only serve to give added colour to the irrepressible suspic-ions which inevitably arise in China concerning anything which is not too obvious to be beyond the reach of un-favourable comment.

It only remains to add to the long catalogue of grounds

ROMAN CATHOLICS IN CHINA 61

of misunderstandings those which have their origin in the rites of the Church. The baptism of infants when at the point of death not unnaturally leads to the grossest misconstruction, especially in connection with the hopeless superstitions about the use to which parts of the human body can be put as a direct means for the transmutation of metals. The practice of extreme unction is even more open to misapprehension, and has probably been the ground of intense hostility for the same reason.

No one who wishes well to the people of China will desire to utter a syllable which shall detract from the good work which the Roman Catholic Church has done, and is at this moment still doing, for the Chinese in all parts of the land. There are in it many noble, self-deny-ing, devout men and women who are freely giving them-selves for the benefit of a people who have, as a rule, little perception of what such sacrifices mean. For hun-dreds of years before the Protestant Churches had awak-ened from their age-long sleep, the Mother Church was resolutely at work upon the hardest task which she has ever undertaken, a task in which she still perseveres serene and strong, unmoved by hostility or by criticism. Yet, for all that — nay, because of all that — it is the more im-perative to call attention, in the most emphatic manner possible to the fact that the present semi-political admin-istration of the Roman Catholic Church in China is bad, and that, in the particulars some of which have been named and others only suggested, it is sowing a harvest of evil. More than twenty-five years of attentive, close-at-hand observation of its methods and its results con-firms everything which has been said in the preceding pages. The seeds which have been sown must produce fruit after their kind. It is now nearly thirty years since such a result was expressly predicted by the Memoran-

62 CHINA IN CONVULSION

dum of the Tsung Li Yamen. " How, under these con-ditions, can we hope that a durable understanding should be established, and to prevent the governors and the gov-erned uniting against them in common hostility? . . . The Prince and the members of the Yamen are im-pressed with a desire to ward off eventualities so menac-ing. In fact, they fear, in all sincerity, . . . that so much accumulated bad feeling, causing a sudden explo-sion, should bring about a catastrophe. It would then be no longer possible for the local authorities, nor for the high provincial functionaries, nor even for the Tsung Li Yamen to assert its authority. In the event of a general rising in China, the Emperor will be able to ap-point high dignitaries to order them to assemble every-where imposing forces; but the greatest rigour does not reach the masses, and where their anger manifests itself there are persons who refuse to yield their heads to the executioner. ... In short, in the direction of affairs, the important point in China, as in Europe, is to satisfy opinion. If, failing in this duty, oppression and violence are employed, a general rising will at last take place."

The " general rising " predicted nearly thirty years ago has at last taken place. It was not, however, di-rected against the Roman Catholic Church as such, but against foreigners as foreigners, its banners and hand-bills ostentatiously putting forth as its watchword, " Mieh Yang," " Exterminate Foreigners." Confucius gave as a definition of " reciprocity," " Not to do to others what you would not have others do to you." Those who have followed us thus far will be able to judge for themselves what effect the administration of such an organization as the Roman Catholic Church has proved to be in China during the past sixty years would have if transferred to the soil of any one of the countries which have treaties

ROMAN CATHOLICS IN CHINA 63

with China. There is good reason to believe that there is not one of them in which such causes would not have produced worse results than have been seen in China until the late rising began. The peculiar character of that rising cannot be too often nor too clearly pointed out as due to the fact that it was first tolerated, then fostered, and still later directed by the Chinese Govern-ment itself. Its primary sources were race hatred and the political aggressions of Western nations. Yet the uni-versal and deep-seated animosity to the claims and to the practices of the Roman Catholic Church throughout the Empire have added greatly to the fury and to the bitterness of the attacks, and will contribute materially to the difficulty of a permanent settlement. A frank recog-nition of this indisputable fact will be of the greatest service to the interests of the Chinese people, and to the peaceful spread of the religion which, for the welfare of that people, has endured so much persecution and suf-fered so many martyrdoms.

CHAPTER 5.

A HALF-CENTURY OF ANTI-FOREIGN RIOTS

THE experience of a large number of foreigners, representing many countries, in an Empire the size of Europe, extended for a period of more than forty years, ought to afford valuable insights into the practical aspects of those relations between the men of the West and the Chinese. Yet there are inherent diffi-culties in the study of the disturbances to which these re-lations have given rise which are appreciated more as they are considered longer. The very names of most of the provfnces of China are unknown in other lands, and the whole vast territory is generally considered to be too uninteresting, and, in the phrase of Mr. Thomas Taylor Meadows (one of the most intelligent but now quite forgotten authorities upon China), too " ten-thousand-miles-offy " to be seriously considered. Now and then comes the report of an outbreak somewhere along the coast or in the interior, but, unless the circumstances have some special horror connected with them (as has too often been the case) , they are soon forgotten, having never been in the least understood. To the permanent residents in the Empire there is another difficulty in the general resemblance of the external phenomena of these disturb-ances, and the fact that they are seldom far apart in time, so that even the most stalwart memory finds it hard to keep them in mind.

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ANTI-FOREIGN RIOTS 65

A careful historical and critical examination of eacH of these riots, with an inquiry into the causes, real and alleged, the modus operandi, the amount of damage in-flicted, and especially the treatment of the case by the foreign government concerned, would be of great value, particularly as the records of many of them can scarcely be said to be available even to the foreigner in China who has access to libraries, not having been gathered into any permanent form, and existing only in ephemeral publica-tions. It is only possible here, however, to consider a few of the typical riots against foreigners which have occurred within the past forty years, as an aid to a com-prehension of the causes of such persistent and malignant attacks. Owing to the fact that missionaries have within the period in question been dispersed all over China, most of the outbreaks have directly assailed them, their houses and chapels; but, as will appear more fully hereafter, violence has been by no means confined to them, so that it is strictly correct to speak of the riots as anti-foreign.

By far the largest of the Protestant organizations in China is the Inland Mission, which was organized about the year 1865 by the Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, who has remained at the head of it ever since. In the year 1868 Mr. Taylor, with a companion, began to open a work in Yang Chou, fifteen miles to the north of Chen Chiang, one of the treaty ports of the Yangtze. Yang Chou was a city of three hundred and sixty thousand inhabitants, situated on the Grand Canal. After making efforts to rent some thirty different houses, one was at last found. But the report of hostility at Chen Chiang stirred up the literati to organized effort to prevent the occupation of this place. The populace were inflamed, first by small handbills of a defamatory nature, and, these proving insufficient, by larger ones, until the whole city was on the qui vive. At

66 CHINA IN CONVULSION

this juncture the literary examinations occurred. Notice of the intention to attack them was given to the mis-sionaries. Everything that could be done was tried to neutralize these posters and threats, by the admission of the people to see the premises, and by other conciliatory measures, but in vain.

On the 22nd of August the mob attacked the place in earnest, and when it became evident that the repeated messengers sent to the officials would bring no aid, Mr. Taylor and his companion risked their lives in a personal visit to the yamen, where they were kept waiting for three-quarters of an hour, while hearing the shouts of the mob at a distance, destroying the property and not improbably taking the lives of the ladies left in the house. When at last the magistrate appeared, it was to ask insulting questions about the imaginary Chinese chil-dren alleged to have been kidnapped, the official promis-ing, however, to attend to the matter, while they were obliged to wait the result, as it was said the presence of the missionaries on the street would render a dispersion of the mob impossible. When at length, after two hours of torturing suspense they were allowed to return, the place was in complete ruin, and the remaining mission-aries, who had barely escaped with their lives, were in hiding. Although the rioters had made a clean sweep of many of the doors, walls, and partitions, yet the reso-lute but almost exhausted band of missionaries returned to their premises with the cognizance of the officials, only to have the riot renewed the next day and many of their dismal experiences duplicated. There was the same well-nigh hopeless appeal to the prefect, and the same interminable delay in seeing that official, who had not yet risen and did not wish to be disturbed. At last he sent the district magistrate to the scene of violence, dis-

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persed the mob, and the lives of the foreigners were once more with difficulty saved.

Mr. Taylor was told to write a mild letter to the pre-fect, but he must not call the proceedings a " riot," but only a " disturbance," and must ask to have those arrested punished, and proclamations issued. Although it was quite certain that the Taotai and the prefect had them-selves arranged to have the riot take place, there was no help for it, and the letter was written. Meantime a verbal message had been sent to the Consulate in Chin-kiang, and later a note. The Consul came at once to the rescue, with others accompanying, and the Consul at Shanghai, Mr. Medhurst, took up the matter with great vigour. With a small steamer and a guard of seventy marines from H. M. S. Rinaldo, he went to Yang Chou, stationed guards at the doors of the terrified prefect's yamen, and demanded an interview. The latter endeav-oured to minimize the gravity of the riot, but was met point by point by the Consul until he was completely silenced. He was then given an ultimatum requiring that the leaders of the riot, whose names were given, should be punished, that the premises should be repaired, that a proclamation declaring the rights of British missionaries should be issued, that compensation for losses should be made, and that any natives imprisoned on account of the missionaries be set free. To some of these demands the prefect acceded, but as to others he said that he must consult with the Governor-General, Tseng Kuo Fan, at Nanking. With characteristic energy, Mr. Medhurst de-cided to take the prefect to the Governor-General himself, and thus cut short the endless evasions, the prefect stipu-lating that he should go in his own boat and not as a prisoner. On the way the prefect asked to be allowed to spend the night on the opposite side of the river from

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the Consul, giving his written promise to be there in the morning. He then made his escape in the night, leaving his boat, probably in order to see the Governor-General before Mr. Medhurst arrived, to give his own version of the case. Mr. Medhurst reached Nanking in due time, and had an interview with the Governor-Gen-eral, who was very gracious, and there seemed fair promise of his acting equitably.

But at this juncture occurred one of those contretemps, which are so disastrous in Oriental diplomacy. The Cap-tain of the Rinaldo fell ill and returned to Shanghai, leav-ing Mr. Medhurst, in the eyes of the Chinese, with no moral support. Tseng at once changed his tone, and definitely refused to give the redress demanded, or to punish the literati, the prefect, or the local magistrate, although the documents showed that they had been re-peatedly warned of the impending troubles ten days pre-vious to the outrage. All that could be got was the promise of the restoration of the property, so that, after the lapse of two or three months' time, the missionaries might return, a proclamation being issued forbidding in-terference with foreigners. The claim for losses was cut down one-half, and the premises were occupied by Mr. Taylor three months after the riot.

The skill and ability of Mr. Medhurst were praised by all who were cognizant of the intricacy and difficulty of the case, yet it has always been understood that his energy was regarded with disfavour by the Foreign Of-fice, this fact being well known to all foreigners in China, and probably also to the Chinese Government. It is worth noting that the Taotai who was so largely respon-sible for the whole trouble frankly admitted that he had not put the truth of the matter before the Governor-

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General, saying that it would be worth his office to do so.

In this typical and test case it is evident to every one, after the lapse of more than a generation, as it was at the time to most persons of discernment, that the British Government should either have never taken up the case at all, or should have carried it through as a precedent of importance for the whole Yangtze valley and for all China. In this and in every similar instance before and since, the Ariadne clue to right results is the simple but far-reaching motto of Lord Elgin : " Make no de-mands which are not just; never recede from a demand once made." To the fluctuating feeble-forcible policy of foreign Governments much of the open hostility to the treaty rights of foreigners is to be directly attributed.

The Tientsin massacre of June 21, 1870, has remained down to the present time the most wholesale example of Chinese ferocity against foreigners. There was a pre-ceding animosity against the French for using as a con-sulate one of the popular temples, and the wild reports of the killing of innocent children at the Catholic orphan-age seemed to the people unquestionably true, especially as an epidemic prevailed and a considerable number of the children had died. The French consul was extremely injudicious and was arrogant in his tone, and the officials were, as usual, inert until it was too late. Twenty for-eigners were killed, and probably as many more Chinese. The same Tseng Kuo Fan whom we have just met in Nanking was now Governor-General in Chihli, but his position here was a most difficult one. The people as a whole entirely sympathized with the rioters, feeling a blind fury against supposed foreign outrages. The Ro-man Catholic cathedral, built on a site of ground once

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set apart for Imperial use, was burned down, and the ruins left standing for twenty-seven years. For a long time the sale of " massacre fans " was carried on, the people evidently enjoying the pictures of the ruin of property and the slaughter of foreigners. The pressure of the Franco-German war immediately following pre-vented the settlement of the case on such a basis as to make its recurrence improbable. Sixteen Chinese were beheaded and many others were banished, but the effect of the sentence was largely neutralized by the uncer-tainty whether the right persons had been executed, and by the popular impression that each of their families re-ceived a handsome grant from the Chinese Government and officials. For a detailed notice of this and some of the later risings against foreigners in China, those who are interested in the subject would do well to consult the closing chapter of Mr. F. W. Williams's " History of China " (a continuation of the work of his father, Dr. S. W. Williams), in whose judicious opinion of the Tientsin outbreak the well-informed reader will be in-clined to concur : " In short, the whole history of the riot — its causes, growth, culmination, results, and re-pression— combines as many serious obstacles in the way of harmonizing Chinese and European civilizations as anything which ever occurred.,,

In the year 1874 a serious riot occurred in the French concession at Shanghai, which arose from the determina-tion of the French municipality to take possession of a portion of the property belonging to the club-house of the natives of the adjacent province of Chekiang. Within these large premises there was a place of deposit for the coffins of those who had died away from home; and while this added greatly to the objectionable nature of the compound, through which it was desired to run a

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road, from a Chinese standpoint it made the area as sacred as a cemetery. Even from the foreign point of view, the French were high-handed and unreasonable. It is very instructive to see that the lapse of almost a quarter of a century had done nothing to heal the breach, or to teach the impulsive Gauls a wiser way, for in July, 1898, the same question again arose as to the same property, for which the demand was now more urgent than before. The French municipality, supported by the Consul-General, took steps for entering upon possession of it and adjoining premises for making certain improve-ments. Opposition was offered by large crowds, and several Chinese were injured.

The next day, the opposition becoming more danger-ous, the sailors, police, and volunteers used their weapons, killing fifteen or more Chinese and wounding many others. After some days the matter was adjusted for the time, pending settlement at Peking, and things went on as before. The foreign community in Shanghai and throughout China felt that the lives of nearly all of them had been seriously endangered, and a great wrong done, by the refusal to await the result of negotiations, and the using of brute force involving numerous needless deaths. Is it strange to read in the Ningpo corre-spondence of the Shanghai journals just two years later (July, 1900) that, owing to the large influx of Chekiang men just arrived from that city, the anti-foreign feeling was extremely bitter, and to learn that it resulted in the massacre of at least eight China Inland missionaries with their three children, and several Roman Catholic priests and native Christians?

It is a journey of almost a thousand miles from anti-foreign Tientsin to turbulent Canton. For ten years after the Treaty of Tientsin a salutary dread of foreign

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power took the place of the popular contempt for all foreigners on the part of the Cantonese. But in July, 1 87 1, placards were everywhere circulated throughout the entire region charging foreigners with the distribu-tion of powders of a supposed wonderful efficacy in heal-ing disease, which were yet a slow poison. The day following the posting of these inflammatory sheets a tempest of alarm and rage spread over the whole city, the violence of which no foreigner had ever seen sur-passed. Three-fourths of the people believed these tales, and a panic seized the whole population. " For two weeks there was not a day on which daring and capable leaders might not have gathered a mob for the destruc-tion of every foreign residence and every foreign life."

The execution of some of the leaders by the friendly Governor-General put a stop to the excitement, which spread, however, to Amoy, and even to Fu Chou, and almost extinguished mission work.

Twelve years later, at a time when the Cantonese were aroused by the aggressions of the French in Annam, a drunken foreigner shot a Chinese lad by accident, and was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment. A Portu-guese watchman pushed a Chinese from a steamer, and he was drowned. It was like a spark on guncotton. " With no note of warning, and with the fury of tigers, a mob came pouring into the concession. Men rose from their breakfast-tables or office desks, women caught up their children and possibly some of their jewelry, and fled to the only ship in the harbour. A black cloud of smoke was surging over the settlement, and it grew blacker and wider, till no houses could be seen, but the crash of falling roofs and walls was sounding through the gloom. For three hours the work of burning and plunder continued, till the Viceroy's soldiers scattered the

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mob. Four rioters had been killed, thirteen large mer-cantile establishments had been changed to piles of charred timber and blackened brick."

In the following year the Governor-General, Chang Chih Tung, now in the same office at Wuchang, issued a proclamation, conjointly with Admiral P'eng Yu Lin, aimed indeed at the hostile French, but intentionally so phrased as to bring down the wrath of the populace upon all nationalities and upon the native Christians. Five thousand taels were offered for the French Admiral's head, and less sums according to rank, down to one hun-dred taels for a common soldier, and half as much for any Chinese giving them assistance. This was immedi-ately interpreted as applying to any foreigner and to any of the native Christians. The news spread like wild-fire, and eighteen Protestant chapels were wrecked in as many days. For months all foreigners in Canton lived on the surface of a live volcano. In the same city, ten years later, the prevalence of the dreaded plague caused intense excitement. Two lady physicians were attacked on the street, and but for timely rescue would have been stoned to death.

The great and remote province of Szechuan in western China is inhabited by a peaceable people who are not un-friendly to foreigners, except as they are stirred up to opposition by their officials. A Foreign Bureau at the capital of the province has been shown to be the active agent for the diffusion of anti-foreign virus over this entire region, to the incomputable loss of unnumbered persons. Against Roman Catholics in this province there seems to be a hereditary virulence, the causes of which are not generally understood. It is certain that several priests have lost their lives, and that the poor Christians have suffered the most terrible persecutions for long

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periods together. In the summer of 1886 one of these out-breaks took place, apparently due to rumours occasioned by the erection of new mission buildings at Chung Ch'ing, on the Yangtze. The premises of the various missions, as well as the British Consular residence, were looted and destroyed. The Consular Resident was seriously wounded, and more than twenty foreigners were penned up in two small rooms in a yamen during the most trying month of the year for about two weeks, the mob con-stantly raging without. The rioters openly declared that they had authority from the Emperor and from the offi-cials to extirpate Christianity. The Government com-pensated the missionaries for their losses, and admitted their treaty rights, but when the buildings were again put up " angry gangs sprang up to burn them, in one place the premises being destroyed three times within four years. An ominous feature in these events was not the violence but the pertinacity of the mobs, which seemed always on hand to execute, whenever occasion demanded, the threats of driving out the Christians." The legal pro-ceedings were a mere travesty of justice, the Christians being urged in open court to apostatize. It was plainly intended to drive out the foreigners altogether by mere attrition, in accordance with the Chinese adage : " The mountains are high — the Emperor is remote."

In the spring of 1895, just after the peace with Japan, rioting in Szechuan again broke out with the suddenness of a tropical thunder-storm, driving from the province more than eighty foreigners. During the progress of these continued persecutions it was reported that more than fifty thousand Christians had suffered in various ways, many having been killed, and the work again com-pletely broken up.

These persistent outbreaks were of so serious a nature

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that the foreign Governments concerned were moved to take up the matter in earnest. The American Minister endeavoured to get a Commission appointed to the prov-ince to ascertain the measure of complicity of the various officials, especially of the one who was at the time Gover-nor-General, Liu Ping Chang. In a despatch to the State Department, the Minister, Mr. Denby, says that " China fought this Commission for some days, but was finally forced to consent to its going overland to Ch'eng Tu, the provincial capital. China also fought with unparalleled obstinacy the proposition to punish the Viceroy, Liu, partly on account of his influence with the Dowager Empress, and partly because there was no precedent for this action. The entering wedge in overcoming this ob-stinacy was the action of the Department in ordering the going of an American Commission. After China had ac-cepted this proposition as inevitable, the British Minister stepped in with an ultimatum that the officials should be punished. A fleet was ordered to these waters as a men-ace. The Minister of France then intervened to explain to China that to avoid trouble she must punish the offi-cials." The late Governor-General was degraded from office, with the addition of the words " never to be em-ployed again," and numerous subordinate mandarins were punished also. The successful accomplishment of the difficult task of securing real justice in this hitherto unexampled way was naturally regarded as a most im-portant step in advance, not only in itself, but especially as a precedent.

There can be no doubt that the primary source of the riots last mentioned in Szechuan, as well as those al-ready referred to in Kuangtung, was connected with the wars with France and with Japan. In the former prov-ince one of the numerous placards which appeared was

y6 CHINA IN CONVULSION

phrased in the following terms : " At the present time, when Japan has usurped Chinese territory, you English, French, and Americans have looked on with your hands in your sleeves. If in the future you wish to preach your doctrine in China, you must drive the Japanese back to their own country; then you will be allowed to preach your Holy Gospel throughout the country without let or hindrance."

Before dismissing the subject of anti-foreign riots, it is indispensable to take some account of those which oc-curred in the year 1891 in the Yangtze Valley, which have a unity and a significance of their own. These will be treated in the succeeding chapter. Enough has already been said, however, to make it clear that the previous outbreaks have repeatedly and upon a large scale ex-hibited every feature of those witnessed in 1900, except one. This is the first time that the riots have been di-rectly instigated from the Imperial Palace itself. Upon the treatment of China now will depend whether it shall also be the last.

VI

CHAPTER 6.

AN ANTI-FOREIGN PROPAGANDA AND ITS RESULTS

IT is a classical saying in China that " when the wind grows the grass bends," by which is intended, not the enunciation of a law in the relation between plants and atmospheric changes, but that the people are quickly responsive to the example and the influence of their leaders, and especially of their rulers. This re-sponse is made possible by the unparalleled homogeneity of the Chinese people, and the practically illimitable re-spect which is felt as well as manifested for those who are held to represent and to embody the traditional ideals.

From a variety of causes, the typical Chinese scholar regards all foreign ideals as inferior to those of the Chinese, and the effort to introduce them into China with the same mixture of amusement, contempt, and indigna-tion which we should instinctively feel toward an organ-ized attempt to import into a Christian land the religious system of Mohammed, to the displacement of Christian-ity. This is his most moderate and temperate view. When he becomes at all excited and intolerant, he views the advent of Western ways and moral teachings pre-cisely as well-educated Westerners would the propaga-tion of Anarchistic tenets and the inculcation of Nihilistic practices among the people of our own land.

About the time of the Tientsin massacre a Chinese pamphlet was widely circulated under the title of " A Death-blow to Corrupt Doctrines," and it was felt to be

77

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full of danger to the welfare of foreigners in China, for the reason that it represented the animus of the cultivated literati towards the men of the West, whom they neither understood nor wished to understand. In spite of earn-est efforts in that direction, this book was never sup-pressed in such a way that it did not reappear at no very infrequent intervals, poisoning the minds of great num-bers of Chinese against everything foreign.

At the Missionary Conference held at Shanghai in the spring of 1890, the Rev. Timothy Richard called atten-tion to the recent republication of a collection of docu-ments on Chinese State questions, in 120 books, originally published in 1826, to which a supplement was added of the same number of books in 1888. These were in the catalogue of works for sale in the government book-shops, and consisted of various important memorials which had been presented to high officials, or to the Throne, and also of essays upon topics of public import-ance, edited with numerous comments and sundry addi-tions, the whole forming a unique and important collec-tion. Mr. Richard styled them the " Blue-books of China," a somewhat inaccurate and misleading term, since it might give rise to the supposition that the papers are official reports, which is not the case. Two books of the supplement are devoted to the subject of Christian missions, an outline of which is given by Mr. Richard in his paper. In these documents are found the origin of all the popular calumnies of Christianity — the tales about scooping out the eyes of converts who had previously been bewitched, the miscellaneous associations of men and women in the churches, the bad character of the French priests, and much which it is impossible to put into print. The account of Christian doctrine was merely a parody, comprising fragments of Brahminism, Bud-

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dhism, Mohammedanism, and the teaching of the Secret Sects of China. The practical object of the documents appeared in an appended account of anti-foreign risings in two hostile provinces, where the opposition was organ-ized by an ex-provincial judge and by a Hanlin, who called on the gentry to stamp out the vile doctrines of Christianity from among them.

During the year 1891 attention was publicly called in the foreign press of China to the fact that a great quan-tity of inflammable anti-foreign literature, evidently pre-pared by accomplished Chinese scholars, was issuing from the capital of the province of Hunan, and thence being disseminated all over that part of the Empire. In securing copies of these books and pamphlets, translating them, and tracking them to their source, the Rev. Griffith John, D.D., of Hankow, rendered to all foreigners in China a great service. For many years he has been the principal authority upon the subject, and it was to him that we owe the discovery that the chief man under whose acrid pen the poison of asps was being distilled was named Chou Han, a native of Ning Hsiang in Hunan, holding the nominal rank of Taotai.

In a city twenty or thirty miles from Hankow, it was found that copies of a book called " Death to the Devil's Religion " was being circulated in enormous quantities from six of the seven pawnshops of the place, copies be-ing given to anyone who chose to take them away. It was styled a " Virtue-book," such as the Chinese are in the habit of issuing, either free or at a nominal price, with a view to the accumulation of merit. It is impos-sible to convey in print any adequate conception of the vile nature of this production. It will be quite sufficient to quote the general description of it, and many other Hunan issues, given in a letter of Dr. John's to the " Daily

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News," of Shanghai : " In the Hunan publications the worship of Jesus is represented as the worship of licen-tiousness. Our Lord is represented as a hog crucified, and surrounded by male and female worshippers, some on their knees, and some indulging in licentious merri-ment. The term T'ien Chu Chiao, ' The Religion of the Lord of Heaven/ is generally written in characters which have the same sound, but which mean ' The Squeak of the Celestial Hog; ' and the term Ocean Men (Yang-Jen — foreigners) is often written with another character of the same sound, meaning ' Goat Men.' Hence the expres-sion * pig-goat devils ' in the document, applied some-times to foreigners generally, sometimes to missionaries in particular, and sometimes to native Christians. Con-verts are also called sons and grandsons of the devils and the pig-goat devils — that is, of foreigners."

In connection with this book were brought to light numerous placards widely circulated, one of which was termed " Unification-of -Heart and Risking-Life-Agree-ment," which was to be entered into by the entire prov-ince of Hunan. It consisted of seven articles, the first of which provided that if any member of any clan should prove to have been bewitched by the spies of the goat-devils, he should be compelled to recant publicly at the ancestral temple ; should he refuse, he was to be driven away as an outcast, and his name published universally so that no place in the province would be open to him. Another article provided that in case any clan should screen one of the pig-goat devils, and not expel him, the whole clan should be called the pig-goat devil clan, and should be absolutely boycotted in every way. Another article urged rigid examination of all travellers, and if their replies to searching questions should be evasive or unsatisfactory, all were to unite and drive them out. One

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of the later sections declared that, in case of a pig-goat devil invasion of Hunan, there should be a voluntary enrollment of militia, the larger prefectures furnishing 20,000 men, the medium-sized 15,000, and the smaller 10,000. " We will unitedly subscribe the troops, and the cost of the weapons of war; and we ask the authorities to distribute the troops and at once proceed to fight the foreigners." It is a remarkable fact that the closing specification agreed that the burning of churches and chapels should not be allowed, partly because it might lead to the destruction of adjoining native houses, and secondarily because the property ought to be handed over to the authorities to be sold for the benefit of the revenue. In connection with these books, placards, and other manifestoes, was circulated what was called a " Picture Gallery " in which all the vilest charges against foreign-ers and against the Christian religion were pictorially represented in the best style of Chinese art for wide cir-culation. This extraordinary production of Confucian culture was reproduced by foreigners, with a view to its circulation privately among those who need to know the real feeling of such men as the authors of the Hunan literature. The publishers inserted the following note explanatory of their purpose : " This reproduction of the Picture Gallery being intended for the thoughtful few, and not at all for the multitude, no attempt has been made to gloss over its extreme grossness in picture and language. It is not the product of illiterate men. The Hunan anti-Christian publications, almost without an exception, have scholars for their authors, and there can be no doubt about this one. This being the case, it has been deemed best to reproduce the Gallery just as it stands, in all its obscenity and vileness. In no other way would it be possible to convey a right idea of the un-

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reasoning and blasphemous nature of the Chinese attack upon Christianity, of the low mental and moral condition of the Chinese literati, and of the deep need of all classes in China of the very faith which not a few of them are seeking to destroy."

Such were the seeds sown broadcast over mid-China in the early part of 1891, and it was not long ere they produced fruit after their kind. Early in May, owing to the diligent dissemination of reports of the ill-treat-ment of children at the orphanage of the Roman Catholics (one of whom was alleged to have been boiled in a bath!), an attack upon the premises of the Jesuit mission at Yang Chou was planned, but the would-be rioters were suppressed by the authorities by the aid of a large contingent of soldiers. At Wu Hu, a port on the Yangtze, on the 10th of the month, an outbreak occurred of the same sort. The graves of some Chinese who had been buried in the compound were dug open, and the bodies — too much decomposed to be recognized — were held up as proof of foul play. At this sight the mob became furious, oil was brought and thrown over every-thing, and the place was soon a smoking ruin. The British Consulate and the Imperial Customs establish-ment were also attacked, but were defended by Customs volunteers until the arrival of Chinese gunboats. At Nanking, one of the principal cities on the Yangtze, the mission premises and the hospital were attacked by a mob, and nothing but the courage of one of the mission-aries in holding them at bay until soldiers arrived pre-vented another scene of wreck. There was a similar nar-row escape at An Ching Fu (Ngankin) the timely arrival of a French and later of a German gunboat affording pro-tection. At Tan Yang on the 1st of June there was a sys-tematic assault upon the Roman Catholic premises, every

ANTI-FOREIGN PROPAGANDA 83

building- of which was either burned to the ground or demolished, but without loss of life. Four days later a still more violent and unexpected attack was made at Wu Hsiieh, a city twenty-five miles above Chiu Chiang, on the Yangtze. Here the usual allegations of kidnapping babies, which seldom fail to infuriate a Chinese mob, were concocted, and a newly arrived Wesleyan mission-ary, Mr. Argent, and a customs officer named Green were murdered, and their bodies mutilated in the most barbarous manner. At Wu Hsieh, an important town on the Grand Canal, an outbreak like the preceding occurred on the 8th of June, apparently under the leadership of Hunan men ; the Roman Catholic premises were methodi-cally set on fire with oil and gunpowder brought for the purpose. At Chiu Chiang, about the same time, the wreck of the property which it was intended to destroy was prevented by the landing of men from three gunboats, and by the arrival of the Taotai with a large body of troops.

The last and in some respects the most singular of all the many riots of this year occurred at I Ch'ang Fu, about three hundred and sixty-five miles above Hankow, on the Yangtze. The pretext for gathering a crowd was a cunning contrivance — to wit, that of bringing a child to the Roman Catholic convent, to which an orphanage for girls was attached. The proper papers were all drawn up and signed, but the child was subsequently ascertained to be a boy. The following day a demand was made for the " kidnapped " child, who was surrendered, and the circumstance reported to the magistrate. A military offi-cial was sent to the convent as if to protect it, followed by a crowd. The subsequent proceedings differ from those of any other riot which ever occurred in China. Some mission buildings were destroyed, others were left intact. The native-owned house in which some of the

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Scotch missionaries lived was set on fire, but the house of another Scotch missionary was to have been looted but not burned, because he was a ten years' resident and en-gaged in works of charity! But the ringleaders carried with them kerosene and gunpowder and destroyed it with the rest, while a native building, foreign-owned, used as the British Consulate, was spared, but the new Consulate in course of building was thoroughly wrecked. The whole attack came like a thunderbolt from a clear sky, taking the most wary by surprise, and was carried out with a thoroughness and despatch without precedent. Until the alarm was given there was no indication of danger, and in twenty minutes all was over. The whole thing was done with a quickness and a precision which showed that all had been carefully planned and that each man knew exactly what to do and did it. The whole number of riotors was not more than fifty, and there was no doubt that it was engineered by soldiers who knew what their officers approved.

In the month of August a savage attack was made upon Dr. Greig, a missionary physician, while engaged in his work in the country, near Kirin, the capital of Manchuria, by the body-guard of the Tartar General. He was charged with child-stealing, and was kept in imprisonment for three days, experiencing the harshest treatment.

Some months later a great insurrection in large regions of Manchuria attacked the Roman Catholic Christians and made havoc of mission property, massacring many hundred Christians, until the rising attained to the dig-nity of a rebellion. It was extinguished only at vast cost of life, twenty thousand insurgents being reported as killed, and the local magistrates were punished for not having contradicted the rumours against the Christians,

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which had been officially circulated all over China. In 1893, at Sungpu, a town sixty miles from Hankow, two Swedish missionaries were mobbed under circumstances of special atrocity. The subsequent proceedings, while apparently intended to make a show of stern justice, were disappointing to foreigners, and exasperating to the Chinese, who were alarmed at the severity of the punish-ment, boycotted the Europeans, and placards were issued enjoining abstention from any intercourse with them in any way, upon pain of destruction for those who offended. In the following year the Rev. J. A. Wylie was killed at Lao Yang, Manchuria, by Manchu soldiers who appeared to be acting under the immediate protec-tion of their superiors, many of whom had proved very hostile to the advent of Westerners within the Manchu " sphere of influence," a phenomenon which has repeat-edly been observed in many different parts of the Empire.

During the summer of 1895 the whole world was startled by news of the most terrible tragedy in the his-tory of Protestant missions in China, at Ku Cheng in the Fukien province, when the Rev. Mr. Stewart, his wife and family, and several associates were furiously attacked by members of the Vegetarian Society, and ten of them killed. Local troubles had become so serious that it be-came necessary to summon troops to put them down, and it was supposed that the missionary was instrumental in bringing about this result.

These occurrences resulted in numerous public meet-ings in different parts of the Far East, and in long-con-tinued discussion of the nature and significance of the anti-foreign outbreaks; but as the British Government did not hold the provincial officials to a strict responsibil-ity, very little permanent impression was made upon the Chinese mind by the punishment of a small number of

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uninfluential individuals. In June, 1899, a similar out-burst took place at Chien Ning Fu, in Fukien, on the usual pretext, and with the usual result of the general destruc-tion of mission property and the narrow escape of the missionaries with their lives.

During the same year the province of Szechuan, of which we have previously had so much to say as a hotbed of anti-foreign energy, was once more in an anarchic con-dition. A Roman Catholic father named Fleury was cap-tured by the followers of a bully calling himself Yu Man Tzu, and held as a prisoner for many months. At many different places in the province the mission premises were torn down and the foreigners compelled to fly for their lives. In the city of Chiang Pei, across the river from the open port of Chung Ch'ing, a new dispensary was opened, when the place was suddenly raided and one of the students was killed. In the adjoining province of Kueichou Mr. Fleming, of the China Inland Mission, was killed on the highway, together with his colporteur, and the greatest difficulties were thrown in the way of punish-ing the guilty persons, who were well known.

Our review of the anti-foreign outbreaks during even the last ten years in China is very far from complete, but those which have been noted are typical of the whole. They began with the acquaintance of the Chinese with the Westerner, and they have extended as the area of that acquaintance was widened. They embrace every one of the eighteen provinces as well as Manchuria. There even appears to be a species of periodicity about them, resem-bling the meteoric showers in November. In an editorial in the " Daily News," of Shanghai, in May, 1900, it was stated that the " riot season " had now arrived, and that preparations ought to be made accordingly, for that out of thirty-four " first-class riots " since 1842, only four

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had occurred in the months from November to February, and none at all in March. May and June are the height of the season, just one-half of the whole number having taken place in those months. June has eleven out of thirty-four, nine of which occurred in 1891.

It would seem to be evident from the phenomena al-ready described that the causes of the hostility to for-eigners in China are deep-seated and universal. The outbreaks are directed with considerable impartiality against whatever foreigners happen to be within reach, and, as a rule, originate in some impulse imparted by the educated, and especially by the official, classes of China. One of the principal roots from which they spring is ignorance, dense and impenetrable. In the process of gradually enlightening that ignorance, innumerable prej-udices are encountered, and not infrequently explosive gases are generated, which, upon ignition by some chance spark, produce a terrible catastrophe. At the present crisis the fatuity of the rulers of China has thrown into Western hands the opportunity, and placed upon Western nations the responsibility of providing that there shall be no more such tempestuous outbursts of blind passion and unreasoning rage as have disgraced the greater part of the last half-century. If the Western Powers use aright this opportunity, if they fulfill their duty and meet their responsibility, it is not too much to hope that within a measurable period anti-foreign riots such as we have been considering will be unknown, and that the opening of a new century may be at the same time for the Chinese Empire the beginning of a new era.

VII

CHAPTER 7. The Commercial Intrusion

THE COMMERCIAL INTRUSION

IT is usual to distribute the foreigners in China into the general classes of Merchants, Officials, and Mis-sionaries. To these within recent years has been added a fourth, called Promoters, meaning those who are the agents of " syndicates " or the other organizations for exploiting the Empire by means of foreign capital. On account of the necessary relations between their aims and methods, it may be convenient to consider the first and the last class together. One of the most comprehensive treatments of the general subject under discussion was in a series of papers by the Rev. Gilbert Reid, later known as the pioneer in work for " the higher classes " in China, which was published, with the title, " The Sources of the Anti-Foreign Disturbances in China," in Shanghai in 1893, much of which is as much in point now as when it was written.

Of all the foreigners in China, the merchant is the one least likely to excite hostility on the part of the Chinese. He comes expressly and only to trade, and the Chinese are by instinct and by practice traders " heaven-endowed." If there were no one to sell foreign goods to the Chinese, of whom could the Chinese buy? And after some hun-dreds of years of commercial intercourse the practical Chinese needs no argument to convince him that there are many articles produced abroad which, if not a neces-sity, are at least highly desirable. In regions where for-eign trade is familiar to the people, there is probably very

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little animosity on the part of the Chinese toward those who are its agents. Many of them speak the Chinese language either imperfectly or not at all, so that their communication with the natives is mainly or solely through the well-known " comprador," whose functions vary all the way from those of an intermediary merchant to those of a simple house steward. These indispensable buffers in Chinese commercial relations have their decided advantages, diminishing or at least distributing friction, and smoothing over a great variety of occasions of pos-sible collision between the foreigner and Chinese, of many of which the foreigner himself is not improbably quite unaware.

The Chinese have exerted their phenomenal talents for business without being in the least aware that the pro-cesses are under the control of inexorable natural laws, and without a dawning comprehension of the truths of political economy. The views entertained in Western lands in regard to what constitutes " progress " are radi-cally different from anything to be found in China, where nobody knows or cares anything about " progress." Even in the Occident the triumphal march of invention and economy is strewn with the wrecks of fortunes and of lives which have been blighted or extinguished by " im-provements," by new " labour-saving inventions," and the like. But in Western countries it is possible for one whose business has been ruined by an improvement, or an alteration in fashion, to take up something else which in time will do just as well; or, if he fails in this, "the heaven is high and the earth is wide," and there is still abundant opportunity for successful emigration in many different directions.

In China all is far otherwise. The artificer is able to do one thing only, and that, it may be, in a hereditary

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craft, for any other than which he is as little fitted as a fish for air-breathing. Matches from foreign lands, kero-sene oil, with the lamps of diversified varieties, have dis-placed Chinese industries on a great scale, with social consequences which it is impossible to follow in detail. One reads in the reports to the directors of steamship companies of the improved trade with China in cotton goods, and the bright outlook all along the coast from Canton to Tientsin and Newchwang in this line of com-merce, but no one reads of the effect of this trade of expansion upon innumerable millions of Chinese on the great cotton-growing plains of China. These have hith-erto been just able to make a scanty living by weaving cloth fifteen inches wide, one bolt of which requires two days of hard work, realizing at the market only enough to enable the family to purchase the barest necessities of life, and to provide more cotton for the unintermittent weaving, which sometimes goes on by relays all day and most of the night. But now, through the " bright out-look " for foreign cotton goods, there is no market for the native product, as there has always been hitherto. The factors for the wholesale dealers no longer make their appearance as they have always done from time immemorial, and there is no profit in the laborious work of weaving, and no productive industry which can take its place. In some villages every family has one or more looms, and much of the work is done in underground cellars where the click of the shuttle is heard month in and month out from the middle of the first moon till the closing days of the twelfth. But now the looms are idle and the weaving-cellars are falling into ruins.

Multitudes who own no loom are able to spin cotton thread, and thus earn a bare support, — a most important auxiliary protection against the wolf always near to the

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Chinese door. But lately the phenomenal activity of the mills in Bombay, in Japan, and even in Shanghai itself, has inundated the cotton districts of China with yarns so much more even, stronger, and withal cheaper than the home-made kind, that the spinning-wheels no longer re-volve, and the tiny rill of income for the young, the old, the feeble, and the helpless is permanently dried up. Many of the innumerable sufferers from this steady ad-vance of " civilization " into the interior of China have no more appreciation of the causes of their calamity than have the Japanese peasants who find themselves en-gulfed by a tidal wave caused by an earthquake or by the sudden or gradual subsidence of the coast. Yet there are many others who know perfectly well that be-fore foreign trade came in to disturb the ancient order of things, there was in ordinary years enough to eat and to wear, whereas now there is a scarcity in every direc-tion, with a prospect of worse to come. With an experi-ence like this, in many different lines of activity, the Chinese are not to be blamed for feeling a profound dis-satisfaction with the new order of things.

It is out of the question for any candid examination of the sources of Chinese discontent with foreign trade to pass lightly over the sale of opium. There has been so much intemperate writing upon both sides of a grave and difficult question that it is hard even to mention it with-out incurring reproach from the one side or the other. For our present purposes a few lines are quite sufficient. Foreigners did not, indeed, introduce opium into China, but they enormously expanded its sale, and compelled its legalization against the wishes of the Chinese, who would in any case have used a certain amount of it, but nothing like the quantity to which they thus became rapidly ac-customed. Some Chinese efforts to prohibit the growth

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and the use of this drug have been sincere, and others not so. The native article is gradually but surely supplant-ing the imported one, but the use of opium in China is indissolubly linked with the foreigner, even in its name (" foreign earth "). While the Chinese have become al-most a nation of opium-smokers, the national conscience still exists, and vigourously protests against the habit which it is powerless to stop.

Whoever examines the elaborate Report of the Opium Commission appointed by the British Government, to-gether with the criticisms and comments upon the trade evoked thereby, cannot fail to perceive that there is a studied unwillingness on the part of many defenders of the trade to weigh the evidence, instead of prejudging it. The present Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, dismisses the whole subject in a few words, contemptuously deny-ing that the Chinese cherish any hostility to foreigners on account of opium, any more than Englishmen hate France because the French make better brandy than their neigh-bours. It is easy to show, on the contrary, that many of the most thoughtful Chinese in the Empire connect the decay of China and the general use of opium as cause and effect. The following pointed statement upon the sub-ject is taken from the paper written by the Taotai of Soo-chow, who is in charge of the salt gabelle in that city: " From ancient times to the present day there has never been such a stream of evil and misery as has come down upon China in her receiving the curse of opium. . . . From the time that opium was first introduced into China until now, a period of over one hundred years, the number of deaths caused by it must mount up into the millions. Now, in China there are many among the upper classes who seem to be in ignorance concerning the true state of affairs, and are not willing to blame the Chinese for

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their fault in using opium, but ascribe the real cause of the trouble to the avariciousness of foreigners, and thus look upon them with hatred. Also, the ignorant masses having even intenser antipathy towards them, we con-tinually see on every hand anti-missionary outbreaks and riots.,,

This passage is sufficiently explicit as to the Chinese hostility to the instruments of the national ruin. That the most intelligent men in China hold the strongest opinion as to the injury done by opium is easily proved, as, for instance, by the widely circulated and popular work of the celebrated Governor-General of the two Hu-kuang provinces, Chang Chih Tung, lately translated for English readers under the title " China's Only Hope." In this there is a chapter headed " Cast Out the Poison," from which the following paragraph is an extract : " As-suredly it is not foreign intercourse that is ruining China, but this dreadful poison. Oh, the grief and desolation it has wrought to our people ! A hundred years ago the curse came upon us more blasting and deadly in its effects than the great Flood, or the scourge of the Fierce Beasts, for the waters assuaged after nine years, and the ravages of the man-eaters were confined to one place. Opium has spread with frightful rapidity and heartrending results through the provinces. Millions upon millions have been struck down by the plague. To-day it is running like wildfire. In its swift, deadly course it is spreading dev-astation everywhere, wrecking the minds and eating away the strength and wealth of its victims. The ruin of the mind is the most woeful of its many deleterious effects. The poison enfeebles the will, saps the strength of the body, renders the consumer incapable of perform-ing his regular duties, and unfit for travel from one place to another. It consumes his substance and reduces the

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miserable wretch to poverty, barrenness, and senility. Unless something is soon done to arrest this awful scourge in its devastating march, the Chinese people will be transformed into satyrs and devils. This is the present condition of our country."

When the most respected and most influential Chinese in the Empire addresses to his own countrymen words like these, it is evident that there is behind them a pro-found conviction. While his Excellency is at great pains to show that the Chinese are themselves to blame for the ruin wrought by opium, it is certain that most Chinese connect the misery, degradation, and wreck wrought by this baleful drug directly with the Western lands through whose agency it became universally known, and that this fact has had an important influence in creating and, from the Chinese point of view, justifying hostility to for-eigners. While no riot can be said to have had its origin solely through the use of opium, it is doubtful if there has ever been any outbreak in China against the men from beyond the sea which was not either started or pro-moted by opium-smokers at their places of resort, where the worst characters in every Chinese city, market town, and village are invariably attracted.

The principal Western innovations which foreigners are interested in having introduced into China are steam navigation, telegraphs, railways and tramways, and scien-tific mining. What effect each of these adjuncts of modern civilization has had in the Chinese Empire up to the present time is an inquiry to which it may not be easy to give an adequate reply; nor is it necessary, since the essential question is not the actual results from the point of view of the student of political economy, but the light in which the matter is regarded by the people of China themselves. Steam navigation has been known

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for so long that it might be supposed to have become an integral part of Chinese social, mercantile, and economic life, as indeed it has. But wherever it has led to the discontinuance of the use of junks, as on the great Yangtze River, or along the whole of the Grand Canal from central China to Tientsin, it has developed an antagonism which is not the less real because it ordi-narily finds no vent for expression. The remnant of the tribute rice fleet of junks, still make the slow, costly, wasteful, and useless journey to Peking from mid-China through the shallow channel of the Grand Canal. The tenacity with which this dying practice is cherished by the officials interested in the smuggling which it may be said to consist in and to exist for, indicates the bitter ani-mosity with which hundreds of mandarins, thousands of their followers, and tens of thousands of boatmen (all of whom are direct sharers in the rich spoils of every trip) regard the steamships which execute the carrying func-tions on a thousandfold greater scale, in a minute frac-tion of the time, and at a nominal cost, with no damage to the Imperial revenue.

I The concessions granted, within the past few years, of /the right to navigate the inland waters of China have I awakened the most violent opposition, in many instances altogether neutralizing the anticipated benefits. Steam navigation on the upper Yangtze which has recently been begun after so long a period of struggle and against the most inveterate antagonism and accumulated obstacles, represents in itself the whole economic battle which the Empire is waging against the progress which is slowly being forced upon it. The ultimate benefits are assured, the triumph of steam everywhere may be held to be cer-tain, but the people as a whole do not want it, most of them hate the sight of its appliances, and when the op-

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portunity arrives they exhibit their hostility in unmis-takable ways. Against this tremendous current of an-tagonism the enlightened minority would never make any headway but for the support of the Government. When that support is withdrawn, vested interests and the demo-cratic instincts of " the people " (always a powerful fac-tor in all Chinese questions) show by acts of destruction in which direction their sympathies lie.

Telegraphs have always been associated by the Chinese with the Government, but their introduction was looked upon with suspicion, and has been regarded as a distinct grievance by the officials thus brought into immediate connection with and under the control of the central power at Peking. They have been felt, too, as a vague peril to the peace of the land by the ignorant peasants, to whom the rusty rain-water dripping from the deoxidized wires is the exudation of supernatural blood, perhaps that of outraged " spirits of the air," boding ill to all near to whom it falls. It is not many years ago that the entire province of Hunan was reported to be a unit against the introduction of the accursed innovation within its bounds, the wires being cut and the poles sawed down or pulled up as often as they were erected. During the recent Boxer uprising the telegraph offices were among the first places attacked, and destroyed, and this from a general instinct that they are hostile to China as it was and as it ought forever to remain.

Far more serious, however, is the introduction of rail-ways, which within the past few years have been planned for, agreed upon, and in some cases actually begun, to go all over and through the interior of the Empire. From one point of view, " Fengshui,,, or Chinese geomancy, may be said to be a decadent superstition, but for practi-cal purposes it still holds on its serene way, undisturbed

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by the march of civilization or the pretensions of science. It is too weak of itself to block the progress of a railway, but it is strong enough to develop latent animosity into overt hostility when occasion arises. As in the case of steam navigation, wisdom and prudence would avoid most of the actual perils and would surmount the rest ; but the potential conflict may at any moment become real. The belief, age-long and world-wide, that when any par-ticularly difficult task is to be achieved it can be ac-complished only by the sacrifice of human life, was ex-hibited anew in 1897 when the railway from Tientsin to Peking was about to be completed. When the Shanghai Cathedral was erected, the peasants and coolies through-out that part of China firmly believed that its foundations were laid on the bodies of Chinese infants to insure sta-bility to the structure. When the Peking railway was built, it was in like manner supposed that not merely the piers of the bridge over the Pei Ho at Yang Ts'un, but all the sleepers throughout the whole eighty miles, were secured in the same manner. The excitement, which for a time was high, seemed wholly to die away, but no one is able to say what influence such superstitions have upon the subsequent actions of the " stupid people," who are able to bear grievous wrongs in comparative silence, but who suddenly flame out in a fury of vengeance when the matter is supposed to have been forgotten. At the intro-duction of every Chinese railway there is a fatal fas-cination about the rails, which are about the height of a Chinese pillow — often a mere support for the back of the neck only — so that in the dim light of the night the engineer may see before his swift-speeding engine a long row of brown forms, each stretched across the track with ! his head beyond the rails. On such occasions it has sometimes been necessary to run trains at " dead slow "

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for miles together. In the early days of the line to the Tangshan coal-mines there was a sort of market rate of thirty taels for Chinese killed by accident, but it was alleged that too many Chinese seemed disposed to " get a living " in this way, and a modification of the rules went into effect.

The boatmen in any Chinese port are a large class, and while they might appear to be an uninfluential one, their united remonstrances often have great weight, for no Chinese official wishes to have a popular uprising to deal with, the ultimate consequences of which no one can foresee, and which may be in many ways serious to him-self. It has not yet passed out of recollection how, not many years since Li Hung Chang, then Governor-Gen-eral of Chili, was moved by the uproarious clamour of the Ningpo junk-masters to cancel the plans for a rail-way bridge at Tientsin, the piles for which had already been driven and which had to be laboriously pulled up again — a humiliation for the most arbitrary Chinese in China, and a triumph for the vested interests even of sailors. Some years later, when the Yang Ts'un bridge was built, the railway movement had acquired much greater impetus, and no account whatever was taken of the numerous large and clumsy official house-boats which could not pass under it. Many of these vessels were quietly anchored at Tung Chou when the bridge was laid across the piers, and had to be razeed at considerable expense, while their usefulness was de-stroyed. The innumerable house-boats plying on the Pei Ho thrown out of activity by the Peking railway, the countless two-mule carts plying between Tientsin and Peking, and the whole population of Tung Chou, a city which bitterly fought the railway and was then ruined by its opening elsewhere, all furnished swarms of deadly

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foes to the concrete introduction of the ways of the West into the ways of the soporific East, just sufficiently awake to resent the intrusion.

Among the numerous reform measures proposed in the brief progressive period of 1898 was such a rearrange-ment of the methods of carrying the tribute rice to Peking as to prevent having a large part of it stolen en route. This threatened to reduce the city of Tung Chou (which has owed its existence almost solely to this nourishing stream) to actual starvation, and as a fact the first blow at Fengtai was struck by a large delegation from the city, who, in company with others, wrecked the machine-shops, dismantled the engines, tore up the rails, and otherwise registered a practical protest against the new and inconvenient regime. It may be remarked in passing that one of the arguments employed in a memorial to the Emperor advocating railways many years since was that in the carrying of tribute rice they " would put an end to stealing by the crew/' This is not unlikely, but experi-ence shows that there is next to nothing about a Chinese railway which first or last is not liable to be carried off, even the semaphores disappearing after they have been up for perhaps twenty-four hours, thus reminding the Chinese that practical morality is by no means a matter of appliances.

There is an additional cause for popular hostility to railways upon which insufficient stress is generally laid. Many of the foreigners employed in the actual work speak no Chinese, and it is unquestionable that multitudes of the workmen have been shamefully maltreated during its progress. This is said to have been the case with the Bel-gian management of the Lu — Han road, and in a marked degree with the German work in Shantung, and perhaps still more so with that of the Russians in Manchuria.

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The aggregate of all these hostile feelings is a formidable total, and when it is discharged in one avalanche the effect may well be to attract the attention of the world.

Chang Chih Tung, like other Chinese, considers that " ceremony " is almost non-existent among Westerners — and no wonder. The typical " promoter " is a busy man of the world, who does not by any means come all the way to China " for his health." What he wants, he wants, and he wants it now. With his hat cocked upon one side, his cigar in his mouth, his hands in the pockets of his " monkey-jacket," he strides into a yamen and tells " the old fossil " what he — the promoter — just come to town, wants and must have. He will listen to no nonsense, will take no excuses, has no time to waste, perhaps issues his ultimatum and is off. He is engaged in the airy task of what Mr. Kipling calls " trying to hustle the East," and not improbably with the usual results. To the staid old conservative official, no matter how well disposed he may be, such a representative of the West seems a wild and untamable barbarian, the like of which he never saw before and never desires to behold again. Popular feel-ing cares nothing what the Government has or has not conceded. Like the Western promoter, it wants what it wants ; and it does not want him. In one of the interior regions, when the Boxer rising became dangerous, a cer-tain missionary had a narrow escape for his life, until he was able to prove that he was not the man who was going about stirring up the earth-dragon and spoiling the divine influences of the land with his threatened iron road for the fire-wheel carts.

The discerning reader will perceive that the Chinese has much to say for himself when he unconsciously utters the plaint which means, if it does not claim, " China for the Chinese." In the stealthy and mysterious progress

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of the Promoter of Enterprises he rightly discerns a political agent ; for every railway means bonds, and bonds mean money, and money is the life of the land, and the more of it sent away the more anaemic the Empire will be. To him all silver which comes into the country is so much clear gain, and all silver which is taken out of it means so much dead loss. The idea of a real reciprocity, in which what is advantageous to one party may be in a different way not less so to another, is entirely alien to Chinese thought.

To foreign mining of all sorts the antipathy is intense and apparently invincible. Every one of the inevitable accidents intensifies it, and there is scarcely one of these promising " openings " which may not at any moment become a grave for the man who digs it. Uneasy lies the head which plans a mine.

And with these views, held with every degree of dis-tortion and rehearsed in the hearing of every Chinese day by day with varied iteration, it is not singular that we have a well-laid train which may at any moment produce an explosion of a magnitude hitherto unexampled. Tak-ing all the complex factors into account, the wonder rather is that the explosion has not come long ago.

VIII

CHAPTER 8. Territorial Aggression

TERRITORIAL AGGRESSION

THE close of the war with Japan marked one of the critical points in the age-long history of the Chi-nese Empire. At the conclusion of that brief but decisive struggle the Chinese found themselves forced to accept humiliating terms, the very idea of which probably never entered into the minds of those who a few months before, ignorant and unprepared, embarked upon the hope-lessly unequal contest. Had Japan been unhampered by pressure from other Powers, she would undoubtedly have demanded a large money indemnity, and, for a time at least, would have occupied the territory that she had con-quered by force of arms, which is known by the general name of Manchuria. (This embraces in its widest mean-ing the whole country from the Great Wall, has its ter-minus at Shan Hai Kuan, and stretches north to the Amur River. Its southern province goes by the name of Sheng-ching [or Shingking], and is the hereditary seat of the Manchus who founded the dynasty at present ruling China.) Had the Japanese been allowed to occupy this group of provinces, they would have become the masters of the Chinese Empire. It was keenly felt, however, by the Chinese that the Emperor's prerogative did not in-clude the giving away of land obtained by his ancestors at the cost of so much bloodshed.

They have always greatly honoured the name of the Emperor Ch'ien Lung, under whom the domains of the

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Empire were extended to their widest limits, and any curtailing of this heritage was regarded as a national dis-grace. It is quite true that millions of the people never knew at the time, and probably do not now know, that there was any war at all with Japan ; but the very peasants of whom this can be affirmed are yet highly inflammable when wrought upon by agencies adapted to stir their sluggish blood, as they have been for now more than half a decade. The Chinese have for forty years been expert in playing off one Western Power against another, and in thus contriving in turn to baffle them all. On the other hand, since all Western lands were interested in China — although by no means to the same degree — it has been a not unnatural expectation that whenever the welfare of China relatively to the world was threatened by one Power, the rest, or at least some one of them, would intervene and prevent a serious injury to the com-mon interests of all. In the case under consideration, it will be remembered that the Russo-French Alliance, backed by Germany, warned Japan that the natural result of her deserved success could not be allowed, and that her troops must be withdrawn from Manchuria. Until the indemnity agreed upon should be paid, however, she was to occupy the harbour and fort of Weihaiwei, about fifty miles east of Chefoo, near the eastern end of the Shantung Promontory, a position which she had wrested from China toward the close of the war, under circum-stances peculiarly humiliating and disgraceful to China. Besides this, Japan was to have the island of Formosa, a prize toward which many hungry eyes had been looking for a long time.

Under this pressure, it was useless for Japan to insist on what she felt to be her rights. There was no Power to which she could turn for help except Great Britain, and,

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for reasons known perhaps to the directors of her so-called " foreign policy," Great Britain elected to remain entirely neutral. It is vain to consider the might-have-beens of this critical time, but it is plain that, had the course of Great Britain been different, the whole trend of events in the Far East might have been altered.

In due time an understanding between Russia and China was arrived at, by which the price to be paid for keeping Manchuria out of the clutches of Japan was fixed upon. It was a secret agreement, but in China nothing is too securely locked up to be inaccessible to him who holds a silver key. Its terms were published to the world through the London " Times " and the " North China Daily News," of Shanghai, and each journal was ridiculed for its credulity in accepting the " Cassini Con-vention " as a bona-fide document. When its substantial authenticity was definitely established, it became evident that Russia had very naturally and very cleverly played the part of the lawyer in Lord Brougham's familiar defi-nition of that useful functionary, as " a man who rescues your estate from your adversary and keeps it himself." The great Russian trans-Siberian railway, one of the most important enterprises in a century full of audacious undertakings, had long been in process of construction, pointing toward the new Russian port of Vladivostok, at the mouth of the Amur River. In spite of all that could be done for the amelioration of the natural conditions, this ice-bound harbour was far from being a suitable ter-minus for the all-rail line to Europe and the West. In consequence, and as a part of the new arrangement with China, Russia was entitled to build her line directly through Manchuria, aiming at the port of Talienwan, at the southern extremity of the peninsula in which Shengching terminates. For the protection of the road,

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Russia was authorized to introduce her own troops ; and although at the expiration of a certain period the road might be taken over by China, no one was deceived into the faintest expectation that it would not turn out that by this adroit act Manchuria was completely mortgaged to the great Empire of the North.

The result of the agreement between Russia and China was presently to fill Manchuria with such numbers of Russians, especially soldiers, that to the eye of the ob-servant traveller it appeared to be already under the dis-tinct protection or semi-government of Russia; and, ac-cording to all reports which reached the outside world, the Russian occupation was accompanied with incidents which would have roused into active hostility any people in Europe. The Chinese have a great respect for their rulers, and recognize the impropriety and folly of en-deavouring to modify, much less reverse, the acts of those who hold the symbols of authority. But they also know and feel that China is not and for many years has not been a free agent in her governmental acts. When they beheld such an alienation of soil as the virtual transfer of the whole northern portion of China to her most dreaded neighbour, it was with the profound conviction that such a result could have been brought' about only by the exercise of a force which, so far as China was con-cerned, was irresistible. The indignation inevitably be-gotten was for the time smothered or disguised, but it was inextinguishable, which is only to say that the Chi-nese are not so destitute of national spirit as to be in-different to the fate of the Empire.

On the first of November, 1897, occurred an event the consequences of which no prophet would have been able to foresee. Two German Catholic priests living at a vil-lage twenty-five miles west of Chi Ning Chou, in western

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Shantung, were suddenly and without warning set upon by a band of over twenty men, both of the priests being killed almost at once, one of them receiving nine wounds from swords, the other thirteen. No one else in the compound received any injury. Many theories were ad-vanced to account for the act, such as that it was com-mitted by banditti, who abound in that part of Shantung, that it was done in revenge for a failure to secure em-ployment, or for help given to certain Catholic converts who had a lawsuit, or that it was instigated by the Ta Tao Hui, or " Great Sword Society," between which and the Catholics there had even at that time been a bitter feud of some years' standing. Whatever the oc-casion for this outrage may have been, it was certainly not in any way due to official connivance, as the local magistrate happened to be well acquainted with one of the priests, and was much affected at the terrible sight, when he arrived in his capacity of coroner to make an official inspection.

Within two weeks of the time that these events oc-curred, German ships of war made their appearance at Kiaochou (or Chiaochou) Bay, and took possession of the island of Ch'ing Tao (or Tsingtao), the Chinese officials yielding the place without a struggle. Not long after, the German Legation was reported to have formulated its demands for the settlement of the murder case under six heads: (i) an indemnity of 200,000 taels of silver; (2) the rebuilding of a chapel destroyed in the riot; (3) the repayment of Germany's expenses incurred in the oc-cupation of Kiaochou; (4) the Governor of Shantung, Li Ping Heng, to be cashiered and dismissed from the public service; (5) the severest penalties to be inflicted upon the murderers of the German priests, and upon the local authorities where the riot took place; and also (6)

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Germans to be given the sole right to open coal-mines throughout the province of Shantung; special privileges to be granted Germans in the matter of railways in the said province, as well as the right to open mines within a belt of country twenty kilometers wide; and Germany to be given the privilege of storing coal at Kiaochou in perpetuity — that is, Kiaochou was to become a German naval coaling station " in perpetuity." Kiaochou has a spacious harbour, upon which the various Powers had had their eye for a long time. It was supposed to have been one of the items of the Cassini Convention that if this port suited the convenience of Russia, she should be al-lowed a temporary occupation. That Germany should be able to get it with no reference whatever to Russia was very improbable; the only rational conclusion being that in this respect there was a perfect understanding between those Powers.

In the final arrangement made with China, the Ger-mans undertook the administration of a considerable sec-tion of country immediately contiguous to Kiaochou, thus being suddenly fitted out with what they term " the Colony of Kiaochou," which has ever since been the centre of a highly vitalized Teutonic activity of every kind, especially in the line of railway-building into the interior. Ch'ing Tao is less than four hundred nautical miles from Shang-hai, and is the natural gateway to a fertile and prosperous region, the trade possibilities of which seem capable of indefinite expansion. In a decade full of surprises relat-ing to the fixed and immobile Orient, it is difficult to recall any single event which has excited such general astonishment as the German occupation of Kiaochou.

A correspondent of a Shanghai paper writing from Chefoo, a port about two hundred miles distant, which could not fail to be greatly affected by the event, remarked

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(with an incoherence pardonable in view of the circum-stances) that, with the Mexican dollar falling in price, and trade prospects unusually gloomy owing to keen Chinese competition, this announcement was " a bolt from the blue, hard to digest and difficult to assuage " ! The comments of the press, both in China and in other parts of the world, exhibited in a striking light the anomalous position in which China was placed. She had been treated as no Power whose opinion or whose navy was of any weight in the world would be treated, but there was not a friend to protest. Her persistent course of evasion, shuffling, and obstruction ever since the peace with Japan made it clear even to her well-wishers that nothing was to be hoped for from the present rulers of the Empire. They learned nothing and they forgot everything. The weak policy of Great Britain in the face of these things was a source not merely of discontent but of profound anxiety to all who understood the real state of things in China.

When Germany stepped forward in this imperious manner and sent her fleet under Admiral Diedrichs and seized the port which she wanted, negotiating for its lease for a term of ninety-nine years after it was in her control, it was very natural to say of China, and to feel it too, " Served her right." Not for the murder of the two priests, with which the capture of Kiaochou had only a formal connection, but for general wrong-headedness and incapacity to be taught by any but the bitter lessons of experience which she could not fail to feel. Except by the religious journals of the Far East, we do not re-member that any attention was called to the true char-acter of the proceeding of Germany from the point of view of international law, a code which it was doubtless thought, if it was thought of at all, was irrelevant to the case. The matter was argued about as if it had been

TERRITORIAL AGGRESSION 109

a commercial " deal " of a bold and venturesome char-acter, with possible resultant complications, but for the most part as if it had been devoid of moral character. One was, indeed, reminded of the tone of obituaries which designedly pass entirely over whatever facts in the career of the deceased it would be " good form " to forget and ignore; and the same style of speech and writing con-tinues down to the present day. Of this the much-dis-cussed article by Sir Robert Hart in the " Fortnightly Review," on "A National Uprising and an International Episode," is an excellent example. In nearly thirty pages of description and discussion, there is no recogni-tion of moral blame for any political agency leading to the acts of the Chinese. That agency is passed over with the lightest possible touch in two sentences at the close: " What has happened has been the logical effect of pre-vious doings. Europe has not been ungenerous in her treatment of China, but, even so, has wounded her; a more tactful, reasonable, and consistent course might possibly have produced better results, but in no case could foreigners expect to maintain forever their extra-territorial status and the various commercial stipulations China has conceded to force."

There has been a general impression ever since the " lease " of Kiaochou that it was intended as a step to-ward obtaining the recognized overlordship, in various particulars, of the entire province of Shantung. That the whole affair was a fatal dart which never for an instant ceased to rankle in the Chinese body politic was long since known (and disregarded), but the ultimate results to which it led, in combination with other events which followed, the wildest flight of Oriental imagination could never have entertained.

The lease of Kiaochou had no sooner been arranged

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than it began to be felt in the air that Russia was about to occupy the great naval station of Port Arthur, situated at the tip of the Manchurian peninsula previously referred to, and only a short distance from Ta Lien Wan, which was to be the terminus of the trans-Asian railway. This fine harbour figured largely in the war with Japan, being captured by the Japanese when it ought to have been sur-rendered only at the last extremity. It was here that the Japanese lost their customary self-restraint, and, rendered furious by the too palpable evidence of Chinese barbari-ties, proceeded to retaliate in kind upon the innocent and the helpless Chinese, to the great damage of Japanese reputation. The Chinese Government had for a long time been engaged in making this the naval headquarters for the northern portion of the Empire, and the sums of money reported to have been expended upon forts and dry-docks were of almost incredible magnitude.

A glance at a good map of Japan, Korea, and China will immediately convey an impression of the importance to China of this naval base. It is but one hundred and sixty-three nautical miles from Taku, and still nearer to Chefoo, constituting the key to the possession of northern China. That China should allow any Power whatever to retain it after Japan had been obliged to surrender it was simply incredible. That Great Britain would suffer Russia to take over this all-important fortress without a protest never entered into the thought of any one, for if this were done there was no other place at which any stand could be made, and it was apparently equivalent to committing China, body and soul, to the charge of her dangerous neighbour. There is much about the matter which still remains a mystery, but it seems certain that a display of something like the firmness shown in the Fa-shoda incident would have been an absolute bar to the

TERRITORIAL AGGRESSION in

concession of this strategic position without the firing of a shot or the rendition of any visible equivalent. But the British fleet sailed away on more important business, and the die was cast! Those who are interested to examine the commercial aspects of this affair will find data in sev-eral recent works. We are concerned only to point out that this critical event was a long step in the road which led the Chinese to feel that the Empire was already at the mercy of its enemies, and that among those enemies was to be reckoned every nation whose flag had ever flown in Chinese waters. The treaty port of Newchwang soon became an object of dispute as to whether it was, or was not, to be regarded as within the new Russian sphere, the important question being complicated by Brit-ish railway and commercial interests, which, with the rights of other nations under their treaties, appeared to have suddenly evaporated without any assignable cause and with no visible remedy.

The British Government lacked the decision to take a firm stand in the case of Port Arthur, but within a few weeks it became known that the Chinese Government had responded to a British demand to " lease " the fort and harbour of Wei Hai Wei as soon as it was evacuated by the Japanese, who held it as security for the payment of their indemnity. As to the value of this acquisition expert opinions have been at variance ever since the cession took place. If Great Britain had consistently refused to recog-nize the principle of seizing sections of the coast of China on the part of foreign Powers, her position would have been a strong one morally, whatever the consequences. As it was, she appeared in the light of a philanthropic friend from China who objected to seeing the Empire de-spoiled, " but if you insist upon taking the best there is, I, at all events, must have the next best." Following

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so soon after the seizure of Kiaochou, the occupation of Wei Hai Wei led the Chinese to feel doubly sure that the doom of the Empire was sealed. The subsequent negoti-ations in regard to the extent of territory embraced in the district, and the actual delimitation of the frontiers, were full of ominous signs. The people were left in some uncertainty as to the nature of the transfer, and when the boundaries were fixed, an armed attack was made upon the British and their Chinese regiment, con-veying to the population of Shantung the impression that the natives of that region were standing up for their rights against the usurpations of the insatiable barbarians. These highly natural disturbances on one side of the province were going on simultaneously with the Boxer outbreaks on the other side, and while there was no or-ganic nexus between the two, they were each the result of the wider causes which had gradually enveloped the whole Empire as in a net.

The British had long wanted a larger territory on the mainland opposite the island of Hongkong than had been previously ceded, and, by taking advantage of their op-portunity, they induced the Chinese Government to yield it. But the same tactless method just referred to in the case of Wei Hai Wei had been followed among the inflam-mable Cantonese, who were soon in a white heat of rage, arming themselves with whatever implements could be found and making fight for their altars and their fires. To their own dim thought they were as truly patriots as was William Tell in his resistance to the tyrant Gessler. Even the somewhat narrow-visioned journals of Hong-kong sometimes admitted the justice of the Chinese case, and were perpetually indulging in the most caustic criti-cisms of the ineptitude of the conduct of the negotiations

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and the ensuing occupation of the concession on the part of the Colonial Government.

The territory included in this *' lease " was two hundred square miles, comprising the entire region on the main-land behind Kowlung to a line joining Mirs Bay and Deep Bay, besides the waters of those bays and the island of Lan Tao. When the natives of this tract found the British marching into their domain to take over the gov-ernment of their city, and posting notices of their future intentions, showing that the Emperor's " rivers and moun-tains " had been alienated to the same hereditary foe which two generations ago wrested from Tao Kuang the island of Hongkong, their passionate resentment was not only perfectly natural, but did them credit.

While the Chinese of Tung Kun, to the number of sev-eral thousands, were threatening an attack on Kowlung (Kowloon) city and the docks, the " rebels " being shelled in their trenches and many Chinese killed and guns cap-tured, until the despatch of 1,400 British troops and three gunboats to Kowlung city dispersed the " rioters," the French had determined that what in modern diplomatic parlance is styled the " psychological moment " had ar-rived to demand concessions. of their own. The frontier of the Kuangtung province and Tongking was in a state of perpetual unrest from Chinese " Black Flags," who now kidnapped a Frenchman and anon slew a lieutenant, the French Government upon one occasion demanding an indemnity within eight days, " otherwise French action in the south of China will become necessary." In fact, " French action in the south of China " appeared to be a chronic necessity, and the port of " Kuang Chou Wan " was needed to reduce that action to a state of equilibrium. The large and attractive island of Hainan also was hang-

ii4 CHINA IN CONVULSION

ing on the edge of the Chinese Empire like a pear fully ripe and only waiting for the French harvester to gather it into his fruit-bin.

In the summer of 1899 the Italian Government made the discovery that a port called Sanmen (or Sanmoon) in the Chekiang province was required for the develop-ment of Italian trade. This demand was supposed to be backed up by both Great Britain and Germany, and it was understood that the Chinese were instigated to re-fuse it by the Japanese; not, however, from any senti-mental considerations with regard to the integrity of the Chinese Empire, but because the cession of Sanmen would prejudice Japanese " claims " upon the province of Fu-kien, which, being directly opposite the island of Formosa, was a natural and an inevitable Japanese " sphere of in-fluence." To the surprise of most observers, after the Court of Peking had recovered from its alarm that a Power like Italy should claim " a port/' a definite refusal was returned. China had to draw the line somewhere, and she drew it (not improbably with cold shivers down the back for fear of the consequences) at Italy and her new and hitherto unheard of " port."

Again to the surprise of . outsiders, and, as we must suppose, to the immense relief of China herself, there were no visible consequences whatever. In spite of whatever backing she received, the matter was dropped by Italy; but the results to China were, perhaps, more serious than if the demand had been acceded to. There is excellent reason to believe that the Chinese Court was delighted at its own audacity and its success, and came to the con-clusion that if China would only oppose blunt and uncon-ditional refusals to all foreign demands, she would in future escape the humiliating necessity for any further concession. At all events, the resources of the Govern-

TERRITORIAL AGGRESSION 115

ment appeared to be strained to put the country in a posture of defense, and during the autumn of 1899, in a " secret decree " the contents of which were soon di-vulged, all the most important Governors-General were peremptorily ordered to see that the Empire received no detriment, and in case of imminent foreign invasion to repel force by force without even waiting to report the matter to Peking — a mandate so extraordinary, if not unexampled, as to show that some new influences were at work.

The combined effect of the incidents which have been mentioned — and of many others which must be omitted — was to convey forcibly to the minds of foreigners ex-pert in Chinese affairs a conviction that the actual parti-tion of the Chinese Empire was in progress; and while this was at times doubted or even denied, it is difficult to see upon what other hypothesis we can account for the trend of current events.

It was about this time that the volume containing the results of the opportune and thorough examination of some aspects of Chinese affairs by Lord Charles Beres-ford was published, under the significant title of " The Break-up of China." The perfectly frank comments of this distinguished commercial sailor were translated into Chinese, and were doubtless well known to such leaders as directed the policy at Peking. For several years, for-eign journals, in China and out of it, had spoken of the coming partition of the Empire as an event immediately impending, and in the translations of these countless es-says published in the Chinese journals the readers were perpetually gratified by finding the contingency alluded to with the use of a character which signifies " to cut up like a water-melon." The most enlightened Chinese officials have long been in the habit of keeping track to some extent

n6 CHINA IN CONVULSION

of the discussions in the foreign press, both of China and the West, by means of translations of whatever seemed to be most worthy of attention. By this means a definite acquaintance with what was talked of and written about must have been constantly communicated to all those who took any interest in the subject. From these sources it would not be difficult for any well-informed Chinese to learn what the British thought of the rapid strides of the Russians in Manchuria, and of the designs of the French on the southern border. On the other hand, the press of Continental lands was by no means silent, nor, when attention had been effectively arrested to consider the tre-mendous possibilities of Chinese economic development in China, were the writers on the American side of the Atlantic behind the rest in pointing out what share of the " spoil " belonged to the United States. The most recent maps of China, appearing in works large and small, agree in marking out " proposed " railway lines, and the most careless inspection could not fail to excite wonder at the number and length of these promised (or threat-ened) improvements, concessions for which at certain periods seem to be signed at intervals of a few days only.

A recapitulation of a few of the more important pro-jected railway routes, especially when traced on a map, will convey a graphic idea of the extent to which the prophecy of the author of one of the anti-foreign writings already quoted had been fulfilled : " China from north to south, and from east to west, is to have foreign railways and carriage roads. The mountains and the rivers of China, the natural barriers of the country, are to be treated by foreigners according to their will, the mountains to be levelled and the rivers filled up just as they please."

It should be remembered that the only railways in China actually in operation at the time of the outbreak

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of the Boxers, were (1) the Chinese line from Peking to Tientsin, extended to Shan Hai Kuan and to New-chwang in Manchuria.

(2) The northern end of the Lu — Han route, open from Peking to Ting Chou south of Pao Ting Fu. Con-siderable work had also been done on the southern termi-nus near Hankow.

(3) A short line from Shanghai to Wusung, on the Yangtze river.

There seems to be no trustworthy and authentic list of the various " railway concessions " which had already been definitely made by the Chinese to foreign syndicates, nor of the much more numerous projected lines which it was hoped would materialize at a later day. The follow-ing table is compiled mainly from the maps in Lord Charles Beresford's " Break-up of China," Mr. Colqu-houn's "Overland to China," and Mr. Joseph Walton's " China and the Present Crisis." The concessions were in all stages of evolution, and many of the projected routes were literally " air-lines." This is, however, of no importance for our purpose, since the agitation of the subject of an intended railway might easily tend to excite intense animosity, and in the case of so many and so important undertakings the effect of the total anticipated changes might easily become cumulative and tremendous.

(1) The Trans-Siberian line from the border of Si-beria through Tsitsihar in Manchuria, to Harbion, whence one fork diverged to Vladivostock, and the other south through Mukden, terminating at Ta Lien Wan, opposite Port Arthur, with a short branch to Newchwang. This road was opened as far as Mukden, and for its protection an unknown number of Russian troops had been introduced into Manchuria in accordance with the " Cassini Convention."

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(2) A suggested line from Peking, through the Nan K'ou Pass to Kalgan, thence via Urga in Mongolia, to Kiakhta, joining the Trans-Siberian route at the shores of Lake Baikal.

(It is not improbable that this will be one of the first concessions which Russia will demand before the close of the present negotiations, together with a line from Peking to Newchwang, which will tighten the Russian grip on the Capital of the Chinese Empire, and the prov-ince of Chihli.)

(3) The Belgian Lu — Han line from Peking (now called the Pei — Han), with a projected branch to Lu An Fu in southern Shansi.

(4) A Russian line from Cheng Ting Fu on the Lu — Han route, through the Ku Kuan (Pass) to T'ai Yuan Fu, the capital of Shansi, with a possible extension to Hsi An Fu (Si Ngan Fu), in Shensi. Whether the latter projection was to be financed by the Russo-Chinese Bank (i. e., the Russian Government) or by the Anglo-Italian Syndicate it is difficult to ascertain.

(5) A Russian line from Lu An Fu (as above) south-west to Hsiang Yang in the province of Hupei.

(6) An American line from Hankow to Canton (called the Yueh — Han), passing through Yo Chou, and Ch'ang Sha Fu, the capital of Hunan.

(7) A branch of the last-named, extending from Ch'ang Sha eastward through Nan Ch'ang Fu, the capital of Kiangsi, and eastward to Kuang Hsin in the same province, to connect with the next.

(8) A British line from Shanghai to Suchow, Hang-chow, and thence south to Kuang Hsin, as above. A branch of this was to extend from Hangchow to Ningpo on the coast of Chekiang.

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(9) An Anglo-German line from Tientsin to Chin-kiang, on the Yangtze.

(10) A German line from Kiaochou through north-ern Shantung, via Chi Nan Fu, the capital, to connect with the preceding.

(11) Another fork of the same through southern Shantung via I Chou Fu, to join No. 9, near the provin-cial boundary.

(12) A line from Shanghai to Suchow and Chinkiang (as above), westward through Nanking to Hsin Yang in Honan, joining the Lu — Han route.

(13) A line from Nanking westward via K'ai Feng Fu, the capital of Honan, to some point in southern Shansi to intercept the route from T'ai Yuan Fu to Hsi An Fu (No. 4, above).

(14) A British line from Kowlung (opposite Hong-kong on the mainland) to Canton, thence northwest via Kuei Lin Fu, and Kuei Yang Fu, the capitals of Kuangsi, and Kueichou provinces, to Ch'eng Tu Fu, the capital of Szechuan.

(15) A British line from northern Siam via Yunnan Fu to Chung Ch'ing on the upper Yangtze river.

(16) A British line from Mandalay in upper Burmah via Kun Lun Ferry to Ta Li Fu, in western Yunnan, with a branch eastward to Yunnan Fu, the capital.

(17) A French line from Hanoi in Tongking to Yunnan Fu.

(18) A French line from Hanoi via Langson to Nan Ning Fu, with a branch to Pose, the head of navigation on the Ya Chiang.

(19) A French line from Pakhoi on the Kuangtung seacoast, to Nan Ning Fu.

(20) From the Tung Ting Lake in Hupei, southwest

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via Kuei Yang Fu, to Yunnan Fu, connecting with other routes mentioned above.

The most careless reader cannot glance over a list like this (and it is far from being a complete register of all the " proposed" routes), without being struck by the revolutionary consequences which anyone of these rail-ways might entail. Each of them was expected to " open up " China in a way to astonish the natives, and enrich the benevolent introducers of so much potential happiness into the Celestial Empire. Extensive surveys had been made upon some of these lines, often with great danger to the surveyors and their staff. It has already been re-marked that the shrewd Chinese understood perfectly that these roads would be avenues by which the wealth of Chinese was to be conducted to foreign lands with greater celerity and safety than hitherto. The railways here planned were to enter the capitals of fifteen out of the eighteen provinces of China, as well as that of Man-churia. As already mentioned each one of the routes implied heavy financial obligations on the part of the Chinese Government. To meet these it was necessary to raise ever more and more money. The Imperial Maritime Customs has, at several different times, been the financial salvation of China, but when it was proposed to put the collection of the inland likin taxes upon the same basis as the foreign customs, every official who had been nour-ished by the former, felt that a blow had been struck at his means of support.

In an interview with Lord Charle9 Beresford H. E., Liu K'un Yi, the Governor-General of the river provinces said that if taxes had to be levied to provide for the pro-vincial administration, in consequence of the new ar-rangement in regard to likin, he was certain that there would be disturbances based upon dislike of the for-

TERRITORIAL AGGRESSION iai

eigner. In connection with the projected railways it could not escape the observation of the observant Chinese that Western nations were running races with each other in their eagerness to effect loans with the Chinese Gov-ernment, for the payment of which the new improvements would be held as mortgages, with the probability that it would be a long time before China would again be free. With what feelings these impending changes would be regarded by most Chinese, it is easy to imagine. Those feelings would be intensified from the circumstance that many of the proposed railroads involved concessions for mining rights, present or prospective, and in some cases hundreds of square miles of the richest mineral land in the Empire (or perhaps in the world) had been bargained for by " syndicates " eager to enter upon their inheri-tance, and not infrequently eying one another with jeal-ousy and ill will. Great Britain was supposed to have pre-empted the Yangtze Valley, and looked with great uneasiness upon the resolute struggles of the French to gain a supreme hold upon Kuangsi, Yunnan, and Kuei-chou provinces, with the great imperial objective of Szechuan in view beyond. Each of these Powers would have been glad to apply a Chinese " Monroe Doctrine " to the other. Fukien province was supposed to fall to Japan, while Italy hoped for Chekiang, with a railway leading somewhere to foster her infant trade. Shantung was the German monopoly. Manchuria was Russian, while the metropolitan province of Chihli was for the time debatable land, the future of which was complicated by rival and conflicting interests in mines in Shansi. An en-tertaining and an instructive volume might be compiled by one who had the requisite information on the inner history of all these tangles of commercial diplomacy. In many quarters the new arrangements were held to

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be harbingers of the new era upon which China was about to enter — nay, had entered. It is quite conceivable that if some of the complicated factors had been but a very little different the explosion might have been avoided, or at least postponed; but the materials were all there, and some of them were already alight.

It cannot be wondered at that the Chinese themselves were bewildered at the situation in which they found themselves and their ancient empire. Their condition re-calls an anecdote of which Mr. Lincoln made use at a time when certain parties presumed to dictate to him a policy. A rider was mounted upon a horse which was much annoyed by flies, and in one of its impatient kicks the hind hoof caught in the stirrup. The horseman glanced down to see what was the matter, and when he had ascertained, he observed to his steed : " If you are going to get on, 7" will get off ! "

Probably there is not another country on the planet where events and conditions such as have been very im-perfectly hinted at would not long before have produced an outbreak. " What the Barbarians want," said a ruler quoted in Mencius, " is my territory/' The events of the past few years had made it clear to the perceptions of the Manchu rulers of the Chinese Empire that, in these days also, " what the Barbarians want is my territory." The Barbarians were, it is true, numerous and strong, but so were the Chinese. The more they reflected upon the intolerable situation, the fiercer grew the flame of their anger, and the more determined the resolution by one master stroke to put an end to their bondage. The Chinese Tiger, when roused, is himself reputed to be a formidable beast. When he should have been equipped with Boxer wings, he would be absolutely invincible. With this view, and in this hope and confident expecta-

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tion, was launched such a singular crusade as the weary earth, after nineteen centuries of experience in the Chris-tian era, and we know not how many precedent to that epoch, had never seen before. As a psychological novelty, and as a study in the contrarieties of the Chinese mind, the phenomena offer a field of investigation almost abso-lutely new ; and, in view of the tremendous interests in-volved, it is very unlikely that mankind, however treacher-ous its memory or however occupied with the exigencies of the hour, will venture to forget its experience in the Chinese Empire during the closing year of the nineteenth century.

IX

CHAPTER 9. Reaction Against Reform

REACTION AGAINST REFORM

THE present Emperor of China is a son of Prince Ch'un 1 Hua, the seventh son of the Emperor whose style was Tao Kuang, or the Glory of Reason. He was followed by Hsien Feng, who died in Manchuria at Jehol, in 1861, not long after the British had captured Peking, in October, i860, and forced China to sign the Treaty of Tientsin. The wife of the deceased Emperor had no son, but his principal concubine had a child — then six years old — who was placed upon the throne by the combined influence of Prince Kung, the sixth son of Tao Kuang, and the lad's mother. The young monarch took the title of T'ung Chih, or Combined Rule, which dimly hinted at the historic fact that a great conspiracy against the two Empresses and against the three brothers of the late Emperor had been detected and foiled and the plotters punished. The result was a union of the interests of the two Empresses, and of Prince Kung, with that of the young Emperor.

The reign of T'ung Chih was comparatively short, as he died January 12th, 1875, without having exhibited any talents whatever. As he left no heir, the question of succession was a delicate and difficult matter, as no one of a higher generation was eligible, and candidates of the same generation as the deceased Emperor were ex-ceedingly limited in number. The son of Prince Kung was out of the question, as his choice would mean that

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his father — who was an indispensable factor in the Gov-ernment— would be obliged to perform the prostrations to his own son, — an act repugnant to all Chinese ideas. Otherwise the father would have to retire from public life altogether. The next available candidate was the son of Prince Ch'un, who was at the time less than four years and a half old. He was unanimously selected by the Empresses and by the Princes of the Manchu Clan, and was put upon the throne with the style of Kuang Hsu, or Continuation of Glory. As the mother of the infant Emperor, the " Western Empress " was able to exert a great influence, which was still farther extended when the Eastern Empress died in 1881, helped out of the world, as an unkind public has insisted upon believing, by her more resourceful rival the mother of T'ung Chih, who has since been known simply as the Empress Dow-ager.

There is probably no human being now alive in regard to whom so much has been written, upon such a slender basis of actual knowledge, as the Aunt of Kuang Hsu whose advent in the Palace was in the middle of the century now closed, and whose full name (aside from her title of Empress) extends to the limit of sixteen syllables, represented in English by more than sixty letters. She has been described as a grossly ignorant and a highly educated lady; as a pattern of regal virtues worthy to rank with the late Empress of India, and as a monster of wickedness whose hands are stained with blood, and whose soul is debased with lust and constantly agitated by gusts of demoniac fury.

The truth probably lies in the medium between these extremes. Her natural gifts must have been unusual, and she has enjoyed the practical education of experience in an Oriental Court, the very atmosphere of which is in-

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trigue and corruption, for a term far beyond the period allotted to most rulers of the earth. She has become an expert opportunist, and while the events of the past few years give abundant proof that she is wholly destitute of anything which could be justly described as states-manship, she has a superabundance of what may well be conceded to be state-era// — meaning by that term the talent for dissimulation, for quick perception of what can and what can not be done at a given time, and (what is not less important) of those who are the ones to do it. She is a woman of an imperious will, not often thwarted with impunity, and entirely capable of raising at pleasure such storms as strike terror into the hearts of any who may be liable to be caught in the portentous typhoons re-sulting from such a rash procedure.

The assumption of the reins of government by the young Emperor is sometimes placed at the beginning of the thirteenth year of his reign, February, 1887, when a decree was issued intimating that Her Majesty the Em-press Dowager considered him fit to rule; upon which in suitable phraseology he said (or was made to say) that the announcement caused him to tremble as if in mid ocean, with no knowledge of the location of the land. Two years later, in March, 1889, the Empress Dowager selected for him a wife, and announced her in-tention of retiring from active participation in the affairs of the government.

That a Manchu woman who had had such narrow op-portunities of obtaining a knowledge of things as they really are, in distinction from the tissue of shams which constitute the warp and the woof of an Oriental Palace, should have been able to hold her own in every situation, and never to be crushed by the opposing forces about her, is a phenomenon in itself only to be explained by

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a due recognition of the influence of individual qualities in a ruler even in the semi-absolutism of China. The difference between such a government as that of the Mid-dle Kingdom and that of any European State is the dif-ference between the impenetrable seclusion of the private parlours of the rich, and the public life of the poor, all phases of which may be witnessed at any time on the streets before their tenements. The Chinese Govern-ment is essentially marsupial, for it is confined within a space half a mile square, within the inaccessible Forbidden City, where the nature of the struggles and strife withi-n is as effectually concealed from the world as the squabbles of the young kangaroos in the pouch of their mother; all that reaches the ear of the outsider is the smothered squeals which indicate that one party is getting the worst of it, but how or why it is impossible to say. It is true that there are always " eunuchs " who reveal or pre-tend to reveal much of what is said and done, and through the high officials who have audiences at Court much more eventually leaks out; but for foreigners it is certain that the media through which their information filters are semi-opaque, and the result of a study of the apparent facts is always unsatisfactory and often con-fusing.

In what follows we shall not attempt to unravel the mystery which overhangs much of the strange story of the silent revolution accomplished in the Palace of Kuang Hsu, but simply to give a rough sketch of the trend of events, with special reference to the develop-ments of later years.

Prince Kung was an important factor in the Govern-ment, until his disgrace in connection with the failures of the Chinese army during the French war in 1883-84, when his younger brother, Prince Ch'un, the seventh son

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of Tao Kuang, came to the front. This he did in a most remarkable if not unexampled way, considering the difficulty of allowing a father to be the subject of a son, and a son to be the superior of his father, a dilemma so serious that when Kuang Hsu was chosen to the suc-cession it was supposed that Prince Ch'un would either commit suicide or retire into a permanent seclusion. Dur-ing the comparatively short time in which he was promi-nent in the councils of the Government he showed signs of having greatly enlarged his vision and if he had lived it was hoped that he might have become a leader in many important modifications of Chinese policy.

With the death of Prince Ch'un it is quite probable that the balance of influence in the Palace was altered, and although Prince Kung remained in seclusion to the end of his life, it is certain that his influence was great, and that at his death in the spring of 1898 an important balance-wheel in the intricate governmental machine was lost.

That Western ideas should find an entrance even into the Imperial Palace itself was inevitable. In the year 1894 the idea occurred to one of the Protestant mis-sionaries in China that it would be a graceful and an appropriate act to present to the Empress Dowager a copy of the New Testament, on the occasion of the completion of her 60th year. The thought was a fruitful seed in fertile soil, the outcome of which was the prepara-tion of a special edition in large type, with gold border and solid silver covers embossed with bamboo designs. The funds were received from the Christian women of the Protestant Chinese churches in China, twenty-nine missions furnishing 10,900 contributors whose donations amounted to more than $1,100. On the nth of Novem-ber the casket containing this gift was carried to the

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Tsung Li Yamen by the British and the American Min-isters, and on the following day it was sent by the Yamen Ministers to Her Majesty, and was subsequently acknowl-edged by suitable return gifts to twenty-two lady mis-sionaries who had been prominent in the movement.

The curiosity excited by this volume must have been great. The Emperor hearing of it, sent trusty men to the depository of the American Bible Society to procure copies of the Bible for himself. At a later period he interested himself in obtaining all the back numbers of the " Re-view of the Times," a magazine published in Shanghai, edited by Dr. Y. J. Allen; the perusal of this could not fail to raise a multitude of questions in the Emperor's mind. What effect these occurrences had in making him receptive to further enlightenment, it is impossible to affirm with any certainty. It was commonly reported that His Majesty had learned to pray, and that he was favourable to the diffusion of Christianity. Many years before, he had begun to take lessons in the English lan-guage, a circumstance from which fallacious inferences were drawn. Toy railways and the like abounded in the Imperial pleasure grounds, and it is certain that the Em-peror entertained a high respect for some aspects of the Western Civilization of which he knew so little.

The years following the disastrous war between China and Japan were for all friends of China a particularly melancholy period. Such an impressive and humiliating object-lesson with regard to the serious if not fatal de-fects of the administration of an ancient empire is not often found in history. Yet as year after year passed away, and the consciousness of national disgrace seemed to be dying out, it was evident to all observers that the crisis could not be indefinitely postponed. The oppor-tunity had come, and was apparently to be allowed to go

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unheeded, while the Empire was steadily drifting upon the rocks.

In the spring of 1898, three years after peace had been concluded with Japan, there began to be signs that a real desire for Reform had taken possession of the minds of some of the members of the official class in Peking, and that the Emperor himself had become an earnest and even an eager advocate of the changes with-out which the autonomy of his Empire was in danger of being lost. The first symptoms of this state of things appeared to outsiders in May, and not long afterwards the Emperor was launched upon a rising tide which seemed to carry everything before it. During the early part of that year a plan had been set on foot for raising money by means of a " National Loan," money for which was secured from wealthy Chinese by means familiar to the people of that land. Against the extortions accom-panying this levy, there had been some protests in the Chinese and foreign press, and a Censor memorialized the Emperor that the practice was becoming obnoxious to the people. In an edict of May 18th His Majesty ex-plained that his idea was to make a permanent loan after the manner of other countries, and to give every one full liberty of choice whether to subscribe or not. All high authorities and the Boards concerned were ordered to see that all extortion was summarily stopped, on penalty of severe punishment.

Soon after another scheme to raise money was found in what was called the " House and Opium tax," which was suggested by a memorial, submitted to the Board of Revenue, approved by them, and made a law by an Imperial edict. But on the 5th of June an-other edict was issued informing the people that the Em-peror had learned by secret investigation that this tax

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would cause much misery and inconvenience. It had indeed excited great opposition at the south, where it was enforced. The Emperor frankly explained that he was not aware of the evil effects of this plan until its enforcement had begun, but now that it was revoked all officials, high and low were expressly forbidden to extort money under colour of this rule, and the people were authorised to resist such extortion on the part of officials, should it be attempted. It was evident that a new spirit was entering into the Imperial administration.

Six days later appeared a brief edict relating to the selection of Ministers for foreign lands, who were rec-ognised as being of the highest importance to the State. Viceroys and Governors were to recommend such men as they might find best qualified for the place, whose " ed-ucation and abilities were of a practical and high order and who were not enveloped in the narrow circle of bigoted conservatism, and a clinging to obsolete and unpractical custom."

Such men were to be recommended to the Tsung Li Yamen irrespective of their rank, for an Imperial audi-ence and employment abroad.

On the same day appeared a long edict on the subject of reform in general, in which the Emperor recapitulates some of the desirable reforms at which he had been aim-ing, such as improving the personnel of the armies, sub-stituting " modern arms and Western organisation ; se-lecting military officers according to Western methods of military education ; the institution of high and elementary schools and colleges of literary instruction in accordance with those which obtain in foreign countries, all for the sake of starting our country on the road of progress." The Emperor proceeds to show that he had long been desirous to carry through these reforms, and had given

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the subject careful and protracted study, but he had found many old officials of the state arguing that China ought to stick to the very letter of the ancient institutions. Many of the objections and suggestions he had found empty, vain, and impracticable.

The following paragraph is of peculiar and special importance : " Our scholars now are without solid and practical education; our artisans are without scien-tific instructors; when compared with other countries we soon see the difference between our strength and the strength of others; and when we compare the ready wealth of this Empire with that of other countries the difference is still greater. Does any one think that in our present condition he can really say with any truth that our men are as well drilled and well led as those of any of the foreign armies ; or that we can successfully stand against any of them? We are conscious of the fact that unless We in our Own person decide firmly and strongly, Our commands will not go far in execution. . . . The methods of government inaugurated by the Sung and the Ming Dynasties, upon investigation, re-veal nothing that is of any practical use or that may be of advantage to China."

The succeeding paragraphs argue that " changes must be made to accord with the necessities of the times. It is apparent that we must give a plain and unvarnished decree on the subject, so that all may understand our wishes. Keeping in mind the morals of our sages and wise men, we must make them the basis on which to build newer and more advantageous methods. We must also select such subjects of Western knowledge as will keep us in touch with the times, and diligently study them and practice them in order to place our country abreast of other countries. Let us cast off from us the empty,

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unpractical, and deceiving things which obstruct our for-ward progress and strive with single heartedness and energy to improve upon all things that we have learned: Let us eliminate the crust of neglect that has accumulated on our systems, and cast away the shackles that bind us."

The concluding section of this remarkable deliverance showed the importance of a great central University in Peking, and ordered steps to be taken for its inception, the final sentences declaring " We earnestly hope that all will eagerly take advantage of the modern education now opened to them, so that in time we may have many able and willing helpers in the great and arduous work before us of putting our country on a level with the best of the Western powers. Let every one listen to and obey these our sincere and earnest words, and let it be known that this edict is specially for all our subjects."

Two days after the appearance of this edict, there was issued (June 13th) a decree in the " Peking Gazette " saying that a Censor had recommended to His Majesty's notice a person named K'ang Yti Wei, who had been ap-pointed third class Secretary in the Board of Works, as being a man of deep learning and exceptional abilities and progressive ideas. It was ordered that he be presented in special audience.

A native of a village near Canton, he had acquired such a reputation that he was popularly known as " K'ang the Modern Sage and Reformer." He had the welfare of China deeply at heart and had studied its conditions and the possible methods of reformation until he had clear and definite ideas of what could be done, and of what ought to be done. Such a man in China is indeed a rare phenomenon, and it is not to be wondered at that when it became known that the Emperor was turning his mind in the same direction, K'ang should be brought

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to his notice. The Emperor's tutor, Weng Tung Ho de-voted some attention to Mr. K'ang, as did the President of the Board of Rites, and it was owing to their influence that he was introduced to His Majesty Kuang Hsu.

On the third of January he had had the honour of a conference with the Tsung Li Yamen, all the members of which were present, the interview lasting about three hours. The reforms which K'ang advocated were that China should have a properly constituted judicial system, and that a foreigner should be engaged conjointly with himself and others to revise the laws and the Govern-ment administrative departments. He recognized the fact that unless the laws and administration were improved, railways, a navy, and improved education would be next to useless, and he thought that the Emperor had been pushing on the other reforms without having prepared the way for them.

The morning after the conference, Prince Kung and Weng T'ung Ho reported it to the Emperor, who ordered K'ang to embody his ideas in a memorial. This was subsequently done. The gist of the revolutionary pro-posals was that His Majesty should imitate Japan, — should cut completely adrift from the ways and manners of the past, and follow in the footsteps of Peter the Great. K'ang pointed out that under the present system there was no way of ascertaining the desires and opinions of the people. The present Ministers and Viceroys could only act upon orders given them, and were unable to do any original thinking. It was necessary to select young, intelligent men, imbued with Western ideas, to assist in the regeneration of the Empire, to confer with the Em-peror every day, discussing measures for reform, but first devoting their energies to a revision of the laws and the administration. The old officials must be dispensed

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with. There should be twelve new departments, I, Law; 2, Treasury; 3, Educational (with foreign teachers); 4, Legislative; 5, Agricultural; 6, Commercial; 7, Mechani-cal; 8, Railway; 9, Postal; 10, Mining; 11, Army; 12, Navy, — all on Western lines, with foreigners to advise and assist.

These suggestions were worked out in some detail, and it was pointed out how, by abolishing likin taxes, adjust-ing the tariff, issuing bank-notes, establishing a stamp duty, and adopting other financial reforms, a total of 70,000,000 taels of silver could be readily raised for revenue.

When the memorial was presented, the Emperor was said to have been highly pleased, and commended it to the Tsung Li Yamen for a report upon it. Prince Kung and Jung Lu were opposed to the scheme, and as the reforms were so sweeping no one was willing to adopt the suggestions, or even to report upon them.

K'ang also sent to the Emperor two books which he had prepared on " The Reform of Japan," and " The Reform of Russia," following them later with an addi-tional memorial advising the Emperor to be determined, and not to dally with the reform proposals. On the 16th of June, K'ang was granted an audience with the Em-peror, which lasted for two hours, the interesting details of which were made public in an interview with K'ang at Hongkong several months later. The Emperor was evidently deeply impressed, and most of the edicts issued during the eventful summer appeared to be directly due to the inspiration obtained from this source.

On June 23d a decree was issued abolishing the Wen-Chang or literary essay, as the standard for literary exam-ination. The precedent of K'ang Hsi was cited, although the change did not last long at that time. It was pointed

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out that the present state of scholarship was low, that frauds abounded, and that no progress was made beyond the point required to take a degree. " To this deplorable state have we now come. But to attain solid and prac-tical education, adequate to the times we live in, we must cast away all empty and obsolete customs, nor can we advance true talent by following the old regime. . . . We have been compelled to issue this decree because our examinations have degenerated to the lowest point, and we see no way to remedy matters other than to change entirely the old methods of examination for a new course of competition. Still scholars must not forget to con-tinue to study the Confucian Analects and the Classics as the root of their education, from whence they are to write short, practical essays suitable to the times we live in. Let all try to reject empty and useless knowledge which has no practical value in the crisis we are passing through." The details of the new plan were to be de-termined by the Board of Rites.

Thus by a stroke of his pen the progressive and en-lightened young Emperor revolutionised the stream of Chinese thought, long since semi-stagnant, and opened new channels. We cannot pause to describe the effects of these startling changes throughout the Empire, but there is a strong probability that if there had been no political counter action, the new scheme might have been put into operation without serious opposition, and with far-reaching and beneficent effects ; for there was already a large minority of thinking men throughout the Empire who profoundly felt the necessity of a change of some sort, and would have gladly followed an Imperial leader.

It is true that not a few foreigners ignored or decried the Reform Movement as the mere effervescence of a handful of brainless enthusiasts whose zeal outran their

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knowledge — dreamers, not practical men. But there are others, whose occupation gave them ample opportunity of obtaining incontestable evidence, who affirm that it was a national and intellectual movement that permeated the provinces and moved the mind of the nation. A renais-sance had begun. In almost every Provincial Capital, as in every open port, zealous efforts had been made to enlighten the literati and reach the intellect of the empire. Book depots had been established for the supply and sale of standard literature, — books, educational, scientific, and religious. Magazines and newspapers had been issued and circulated, lectures delivered and libraries started. Thus literature and light, adapted to the needs of the leaders of the people, had been disseminated throughout the land. Prejudices had been broken down, and race hatred overcome. Attention was aroused, in-terest awakened, and inquiry started. The Movement was gradually leavening the thought and moulding the minds of the upper classes.

Thus in the ancient and remote Capital of Hsi An Fu, books were purchased by all classes, from the Governor of the Province to the humblest scholar. Putting aside their former supercilious contempt they became friendly and enquiring. By and by the confidence of the magis-trates and the esteem of the literati were gained. The aristocracy of the place requested that classes be formed and the once despised foreigner invited to bestow upon them the " light of his learning." Invitations were re-ceived to visit the Confucian Colleges and publicly pro-claim from the " Hall of Instruction " the secret of the success and the source of the energy of the Christian nations.

Thousands of scholars were compelled by an intellectual compulsion to discard their time-worn theories and face

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in earnest the problems of reform. They instituted clubs for the circulation of books and the publication of news-papers ; societies to re-state and revive Confucianism. An intellectual fermentation had set in and there was a complete change in the attitude and receptiveness of the scholars. What occurred in Hsi An Fu, took place throughout the empire with many of the literati. Their ideas were changed and their ideals were changing. The Reform Movement shook the empire. Had it not been so drastically and barbarously checked it might have transformed China.

On the 26th appeared a decree commanding the Princes and Ministers who seemed to be dallying with the ques-tion of the Imperial University which had been referred to them, and had made no report, to do so at once with " no more unmeaning delays in the matter." An addi-tional decree promised severe punishments for those who thus delayed and made no reports on matters committed to them. On the same day there was a decree ordering Sheng Taotai to hasten his preparations for the Lu-Han railway, as it was the Emperor's wish to begin work on it immediately.

On the 4th of July a decree appeared establishing a potential Bureau of Agriculture, on the plan of the Shanghai Agricultural Association, upon the recommen-dation of the Tsung Li Yamen, and books were to be translated for use as text-books in Agricultural Schools and Colleges to be projected in the near future.

Two days later the Board of War and the Tsung Li Yamen were ordered to report on several memorials look-ing to radical changes in the method of military exami-nations, and suggestions that graduates of Western Learn-ing Schools should be allowed to compete for literary degrees at Peking. On the 7th a short decree established

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what was virtually a system of Copyright and Patent Laws for the Empire, and the Yamen was ordered to draw up the necessary rules. Six days after, the report of the Yamen was received and approved, and the scheme was put into practical operation throughout the Empire.

On the 10th of July there appeared an edict of a highly important character, establishing Schools and Colleges in all Provincial capitals, prefectural cities, and in depart-mental and district cities. Two months were allowed to the Viceroys and Governors to report upon the number of colleges and free schools within their jurisdiction, since all were to be altered into schools for practical Chinese literature and for Western Learning. All these were to be feeders of the new Imperial University. The China Merchants Company, the Telegraph Administra-tion, and a Lottery in Canton were to furnish funds, while subscriptions were to be called for, and rewards given for them. As a measure of economy, all memorial and other temples built by the people, and not recorded in the lists of the Board of Rites and Court of Sacrificial Wor^ ship, were to be turned into schools and colleges for the propagation of the new learning.

This amazing innovation fairly took away the breath of the whole Empire. The conservatives set themselves to resist it by that delay and obstruction so odious to the impatient Reformer in Peking. To the really progressive there seemed to be coming a new heaven and a new earth for old and worn out China.

On the 1 6th an extended edict on economy and re-trenchment concluded with a, sharp warning to Ministers who did not deal frankly and honestly with the Emperor in his difficulties. " They had been loaded with honours, where was their gratitude? They continued to put a veneer on their actions and tried to deceive Us. This was

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a last warning. Should there be the same backwardness and laziness in future, they would find it hard to bear the burden of Our righteous indignation."

On the i.8th of July a decree mentioned a suggestion that a paper called " Chinese Progress " published in Shanghai should be an official organ, and ordered a re-port upon it. Two days later a long decree authorized regulations for the new examinations, and definitely rele-gated mere caligraphy to a secondary place. On the 22nd, the Board of Revenue was ordered to examine carefully into the advisability of an immediate repeal of all pur-chase and sale of official rank. In an edict on the 25th mention was made of the book of Chang Chih Tung called "Exhortations to Study" ("China's Only Hope"), which the Emperor said would be of great benefit and in-struction to the literati of the Empire, among whom it was ordered to be disseminated. The perusal of this stirring and patriotic brochure must have added greatly to the flaming zeal of those who wished to see the old give way to the new.

July 29th saw two edicts, one of which ordered the establishment of schools and colleges to be feeders for the Imperial University, as already suggested, and the other a strict, impartial, thorough and speedy reform in the trial of cases before the various Boards and Courts. On August 4th it was ordered that steps be taken to establish numerous Preparatory Schools in Peking for the University, and on the 9th the regulations suggested by the Chinese President, Sun Chia Nai, were approved, a site fixed, and Dr. W. A. P. Martin was appointed to be the Head of the University Faculty ; " in recognition of his previous services, and to encourage him to further efforts, We hereby grant him the brevet button of the second rank as a special honour. The Board of Civil Ap-

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pointments is commanded to take note of this." (This honour required Dr. Martin to be addressed as " Ta Jen," or " Your Excellency."

It was on the same day that the appointment of " Chinese Progress " as a Government organ was com-manded, its funds provided for, its uses and value ex-plained at length, and provision made for its universal circulation through the Empire.

The next day brought another long and confidential decree in which the Emperor communicated to his people his innermost aspirations, urging them to try to compre-hend his ideas, to co-operate with him and to recommend suitable men. It highly praised Ch'en Pao Chen who " by constant effort, has as it were, hammered the advantages of practical modern reform into the minds of gentry and literati of Hunan, and has brought them to join him in efforts in that direction. You should all strive to follow that Governor's earnestness and diligent energy." Those who still " try to follow the letter of antiquated usages should be punished, for they have proved their unfitness to be entrusted with posts of responsibility."

Another decree of the same date ordered consultation by high officers as to means for providing men competent to command a navy, and ordered Wang Wen Shao and Chang Yin Huan to consult on this, and also on the estab-lishment of schools to train men in the management of railways and mines, " as China is just on the threshold of these branches of modern industry and advancement."

On the 16th of August a decree authorized the estab-lishment at Shanghai of a Reform Translating Bureau for " putting into Chinese Western Works on Science, Arts, and Literature, and text-books for the schools and colleges." Liang Ch'i Tsao, late editor of " Chinese Progress," was put in charge, and the regulations sug-

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gested by him were approved, and funds were ordered to be furnished on a liberal scale for the work, for printing machinery, and American text-books. On the 19th a decree abolished the ornamental " Palace Examinations " for Hanlin scholars, as useless, superficial, and obsolete, making the degree of Chin Shih (or Doctor) the end of the curriculum.

Two days later the Yamen sent a memorial to the Emperor on behalf of suggestions by K'/ang Yu Wei (then a second class Secretary of the Board of Works), as the result of the adoption of which a Chief Bureau of Agriculture, Arts, and Commerce was established. In each province there were to be Branch Bureaus, the date of the early opening of which was to be reported by tele-graph. In every prefecture and district newspapers deal-ing with agricultural reform were to be started, modern labour-saving machinery was to be introduced, and every stimulus given to the study of Western mechanical science and international trade.

The same day a report was mentioned from the Tsung Li Yamen, as a result of which it was commanded that schools should be set up by Chinese Ministers and Con-suls abroad for the sons of Chinese living in foreign lands. The Ministers to Great Britain and France were ordered to engage competent translators and to put into Chinese the most important works on the science of government, text-books for schools, etc., taking care to keep the meaning of the originals.

A decree announced a grand review of the troops of the Peking Field Force and the Pei Yang Armies, to take place at the Southern Hunting Park and at Tientsin, from Oct. 1 8th to Nov. 8th, the Empress Dowager being asked to honour the tour with her presence. Vast sums of money were expended at Tientsin, where the latter part of the

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ceremony was to be held, the Court to travel for the first time by rail. On the 26th of August, Liu K'un Yi and F'an Chung Lin, Governors General of the Liang-Kiang* and the Hu-Kuang f provinces, were severely rated for their dilatoriness in not sending in memorials on reform matters earlier, though two months had elapsed. They were threatened with punishment for remissness, and the Emperor closed with the advice that " the other Viceroys further brush up their ideas and energy, and hasten with the duties laid upon them, and thereby avoid the anger we have in store for lazy and incompetent officials."

As these two men were known as among the most pro-gressive and practical men in the Empire, it may be imagined what vexation was caused the impatient Im-perial Reformer by the " other Viceroys." To remove the excuse that the delay was due to the slow progress of the Imperial couriers, the next day another decree in-formed the officials that in future all edicts would be sent by telegraph, and were to be acted upon immediately. The day following another decree ordered steps for the establishment of Commercial Bureaus throughout the Empire with headquarters at Shanghai, the Yamen to draw up regulations to govern the same.

August 30th witnessed another iconoclastic edict which, after restating the pressing need of reform and economy, proceeded to specify six offices in Peking which were either sinecures, or which had such slight duties that they might better be amalgamated with others ; and on the 1st of September the Presidents of the Six Boards were given five days to deliberate as to how the duties of these abrogated offices should be redistributed.

* Including Kiangsi and Chekiang.

t Including Hunan, Hupei, Kuangsi and Kuangtung.

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The decree specified the governorships of Kuangtung Hupei, and Yunnan, as well as the Director-Generalship of the Yellow River, as posts which could well be trans-ferred to other officers, reducing many overgrown salaries and perquisites. The Tribute Rice Transport by the Grand Canal (one of the most wasteful extravagances even in China) was also abolished, and other offices per-taining to the Salt revenue were cut off with a stroke of the pen. All Viceroys and Governors were enjoined to use the utmost diligence to carry out these instructions in detail, and not to " throw dust in Our eyes, as the punishment We shall mete out for such a heinous offence will be speedy and retributive."

About this time occurred an event unimportant in itself, but momentous in its results. The Emperor felt him-self to be isolated from those who would naturally have been his advisers, but who did not sympathize with his acts or his aims. He had the sagacity to perceive that his strength was in the sympathy of those who by the rigid rules of Chinese official etiquette were not allowed to present memorials, and who had no avenue of approach to the Emperor's eye or ear. With a view to broaden-ing the base of his foundations, Kuang Hsu had expressly authorized the various Secretaries of the Boards — many of whom were earnestly interested in reform — to present their suggestions to the Throne by memorials through their respective superiors. It was currently reported at the time that K'ang Yii Wei was now no longer alone in his efforts to bring about reform, but that his fol-lowers consisted of more than one half the Hanlins, Censors, and literati of the Capital, as well as a whole host of Board Secretaries, whose views were advanced, and whose earnestness of purpose was such as to defy the opposition of their more conservative superiors.

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Among this number was a third class Secretary of the Board of Rites, named Wang Chao, who handed in a memorial in which he is said to have advocated the aboli-tion of the queue and the changing of the Chinese national dress to that of Western lands ; the embracing the Chris-tian religion as that of the State with a National Parlia-ment in prospect; and a journey by the Emperor and Empress Dowager to the Mikado, that they might see for themselves the pitiful condition of China, as compared with Japan.

The two Presidents of the venerable Board of Rites were shocked by the audacity of these proposals (and no wonder), and summoned Wang Chao before them to explain himself, ordering him to withdraw the ob-noxious document. To their surprise and anger the obstinate man not only refused to withdraw or modify his paper, but insisted that it should be presented just as it was, to the Emperor, it having been prepared in accordance with a published decree. With some misgiv-ings, but presuming on his position as a senior member of the Imperial Clan, Huai T'a Pu (who was also an Assistant Grand Secretary) persuaded his colleagues, the Chinese President of the Board, Hsu Ying Kuei, and the two Senior and two Junior Vice-Presidents, to join in a memorial or denunciation of Wang Chao for his out-rageous suggestions.

In an edict issued September 1st the Emperor ex-plains how he came to invite the presentation of such memorials. He went on to observe that the claim that the memorial contained narrow-minded and wild sugges-tions was an impeachment of his own good sense — as if he had not intelligence to perceive that when the docu-ment was submitted to him. He saw through the plot and was resolved to crush it, and immediately turned all

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the officers of the Board of Rites over to the Board of Civil Office for the determination of a penalty for their disobedience to his commands, in striving to prevent free speech in the memorials sent up.

It was said at the time, that, lest the Presidents of the Civil Office Board should minimize the offence, the Em-peror personally called them before him and warned them that, in case they did so, the same punishment should fall upon them as on their fellows of the Board of Rites. Thus admonished they hastened to decide that the errant officials should be degraded three steps, and be trans-ferred to posts befitting their lowered rank; but His Majesty revised the sentence, and decreed that they be dismissed from the public service.

This was announced in a decree dated September 4th, in which with much dignity and directness the Emperor makes his position clear. For his sturdy independence and his courageous standing up for his rights, Wang Chao was commended, and promoted to such an extent that he might have been appointed a Provincial Judge, which would probably have happened if the Emperor had continued in power. On the 7th of September a few words in the " Peking Gazette " intimated that Li Hung Chang, and Chin Hsin (Manchu) were dismissed from the Tsung Li Yamen.

It is not to be supposed that during all these eventful months the Empress Dowager was an unconcerned spec-tator of what was going on. It was understood that after the German seizure of Kiaochou the Emperor had threatened to abdicate unless he was allowed real power, which was then granted to him, but with many restric-tions, and drawbacks. Five years previous to this, two Vice-Presidents of a Board, who had ventured to send in a memorial urging the more complete assumption of

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a larger measure of authority by the Emperor, had been discharged from the public service forever, and the wrath of the Empress Dowager had burned like a furnace.

The story of the plots and counterplots connected with the catastrophe of September is not fully known to out-siders, but enough has become public to make the general course of events plain. The Conservative party had been stunned by the suddenness of the blows which fell right and left, and could not agree upon a common course, but when two Presidents and four Vice-Presidents of a Board were degraded and two such Ministers as Li Hung Chang and Chin Hsin were ejected from the Tsung Li Yamen, it was time for decisive action. It was agreed to present a joint memorial to the Empress pointing out that the only way to preserve the dynasty and the country from entire destruction was for the Empress to return to power, depose the Emperor, and destroy the reformers.

The disgraced officials, together with many others hos-tile to the new measures, presented themselves at the I Ho Park, where the Empress Dowager amused herself with her flowers and her boats, and clamoured for " jus-tice." The Empress read their document with impassive face, and dismissed them with no intimation as to how she would act. When she did move it was with her usual energy. Calling the Imperial Clansmen Prince Tuan, and Tsai Lien, she asked for their assistance in crushing the Emperor, bribing Prince Tuan with the promise of taking another Emperor from among his sons. These Clansmen were to summon all the Princes, Dukes, Nobles, and Ministers of the Imperial Clan on a certain day, and demand the deposition of the Emperor, while Hsu Tung, Kang Yi, Chao Shu Ch'iao (all prominent in the events of the year 1900), were to head the Ministers and officials not belonging to the household.

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Meanwhile the Emperor was issuing further edicts of reform but he was not ignorant of the devices of his enemies. He told K'ang Yu Wei plainly of his difficulties, and gave him two special edicts, which K'ang subsequently made public. The last especially is full of pathos, the despairing cry of a man struggling with ad-verse Fate. It contained among others, these sentences, " 1 have very great sorrow in my heart, which can not be described with pen and ink. You must at once pro-ceed abroad, and devise means without a moment's delay to save me."

The Emperor knew that nothing could be done without the command of the Army, which was largely in the hands of Jung Lu, a crafty and successful schemer who had wormed his way up to the highest posts in the Em-pire. The Emperor intended to make use of Yuan Shih K'ai to circumvent »and destroy Jung Lu, using the troops to guard the Empress Dowager in her I Ho Park until his own position was secure, thus preventing her inter-ference with his operations. Yuan Shih K'ai, later Gov-ernor of Shantung, is a Honan man of great natural abilities, who had distinguished himself as Chinese Resi-dent in Korea, and who had later organized and drilled a body of 12,500 troops under German instructors until they were the best and most trustworthy force in the Empire. His predilections were for reform, but like most Chinese he was a constitutional trimmer and at the criti-cal juncture he failed the Emperor, and betrayed his plans to Jung Lu, who was Governor General of Chihli at Tientsin. The latter sped to Peking. There he laid the whole matter before the Empress, who boldly sprung her mine, faced and denounced the Emperor, took from him his seal of State, and virtually made him a prisoner in his Island Palace.

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K'ang Yii Wei and a few others of the patriotic band who had counselled the Emperor, escaped with great diffi-culty to Tientsin, and boarded a steamer headed south, pursued by the vindictive Empress, who would have torn him in pieces, and who continued for more than a year afterwards to offer large rewards for his capture alive or dead. Though she could not apprehend K'ang Yii Wei, she seized his younger brother K'ang Kuang Jen, and with five other noble and patriotic young men of ability and high promise, he was beheaded September 28th, while protesting that though they might easily be slain, multi-tudes of others would arise to take their places.

The Emperor was forced to sign the Decree which an-nounced his own abdication, and the Empress Dowager once more took the helm. The " Peking Gazette " thence-forth bristled with her denunciatory decrees repealing everything which had been done, forbidding every economy and reform of every sort, and pursuing all who had had any hand in the recent progressive measures with a revengeful spite which reminded one of the Furies of Greek Tragedy.

It is impossible for us to fathom the thoughts of such a woman, but it is easy to perceive that the whole course of Chinese administration for the following two years was marked by elements not often found even in Chinese history. There was a virulence in her pursuit of her enemies not without illustration in the lives of female sovereigns of other lands and in other times. The fact that she was to have been not only set aside, but bottled up in the courts of a pleasure park, drove her to madness. The more she reflected upon it the fiercer seemed to grow her passion. She seems to have resolved to leave no vestige of the period in which such audacious things had been attempted. Little by little she became

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fascinated with the thought of adding the supernatural to the infra-natural (and the unnatural), until she was herself the Head Patroness of the Boxer movement which was to drive out every Foreigner from the Central Em-pire and leave China for the Chinese.

It is impossible to close this too brief recapitulation of one of the great epochs in Chinese history, with-out lamenting that there was so little appreciation on the part of Foreign Powers of the nature of the crisis. The Emperor would have gladly turned either to the British or the American Minister for help, but neither was avail-able, and neither had the requisite acquaintance with the circumstances of the time, and might not have been al-lowed to extend a helping hand had he desired to do so. Rev. Timothy Richard, the indefatigable Secretary of the Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge, whose works had perhaps done more than those of any other one man to leaven the inert Chinese lump, strove in vain to get a hearing from the British Minister, and a golden — a priceless — opportunity was thrown away. It became the fashion to speak of this great crisis as a " Manchu family quarrel," with which foreigners had no concern.

So the Empire drifted into the whirlpool without the representatives of the leading nations of the West real-izing that there was anything unusual in progress, al-though the connection was of the same sort as that by which a pestilence follows a war. The dethronement of Kuang Hsu carried within itself the fruitful seeds of the Boxer outbreak. Without the first, the second would have been utterly impossible. In the New China the day in the calendar which corresponds to the 28th of Septem-ber, 1898, will be observed as a sacred Commemoration

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Day for the Six Martyrs, who willingly gave their lives for the liberties of their country. At some future time, under happier conditions than now prevail, it will be seen that their death was not in vain.

CHAPTER 10. Genesis of the Boxer Movement

THE GENESIS OF THE BOXER MOVEMENT

IT is well known to those who have paid attention to the structure of Chinese society, that there is a large democratic element running through the en-tire social fabric from top to bottom. The Chinese are endued with a talent for organization and combination which at times suggests the behaviour of chemical atoms in the items of spontaneity, fixity, and universality of cohesion. While they are satisfied with the system of government under which they live, it is with the system that they are content, and not with its faulty and fre-quently oppressive operation.

Against undue exactions from officials the Chinese people have always known how to protest in practical forms to which attention must be paid, and in order to effect this they have organizations of long standing, and of recognized authority, which are often the media by which they can manifest the popular feeling. Such are the provincial guilds everywhere to be found, which com-bine within themselves a great variety of functions, and which frequently focus and express in very forcible and effective fashion such public sentiment as exists.

For what they term " the practice of virtue " the Chinese have a profound respect, and the forms in which this theoretical and practical devotion finds expression are exceedingly numerous. China is honey-combed with secret societies protean in form, diversified in practice,

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nebulous in doctrine, with which vast numbers of men, and sometimes women also are in connection. Many of these are traced back to the beginning of the Ming Dy-nasty (1368), and others are supposed to have had their rise after the Manchus took the throne in 1644. The present Dynasty has consistently forbidden all secret so-cieties alike, well knowing that whatever the professed objects may be it is easy by such means to nurse into being a formidable political rising, which has been fre-quently done and on a large scale as in the case of the " White Lily " and " Triad " Societies.

By reason of their contraband character, and the fact that they have no printed manuals which may be con-sulted, while the written copies of their documents are hard to get and frequently full of false characters, an orderly grouping of the apparent phenomena of Chinese secret societies is impossible for foreigner and Chinese as well. Much has been learned, especially by those missionaries in whose flock many members have formerly been leaders in sects and who have no fear and no hesi-tation in telling all they know. Yet after the expenditure of considerable time and labour in these inquiries, one feels that there is an element of uncertainty permeating every part of the results, due not only to the lack of definite and authentic data, but to the absence of the historic instinct in the minds of the ordinary Chinese to whom we must be indebted for most of our alleged facts.

The outcome of investigations of this sort may be com-pared to an attempt to follow the history of the atmos-pheric disturbance which we call a storm. At some point in space there has been a derangement of equilibrium, but where it began it is difficult to say. The clouds them-selves are composed of vapour which was somewhere con-

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densed, and the process of condensation and evaporation is perpetually going on within view of him who looks at the distant mountain peak; but the collection and dis-persion, the union and the separation, of the different masses of vapour can not be traced, nor the precise causes of these effects discriminated. In the description of any Chinese secret society there is much that is cloudy, and it is only the general aspect of which anything can be predicated with confidence. To this it will be well to confine ourselves, eschewing the learned ignorance of those who profess to be able to trace back the roots of the I Ho Ch'iian for more than two thousand years, and to find it all over China under names which are wholly unknown to sober fact.

It should be recollected also that identity of name is by no means proof of identity of origin, especially in China, where the memories and the traditions of the past are so influential.

Some of the official proclamations and pamphlets deal-ing with the history of the sect in question mention that it existed in northern China during the eighteenth cen-tury, under several different reigns, the names of the leaders being given, with particulars of their seizure and decapitation. There was the same state of things during the early years of the present century.

The name cited above as applied to this society literally denotes the "Fists" (Ch'iian) of Righteous (or Public) (I) Harmony (Ho), in apparent allusion to the strength of united force which was to be put forth. As the Chinese phrase " fists and feet " signifies boxing and wrestling," there appeared to be no more suitable term for the adherents of this sect than " Boxers," a designa-tion first used by one or two missionary correspondents of foreign journals in China, and later universally ac-

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cepted on account of the difficulty of coining a better one.

Another designation of this organization is the " Great Sword Society," a name of apparently recent origin. In an elaborate metrical proclamation issued early in 1900 by Yuan Shih K'ai, the Governor of Shantung, occurs the remark : " In the summer of the 22nd year of Kuang Hsu (1896) the 'Sword Society' suddenly sprang into existence." The succeeding sentences mention I Chou Fu and Yen Chou Fu in Shantung as its birthplace, mean-ing the prefectures of which those cities are the centres.

Without inquiring minutely into the rudimentary stages of the Great Sword Society, or undertaking the imprac-ticable task of dissecting out its Alimentary connections with other sects, it may suffice to refer to a few mani-festations of its activity, quite independent of and ante-cedent to the outbreak which attracted the attention of the world. It may be well to mention that for all de-tails of the events, the public is wholly indebted ■ to a few Protestant missionaries, who wrote to the foreign journals of Shanghai from a first-hand knowledge, and personal observation and experience.

Towards the close of the year 1898 there was serious trouble in the northern part of the province of Kiangsu. Much of the country is an arid soda-flat with a far larger population than an average year's crops could support, especially since so much of the land is devoted to the cultivation of the poppy. For two seasons there had been partial failure of the harvest, at times due to lack of rain and at others to floods. Official corruption greatly aggravated the evils experienced, and when famine threatened, the whole country began to be infested, as China often is under these conditions, with bands of thieves and open robbers. The yamens were crowded

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with cases, justice was slow, and there were bitter com-plaints against the Roman Catholics for interfering with the due execution of justice. In view of the subsequent proceedings this item is important.

By the middle of January the price of grain was double its usual standard. Incessant raids were made upon the robber bands and so many were caught that the prisons were choked with them. Many of these prisoners were the worst of characters, and were treated with such hor-rible severity that it was reported that in the Hsu Ch'eng city jail, between February and October of that year, 284 men had died in prison, the numbers afterwards averag-ing more than two each day. The whole country was more disturbed by far than it had been during the Japa-nese war.

Contemporaneously with this state of things there oc-curred a sort of rebellion in northern Anhui, begin-ning in the city of Wo Yang, where the insurgents were said to be many thousand strong, and had killed some of the officers and troops sent against them. The trouble was reported to have had its origin about some salt (a government monopoly) which had been stolen in transit by hired carters, who in consequence were punished and whose masters were fined. On this the salt-station was said to have been plundered, and under the leadership of a former Taiping outlaw the malcontents kept up the guerrilla warfare.

In the course of a few weeks a wide region of coun-try in the contiguous parts of Anhui, Kiangsu, and Shan-tung was in a ferment. Troops were even ordered from so distant a city as Tientsin, a journey of almost a month, but they were turned back halfway because the backbone of the rising had been broken. As one of the side inci-dents, it was mentioned that a man raised a rebellion near

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the city of Hsu Chou Fu, who had a flag with a motto calling for the destruction of the Catholics; but before he could join the Anhui forces he was captured and eleven men were decapitated. The famine in northern Kiangsu was so extreme in the spring of 1899, tnat children were sold at prices all the way from fifty cash to a thousand.

While these disturbances were going on in the regions named, there was a serious local trouble much farther north in a small projection of Shantung into the province of Chihli to the west of the city of Lin Ch'ing. So far as could be gathered from the accounts, the difficulty arose over a piece of ground bought by the Roman Catholics; on it was a temple, which was pulled down and replaced by a chapel. In the course of time, enough friction was developed for an attack to be organized on the chapel, which was destroyed; numerous villages containing Christians were broken up, and a temple was once more erected in the place of the chapel. Eighteen villages were banded together to drive out the Catholics, and for a long time the whole country-side was in alarm and disorder. The concentration of several regiments of provincial troops resulted in a fight in which the number of killed was permanently represented by the letter x; and the fer-ment slowly subsided. At a later period there began to be rumours that the Great Sword Society was organizing encampments in counties far to the east of the scene of the former trouble making quantities of large swords, and using language highly threatening to all foreigners. Some of the Magistrates issued proclamations against the Society, and seized and imprisoned a few leaders ; others entirely ignored its existence.

Thus within the compass of a few months there were serious risings both of the outlaws and of the people in

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Kiangsu, in Anhiri, and in Shantung. At the same time another and threatening outbreak took place in yet an-other quarter of the province last named. Early in No-vember three missionaries from I Chou Fu, visiting the sub-prefecture of Chii Chou, between eighty and ninety miles to the north-east, suddenly found themselves in the storm centre of a disturbance which had already broken into violence. A German priest had been attacked by a mob in the county of Je Chao, and after being wounded, had been carried away to the mountains. It was ascer-tained later that the local Magistrate went out in person, and narrowly escaping mob violence himself, succeeded in rescuing the wounded man and taking him back to the city. It was currently reported among the people that the foreigners had been driven out of Peking, and the officials had issued proclamations calling on the people to arise and drive out the foreigners and their converts. In accordance with this supposed advice a school-house belonging to the Presbyterian mission had been burned and robbed, and several Christian families plundered.

With this auspicious beginning the rioters numbering some two hundred men next proceeded to threaten the town at which the missionaries had arrived, hoping to frighten away the foreigners, to secure immunity from prosecution and to exact a cash indemnity in settlement. Two uncomfortable and dangerous days were passed in alternate negotiations and alarms, when, in response to the appeal for help, a military officer appeared from Chii Chou with two men and a horse. The missionaries re-fused to go, on the ground that until a settlement of the case was effected, they could not leave without exposing the Christians to peril, and themselves to the charge of cowardice.

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The trouble continued to spread, bands of armed ruffians swarming in from new quarters, and the villagers arming themselves with mediaeval weapons. The arrival of another military officer and twenty soldiers, and on the following day the appearance of the local Magistrate, brought the rioters to terms, and they signed an agree-ment to restore the stolen property and rebuild the school-house. Armed men were in hiding, and were compelling the people to feed them, declaring that the standard of rebellion had been raised. A party of foreigners was waylaid in the neighbouring county, and it was clearly recognized that the movement was anti-foreign and was due to the recent coup at Peking.

From this time on for several months there was a dis-mal record of lawless violence, for the most part either but slightly restrained or altogether unchecked. The Catholics suffered far more than the Protestants, because they were more numerous and covered a much larger area. Local officials who tried to do their duty were reported to have been insulted by the mob and made to kneel and swear that no foreign money had bribed them. Large walled villages containing provincial troops were besieged by thousands of rioters, but the people believed, or affected to believe, that the soldiers were mercenaries and their guns not loaded. In many instances the Chris-tians were treated with great severity. Their houses were often torn down after everything portable had been taken. An old Christian woman of an inoffensive char-acter was nearly stripped of her clothing, and tied up to a beam to make her surrender the deeds of the family homestead ; the alleged reason for these barbarities being that the Christians were no longer Chinese. This was accompanied by the posting of anti-foreign placards.

By the middle of January a large tract of territory be-

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tween I Chou Fu and the new German port of Ch'ing Tao was in a condition of virtual rebellion. The popular talk was of righting the foreigners (Germans), who were to be feared on the water but were helpless when disem-barked (a notion, it is to be remarked more than half a century old as applied to the British). Multitudes of Christians had become actual beggars. At the Chinese New Year season there was a lull, and then troops began to appear as if to restore order, in response to pressure from the United States Consul at Chefoo. These valiant " braves " wandered about from one county to another, leisurely devouring the inn-keepers, levying occasional black-mail on meat-shops, and informing the people that they had come for the purpose of arresting the " sec-ondary devils," the appellation of those who followed the foreigner, and a name of which much was to be heard later.

By March, the troubles had reached a still more acute stage, and a party of three Germans going from Ch'ing Tao westward were set upon by a mob, and were in great danger of being murdered outright when in self-defence they fired on their assailants who fled. Within a fort-night a punitive German expedition marched to the vil-lage where this outrage had occurred, burned a large part of it to the ground, and then proceeded to occupy the district city, to the great terror and dismay of the Chinese, until the case should be settled. The officer in command of the few Chinese troops in the vicinity was strongly anti-foreign, and when he was reenforced by fifteen hundred more soldiers from the east, it was felt by the people that the long promised extermination of the foreigner was at hand; but as they proceeded to go into camp at a safe distance from the city occupied by the Germans, there were no visible results.

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By June the wave had largely spent its force, and by October all the indemnities bad been paid. The Protestant claims (which were exceedingly modest in amount) were viseed by a committee of the local gentry, who, to show that they were not to be trifled with, threw out a few hundred odd strings of cash from the total, without however disputing any of the items.

A significant fact was pointed out at the time that, so far as known, none of the real ring-leaders in the riots were arrested, much less punished, but were systematically shielded by the officials or the local gentry. The indemnities were indeed paid by the higher authori-ties, but the fact that those who caused all this trouble did not in any way suffer for it, was doubtless felt to be a substantial victory, totally at variance with Chinese practice in cases relating to their own government.

The reason for describing at such length the outbreak in the region of which I Chou Fu is the centre is that, more than any other, it embodies all the features which somewhat more than a year later were to make the Boxer rising world-renowned. There was the German aggres-sion at Kiaochou in the immediate neighbourhood, the influence of which was heightened and deepened by the frequent appearance of Germans in the interior. There were the German Roman Catholic Missions which were felt to be the efficient cause in bringing Germans into the Shantung province as a military power. There were Protestant Missions not long established, which, if not politically aggressive, were at all events foreign, and open to the general condemnation of all that comes under that objectionable class.

The effect of the German occupation upon the trade of southern Shantung and upon the facility of getting a living under difficult conditions had not been tested,

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but there can be no doubt as to the views of the Chinese upon this point. The reactionary Imperial Decrees which showered down from Peking by every courier inflamed the minds of the people against the supposed source of the unpatriotic " reform " which had been forced upon the Emperor, and the combined product of all these causes political, religious, commercial, industrial, and re-formatory, was the I Chou Fu riots.

While these various disturbances were occurring in parts of Shantung widely separated from each other and from the capital, a terrible calamity in the same region had sowed the seeds of misery, discontent, and ruin over a vast area. In the autumn of 1898 it was officially re-ported that 34 counties had been flooded in whole or in part by the remorseless Yellow River, which one of its Emperors alike historically and prophetically denomi-nated " China's Sorrow." The inundated area was esti-mated to be at least 2,500 square miles, containing per-haps 1,500 villages. The whole population of the dev-astated regions was supposed to be between a million and a million and a half. As the country for scores of miles was submerged, the only possible place of safety was the elevated bank or dyke of the Yellow River, which was crowded for a distance of about forty English miles, with wattled booths filled with wretched refugees to the number of probably 165,000. It is easy to see how such a wide-reaching disaster would prepare the way for lawlessness in the not distant future.

While the events which have been narrated were taking place in the provinces to the south-east of Peking, an incident occurred in the immediate neighbourhood of the national Capital, which inflamed angry passions al-ready deeply stirred by the extraordinary occurrences of the summer of 1898.

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In the autumn of that year Gen. Tung Fu Hsiang, a man of a mean origin, who had formerly been a rebel against the Government, but had won favour by his suc-cess in quelling a dangerous Mohammedan rebellion, ar-rived at Peking, apparently summoned from a distance for the crisis. It was universally asserted and is doubt-less true that at an interview with the Empress Dowager he offered to use his terrible legions from the " wild west " of Kansu province, to drive every foreigner out of China into the sea. It was believed that Her Majesty smiled amiably, but checked his ardour with the conclusive remark that the time had not yet come. These words which amused so many at the time they first heard them, were afterwards remembei ed with quite different feelings.

Towards the close of October, Mr. Cox, Engineer in charge of the Lu — Han railway, accompanied by Mr. Campbell of the British Legation, and a Major of the British army, went on a trolley car to inspect the bridge at Lu Kou. There they found some thirty of Gen. Tung's soldiers who refused to leave the bridge when asked to do so, and called the inspectors " Foreign Devils." An officer who arrived was invited to order the men to depart, which he did, although protesting that they were not under his command. The party then crossed the bridge and inspected the work, but upon their return they were attacked by the soldiers with stones. One of the engineers, Mr. Norregarde, was severely cut about the face and head, and Mr. Cox was wounded. The former fearing that their lives were in danger fired from a small revolver two shots at the soldiers, who fled. The visiting party at once retreated to Feng T'ai, and all the engineers were called in from the railway. The soldiers then attacked and looted the house of a foreign engine-driver, and fired a volley into the quarters of the

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native employees, killing a coolie and wounding some others.

The British Minister promptly called a meeting of the Diplomatic Corps, who remonstrated against the mobili-zation of the Kansu troops so near the Capital. The Yamen promised to give attention to the matter. The Empress Dowager, recognizing the important bearings of the affair, sent the Governor of Peking, Hu Yu Fen, to proceed to the Lu Kou Bridge and investigate, which he did, taking Dr. Coltman as a surgeon to examine the wounded men.

The visit to the camp was accomplished not without danger to the committee of inquiry, Governor Hu being rudely, and even insolently treated by three- bluff Moham-medan Generals who refused to bring the wounded men before him, on the ground that the matter had al-ready been looked into by a deputy from Prince Ch'ing, and that the men would die if removed. They suggested that the Governor should go himself to the camp where they were, which would have been out of the question. With a compliance which was as insulting as their refusal, the men were at length produced, and being surgically examined one was found to have a small bullet under the pectoral muscle of the chest, while the other was not shot at all, but appeared to have been choked. Either one could have easily walked in, and each would recover speedily. After a disagreeable conversation between the Governor and the Generals, the examining party returned to Peking, glad to escape so well.

The soldiers were taken to the railway hospital at Feng T'ai, and those who had been guilty of the assault were subsequently punished in the presence of the foreigners attacked. Governor Hu secured the reduction in rank of one of the Generals, but Gen. Tung at once came on from

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Pao Ting Fu, had an interview with the Empress Dowa-ger, and was supposed to have threatened serious trouble unless the appointment of the Governor as a member of the Tsung Li Yamen was cancelled. This was accordingly done on the very day when he was to have taken up his duties, and the Chinese Government lost the services of a valuable official familiar with Western ways and affairs, at a time when there was the greatest need of such men. It was understood that Governor Hu had acted through-out in council with the British Minister, and his removal from his new post was therefore a direct rebuff to Great Britain, as well as ominous for all foreign interests, since the punishment of this attack fell mainly upon him, and Gen. Tung was left completely master of the field.

Before the disturbances in the region of I Chou Fu had been settled, there appeared in a remote quarter the familiar symptoms of a new crop of troubles, this time in the province of Chihli, at a market-town called Hsiao Chang, situated about fifty miles to the west and south of the city of Te Chou on the Grand Canal. For many years there had been a station of the London Mission at that point, with several foreign houses, a chapel, schools, hospital and dispensary, well and widely known through-out that entire part of the country. During the month of May there began to be rumours of a threatened attack upon this Mission station by a band of the I Ho Ch'uan, to guard against whom it became necessary to gather together as many Christians as possible, with a view to repel the threatened assault. For a period of six weeks the village was the scene of a sort of siege, interspersed with parleys with the leaders of the Boxers, and punctu-ated with numerous telegrams to the British Consul.

As the compound was occupied by several families, in-cluding ladies and children, the strain of anxiety was

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very great. At last a Deputy from Pao Ting Fu ar-rived, and settled the matter by punishing the relative of the imbecile magistrate who was the real instigator of the movement, by exacting written guarantees from the local headmen that no repetition of these occurrences should take place, and by paying all the expenses which had been necessitated during the long uncertainty. The fact that during all this excitement the wheat harvest was in progress, an event which for the time eclipses all other human interests, without in the least abating the ardour of the rioters, indicated that this was a movement of a new and an unusual character.

During the early part of the eighth moon there began to be talk of a general rising on the part of the I Ho Ch'uan in that region, as well as in Shantung over the border. They were said to be about to act out the motto of their flag : " Protect the Empire ; Exterminate For-eigners."

Threats of this kind had been heard before, but as the mission station of P'ang Chuang, in the district of En Hsien, seemed distinctly threatened, a vigourous appeal was made to the Consul at Tientsin, and telegrams to the Governor of Shantung from the Governor General of Chihli resulted in the collection of small forces from different quarters, sufficient to give check to amateur rioters, especially as they had no grievance of any kind, and no definite object in view.

The first overt act of pillage was in a village in the P'ing Yuan county, sixteen miles east of the Mission headquarters, where the Christians were looted without warning, some of the well-to-do losing heavily, and all alike having little or no grain, clothing, or furniture left them. The incompetent Magistrate of the district, who, though repeatedly warned of the growth of this

-GENESIS OF THE BOXER MOVEMENT- 167

dangerous organization, had taken no active steps to stop it, now sent to arrest some of the pillagers. The result was a fight in which the yamen-runners were badly handled. The Governor at length sent cavalry to pre-serve order, and on the 18th of October a large band of the Boxers had the temerity to attack the provincial troops, presuming on the invulnerability which the magic formulae would confer on the users of them, making them proof against swordcuts, and impervious to bullets.

The troops did not wish to fight, but did not hesitate to do so, because their commander saw that to retreat would be to surrender the whole country-side to anarchy. Accordingly the ' battle ' began, and within a short time ninety-eight dead Boxers strewed the plain, and many others who had been wounded fled.

This was probably the first instance in which anything like this number of men had been killed at one time during the incubation of Boxerism, and it might easily have been the last. But the conduct of the Manchu Gov-ernor, Yu Hsien, soon showed that he was extremely angry to have had such steps taken without his orders, or perhaps against them. The prefect in whose jurisdic-tion this fight took place was removed, as well as the district Magistrate, who was replaced by a useless Man-chu. The troops were recalled, the commander dismissed from the province, and the head constable who had ar-rested the rioters was himself sent in chains to the pro-vincial capital, where he was treated as if he were the real culprit, being at one time beaten with two thousand blows, the evident intention being to kill him.

The month of October, 1899, was the turning point in the tide of enthusiasm of the followers of the I Ho Ch'uan. If Yu Hsien had done his duty as the Governor of a great and populous province for the welfare of

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which he was responsible, that Society would have been put down by simply following up the crushing defeat which the Boxers had met at the village of Sen Le Tien. The fact that he repudiated the success which his troops had won, and threw away its results, could only be ac-counted for upon the supposition that he had good rea-sons for his conduct, and in China no better reason for any act can be assigned than that it is commanded by the Throne. At that juncture no one could say with certainty that such was the fact, although even before this period the popular impression was strong and definite that the Boxers had " secret orders from above," and that for that reason no weapon formed against them could prosper.

The career of Yu Hsien himself appeared to be a confirmation of this theory. But a few years before he had been merely a prefect of Ts'ao Chou in south-western Shantung, where he was generally be-lieved to have organized the Ta Tao Hui, or Great Sword Society. During the subsequent years his promotion was phenomenally rapid, until in the spring of the very year in which these events took place he had been sent to Shantung as Governor. He had a band of men drilling with large swords in the courts of his yamen every day. What more natural then, than that his people should look upon him as the tutelary divinity of the whole I Ho Ch'iian, as he was supposed to be, and as it later turned out that he actually was?

This organization which has been so often referred to as the " Fists of United Harmony," remains, and perhaps will continue to remain to a large extent a mystery to Occidentals, partly for the lack of adequate data, and even more because of the apparent hopelessness of an apprehension by Westerners of the point of view

GENESIS OF THE BOXER MOVEMENT 169

of those who belonged to it. It will be convenient to refer at this point to its essential characteristics, since these will be met at every subsequent stage; although it appears impossible to explain them, they may be imper-fectly described.

It was the supernatural element in the Boxer claims which gave the sect its powerful hold upon the popular imagination and the popular faith. The divinities wor-shipped were of the most heterogeneous sort, but many of them were deified heroes of extinct dynasties, whose spirits were supposed to animate the believer to such an extent that he could do the very deeds which had been wrought ages ago, — deeds, the knowledge of which had been everywhere diffused and popularized by the all-pervasive theatrical representations and the equally uni-versal story-teller. At the temples of the various divini-ties, or in the presence of their pictures, the initiated made their prostrations and invoked the aid of the gods. They most frequently made these prostrations, for some reason apparently unexplained, to the south-east, but this, like other Chinese practices, was not invariable. The mind was probably fixed upon the Being towards whom the worship was directed, and the ultimate object was to become possessed by the " spirit " of that Being. In the process of achieving this end the devotee was seized with what was variously described as spasms, catalepsy, or epilepsy, and often passed into something resembling a state of trance or hypnotism. At certain stages of this experience they seemed to be literally madmen, daring everything and fearing nothing, as was frequently proved when later they came into collision with foreign troops.

When the trance period had been passed through suc-cessfully, the worshipper was held to be quite invulner-able, and was ready to submit to crucial tests of his

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ability to resist blows of the sword on his bare arm, or the thrust of pikes in his abdomen; bullets or even cannon balls could not harm him, the projectiles being harmlessly dispersed by a wave of his hand, and the smoke dissipated to the right and to the left. Credulity and suspicion struggle for pre-eminence in the Chinese character, so that it was necessary to demonstrate these claims publicly, frequently, and often in the presence of numerous spectators. Thousands and tens of thousands testified that they had themselves witnessed the trial, and that the results were indisputable.

Occasionally one of the Christians ventured into the midst of a dense throng to see for himself, only to be immediately detected, in some cases, by the declaration that there must be a " secondary devil " present, since the charms would not work properly. At a later period it was often at the risk of his life that a Christian was seen by Boxers when at practice. For this reason the accounts of their trials are frequently second-hand and inadequate, but it is certain that there was much fraud and sleight of hand freely intermingled with the performances in the presence of unsophisticated villagers. Dangerous wounds were not uncommon, and in one instance which occurred within a few miles of P'ang Chuang, a man was shot in two by a ball from a cannon near which he stood on trial as a test of his efficacious protection. This awk-ward accident might be expected to throw a gloom over the subsequent proceedings in that neighbourhood. But it was explained that the " spirit " had not " entirely possessed " the body of this youth, and that he was only premature in submitting to the test. A tax was levied on the members, which gave the poor father two hundred strings of cash for the funeral, and the proceedings went on as before.

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In a case in Manchuria, a man who had just reached the stage of unconsciousness fell on his back in a spasm, accidentally struck his head against a stone, and so frac-tured his skull that he died at once. In another place in the same province a braggart Boxer had seized three Christians of one family, and was about to behead them, when, beginning with a preliminary flourish of his sword, he awkwardly smote his own abdomen so that the intestines protruded, and he found himself unfitted for the office of executioner of the father and two sons, one of whom was acquainted with foreign medicine. Thereupon began a characteristic Chinese dicker, the wounded man offering to release the medically educated prisoner if he would put his enemy to rights again. The practitioner insisted upon freedom for all three prisoners, but finally compromised upon saving his father's life and his own, leaving his brother to his fate!

The fact that one of the characters denoting the Boxer Society signifies " Fists," has led to the oft re-peated statement that this organization is one with the numerous sects which practice athletics, and the asser-tion has been hazarded that every Chinese athlete is ex officio a Boxer. Like most such generalizations this is a merely imaginative inference. There has long been a society in Shantung, called the Six Times Sect, which was regarded as a branch of the White Lily Society, and was frequently broken up by the Magistrates. They burned incense on the first and fifteenth of the moon, but their main practices were athletic. Yet in villages where this society flourished it had no connection what-ever with the I Ho Ch'iian, either upon its first appear-ance or at any later period.

The proclamations of the Boxers laid the greatest stress upon the help which they received from

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" spirits," which to the number of countless myriads thronged to the help of the faithful. These spirits were said to appear in the form of young lads. The words " Shen Ch'iian " — "Spirits (and) Boxers" — were formerly used in partnership, and the flags had the motto: " Spirits and Fists Mutually Assist." In many important movements a band of the youths marched in front of the Boxer battalions. One of the most graphic accounts of the movements of the I Ho Ch'iian as they entered Peking, speaks of a body of forty such children who marched through the city, and were everywhere re-ceived with marks of respect, reverence, and fear. The Christians ran in and reported this as a certain sign that trouble was near at hand. In many cases the practice of the I Ho Ch'iian drill began with children only, which served the double purpose of enabling the promoters of the work to point out that it was but the sport of small boys, and of ascertaining definitely whether the local Magistrates would in any way interfere.

There is a large sect in north China called the Tsai Li, or Ritualists, which abstains from opium, wine and tobacco, and it was remarked in many places that when-ever the Boxers appeared in force these Ritualists were soon incorporated into the ranks.

Of the many marvels alleged to be performed by the Boxers in proof of their supernatural powers, such as lifting mill-stones by a thread, and exposing themselves to all sorts of attacks with knives, swords, spears, and cannon without injury to themselves, as well as feats resembling those of jugglers, it is not necessary to speak. It is enough to say that by the Chinese themselves these were almost universally regarded as real and solid evi-dences of supernatural power, while the Christians had a tendency to attribute them to the direct agency of the

GENESIS OF THE BOXER MOVEMENT 173

devil. The Chinese soldiers sent to T'ung Chou told the foreigners there that shots fired by the troops at the Boxers in their engagements with them, took no effect upon them, and the story has been often repeated of the man who stood defiantly on the bridge near the British Legation during the Siege, making passes and gestures, and who, although fired at six or seven times by one of the best shots among the marines, seemed to wave the bullets aside to the right or left, and finally walked slowly away.

That the Chinese Government forbids all secret socie-ties has been already mentioned, and if any one of them pretended to military capacity and actually drilled with weapons, its dangerous character must by so much be increased, and the precautions taken against it might be expected to be far more stringent than was ordinarily the case. How was it, then that so formidable a society as that of the I Ho Ch'iian, or the Ta Tao Hui, was allowed to make headway absolutely unopposed, and was even patronized by the officials who might have been ex-pected to cut it down root and branch? In the official account of the Society in the preceding century it was stigmatized as heretical because it pretended to use the power of spirits, and all such pretensions, it was said, were false and treasonable. How then did it happen that they had now become true and patriotic?

Among the many democratic rights inhering in the practical constitution of the Chinese Empire, is that of combining for such common ends as the prevention of the ravages of local robber bands, and the like. During the winter season, especially, one may everywhere see the flags of these village companies with official notifica-tions that they have been appointed by the district Mag-istrate, and are authorized to apprehend and detain any

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offenders. As each village has an organization of this kind, the escape of outlaws becomes theoretically impos-sible. Such unions are called Lien Chuang Hui, or some similar name, meaning United Village Associations. Some weapons they must of course possess, and it is easy to perceive here the rudiments of a local militia which might be most formidable to any government were the Chinese less peaceable and law-abiding than is the case.

The strong point of the Chinese is their marvellous talent for combination on a small scale. Their weak point is their incapacity for a like combination on a large scale. The Magistrates need the assistance of the people to keep order in times of danger from those who resist the laws, but when the people themselves wish to resist the law the Magistrates are helpless.

Village societies such as have been described, are con-stantly referred to as T'uan, or Volunteers. Sometimes a day is fixed for the appointment of leaders for such in every township of the county, on which occasion the Magistrate entertains the local gentry and headmen at a feast. Early in the formation of the Boxer companies they began to style themselves, and to be styled by the Magistrates, " I Ho T'uan," or " Public Harmony Volun-teers," which implied official sanction. At a later stage the organization was spoken of in the " Peking Gazette " as the " I Ho Yung," or " Public Harmony Braves," and it was treated as a promising branch of the Imperial forces of the Empire.

XI

CHAPTER 11. Gathering of the Storm

GATHERING OF THE STORM

FROM the time when the Boxers were killed and Shih Tun, as already related, about the middle scattered by the Shantung troops under Yuan of October, for a period of about seven months large por-tions of the provinces of Shantung and Chihli were dis-quieted by their presence, and not infrequently by their acts of violence. The home ot the writer being in the centre of one of the numerous areas of disturbance, fur-nished perhaps more than any other Protestant Mission station in China a coign of vantage from which to watch the instructive and unique proceedings. The Mission sta-tion itself had at times a guard of soldiers, which were anon withdrawn, and then restored, being subsequently removed altogether ; the foreigners thus being alternately " guarded, regarded, and disregarded," all at the caprice of it was impossible to say whom.

Small yellow cards were sent to the Christians, bearing the names of local Boxer leaders, inviting the presence of the Christians to meet representatives of the I Ho Ch'tian (or T'uan), frequently with the intimation that if they refused the consequences might be so serious as to in-volve, their lives. Sometimes these notices fixed a day upon which the Christians were to be plundered, where-upon they naturally endeavoured to remove their few goods to other places. But it was often expressly an-nounced that whoever secreted the property of the follow-

175

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ers of foreigners was himself to be treated as a foreigner, so that as a rule, friends, neighbours, and the nearest relatives treated the Christians with less humanity than might have been expected from entire strangers. Illus-trations of this might be cited, all differing in details, sufficient to fill a volume.

The Boxers usually came on the day set, often in large bands. Then began a truly Oriental performance in which the Christians performed the kotow to the neigh-bours, begging them to intercede for them with the Boxers, and get the terms reduced as much as possible, — for in that region it was the fashion to accept ransoms in nearly every case, few dwellings being burned, and no lives taken. As soon as the redemption money was ar-ranged for, generally by the mortgage of the farm or a part of it to some one willing to advance the money, the pillaging began, with the active co-operation of the neighbours who had been the guides of the Boxers in visiting the houses, and in identifying the Chris-tians. Sometimes these guides were themselves the ones who had given information to the Boxers and in-vited them to that village to pillage, with a view of tak-ing advantage of the opportunity to feather their own nest, while at the same time gratifying any spite which they might have cherished towards any individual of the Christians, and also doing a good stroke of business by buying at a sort of auction the property of their unfor-tunate townsmen. The sales of personal effects, clothing, bedding, domestic utensils (including the only cooking-kettle and dishes), with every article of every descrip-tion, were conducted in the street beside the rifled dwell-ing. A valuable set of mill-stones for grinding the family grain was sometimes knocked off for a few cash, to any-one who could produce the money, no credit being given.

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The shame, humiliation, and helpless indignation of the Christians can be faintly imagined, but it was not pru-dent for them to express in any way their feelings, and in many cases is was not safe for them to be within sight or hearing.

At a later stage of the movement in many places, no Christian could have escaped when the Boxer parties once found him, but this was not true in the special dis-trict named in the first, though it became so in the far more perilous sixth moon.

A single instance of the phenomena attending an at-tack upon a Christian village, where there happened also to be foreign premises for a temporary dwelling, will exhibit the most approved Chinese methods of procedure. The town, which was a large one, had long been threat-ened, and the cry " the Boxers are coming," had been raised. The teacher combined shrewdness, timidity, fidelity, and agility in unequal proportions. Convinced that this time the warning was genuine, he rushed into his yard, tossed some of the children over a ten-foot adobe wall, hustled the others into the yard of non-Christian neighbours, and, like Bre'r Rabbit, " lay low." One of his daughters, having unbound feet, was seen by a Boxer in the alley, and but for the friendliness of a neighbour would have been caught. The houses of the Christians had been previously reduced to something like a pillage basis by prudent exportation of everything which others could be induced to store for them. All this took time, during which another party was smashing in the doors and windows of the school-house and chapel, and wrecking the house built for the uses of the mis-sionaries. This was speedily looted, some neighbours buying the two foreign dining chairs at one hundred cash each.

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After this the Boxers proceeded to plunder the house of a rich man who had nothing to do with the Christians, and this, with the ensuing palavers with " peace-talkers " and the resultant eating and drinking, consumed much of the day. The attack upon the non-Christian rich man was resented by everyone as a gross irregularity and im-pertinence, but as the Boxer party was large and mounted it was not easy to oppose them. Three of them were, however, caught by the villagers, two of them escaped, but the third was beheaded, either with his own sword or with a straw-cutter. Toward evening, when the trouble was all over, the District Magistrate made his appearance, but refused to let his soldiers pursue the fly-ing Boxers, and merely carried away one prisoner to the yamen.

Foreseeing the certain coming of this attack the mis-sionaries had previously communicated a warning to each of the Magistrates of the counties whence the Boxers came. One was too busy with a birthday celebration even to acknowledge the letter, and the other wrote back sarcastically to say that it would be well for the Western Teachers not to listen to " the silly talk of children and old women," that they might " rest their hearts," and that he would take care of the results — which was done as mentioned!

In an adjacent county innumerable Roman Catholic families were pillaged, and the head of one of their teachers was carried about upon a pole, though such extreme measures were not then common.

By the first of December, the United States Minister was telegraphed to that the rising had covered twenty counties, but the real number was undoubtedly much larger. In response to remonstrances from Peking " im-perative orders " were issued by the Tsung Li Yamen to

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Yii Hsien to afford protection, and things went on ex-actly as before. The duplicity of Chinese officials utter-ances was never more conspicuous. Stringently phrased proclamations were sent out from Chi Nan Fu, but many of them lay in the county yamens and were never posted up at all. It was understood that they were meant for show, and not for use. If posted they were at once torn down by a discerning circle of village literati who knew perfectly well which way the wind was really blowing. It only required the incidental mention of the alleged fact that a proclamation was " fictitious/' or that it had been " bought with foreign money " (a significant comment on the official system of the Empire), to bring it into instan-taneous contempt. In one important instance a time limit was set beyond which all Boxers were to be relentlessly seized and their property confiscated, but neither when the day arrived nor afterward was anything whatever done.

The provincial troops and the Boxers occupied the same inns and fraternized socially, many of the soldiers being Boxers themselves. Occasionally there was a fight, and some Boxers got killed. Then the commander was perhaps degraded, or at least reprimanded, and took care that it never occurred again.

A little hamlet in the Yii Ch'eng county which had no earth rampart, made a rude abatis of trees, and the population (nearly all Roman Catholics) defended them-selves successfully against a great horde of Boxers, the provincial troops about a mile away gazing idly at the unequal contest. When it was over, the commander ar-rived to inspect, and made his report to Yii Hsien, who in turn made his to Peking, that the aggressive Christians had stolen the ponies of the Boxers while the men were at dinner, and that the fight was to get them back ! This

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was gravely reported back from the Tsung Li Yamen to the United States Minister, and is probably to this day the official version.

Owing to pressure from the foreign Legations con-cerned with the wide interests ruined by this state of chaos, Yu Hsien was at last removed, and replaced (Dec. 26th) by Gen. Yuan Shih K'ai, a man of a wholly dif-ferent stripe. If left to himself he would speedily have exterminated the whole Boxer brood, but being hampered by " confidential instructions " from the Palace, he could do little but issue poetical proclamations, make fine prom-ises, and revile his official subordinates for failure to do their duty.

Yu Hsien was merely ordered to Peking " to receive instructions," and to have the character for " Happiness " (supposed to be written by the hand of the Empress) formally presented to him, ere he was once more launched upon a career of unexampled ruin in Shansi. Before he left Shantung he had three Boxers publicly executed, but the punishment had been so long delayed that it was desti-tute of any deterring power. For a long time it was firmly believed that the late Governor would be reap-pointed, and the expectation kept the people from obedi-ence to any orders whatever, except such as it was known that he would have approved. It was to guard against the possibility of such an event, that the P'ang Chuang missionaries filed a formal protest (Jan. 22nd, 1900), against this man, which in view of his subsequent atroci-ties is of a melancholy interest. It is as follows :

" Charges against officials in connection with the I Ho Ch'iian Rebellion. Against Yu Hsien, Governor of Shantung.

" That, knowing the existence of the I Ho Ch'iian in this province on a large and threatening scale, a society

GATHERING OF THE STORM j8i

wholly contrary to the Imperial laws and in previous reigns severely punished, he took no steps to antagonize it.

" That, after a fight had taken place in October between the provincial troops and the Boxers, the said Governor was very angry that about a hundred of the latter had been killed, although told by military officials that the encounter was unavoidable. That he then secured the degradations of the Prefect and of the Hsien Magistrate of P'ing Yuan, not for allowing this rebellion to go unchecked but for trying at last to stop it. That he dismissed the military commander in charge at the time, and employed him no more for this reason. That he re-leased the Boxers taken in that action, requiring no guar-anty for good behaviour, to the immediate encourage-ment of the leaders, who after this fight had been ready to give up the cause.

" That he secretly promoted and fomented the rebellion by refusing to allow the troops to fight, repeatedly send-ing them into the field with these explicit orders. That his well known attitude was immediately influential in strengthening the rebellion, and was the direct cause of the murder of the late Mr. Brooks, as much as if the Governor had dispatched him with his own hand. That in a secret memorial to the Throne he advocated the employment of the I Ho Ch'iian as an agency for driving foreigners out of the province, thus giving an official sanction to the movement.

" That for all this complicated storm of ruin in which so large a part of Shantung has for so many months been involved, Yii Hsien is directly responsible. We think that the Foreign Powers interested in the good govern-ment of this province ought to insist that he be degraded, and that the Edict should be published in the Peking Gazette with the phrase " never to be mentioned for em-

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ployment again," and that his own conduct should be assigned as a reason for this step. Also that the said Powers should see to the perpetual enforcement of this punishment as only an adequate guarantee of peace in this province. (To demand the issue of such a Decree and then let it lapse into ' innocuous desuetude ' would be much worse than not to demand it.)"

The murder of the Anglican missionary, Mr. Brooks, a peculiarly painful tragedy, took place in the closing hours of the year, immediately after Yii Hsien had resigned the seals of office, and was the natural consequence of his course. Mr. Brooks was caught by a band of Boxers in the Fei Ch'eng district while on his way from T'ai An to P'ing Yin, and after being terribly maltreated was put to a barbarous death.

The Roman Catholic Missions involved in Shantung concerned the German and the Italian Governments ; two flourishing American Missions had also been devas-tated by the violence of the Boxers. The murder of Mr. Brooks brought Great Britain also directly to the front, and for many weeks Consul Campbell remained at Chi Nan Fu securing the punishment of the murderers. This was finally accomplished with the cordial coopera-tion of Gov. Yuan, but the influence of this event upon the progress of the Boxer movement was imperceptible. All the causes already described as operative in the I Chou Fu disturbances a year and a half previous were still efficient, although the dread of the German railways and the mining operations were probably in some districts more direct stimulants to the popular feeling of hostility than any or all others. It was a significant circumstance that long before any chapels had been destroyed in that region " the people " had risen against the railway in the county of Kao Mi near Kiaochou, driving the

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engineers to the coast by way of Chefoo, and effectually stopping the further progress of the work.

All the permanent residents in that portion of Shan-tung, of whom there were many, were substantially agreed as to the gravity of the crisis, and lost no opportunity to express their views. In a letter to the American Minister written from P'ang Chuang, Jan. 30th, the foregoing facts were mentioned, and it was added that " the Italian Priest who has charge in the region east of Chi Nan Fu says that between 500 and 600 of his families have been looted, ten persons killed, and 5,000 made refugees, and we do not hear that anything has been done, or even demanded. A similar state of wreck is as true of other districts under French and German care, and no action that we can hear of has been taken. If this goes on much longer, railways, mines, commerce, and missions will all be ex-tinguished in one common ruin."

At Hsiao Chang, in Chihli, at P'ang Chuang, Lin Ch'ing Chou, and Chi Nan Fu, in Shantung, there were correspondents of the journals in Shanghai, who wrote frequently and fully, and by this means the general public had the opportunity of knowing the condition of things in the interior. Their utterances were not however con-fined to mere reports. In more than one instance their views were embodied in leaders in the most widely cir-culated and influential papers. An editorial in the " North China Daily News " of Dec. 4th (written in P'ang Chuang, Nov. 25th, 1899), entitled "The Coming Conflagration in the North," clearly described the past and probable future course of the Boxer rising. The natural opposition of many Chinese to the Western innovations representing the numerous concessions was pointed out, and it was added, " If the conviction once takes hold of the mass of the Chinese that foreign re-

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forms can be strangled by violence, which takes the ostensible form of protecting the Dynasty, while it inci-dentally exterminates foreigners, there is no part of the Empire which will be habitable for any foreigners, or even a sphere of influence for their future exploitation." The Boxer movement was declared to be " widespread and full of potencies for illimitable mischief." The mis-take of allowing Li Ping Heng, the former Governor of Shantung who was removed at the demand of the Ger-mans, to take a far more important office, was pointed out; also the fact that it was essential for the Germans to unite with the American and the French Governments in requiring from the Chinese authorities that Yii Hsien should alter his fatal policy, and carry out the treaties, or else that another official should be appointed in his place. " Unless this step is taken before it is too late, there is imminent danger that a work of ruin will be wrought which may require decades to repair."

This was followed by another leader written about the middle of January, published in the same journal Feb. 17th, in which the history, aims, and prospects of the I Ho Ch'uan were reviewed under the title : " The Crisis in the North," the concluding paragraph of which was as follows : " It should be made plain to the apprehension of the authorities in Peking that the period of fine-sound-ing phrases has definitely passed, and that henceforth there must be acts to match. We can not too strongly insist that unless this is done, it is morally certain that the opening season will witness a rising such as foreign-ers in China have never seen before. The whole country from the Yellow River to the Great Wall and beyond will be in a blaze of insurrection which will not only annihilate every foreign interest in the interior, but will drive every foreigner out of Tientsin and Peking under

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conditions which it is not difficult to foresee. There has been more or less danger of such an uprising for a long time. Unless strong and united efforts are now put forth, it is as certain to take place as any future event can well be. Those who are interested in preventing it will act accordingly."

At the conclusion of a news-letter in the same paper, published Feb. 6th, the following words were used : " We see no reason to modify the long-formed, often con-firmed, and now more than ever self-evident conclusion, that unless something is soon done to stop this great and dangerous movement, it will drive every foreigner out of the Empire, an end for which it was started, and for which it has been consistently and deliberately fostered."

The columns of the " Peking and Tientsin Times " like-wise contained frequent communications on the same sub-ject, and the editorial warnings of that paper were so full of vigour that the leading Consul expressed his seri-ous dissatisfaction with its utterances.

To trace in detail the irregular progress of the anti-foreign movement which was now well under way, would be at once difficult, wearisome and superflu-ous. Throughout the disaffected regions in Shan-tung and Chihli the phenomena were everywhere re-peated with monotonous similarity, and there was a vigour and a volume in them which required no experi-enced prophet to interpret. The smouldering fires had long been beneath the hatches. Foreign aggression, and the threat of the dominance of China by foreign syndi-cates with their railways and their mining schemes, and the alternative " partition of China " always in the offing, had roused the passions of the Manchu rulers to a white heat.

No one at the time suspected all that was beneath

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the surface, but there is the strongest reason to suppose that the Imperial Decree issued Jan. 24th, 1900, in the name of the Emperor, was a part of a deeply laid plot. The Emperor was made to say that finding that there was no probability (or even possibility) of his having a child, he had besought the Empress Dowager to select some suitable person to be adopted as heir to the Em-peror T'ung Chih (thus passing over the Emperor Kuang Hsu altogether.) She is represented as being graciously pleased, after repeated requests to nominate P'u Chiin, the son of Tsai Yi, as the Heir Apparent, and this was officially proclaimed all over the Empire and the world, as an event of supreme interest and importance.

The numerous and not altogether intelligible Decrees issued in connection with this event, left it uncertain what the future position of the Emperor was to be, but it ap-peared altogether likely that the design was to supplant him entirely as soon as it was certain that it would be safe to do so. Two high officials, called Ch'ung Yi and Hsu T'ung, were appointed Imperial Tutors, the first being the father-in-law of T'ung Chih, who had never had any intercourse with foreigners, and the second a pro-nounced foreign-hater who would not use the Legation Street entrance to his residence because the road had been metalled and provided with gutters.

The lad of fourteen who was now brought into notice as the presumptive heir to the throne of the Chinese Empire, was a grandson of Prince Tun, the fifth son of the Emperor Tao Kuang. As Kuang Hsu was the son of the Seventh Prince, the new Heir Apparent was the " first cousin once removed " of the reigning Sover-eign. His father was Prince Tuan, of whom foreigners knew very little, but who was ascertained to have been a rough and imperfectly educated man of violent man-

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ners and ambitious character. It afterwards appeared highly probable that some kind of a compact was entered into between this man and the Empress Dowager, whereby in consideration of his support of her measures his son was to succeed the Emperor. It is of course im-possible to prove any such agreement, but the supposition seems to fit the very singular facts perfectly, and may well be assumed to be true until disproved.

Subsequent events made it certain that the Empress Dowager had come to the conclusion that in some way for-eigners must be got rid of. The Boxer movement was one of unknown and immeasurable potentialities. If it were not directed against the foreigner, it might be turned against the Manchu Dynasty which had allowed the for-eigner to obtain such a foot-hold. Between these alterna-tives it was not difficult to choose, and the Empress Dow-ager did not hesitate for a moment. She recalled Yii Hsien, but as already mentioned, it was to patronize him by the presentation of an inscription written by the " Im-perial pen," and in a memorial presented by Li Ping Heng, Yii Hsien was recommended as one of those whose services should be made use of as worthy of all confi-dence.

Let us now turn to the Legations in Peking to ascer-tain with what eyes they viewed the rising storm, and what steps they took to meet it. On the 29th of Dec. Sir Claude MacDonald wrote to the Yamen to warn them that if the disorder were not vigourously quelled, international complications were likely to ensue. Upon hearing of the death of Mr. Brooks, a special message of regret from the Throne was sent by one of the Grand Secretaries to the British Minister. The Chinese Minis-ter to Great Britain was also instructed to express the same sentiments to Lord Salisbury.

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On the 1 8th of January, Mr. Conger wrote to the Yamen in regard to the neglect to punish the rioters at various places, reminding them of his previous dis-regarded warnings, and protesting against the absolute inactivity of Yii Hsien, and the encouragement thus given to the Boxers. " It is also currently circulated in Shan-tung and elsewhere that these secret Societies, such as the Boxer and Big Knife, actually believe that they have the secret sympathy and endorsement of the Throne, and unhappily many sinologues insist that the Imperial De-cree of the nth inst. in large measure justifies this be-lief; certainly the Imperial commendation of Gov. Yii Hsien furnishes grounds for such opinions."

The Imperial utterance here referred to was in itself sufficient to convince anyone acquainted with China and its Government that the Throne was not only indisposed to suppress the Societies in question, but approved of them.

Throughout this whole movement it is necessary to call attention to the incessant exhibition of the inherent in-sincerity of the Chinese in their official utterances. Im-perial Edicts would be put forth in form and phrase apparently most uncompromising, but accompanied or fol-lowed by the paralyzing " secret instructions " that they were to be taken in a sense directly the opposite of the apparent meaning. This phenomenon is singular to the Occidental only, — to the Oriental it is a mere matter of course. The same holds good of all official proclamations and announcements down to those of the district Magis-trate. The people, long practiced in the art, are able as by a kind of instinct to judge whether words mean what they say, and how far it is safe or perhaps ad-visable to disregard them altogether, while the foreigner, to whom definite threats and promises seem to have a

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It jm

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specific value, is often totally in the dark. But when such Janus-faced phrases as those of the Edict of January nth appear, there is no longer room for doubt what is underneath and behind them.

Witness the following extract : " Of late in all the provinces brigandage has daily become more prevalent, and missionary cases have recurred with frequency. Most critics point to seditious societies as the cause, and ask for rigourous suppression and punishment of them. But reflection shows that societies are of different kinds. When worthless vagabonds form themselves into bands and sworn confederacies, and relying on their numbers create disturbances, the law can show absolutely no leniency to them. On the other hand when peaceful and law-abiding people practice their skill in mechanical arts for the preservation of themselves and their families, or when they combine in village communities for the mutual protection of the rural population, this is in accord with the public-spirited principle (enjoined by Mencius) of ' keeping mutual watch and giving mutual help.' Some local authorities, when a case arises, do not regard this distinction, but listening to false and idle rumours re-gard all alike as seditious societies, and involve all in one indiscriminate slaughter. The result is that, no dis-tinction being made between the good and the evil, men's minds are thrown into fear and doubt. It means not that the people are disorderly, but that the administration is bad."

This Edict had no sooner appeared than it was im-mediately recognized as not only harmless to the Boxers, but their bulwark and charter.

Knowing the antecedent circumstances, and the condi-tions at the time when this Imperial utterance was out forth, it would have been quite safe for a person of

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thorough acquaintance with China, to forecast the whole progress of the Boxer movement from that document alone, as Agassiz reconstructed a fish from a single bone. This prevision of the results was exactly what the Chinese were able to make with confidence, and, as the events showed, with accuracy also. Had the Ministers in Peking been able to read these luminous signs of the times in the same way, the whole course of events would have been different.

That the Edict was nugatory was too plain to be denied. On the 27th of January the British, Amer-ican, French, German and Italian Ministers requested that an Imperial Decree should be issued declar-ing the suppression of the two Societies by name. Al-most a whole month having elapsed without the least word from the Yamen on the subject, a further identic note was addressed to them, but still no Decree was published. By this time the disturbances had spread widely, and Boxer drilling had begun in the environs of Peking and Tientsin, and the state of things in the interior, which Mr. Conger (Jan. 27th) had informed the Yamen was " a disgrace to any civilized country," was steadily growing worse.

On the 27th of February Sir Claude again wrote asking for an Imperial Decree ordering by name the complete suppression of both Societies, and declaring that to belong to them or to harbour their members was a criminal offence against the law of China, himself adding that " the consequences of further disorder in the district can not fail to be extremely serious to the Chinese Govern-ment."

On the 25th of February the Yamen sent a very un-satisfactory reply to the note of the Foreign Ministers, but on the 1st of March they at last met the demand for

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an Imperial Edict, by saying that such had now been issued, and that instructions had been given to Yii Lu, Governor of Chihli, and to the Governor of Shantung to put out proclamations rigidly prohibiting the I Ho Ch'iian. The former had already done so, and a copy of his proclamation was enclosed, which proved to be ex-plicit and pronounced in tone, and might, if put forth at the beginning and followed up, have prevented the further spread of the movement. The Foreign Ministers had ar-ranged for an audience with the Yamen on the 2nd, and came prepared with an identic note, repeating the de-mand for an Imperial Edict, and requiring that it should be published in the " Peking Gazette." Mr. Conger's letter of that date notified the Yamen that, were this reasonable request refused, he should be obliged to report to his Government their failure to take ordinary precautions against a most pernicious and anti-foreign organization. He repeated that " the consequences of further disorder could not fail to be most serious to the Chinese Government."

At the interview the Yamen Ministers claimed that all had now been done that could be done to suppress the movement, and pointed to the explicit language of the proclamation of Yii Lu. Baron von Ketteler called at-tention to the omission of the name of the Great Sword Society in the proclamation, and alleged as the reason that the head of it (Yii Hsien) was now in Peking. The Yamen replied that the I Ho Ch'iian and the Great Sword Society had amalgamated and were now the same thing. The suggestion that the former Governor of Shantung was the head of the Great Sword Society was received with undisguised merriment by the Prince and Ministers, but the former admitted that Yii Hsien was to blame for not having suppressed the disturbances.

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The demand of the Foreign Ministers that the Imperial Edict should be published in the " Peking Gazette " led to a great deal of correspondence with the Yamen, in which the former were firm and the latter inflexible. Their contention was that the Decree in the " Gazette " was less authoritative than Confidential Instructions, and likewise in the end less widely known; and that as the demand had not been made in the first instance and the Confidential Instructions had already been issued, it was impossible to violate precedent and now insert them in the " Gazette." This difficulty was in the end recognized by the Foreign Ministers as a real one, and the matter was dropped.

On the 6th of March Mr. Conger wrote again to the Yamen in regard to the appointment of Yu Hsien as Governor of Shansi, alleging that much convincing evi-dence proved conclusively that he was acting in sym-pathy and collusion with the Boxers, and consequently was an officer totally unfit to govern territory where for-eign missionaries or their followers are located or in-terested. " His conduct is in most flagrant disregard of treaty stipulations and can not be either tolerated or overlooked. Therefore because of all this, and in the interest of safety for the American missionaries and their followers, I herewith file a formal and most emphatic protest against his future appointment to any place where he will have under his control either missionaries or their work." The only difficu/ty with this judicious " protest " was that it was " filed " and forgotten.

Four days later another identic note was sent to the Yamen, repeating the previous demands, with the sug-gestion that if the Chinese Government did not comply, the Ministers would report the matter to their Govern-ments, and strongly urge the advisability of " the adoption

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of other measures " for Fhe protection of the lives and property of their nationals. The same day the Ministers all telegraphed to their Governments that unless the state of affairs improved materially, it would be well for a few ships of war of each nationality to make a naval demonstration in the North China waters. That this was threatened was well known both to foreigners and to the Chinese, and as it seemed the last strand of a now well worn rope upon which much was suspended, great hopes were entertained that a vigourous show of force would compel the Chinese Government to yield.

The French Minister of Foreign Affairs in Paris, told the British Minister to France that if the Ministers of five Powers on the spot considered such a demonstration to be necessary, their Governments could not properly refuse it; but Lord Salisbury thought that it would be " undesirable to resort to naval action until other means were exhausted." The United States Government or-dered one ship of war to Taku, the Italian Minister had two ships placed at his disposal, the German Minister was given the Kiaochou squadron, and at the same time the British Minister asked for two ships, which were at once granted.

From the 10th of March there was another period of three weeks during which the Yamen made no reply to a further identic note sent to them. The correspondence was then reopened by the Yamen, which was still engaged in skirmishing with the Foreign Ministers as to the question of the publication of an Edict in the " Peking Gazette," as already mentioned. On the 14th of April a supple-mentary memorial appeared in the " Peking Gazette " from Yii Lu, Governor of Chihli, reporting the dispatch of Gen. Mei Tung Yi, commanding the right wing of the Huai army, and Chang Lien Fen, an expectant Taotai,

i94 CHINA IN CONVULSION

to lead the forces, and in conjunction with the local officials to suppress and disperse the rioters, and to sta-tion troops for the protection of places where there were churches. He also stated (what was true) that Gen. Mei had upon repeated occasions destroyed Boxer head-quarters by fire, and arrested ringleaders and handed them over to the local officials to be punished. He might also have added that for many months both these mili-tary officials had displayed unceasing activity, and had actually fought many " battles," killing a great number of Boxers in different counties of the Chihli province.

With regard to the turning over of prisoners by the military to the civil officials it was constantly found that the latter, being not infrequently in open or in secret sympathy with the Boxers, either released the prisoners at once, or kept them in a confinement which was merely nominal.

In his report to the Throne, the Governor was careful not to add that the total outcome of all this activity on the part of the General was as nearly as possible nothing at all, and that owing to official and popular goodwill toward the Boxer movement it was so far from being suppressed, that it was every day becoming more threat-ening. The Imperial Rescript to this memorial com-manded that in every case the utmost vigilance be shown in the work of suppression, and that not the slightest remissness be permitted — unmeaning set phrases only to be interpreted by later acts.

On the 17th of April another of the characteristic Im-perial Edicts appeared in the " Gazette " speaking favour-ably of the organization of trained bands in village com-munities for self-preservation and protection, but adding that there was reason to fear that the good and the bad being indiscriminately associated in this way there might

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be found some who would make a pretext of oppressing converts, which was accordingly forbidden. The provin-cial authorities were to see that every man should attend to his own business and live at peace with his fellow-men, so that the reiterated and solemn injunction of the Throne might not be disregarded.

Sir Claude MacDonald, however, inferred from the tone of the communication from the Yamen that " the Chinese Government was prepared to meet our wishes as far as possible," yet at the close of his dispatch re-gretted to have to conclude by stating that the continued activity of the Boxer Society in drilling and enlisting recruits in the neighbourhood of Peking and Tientsin in-dicated that the danger from this source was not yet past ; " but at the same time I think I am justified in expressing the opinion that the Central Government is at last begin-ning to give evidence of a genuine desire to suppress this anti-Christian organization." On the same date the Min-ister telegraphed Lord Salisbury that the " Hermione " and " Brisk," which had been ordered to Taku, had now returned to duty.

XII

CHAPTER 12. Spread of the Rising

SPREAD OF THE RISING

FROM the little cloud in the far south-eastern hori-zon the Boxer movement had now spread north-ward with singular and unexampled rapidity under the immediate observation of the representatives of all the Great Powers, who had contented themselves with sending more or less urgent notes to the Yamen, and with threatening a naval demonstration which never took place, and which if it had taken place would probably have been utterly powerless to quell the dangerous rising of millions of Chinese in the interior. For about a month after the middle of April there seemed to be a lull in the dispatches between the Ministers and the Yamen, broken only by the detailed and monotonous reports from the Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries over a wide stretch of country, that inflammatory placards were being everywhere posted, and that actual attacks upon Christian communities and their chapels were in progress.

In order to understand the swiftness with which the Boxer bacillus spread, it is necessary to take account of the fact that there were special emissaries sent in every direction who put up the handbills, and circulated them broadcast with unstinted liberality. It is impossible to say whence these productions originally emanated, but it is noteworthy that the phraseology of some of those met with in and about Shanghai and of those found in Peking and the regions beyond was substantially identical. In

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widely distant regions it was known that the first that was heard of the LJEaJCh-iian was from men who had come from Shantung, as was the case, for example, in central Shansi ; while in other regions the origin of those who propagated the faith and practices was quite un-known.

The whole basis of this intricate and irrational cult was an amalgam of Buddhist and Taoist supersti-tions, formed with the intention of stirring the people to a fanatical fury against foreigners, in the belief that by means of supernatural agencies rightly employed success would be immediate and certain. Perhaps no description of the Boxer processes would be so good as a few ex-tracts from one of the countless manuals prepared and distributed with a view to enlightening neophytes as to the true method of proceeding.

BOXER INCANTATIONS

The Incantation says, — " The Instructions from (the God) Mi To to his disciples — proclaiming upon every mountain by the Ancient Teachers — reverently inviting (the Gods) from the central southern mountain, from the central eight caves — your disciple — (give name) — studying the Boxer art, to preserve China and destroy Foreigners. The Iron Lo Han, if cut with knife, or chopped with axe, there will be no trace. Cannon can-not injure, water cannot drown. If I urgently invite the gods they will quickly come, if I tardily invite them they will tardily come — from their seats in every mountain cave. Ancient Teachers, Venerable Mother, do quickly as I command (in this incantation.)

(2) The Divine Boxer Incantation says, — Imperial Heaven, Revered Ancients, The Cave of the Five Bud-

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dhas A Mi To Fo, upper eight genii, middle eight, lower eight, A Mi To Fo, come and instruct me, A Mi To Fo Honourable Ruler of Heaven, -come and instruct me, A Mi T'o Fo — Holy Mother of the three Genii, Tang Seng, Sha Seng, Pa Chieh, Wu K'ung. I do not know which reverend Teacher will visit my humble place.

MANNER OF EXERCISE

" With the two hands fix the magic fingers, the feet upon a cross (marked on the ground), facing east, read the above charm three times, knock the head three times, again read the above thrice in succession, in one hundred days will practice to perfection. Note. If you do not desist from meat, do not bathe, and truly preserve a re-spectful heart while reading the above, it will be ineffec-tual— this is exceedingly important. This charm if not placed in a clean spot can not be preserved. Do not be careless in the matter."

ANOTHER EXERCISE

" Face to the south-east, with left hand perform the Three Mountain charm, with the right perform the charm of the Twisted Dragon, mark on ground two crosses, tread with two feet — read the following charm once, fol-low with one knocking of head — at least read seven times, at most ten times. The gods will then take possession of your body." The Charm says, — " First I invite the Great Scholar from the Southern Sea (a god), the Buddha from the western Heaven, also I invite the hon-ourable Teacher Huang to come quickly and teach me, also the upper eight gods, the Great Buddha from the western Heaven, the middle eight gods, the five pure

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Buddhas, the three lower eight gods, the A Mi T'o Buddha, I also invite the reverend early Teacher Huang, come quickly and teach me.

Write above the door, Red Heaven Precious Sword — on back door write o°o (a charm.)"

(3) A Charm to protect against Guns and Cannons. " In the northern region open the mouth of the Cave, from the cave invite the iron gods to come forth — the Temple of the iron gods, the seat of the iron gods, iron men, iron clothes, iron protection, resisting iron cannon that they cannot approach. Heaven and Earth establish me, sun and moon shine upon me. Quickly come at my command, (in the charm.)"

ANOTHER EXERCISE

" The Holy men Kuang P'ing and Chou T'sang wor-shipped on the Northern Throne. Bow once and knock the head to the south-east — read the following once — again three times and bow and knock head, shut the eyes, stand on two feet together — use charm with thumb, say-ing ' I invite southern A Mi T'o Fo ' — do as before — use charm with first finger, say — ' strike Heaven, the heaven gate opens, strike Earth, the earth gate ap-proaches. I desire to learn of the Divine Boxers, and in-vite the genii Teacher to come ' — follow with the Yuan Wu charm, one bow to the south and read once, one step one bow, one reading, another step three bows, one read-ing, another step, shut eyes two feet stand together."

One or two specimens of Boxer posters will likewise give an insight into the intellectual and emotional condi-tion of the people who were so greatly moved by these agencies. The first one to be quoted was perhaps as widely diffused as any other, and the prescription with

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which it closes was, with variations, appended to others of a like description but differing in form :

" Sacred Edict, Issued by the Lord of Wealth and Happiness.

" The Catholic and Protestant religions being insolent to the gods, and extinguishing sanctity, rendering no obedience to Buddha, and enraging Heaven and Earth, the rain-clouds no longer visit us ; but eight million Spirit Soldiers will descend from Heaven and sweep the Empire clean of all foreigners. Then will the gentle showers once more water our lands ; and when the tread of soldiers and the clash of steel are heard heralding woes to all our people, then the Buddhist Patriotic League of Boxers will be able to protect the Empire and to bring peace to all its people.

" Hasten, then, to spread this doctrine far and wide, for if you gain one adherent to the faith your own person will be absolved from all future misfortunes. If you gain five adherents your whole family will be absolved from all evils, and if you gain ten adherents your whole village will be absolved from all calamities. Those who gain no adherents to the cause shall be decapitated, for until all foreigners have been exterminated the rain can never visit us. Those who have been so unfortunate as to have drunk water from wells poisoned by foreigners should at once make use of the following , Divine Prescription, the ingredients of which are to be decocted and swallowed, when the poisoned patient will recover:

" Dried black plums half an ounce.

Solanum dulcamara half an ounce.

Liquorice root half an ounce."

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In the following placard the range of complaints and grievances is much wider than in the preceding, and gives a better idea of the unrest of the minds of the people :

" The Chinese Empire has been celebrated for its sacred teaching. It explained heavenly truth and hu-man duties, and its civilizing influence spread as an orna-ment over rivers and mountains.

" But in an unaccountable manner all this has been changed. For the past five or six generations bad_officials have been in office, bureaus have been opened for the sale of offices, and only those who had money to pay for it have been allowed to hold positions in the Government. The graduation of scholars has become useless, and mem-bers of the College of Literature and scholars of the third degree are in obscurity at home. An official position can only be obtained as the price of, silver. The Emperor [covets the riches of his Ministers, these again extort from the lower ranks of the mandarinate and the lower man-darins in turn (by the necessity of their position) must extort from the people. The whole populace is sunk in wretchedness, and all the officials are spoilers of their food.

" The condition of the yamens is unspeakable. In every market and in every guild nothing can be done unless money is spent. The officials must be bribed. All sorts of exactions are made. These officials are full of schemes none of which are in accordance with the three principles. Having forfeited their heaven-derived disposition they are unreasonable and unregulated. They are all alike — ill-gotten wealth is their one object. Right has disappeared from the world. There is nothing but squabbling and extortion on all hands, and lawsuits are unnumbered. In the yamens it is of no avail to have a clear case, unless you bribe you will lose the day. There is no one to whom

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the aggrieved may appeal; the simple multitudes are killed with oppression and their cry goes up to heaven itself and is heard of God. Though spiritual beings and sages were sent down to teach right principles, to issue good books, and to instruct the multitude, few, alas! heeded. Who is there that understands? The evil go on their course rejoicing, while the spiritual powers are conscious that their teaching has been vain.

" Now in anger the heavenly Powers are sending down multitudes of spirits to earth to make inquiry of all, both high and low. The Emperor himself, the chiel^offender, has had his succession cut off and is childless. The whole Court both civil and military, is in an unspeakable condi-tion. They indulge blindly in mere amusement, and dis-regard the cry of the widow, repenting of nothing, and learning nothing good.

" Greater calamities still have overtaken the nation. Foreign devils come with their teaching, and converts to Christianity, Roman Catholic and Protestant, have be-come numerous. These (churches) are without human relations, but being most cunning have attracted all the greedy and covetous as converts, and to an unlimited degree they have practiced oppression, until every good official has been corrupted, and, covetous of foreign wealth, has become their servant. So telegraphs have been established, foreign rifles and guns have been manu-factured, and machine-shops have been a delight to their evil nature. Locomotives, balloons, electric lamps, the foreign devils think excellent. Though these foreigners ride in sedans unbefitting their rank, China yet regards them as barbarians of whom God disapproved, and He is sending down spirits and genii for their destruction.

" The first of these powers which has already descended is the Light of the Red Lamp, and the Volunteer Asso-

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ciated Fists who will have a fight with the devils. They will burn down the foreign buildings and restore the temples. Foreign goods of every variety they will de-stroy. They will extirpate the evil demons, and estab-lish right teaching, — the honour of the spirits and the sages: they will cause their sacred teaching to flourish.

" The purpose of Heaven is fixed ; a clean sweep is to be made. Within three years all will be accomplished. The bad will not escape the net, and the goodness of God will be seen. The secrets of Heaven are not to be lightly disclosed, but the days to come are not unknown — at least the Yu Miao years (1902-1903). The song of the little ones ends here in a promise of happiness to men, the joy of escape from rapine. This last word is the sum-mary of all. Scholars and gentlemen must by no means esteem this a light and idle curse, and so disregard its warning."

While the gods and the eight million spirits were thus issuing their ultimatum, the officials on their part were supposed to be putting out proclamations embodying, in accordance with their orders from the Governor, the substance of the Imperial Edicts. But it was soon known that over wide areas of country the proclamations were either never put up at all, or were immediately torn down by the indignant people.

In response to complaints of this state of things, the Yamen informed Mr. Conger that they had addressed the Superintendent of Northern Trade requesting a thorough investigation, the local authorities being instructed to act in concert with the military, and to take action in good earnest that peace and quiet might prevail.

The same Minister further remonstrated that the Boxers were arming, all about Tung Chou, where there was a College of the American Board, that thousands of

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sailors were continually arriving on the grain-boats, that several tens of thousands of students from twenty-four departments would soon be coming, so that great care must everywhere be exercised in regard to the chapels.

One of the missionaries in T'ung Chou showed the Taotai anonymous Boxer placards and pointed out to that official (the highest in the city) that the Boxers were drilling in the north-west corner, but the Chou Magistrate declared that he knew nothing about it. The Taotai pe-titioned the Governor for a detachment of cavalry to do patrol duty, but when they arrived it was at once evident that they were in full sympathy with the Boxers ; they themselves incited the people to make an attack. The Taotai was the only official in that city who was not playing into the hands of the Boxers, and his position was one of great difficulty and soon became perilous in the extreme.

During the weary months in which this rising had been in progress of development as we have seen, re-peated and urgent representations had been made to the Foreign Ministers in Peking by French, Italian, and German missionaries on behalf of the Roman Catholic, and by British and American missionaries for the Protes-tant Christians, both in Chihli and in Shantung. The receipt of these communications was suitably acknowl-edged, representations were made to the Chinese Govern-ment with more or less promptness, energy, and insistence by the various Ministers.

The Tsung Li Yamen received these complaints with courteous surprise, doubted the reality of such a serious state of things, asked for " proofs," and promised to instruct the Governor General of Chihli and the Gov-ernor of Shantung to look into the matter. If the real condition of matters complained of existed, they were

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to ascertain where tHe blame rested, to report to Peking, and to issue proclamations forbidding these acts in future.

The Ministers repeated the substance of the replies to the complainants, who renewed the complaints, having by this time more serious outrages to report. In due course the Ministers received the fresh appeals, recog-nized the existence of even graver difficulties than before, wrote " a strong despatch " to the Yamen pointing out the new evils in aggravated forms, and the utter emptiness of the previous replies of the Yamen Ministers. This was responded to by the Yamen in an appropriate manner, with fresh promises of strict inquiry into the reality of the new ills alleged, nothing whatever being anywhere done toward punishing any more than an occasional Boxer, and no effective steps being taken to prevent the organization from spreading.

The vital and incontrovertible fact, long since pointed out by others, that the rising was encouraged by the Chinese Government itself, was beginning to be distinctly perceived even by foreign officials, whose opportunities of observation were restricted.

On the 2nd of May Mr. Carles, the British Consul at Tientsin wrote to Sir Claude MacDonald that the District Magistrate at T'ung An Hsien, about midway between Tientsin and Peking, who had done his utmost to re-press the Boxers, offering rewards for the arrest of the leaders and for information regarding their lodges, had received instructions, reported to come from the Empress Dowager, which led to the withdrawal of the offer of rewards and to an immediate hostility of the people, of so marked a character that the resident missionary at once withdrew his family.

A single chip is sufficient to show which way the cur-rent runs, and this ominous incident might have been ex-

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pected to make it plain that what had been found true in distant Shantung was no less so in the immediate vicinity of the Imperial Capital.

The proofs of this state of things rapidly accumulated. On the 19th of May, Monseigneur Favier, Vicar Apos-tolic of the Roman Catholic Mission in Peking, wrote to the French Minister that the situation was daily be-coming more serious and threatening; that in the prefec-ture of Pao Ting Fu more than seventy Christians had been massacred, several villages had been looted and burned, while others were abandoned, and that over 2,000 Christians were fugitives without food, clothes, or shelter. There were several hundred men, women, and children in Peking as refugees, and within a week thousands were expected.

The Minister was assured that the writer was making no random statements, that the religious persecution was only a blind, and that the main object was to exterminate the Europeans. That accomplices of the Boxers were awaiting them in Peking, that the attack was to begin on the churches, after which the Legation would be as-saulted; and the day for this had been fixed, as was known to the whole town except to the foreigners. The striking resemblance between the present conditions and those prevailing during the Tientsin massacre were pointed out, and M. Pichon was reminded that, at that time also, the missionaries had begged in vain for assis-tance until it was too late.

The day before this the British Minister had heard of the destruction of a chapel of the London Mission 40 miles from Peking, and the murder of a native preacher, so that when the Doyen of the Diplomatic body called a meeting to consider the communication of Mgr. Favier, the seriousness of the situation was felt, and it was once

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more agreed to address the Tsung Li Yamen demanding specific measures for the suppression of the Boxers. The German Minister, Baron von Ketteler, thought that merely to summon Legation Guards was not enough, and that, in case a satisfactory reply to the note was not received, war-ships should be assembled at Shan Hai Kuan so that if necessary parties could be landed for the march to the protection of foreigners in Peking.

It was the solemn warning of Mgr. Favier which at last roused the French Minister to the full sense of the gravity of the situation ; and through him the Diplomatic Body as a whole was awakened to a realisation of what was taking place. Yet at the close of this very dispatch Sir Claude mentions that the Pekingese were quiet and civil toward foreigners and that nothing had come to his knowledge to confirm the gloomy predictions of Mgr. Favier. He concludes his dispatch with this remarkable expression of opinion: " I am convinced that a few days' heavy rain-fall, to terminate the long continued drought which has helped largely to excite unrest in the country districts, would do more to restore tranquillity than any measures which either the Chinese Government or for-eign Government could take."

Sir Claude was entirely right if he meant that no power but that of Heaven could now avail to stop the spread of the great rising which like a tidal wave had already overspread the larger portion of two provinces, and was now inundating the Capital of the Chinese Empire.

Foreseeing the coming storm the Roman Catholics had fortified many of their chapels, cathedrals, and villages, and in some cases successfully resisted all the force which could be brought against them. In a brief time the whole region between Pao Ting Fu and Peking, a dis-

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tance of about a hundred miles, was filled with Boxer camps, and furious organized attacks upon all Christian communities at once began. A Roman Catholic congre-gation was burned alive in its place of worship. Chris-tians were attacked in their homes, or wherever they could be found, cut down at sight, and their bodies thrown into wells and streams. There were supposed to be thirty thousand Boxers gathered in and about the single city of Cho Chou, practicing their magic rites by day and by night eating the farmers of the district into poverty and ruin. They had even captured the Magistrate and, taking possession of his yamen, were compelling him to stamp their proclamations and orders with his official seal.

On May 28 a band of men from Peking and its neigh-bourhood, as well as T'ung Chou, made an attack upon the railway station of Feng T'ai, a few miles southwest of Peking. This place was the junction of the Tientsin-Peking railway with the Lu — Han line from Peking to Pao Ting Fu, which was to be extended to Hankow on the Yangtze. A small foreign guard of twenty men would probably have sufficed to save the place from destruction at that time, and by this means many serious conse-quences might have been avoided, or postponed, which was of only less importance. Yet such was the apathy prevailing at the time, that when this was proposed at one of the Legations it was merely replied that it was " an international question," and the matter was dropped; but the results soon became an international question also.

As it was, the rioters, meeting with no opposition, burned the station as far as they were able, destroyed the machine shop as far as they were able, and stripped the engines of every scrap of brass and of everything else which could be removed. The track was torn up, the sleepers burned or stolen, the telegraph poles cut down,

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and communication between Peking and the rest of the world severed. It is worthy of notice that in a move-ment which has often ignorantly been ascribed merely to hostility to Christian missions, the first acts to awaken the attention of Peking were the wholesale wrecking of railways and telegraph lines which, as an Imperial edict soon after issued reminded the misguided " patriots," were constructed and owned by the Chinese Government.

The headquarters of the Lu — Han railway had been fixed at the market town of Ch'ang Hsin Tien, about six-teen miles from Peking. Here were many foreign houses built by the railway administration for the occupancy of a large colony of Belgian and other engineers and their families, who at once found themselves imprisoned, and unable to escape. Word was brought to Peking of their condition on the 29th, and the following day M. Chamot (a Swiss), the enterprising proprietor of the Hotel de Pekin, and his courageous American wife, with five others, started off on horseback to effect a rescue. Avoid-ing Feng T'ai they reached Ch'ang Hsien Tien in safety. Impressing carts and animals for the journey of the refugees at the Lu Kuo bridge, they brought in the whole party, thirteen men, nine women and seven chil-dren, safely to Peking late the same evening, weary, be-draggled, and in a condition of extreme faintness of body and mind. Those engineers who were at Feng T'ai when the attack took place ran their trains to Tientsin, but without foreign guards it was impossible to keep the line open.

The outbreak at Feng T'ai is of especial importance as marking the initial point of the second stage in the development of the I Ho Ch'iian. Thus far they had merely destroyed the houses of converts, pillaged and exacted fines, and killed native Christians, acts which

210 CHINA IN CONVULSION

have been by no means rare in the history of foreign relations with China. Henceforth the proceedings at-tained to the dignity of a rising of the people, abetted by the Government, against the Government itself.

Such was the state of things at the end of May when the storm broke. Members of families of the British and American Legations were even enjoying themselves at their summer houses in the western hills twelve miles from Peking at the time, and had to be recalled in hot haste. Then, and for weeks afterward, the fatal assump-tion seemed to have chloroformed the entire Peking community that " Nothing can happen here in Peking." A series of terrible catastrophes was required to dispel this inexplicable delusion.

The diplomatic corps, after repeated meetings, decided to telegraph for guards to come from the warships al-ready assembled at Taku, to protect the Legations, a step which should have been taken a month earlier. The Tsung Li Yamen of course objected to the insult of bringing foreign troops to the Chinese capital and prom-ised ample protection with Chinese forces. The Min-isters refused to consider the question of the guards an open one. The guards must come, if not with the consent of the Chinese Government, then without it. The Yamen had to consult Prince Ch'ing, Prince Ch'ing had an audience with the Empress Dowager, and the consent was given rather than risk a collision with the world combined.

Even now there were many in the various Legations who were opposed to bringing up a large force, since a smaller one must have the same moral effect with less irritation to the Chinese Government. As it was very uncertain, however, how the Government would act, there was good reason still to fear that the arrival of

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340 marines, which took place after many delays late on the evening of May 31, would be a signal for a general attack upon foreigners, and indiscriminate pillage and massacre.

The American, Russian, Japanese, Italian, French and British contingents marched from the railway station out-side the south city (the railway having been temporarily repaired and the city gates having been left open for their admittance) to their Legations with fixed bayonets through the densest crowds which some of them had ever seen. The Chinese made no demonstration of any kind. On Sunday, June 3d, fifty German marines and thirty-five Austrian sailors arrived with a machine-gun, by the mid-day train, the Governor General at Tien-tsin having done his best to prevent the entrain-ing of the soldiers, only yielding when assured that otherwise they would seize the engines and cars and go without his permission. The preliminary crisis was past, and the lives of the foreigners in Peking were for the moment once more secure. The total num-ber of foreign troops actually introduced, including seven Cossack permanent legation guards, was only 18 officers and 389 men. It should not have been less than a thou-sand, with which number it would have been possible to make a defense with some prospect of success.

The Chinese Government had promised to repair the Tientsin Railway, and for a few days it was in a passable condition. The Lu — Han line, however, was hopelessly wrecked from the first. Almost every station was de-stroyed, and for the greater part of the distance the Boxers were so numerous that all communication with the south by that route was permanently cut off. The whole country south and southwest of Peking was filled with wild reports of pillage, arson and the murder of

212 CHINA IN CONVULSION

Christians, each day's narrative being more fearsome than the ones that went before.

A large party of Belgian and other engineers finding their lives no longer safe at Pao Ting Fu, endeavoured to escape with an escort to Tientsin by boat. They were betrayed and attacked on the river, lost their boat and went astray, dividing into two companies, one of which tried to return, but was lost to knowledge for many months, when it appeared that some of them had made their way to the city of Cheng Ting Fu, where together with a Bishop, several priests and nuns, they had defended themselves. The main body went overland to Tientsin, suffering great hardships on the route, being at last brought into that settlement by a large rescue party who went out to look for them.

On June 7, as threats of impending troubles became more ominous, three of the gentlemen determined to make one more effort to get help from the Taotai, or intendant of the T'ung Chou circuit, the highest official in the city. This gentleman had been formerly connected with the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company, and was well known to be particularly friendly toward foreigners and pleased with their ways, as an instance of which he had his reception-room fitted with platform rocking chairs and his office with a roll-top desk, both rare articles in a Chinese dwelling. These known predi-lections made him exceedingly unpopular at this time and greatly added to his personal danger, as he was suffi-ciently well aware.

Sending every one of his numerous retainers out of his reception room, the Taotai poured forth his grievous lamentations at the terrible pass to which things had now come and frankly declared that he was himself helpless

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to do anything whatever. He had but a small force of ill-armed men, not one of them to be depended upon, and all of them needed in many places at once. He had already sent to Tientsin for soldiers who had arrived the day before, but both he and his visitors were certain that these soldiers would be sure to take the part of the Boxers, and would be of no service whatever as guards, either to property or to persons. His evident distress left not the smallest doubt of his sincerity, and of his view of the desperate nature of the conditions.

When the gentlemen left the Taotai's yamen they were confronted with a howling mass of turbulent people who would have been only too glad to bring on a riot at once. By cautious tact a collision was avoided, but it was at once perceived that an immediate retreat to Peking was imperative. A telegram was sent to inform the American Minister of the dangerous situation, and to ask for a guard of ten marines to escort the party to the capital. The Minister, however, sent no guard, recommending the employment of Chinese soldiers instead. But these were felt to be untrustworthy and wholly inadmissible even were they available, which was far from certain, and the inevitable delay might have been fatal to the se-curity sought. No conveyances were to be had in T'ung Chou on any terms, as they had long since been engaged to carry away those natives who foresaw clearly the com-ing storm and dared not face it. The Rev. W. S. Ament of Peking under these urgent circumstances kindly en-gaged sixteen Peking carts, and himself accompanied them from Peking to T'ung Chou alone, arriving late in the evening. The disturbed state of the country rendered this an act of conspicuous courage.

While the party was preparing to leave T'ung Chou,

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word was brought in that the day before a Roman Catho-lic village had been looted and burned and several people killed. Immediately after, the same fate overtook the two out-stations belonging to Tung Chou for which great anxiety had been felt. One preacher with all his family was killed, and another escaped by the breadth of a hair. In these two villages perhaps thirty-five or forty Chris-tians were reported as burned to death or cut in pieces, the church being almost annihilated.

Soon after 3 o'clock the next morning a party of twenty-four Americans — six men, eleven women and seven children — with a considerable number of native Christians who dared remain no longer, left the ground of the North China College outside the city. They formed a long procession of carts, huge T'ung Chou wheelbarrows, and heavily laden donkeys. Most of the Americans and several of the Chinese were armed with rifles or revolvers, or both.

Two of these gentlemen living at T'ung Chou had up to the last moment clung to the idea of remaining be-hind with a small band of trusty Chinese, hoping by a show of force to keep off the Boxers, who had already been visibly overawed by the display from the tower of one of the houses of the American flag, which was sup-posed to indicate the presence of a concealed army. A telescope mounted upon the same commanding position was thought by the Chinese to be a swivel gun of such extraordinary power that if it were once discharged it would lay flat a full half of the city of T'ung Chou ! But the moral certainty that the Tientsin soldiers would side with the Boxers, as nearly all Chinese troops did, showed the rashness of attempting the impossible. This change of plan at the last moment prevented an adequate prep-aration for a sudden departure, and the result was a

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particularly exiguous supply of clothing on the part of some of the missionary refugees.

Although a few hours later such a journey would have been impossible, at the time nothing unusual was detected in the demeanour of the Chinese who were seen while on the way to Peking.

It was afterwards ascertained that Shen Taotai of T'ung Chou, who was exceedingly anxious that no mis-hap should befall this large party on its unprotected journey, sent some of his own retainers armed but in or-dinary costume, to watch the procession at a distance, until it entered the gate of the southern city, with orders that if there was any attack it was to be resisted. The Taotai himself later escaped to Shanghai by the skin of his teeth, but with the loss of all his possessions. His marked friendliness to the helpless foreigners within his jurisdiction richly entitle him to some special recognition of his merits.

At 8 p. m. on Friday, June 8, the party reached Peking, most of them finding welcome in the spacious and hospi-table compound of the American Methodist Mission in the Filial Piety Alley (Hsiao Shun Hu T'ung), situated a few hundred yards east of the great street leading north from the Ha Ta gate, and almost immediately under the city wall.

A meeting of Americans had been previously called at the Methodist compound on the afternoon of that day to deliberate upon the proper steps to be taken in the present crisis.

It was decided that all Americans not already in the Legation should remove to the Methodist compound at once for mutual defence; that the Minister should be asked for a guard of twenty marines ; that in view of the presence of members of the London Mission and

2i6 CHINA IN CONVULSION

many of their converts the British Minister be requested to furnish ten marines, and that a strong telegram be sent to the President of the United States, representing the threatening aspect of affairs. The following message was accordingly despatched that afternoon:

" President McKinley, Washington : Boxers destroy chapels, massacre hundreds Christians, threaten extermi-nate all foreigners. T'ung Chou abandoned; Pao Ting Fu, Tsun Hua extreme danger. Chinese troops useless. Attack Peking, Tientsin daily threatened. Railways de-stroyed, telegraphs cut. Chinese Government paralyzed. Imperial edicts double-faced; favour Boxers. Universal peril. Unless situation promptly relieved, thirty Ameri-cans convened regard outlook practically hopeless."

To show how little effect six months of the most earnest representations had produced, it is worth while to call attention to the fact that the telegram just quoted was substantially the same as the one which was sent by two American missionaries from P'ang Chuang in north-western Shantung to Minister Conger, dated Dec. 2, 1899, as follows:

" Boxer rebellion twenty counties Shantung, Chihli, rapidly spreading. Pillage, arson, murders increasing; avowed object kill Christians, exterminate foreigners. Unless four Legations combine pressure, P'ang Chuang, Lin Ch'ing, Chi Nan Fu, Americans consider situation almost hopeless."

It was suggested by some that a message so plain spoken as this would not be forwarded over the Imperial telegraph lines, but this was not the case. Only the word " double-faced " was charged as two words, affording a fresh illustration that the Chinese are willing enough to be considered " double-faced " if only foreigners will pay the extra bill.

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The check by which payment was made for this tele-gram was never presented for payment, and the dispatch seems never to have been received, though it may have been sent. Other telegrams, however, were duly sent and received.

XIII

CHAPTER 13.

THE BOXERS AND THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT

BY the end of May the great Boxer rising had reached the very gates of the Capital, and was hourly gathering momentum. It was now a question of the utmost importance what was the real rela-tion between its leaders and the Chinese Government. The conviction which had gained ground among countless Chinese and among many well-informed foreigners that the Society had been at least tacitly approved by the highest authorities in the Empire, was altogether scouted by many who were in a position to entitle their opinions to weight. The gradual and inconspicuous manner in which the Boxer cult was introduced led them to the con-clusion that it was literally merely " child's play/' and of no significance.

From the Chinese point of view the foreigners were seizing the Empire piecemeal, and abolishing the most ancient and most cherished Chinese rights, and if a period were not speedily put to their encroachments, there' would be nothing left to save from their clutches.

From the foreign point of view the Chinese, who had always been obstructive and unreasonable, were now more so than ever. There was a general feeling that strong measures were absolutely required if the long standing rights of the treaties were not to be abrogated altogether, and if the recent agreements were not to be completely nullified.

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When each side felt that the other was violating its agreements, friction was unavoidable and an explosion was not improbable. It is a favourite Chinese tenet that after a certain period of civic tranquillity there must ensue a season of relative chaos. For some reason not perceptible to Occidental intellects, a year in which there is an intercalary eighth moon is expected to be a year of social disorder, especially if its characters in the cycle are the ones known as " Keng-tzu." Each of these condi-tions held good in the year 1900. Throughout a large part of the Eighteen Provinces there was a general ex-pectation that by the eighth moon there would be serious disturbances.

Many who had been anticipating such an event at that time were taken by surprise because the catas-trophe occurred so many months earlier. Why this was the case no one was able to explain, and it is likely that there was no other reason than that the natural progress of events developed the crisis prematurely. There were special causes for a popular rising during the spring. The drought was great and practically universal. For the first time since the great famine in 1878 no winter wheat to speak of had been planted in any part of northern China. Under the most favorable circumstances the spring rains are almost invariably in-sufficient, but that year they were almost wholly lacking. The ground was baked so hard that no crops could be put in, and at such times the idle and restless population are ready for any mischief.

Ever since the peace between China and Japan, the prestige of Great Britain in China had been steadily de-clining until it had reached the lowest ebb in history. Within the past few years the multiplication of native newspapers had brought superficial intelligence of the

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outside world to the ears of every well informed Chinese along the sea-board, and at Peking. While ignorant of the causes of current events and totally free from any-thing like a philosophy of history, the Chinese are re-markably shrewd judges in an empirical way of what the different Powers probably would or would not do. They had noted, probably with surprise, that a handful of South African farmers whose total numbers were far below that of a fifth class Chinese city, had contrived to withstand the utmost power of Great Britain for many months, and that there were no signs of a conclusion of the strife. The capable British Consul deputed to settle the punishment of the murderers of Mr. Brooks in Shan-tung, thought it worth his while to let Gov. Yuan Shih K'ai know incidentally that Gen. Cronje had surrendered with several thousand of his troops, but if the Governor bestowed any thought at all upon the matter it must have occurred to him how little effect that event had upon the progress of the war as a whole. The fact that the hands of Great Britain were tied for so long a time at one of the most critical periods of recent years, has per-haps modified the whole course of affairs in the Far West.

The relation between the Manchus and the Chinese in the government of the Chinese Empire, it is well again to remind ourselves, is one of the most interest-ing phenomena in the history of the " black-haired race." The Manchus have long ago lost the virtues by which they gained the Empire, and there were ever increasing evi-dences that they had also lost the right by which alone they claimed to rule — " the Decree of Heaven." They had, within recent years, in an ever increasing degree vio-lated the explicit understanding by which they were allowed the undisputed rule of China, that in the practical

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administration Chinese and Manchus should be upon an equal footing. When the Boxer rising came to a head most of the important positions in China were held by Manchus, and it was currently believed that it was in-tended ere long to give them all the rest, for thus alone absolute devotion to the Dynasty could be secured.

One of the prominent occasions of the fall of the pre-ceding Ming Dynasty was the disreputable and remedi-less evils connected with the government of the country through the influence of eunuchs. One of the earlier emperors of the Tartar Dynasty is said to have under-taken to prevent the repetition of these scandals by the erection of an indestructible warning against them, in the shape of an inscription cast in iron. But during the ascendency of the Empress Dowager the favouritism of the eunuchs has been worse than perhaps ever before in this Dynasty, and there was one of them (often termed "the sham eunuch"), the constant companion of Her Majesty, who was popularly supposed to be one of the wealthiest individuals in Peking. He was reputed to have an estate valued at thirty-eight million taels of silver, obtained through bribes and presents. It was supposed that many of the gold-shops, banks, pawn-broking es-tablishments, and the like, in Peking, were owned by him. Just as the Boxer rising reached the vicinity of the Capital this man was reported to have died, where-upon there was great rejoicing. But the rumour turned out to be false. The only interest pertaining to the matter at present is the reappearance a year later of this same individual in connection with the exiled Court at Hsi An Fu, where he was said to have exercised the Same baleful influence as at Peking. According to Chinese who may be supposed to have a right to speak, this Li Lien Ying was one of those most influential in

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leading the Empress Dowager to feel that the time had fully come for a strong effort to expel all foreigners from the Empire.

No intelligent observer of Chinese affairs professes to be able to discriminate fact from fiction with certainty in current reports of what goes on within the impenetra-ble Imperial Palace. The inner history of most Chinese affairs has never been disclosed, and now that nearly or quite all of the records have been mercifully destroyed, they never will be. But after an explosion like that to which the Boxer movement led, it was inevitable that there should be numerous revelations w'hidh in the ordinary course of events would never have taken place.

On the ioth of May, 1900, there appeared in the lead-ing foreign journal of China, the " North China Daily News," a long undated letter from its " native cor-respondent " in Peking, who was a member of the famous Tseng family of Hunan, and was at the time a Secre-tary in one of the Boards. While on his way south during the troubles he disappeared, and it is supposed that like many others in similar circumstances, he was killed.

A few paragraphs from this letter are worth preserv-ing, as a forecast of the future by one who had special opportunities of knowing what was going on beneath the smooth exterior: "I now come to a subject which should be seriously considered by the foreign readers of your paper, for it is a question which concerns all of them. This is the avowed enmity of the Conservatives against all foreigners, except perhaps the Russians. I write in all seriousness and sincerity to inform you that there is a great secret scheme, having for its aim to crush all foreigners in China, and wrest back the territories ' leased ' to them. The chief leaders of this

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movement are the Empress Dowager, Prince Ch'ing, Prince Tuan (the Heir Apparent's father), Kang I, Chao Shu Ch'iao, and Li Ping Heng.

"" The forces to be used to achieve this end are all Manchu, viz. — the Peking Field Force (50,000 men) under Prince Ch'ing ; the Husheng Corps, or " Glorified Tigers" (10,000 strong) under Prince Tuan; and the various Banner Corps of the Imperial Guards (aggre-gating 12,000 men) under Kang Yi and others.

" These 72,000 men are to form the nucleus of the Army of Avengers, whilst the Boxers are to be counted upon as auxiliaries to the great fight that is more immi-nent than foreigners in Peking or elsewhere dream.

" All Chinese of the upper class know this, and those who count foreigners among their friends have warned them, but have to my own knowledge been rather laughed at for their pains than thanked for feeling anxiety on their Western friends' behalf. May I be more fortunate in warning you ! The Foreign Ministers, I know, have protested to the Tsung Li Yamen about the increase of the Boxer organizations in the northern provinces, but dust has as usual, been thrown into these foreigners' eyes. Not only have the Boxers increased tenfold in numbers since the beginning of the year, in Shantung and Chihli, but even the Imperial prefecture of Shun T'ien (Peking) and the three north-eastern provinces (Manchuria) are now filled with the ramifi-cations of this dangerous society.

" Two instances serve to show the high favour in which the Boxers stand in the eyes of the powers that be in Peking. In the first place, a Censor named Wang recently had an audience of the Empress Dowager when, the subject of the Boxers having come up, the Empress said to the Censor : ' You are a native of this

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province and so ought to know. What do you think of the Boxers in Chihli; do you think that when the time comes for action they will really join the troops in righting the foreign devils ? ' 'I am certain of it, Your Majesty. Moreover the tenets taught to the mem-bers of the Society are : Protect to the death the Heavenly Dynasty, and death to devils. For your servant's own part, so deeply do I believe in the destiny of the Society to crush the" devils," that young and old of your serv-ant's family are now practicing the incantations of the Boxers, every one of us having joined the Society to Protect the Heavenly Dynasty, and drive the devils into the sea. Had I the power given me I would willingly lead the Boxers in the van of the avenging army when the time comes, and before that time do all I can to assist in organizing and arming them/

" The Empress nodded her head in approval, and after ruminating in her mind, cried, ' Aye ! It is a grand Soci-ety ! But I am afraid that, having no experienced men at their head just now, these Boxers will act rashly and get the Government into trouble with these " foreign devils," before everything is ready/ Then after another pause, 'That's it. These Boxers must have some responsible men in Chihli and Shantung to guide their conduct,' and the audience then ended. The next morning a decree was issued naming this Censor Wang, Governor of Peking. That is to say, a sixth grade official, by a stroke of the pen, was raised to a fourth grade Metropolitan post — a sub-prefect to a provisional judgeship ! Wang will there-fore have the opportunity he wishes, namely, to organize, advise, and arm his friends the Boxers.

" The second instance I give, to show the light in which foreigners are held just now, is that since the Tientsin massacre of 1870, a ban has been placed by the officials —

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all except the most bigoted Conservatives — upon the term ' Yang kuei tze ' (foreign devil) and men have been bam-booed for using it, when found out by the officials. But here we find that not only is this term embodied in the war-cry of the Boxers, but has received official sanction from the lips of the Empress Dowager herself."

So far as appears, this truly remarkable revelation and prophecy attracted practically no attention from any of those who might have been expected to be struck by its statements, until its predictions took the shape of history — when it was vividly recalled to mind. Com-paring the sentence in which the Empress is said to have praised the Boxer Society with the phrase of the Edict of January nth already cited, in which it was pointed out that " Societies are of different kinds," it is easy to interpret the former already sufficiently perspicuous ex-pression; and the passage in which the need of leaders is mentioned by the Empress is to be explained by an Edict which appeared in the " Peking Gazette," of June 24th, in which it is said that " Members of our people comprised in the I Ho Ch'uan are scattered in all parts of the region round the metropolis and Tientsin; and it is right anb! proper that they should have superintendents placed over them. We appoint Prince Chuang and the Assistant Grand Secretary Kang I, to be in general command . . . All the members of the I Ho T'uan are exerting their utmost energies, and the Im-perial Family must not fall behind in harbouring revenge against our enemies. It is our confident hope that the desires of each and all may be successfully consummated, and it is of the utmost importance that no lack of energy be shown."

With the distinct recognition and patronage which the Boxers now began to receive in unmistakable ways,

226 CHINA IN CONVULSION

it is not strange that their bearing rapidly altered. Their altars represented a degree of sacredness to which China is ordinarily a stranger. The highest officials were not infrequently compelled to descend from their sedan-chairs and to prostrate themselves before the symbols of the Boxer cult.

It was not long before they had exhibited to the in-mates of the Palace itself their supernatural powers, and it is the practically universal testimony of those in a position to know, that with that superstition which is so uniformly found among all grades of Chinese and Manchus, the Empress Dowager herself was fully per-suaded of their divine mission, as is indeed manifest in the Decree last quoted. In the latter part of May and early in June there were many Imperial Edicts which had a bearing upon the growing movement, but most of them were intended only to deceive the easily hood-winked foreigner, warned unlawful gatherings to dis-perse, denounced the bad practices of the bad, and re-lated with mock gravity the punishment of a coolie or two who had made a disturbance, while ignoring the growing list of murders of Chinese Christians.

One of these Edicts ran as follows : " The Christians have now been propagating their religion in China for many years, and the missionaries have no other object than that of exhorting people to virtuous conduct. Heretofore the Christians have not utilized the church as a means of causing trouble, so that the people and the Christians have lived together in amity, each following his own doctrine. Now, however, the churches and the Christians have become very numerous throughout the Empire, so that discontented and reckless characters have found their way into their ranks without the missionaries being able in every case to discriminate between the good

BOXERS AND CHINESE GOVERNMENT 227

and the bad. Such bad characters have become Chris-tians merely as an excuse to insult and oppress the rest of the population, and to tyrrannize over the dis-tricts in which they dwelt, although, of course, the missionaries have in no way signified their approval of such proceedings.

" As to the ' Patriotic Harmony Society of Boxers,' they have recently been practicing military drill for the preservation of their bodies and the protection of their homes, and in no wise making a disturbance or trouble.

" Now we have repeatedly issued Edicts instructing the officials to repress firmly all disturbances without regard to whether the people were members of the Society or not, the only question being whether they are bad char-acters ; they are to be dealt with most rigourously if they create disturbances. Converts and Boxers alike are one and all the children of the Throne, and we regard them with an equal love which in no way discriminates be-tween the Boxer and the Christian."

The fact that all the rioting, arson, and murder with which an entire year had been filled was ignored and de-nied was more significant than anything which was ex-pressed.

The same Decree announced the appointment of two officials to report upon the Boxer movement, one of whom was Chao Shu Ch'iao, who was notoriously hostile to foreigners, while the other was even worse. These men went to Cho Chou, where they affiliated with the Boxers, and from that time the movement was appar-ently upon an Imperial basis and steadily growing in power and in ambition.

In the early days of June word reached Peking of the brutal murder at Yung Ch'ing Hsien, nearly mid-way between Tientsin and Peking, of two Anglican mis-

228 CHINA IN CONVULSION

sionaries, named Robinson and Norman, with the con-nivance of the local Magistrate. The British Minister at once had an interview, with the Yamen on this grave matter, but the tone of the Ministers was listless, in-different, and helpless, and Sir Claude complained to Lord Salisbury that while the Chinese Secretary of Legation was interpreting what the British Minister said, one of the four Chinese members of the Yamen fell fast asleep, upon which Sir Claude left abruptly, appoint-ing an interview with Prince Ch'ing the next day.

Prince Ch'ing assured Sir Claude that the Throne took a very serious view of the danger, and laid great stress upon the fact that General Nieh was moving up from Tientsin with 5,000 troops to guard the railway. He affected to be much surprised when told that there was good reason to believe that General Nieh's orders were not to fire upon the Boxers. This view of the case was soon after confirmed by the information that in one engagement he had fired upon them and upon reporting to Yii Lu for specific instructions had been ordered to dis-perse them without firing upon them — according to the familiar plan in operation ever since the Boxers had begun their work. It was not surprising to learn im-mediately afterward that General Nieh and his troops had been withdrawn to their camp at Lu T'ai, east of Tientsin, leaving the railway at the mercy of the Boxers. One of the Yamen Ministers who accompanied Prince Ch'ing plainly told Sir Claude that in the absence of representative institutions the Chinese Government could not afford to disregard such an indication of the people's will as was afforded by the remarkable popu-larity of the Boxer movement.

When read in the light of such an admission, the long and minute " Regulations for the Maintenance of Order

SUMMER PALACE, PEKING

BOXERS AND CHINESE GOVERNMENT 229

in Peking " forwarded to the Legations, in one instance embracing six Articles and in another ten, the Proclama-tion of the Governor of Peking against the Boxer Soci-eties, and the daily Edicts already mentioned, only served to make more evident the innate treachery of the Chi-nese Government, and the imminent danger to all for-eigners in the Capital.

Under these exigent circumstances Sir Claude sug-gested to the Diplomatic Corps that it was advisable to demand an audience of the Empress Dowager and the Emperor, a proposition which caused great perturba-tion among the Yamen Ministers. Before a specific authorization for this demand could be received from the Home Governments, the futility even of this last meas-ure was only too evident.

The Empress Dowager had been at the Summer Palace west of Peking for perhaps a month, amusing herself in this great crisis with her boats and her the-atricals. She and the Emperor returned to Peking on the morning of the 9th of June, and it was hoped that their presence in the city might quiet the popular com-motion, although it appeared quite as likely to lead to renewed violence. On the morning of that day a band of Boxers sallied out from a neighbouring temple, and set fire to the grand-stand of the race-course, three miles west of Peking, a native Christian who had been cap-tured by the Boxers being roasted alive in the fire. Later in the day a party of students of the British Lega-tion, riding outside the walls of the city in the same direction, were attacked by some score of these bandits armed with swords and spears, and only escaped by firing upon their assailants.

Following this, in the evening, Sir Claude received news from a Chinese source which appeared to be

230 CHINA IN CONVULSION

trustworthy, that the Empress Dowager had in an audi-ence openly expressed her desire to rid the Capital of the presence of foreigners, and that Tung Fu Hsiang's troops, who had been removed from the vicinity of the railway station when the foreign guards were about to arrive, in order to avoid a collision, were now only awaiting the word to begin a general attack. Upon this an urgent telegram was dispatched to the British Senior Naval Officer informing him that the situation was hourly becoming more serious, and that troops should be landed and all arrangements at once made for an immediate advance upon Peking. The other Ministers took a similar view of the situation and acted accord-ingly. It was at this time that the members of the Customs staff abandoned their remote quarters in the eastern part of the city, and concentrated at the house of the Inspector General, while the property of numerous foreigners driven to take refuge within the Legation sphere of influence was formally handed over to the Chinese authorities.

The Boxers were now openly practising on the official drill-grounds within the city, and, what was much more significant, opposite the British Legation in the Yamen of Mongolian Superintendency ; also in the palaces of Duke Lan, and of his brother Prince Tuan, father of the Heir Apparent, who by an important Edict (June ioth), had been appointed to the Presidency of the Tsung Li Yamen. Three other Manchu officials about whom little was known were also appointed to that body. Prince Tuan paid no calls at the Legations after his appoint-ment, and remained personally unknown to all the for-eign Ministers.

Two large Missions, that of the American Methodist Episcopal Church, and that of the American Board,

BOXERS AND CHINESE GOVERNMENT 231

were each holding their annual meetings at this juncture, the former in Peking, the latter in T'ung Chou, twelve miles further east, at the head of navigation of the Peiho. Some members of the Methodist Mission had already left Peking by the very last train which got through to Tientsin, but others, together with a consid-erable number of visitors to the Capital, were too late and found themselves permanent prisoners. The Ameri-can Board Mission dispersed on June 5th, some leaving T'ung Chou for Peking, while a party of three — two gentlemen and a lady physician — pressed on to Kalgan on the Great Wall. They arrived safely in four days without incident, but only to find their dwellings liable to be destroyed at any moment, their lives in imminent peril, themselves surrounded by a hooting mob, and their only resource to take temporary refuge in a Yamen. Thence by slow stages they toilfully made their way across Mongolia to Kiakhta, and ultimately to Europe. The river route from T'ung Chou to Tientsin being unsafe, the other members of the mission were obliged to remain where they were, receiving, however, daily bulletins of the condition of things in Peking.

CHAPTER XIV

CHAPTER 14. State of Semi-siege in Peking

THE SEMI-SIEGE IN PEKING

THE twelve days between June 8 and 20 may be regarded as an interlude in the attack upon foreigners in Peking. By Saturday, the 9th, practically all of them except those in the Northern Ro-man Catholic Cathedral had removed within the quad-rangle under the protection of foreign guards, that quad-rangle being somewhat extended to the east so as to take in the numerous courts of the Methodist Mission premises.

The military authorities, who had only fifty marines to guard the Legation, were naturally reluctant to de-tach twenty of them for the protection of a place more than half a mile distant from the Legation, and one that in case of an attack was not easily defensible. But for the seventy Americans who were crowding every corner of the Methodist dwellings there would have been in the Legation itself no accommodation whatever, not to speak of the six or seven hundred of the Chinese Chris-tians whom the missionaries refused to abandon. The Minister therefore overruled the judgment of the offi-cers, and insisted upon furnishing the guards according to previous promise, and they took up their new duties upon the 9th under the charge of Captain Hall. The British Minister, instead of sending ten marines as ex-pected, loaned in their place ten Martini rifles, which did good service.

232

THE SEMI-SIEGE IN PEKING 233

With the national instinct for organization, the Ameri-cans promptly met and chose committees into whose hands were confided the cooperation with the military in defensive operations, listing of Chinese for purposes of labour and military drill, and many other matters of gen-eral concern. The whole premises were patrolled by civilians and by Chinese, the more important posts being reserved for the marines, all of whom had been seasoned by long experience in the Philippines and were fully equal to anything required of them. The long outer walls of the compound had watchmen whose view com-manded the entire surrounding region, and in a short time the lines were greatly extended so as to take in the grounds of the Peking University, a few minutes' walk to the northwest. There were sentinels always on duty on the galvanized iron roof of the great church, glowing hot all day and slippery at night with the dew or rain. Every man was armed with some weapon, and each had his appointed position in time of danger. Special in-dividuals were charged with the care of the Chinese in time of alarm, to see that all were duly notified and to prevent a panic.

Within the rectangle commanded by the Methodist compound lived fifteen or twenty non-Christian families, some of them friendly, others hostile. Under, orders from the military officers and from the Ministers, these were told to remove elsewhere, the alleys were barri-caded at both ends and a strict watch was set, especially to guard against fire. First and second lines of defence were marked out, barbed wire fences erected behind walls which it was thought might possibly be scaled. All the flag tiles in all the yards were used in making cross barricades, deep trenches being dug behind. The foreign stores were ransacked for anything which might

234 CHINA IN CONVULSION

aid in the defence, numbers of excellent foreign lanterns and shovels being secured, the lack of which was after-ward severely felt in the British Legation.

By the time these preparations had been carried into execution it was seen that the premises could not be rushed by any attack from Boxers, however sudden or violent. To guard against a continued assault by large numbers the large brick church had been fitted up as a citadel, its doors reinforced by frames with galvanized iron plates, the windows barricaded and loopholed, a large stock of provisions and water brought in and every precaution taken to enable the people to withstand a siege of several days.

As it was not improbable that the dwelling houses might be fired in some attack, numbers of trunks of all sizes were removed to the church, where they filled up the vestibules, lined the aisles and encumbered the plat-form. The Sunday speakers at that period were sur-rounded by mattresses arranged for the night, by cans of French butter, tins of raspberry jelly, bottles of gherkins and numerous baby cradles, while on the floor below stood a row of huge water jars filled to the brim, and the " grand trunk " line ran everywhere. Each night all the school girls quietly filed across the road from the girls' school buildings and slept on the floor of the church, to be more secure in case of attack, superin-tended and accompanied by their foreign teachers. On several different occasions alarms were given of an im-pending attack, and upon each one all the girls and such of the women as could be accommodated were brought over in good order and without any panic, re-turning when the alarm was ascertained to have been groundless. All this organization, fortification, prepa-ration and practice under alarm, although not so under-

THE SEMI-SIEGE IN PEKING 235

stood at the time, was a valuable drill for the greater perils which were yet to come.

It was known that the relief expedition which had been telegraphed for had left Tientsin on June 10th. Many Europeans went to the railway station at Ma Chia P'u to welcome the troops, and were obliged to return amid the jeers of the crowds of Chinese who knew that all communication was stopped. On Monday, June nth, Mr. Sugiyama, Chancellor of the Japanese Legation, went in unarmed and alone through the Yung Ting gate of the southern city to visit the railway station, hoping to meet the expected troops. He was seized by the Kansu cavalry of Tung Fu Hsiang, dragged from his cart, and after numerous insults was speared or chopped to death; his heart was cut out and, as was reported, was sent to General Tung Fu Hsiang, while his head was fixed to a pole. The mutilated body was partly covered with earth where it lay, and although the sec-ond Secretary of the Japanese Legation went to the Yamen on the subject, no effort was made to recover it. Two days after, a Decree in the " Peking Gazette " threw the blame of the act upon the lawless characters who abound, although it was notoriously done by the troops themselves who were expected also to slaughter all other foreigners as soon as the signal should be given.

The following day it was reported that the Imperial Post Office at T'ung Chou had been wrecked and the telegraph poles cut down. The line to Tientsin had been destroyed some days before, the last slender link con-necting Peking with the rest of the world being the single wire to Kalgan, which was severed on the 17th, thus beginning the*" isolation which continued for many weary weeks.

It was ascertained from refugees arrived from T'ung

236 CHINA IN CONVULSION

Chou that the mission premises both in the city and out-side were looted by the regular Chinese troops who had been summoned to protect them, promptly followed by the hungry mob always ready for such a task. All the eight dwelling houses, the North China College, the chapels, schools and property of every description were utterly destroyed within three days after the premises were left, scarcely one brick remaining. The Taotai was said to be a virtual prisoner of the Boxers, who com-pelled him, as they had forced the Magistrate of Cho Chou, to affix his seal to their proclamations and orders. The other officials had openly espoused the Boxer cause.

On the 1 2th, Hsu Ching Ch'eng and three other Yamen Ministers called at the British Legation. One of them, Chao Shu Ch'iao had just returned from the Cho Chou, as already mentioned, where he had been sent to quell the Boxers, which he had accomplished by conceding every-thing which they demanded. He now reported that he considered them to be amenable to reason. Another of the Ministers recently appointed assured the British Minister that the Boxer movement was now at an end, that it was idle to bring foreign troops to Peking, and that the Minister ought to rely on that efficient protec-tion which China had never failed to afford.

A Boxer passing down Legation street in the full uni-form of red cloth around the head, a red girdle, and red shoes, was seized and beaten by Baron von Ketteler him-self, while his companion effected his escape. The next day the Governor of the city, Ch'ung Li, accompanied by two high officials called at the Legation to secure his release, but failed to do so.

The next day word was received from the Seymour-McCalla expedition expected from Tientsin, saying that their progress was slow and toilful. The day fol-

THE SEMI-SIEGE IN PEKING 237

lowing letters showed that they had reached Lang Fang, more than half way to Peking, but were in great diffi-culties for want of water and supplies, with the railway in front hopelessly destroyed.

On the afternoon of June 13th, word was brought that the Methodist chapel on the great street but a few hun-dred yards away was being pulled down by a Boxer mob, the sounds of demolition being uproarious and contin-ous. A squad of marines was sent to the mouth of the alley and charged the rioters without firing upon them, thus for the moment checking their proceedings. The plan generally adopted by the Boxers was to break down a portion of the woodwork, pour over It several quarts of kerosene brought for the purpose, and then light it, no one being allowed to make any effort to arrest the flames.

During all that night the heavens were aglow with the lurid glare of burning buildings in every part of the city, and in the course of the next two or three days it became known that with the exception of those de-fended by foreign troops every place in Pekin belonging to or occupied by foreigners was destroyed. Among the rest were two large Roman Catholic cathedrals, the eastern and southern. The former was destroyed first, one aged priest, Pere Garrigues, refusing to leave his post, and perishing in the flames. A rescue party headed by M. Fliche of the French Legation went out to the southern cathedral in the night, and by early morning brought in every member of the mission including the venerable Pere d'Addosio, three priests, five nuns, and twenty Chinese nuns. The ancient and historic structure, identified with the labours of the most learned Catho-lics who ever came to China, Verbiest and Schall, was utterly destroyed, and countless Christians perished in

238 CHINA IN CONVULSION

the flames, or were butchered afterward. A rescue party headed by Mr. William N. Pethick, with American and Russian soldiers went out in the morning, when about 230 Christians were discovered and saved, and 26 Boxers were killed or wounded. In the afternoon Dr. Morrison, the correspondent of the " Times " led another rescue party with a band of German and British marines and brought away a large number of Christians who would otherwise have been slain.

The amount of property destroyed in this vast or-ganized attack upon foreigners in Peking cannot be accurately ascertained. Many private individuals owned dwellings in various parts of the city. A large com-pound in the Kou Lan alley, belonging to the Imperial Maritime Customs, was fired with the rest, involving immense loss to the Chinese Government. The electric light works fared no better than the unfinished Imperial Bank of China and the new imperial Mint. Among the property destroyed belonging to the seven missionary or-ganizations in Peking were thirty-four dwelling houses, eighteen chapels, twelve boys' schools, eleven girls' schools, four training schools, eleven dispensaries and eight hospitals, all within the city walls. The new and expensive summer houses of the British Legation at the Western Hills, together with thirty-three others belong-ing to various missions, were all looted, burned, and the materials carried away to the adjacent villages. The establishment of the Greek Church, nearly two hundred years old, shared the same fate.

The foreign cemetery, outside the P'ing-tzu gate of the northern city was completely wrecked. An avenue of large willows more than thirty years old disappeared completely, the trunks being sawed off near the ground, all the wood and even the branches being carried away.

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THE SEMI-SIEGE IN PEKING 239

The enclosing walls of the compound were levelled to the bottom, the foundations dug out and the bricks removed for other uses elsewhere. The tombstones and monu-ments were all overthrown and broken into small frag-ments, while thirteen of the graves were opened, the bodies dragged out and burned, as was shown by frag-ments of bones, bits of cloth, and metal buttons here and there, telling their own melancholy story. The Russian and the Roman Catholic cemeteries in different localities received the same treatment.

For many days the whole horizon was obscured by the smoke of the great fires raging in every quarter. On the 1 6th the most extensive conflagration of all was seen outside the Ch'ien Men, or middle gate on the south wall. In this region were situated the great banking es-tablishments, fur and cloth stores and the largest and wealthiest places of business in Peking. It was reported that the fire had its origin in the attempt to burn a steam-flouring mill not far away, as well as a shop in which foreign medicines were sold. The wind was high, and the flames were soon beyond all control, even that of the fire god himself, to whom the frightened Boxers knelt in despair, begging him to prevent the great outer tower of the city gate from catching fire, as seemed inevitable. This was the lofty structure surmounting the outer central gate, only opened for the passage of the Emperor, as when he visited the Temple of Heaven and that to the God of Agriculture. The tower rose more than a hundred feet above the ground, and nearly fifty feet above the surrounding wall, and was soon wrapped in flames, affording a grand spectacle to all lookers-on. One could not avoid sharing the feeling of the Chi-nese that this event was but the presage of the fall of the Tartar Dynasty which had seemed long since to have

240 CHINA IN CONVULSION

lost " the Decree of Heaven " by which it professed to rule. All night and far into the next day the fire raged, leaving only ugly remains of the massive brick in place of the former stately sentinel on the pathway to the palace. The comprador of the Hongkong and Shang-hai Bank estimated the loss from this single fire in the southern city as not less than £1,000,000.

The widespread application of the torch, with its con-comitant opportunities for plunder, were as the taste of blood to the fierce Boxer tiger. The formal ceremonies of burning incense to their divinities were performed in the most public places available, and apparently par-ticipated in by innumerable multitudes. The Legations and the Methodist compound, all lying but a short dis-tance from the city wall, enabled those who were in a condition of semi-siege to hear with frightful distinct-ness the nocturnal yells of the vast mob gathered in the southern city, shouting " Kill the foreign devils ! Kill ! Kill ! Kill ! " Those who listened to this blood-curd-ling shout from a frenzied multitude can never forget the suggestion of a pandemonium, a rehearsal of hell.

The consideration that nothing but wholly untrust-worthy Manchu guards, at the city gate but a few rods distant, prevented the bloodthirsty hordes from rushing upon the whole foreign quarter and inundating it, led the committee in charge at the Methodist com-pound to communicate with the American Minister. He wrote at once to the minor official in charge of the gate, asking him to close it early, and in case of the assem-blage of a dangerous mob not to open it. To make sure of the matter, however, the committee went themselves, well armed, to the gate at dusk, saw the official and his numerous soldiers and gained his ready consent to do as requested. To make it more certain the key of the

THE SEMI-SIEGE IN PEKING 241

gate was requested as a certificate of its being really locked, and after slight demur the gatekeeper actually brought it to the compound, escorted by the armed committee. He was escorted back by a squad of marines and furnished with a pass by means of which he could come within the lines the next morning, and get again the two-foot long bar of iron wherewith to set in motion once more the wheels of Peking life!

The next day the Tsung Li Yamen sent a note to the Minister requesting him to see that the key of the gate was restored to its proper custodians, but the process above described was repeated daily as long as the foreign premises were occupied. Not only so, but on one occa-sion the commander of a troop of 1,500 Chinese soldiers asked as a favour that the gate should be reopened to let his men pass through " to arrest the Boxers " in the southern city. But it was necessary to draw the line somewhere, and it was considered better not to set a precedent; so this servant of the Emperor was informed that, the gate being closed he would not be able to get out until the next day — a reply which he accepted as the final word in the matter.

Each day it became more and more difficult to make purchases owing to the fear of the country people, and the closing of so many shops. It thus became necessary for buyers to go out in parties, well armed, the foreign men frequently acting as an escort to the Chinese, who did the bargaining. A loaded rifle laid across his counter often had a marked effect in stimu-lating the memory of a shopkeeper as to the availability of an article called for, the cash value being invariably paid.

During this period of intense excitement and immi-nent danger Legation Street had been partly barricaded

242 CHINA IN CONVULSION

by placing logs across it, and the same was done with some of the other streets and lanes. Sentries were posted at these points and the Italian shell gun and the American " Colt's automatic " were kept in readiness to resist an attack. On the 17th a collision took place between Austrian and German troops on the one part and Chinese soldiers on the other, in which some of the latter were killed.

On the evening of that day two members of the Tsung Li Yamen, at the risk of their own lives from the vio-lence of Chinese soldiers, called upon Minister Conger, giving assurances of " protection " and asking the with-drawal of our troops. They were informed that here-atfter Americans would protect themselves, and took their leave in evident alarm, as Capt. Myers, the com-mander of the marines, discharged opportune rifle shots as a reminder that preparations for defense were com-plete. It was the cue of the Chinese authorities at first to represent the Boxer movement as the work of boys and peasants, and in its later stages as a great popular uprising, too extensive for the Government to control, in the presence of which they were helpless.

The Imperial Customs Post Office, the service of which had become more and more uncertain, ceased sending out messengers, even in disguise as beggars, after June 16, and several of those previously despatched failed to reach Tientsin and were probably killed.

Repeated efforts were made to send messages to the advancing relief column, some of which succeeded. The last letter received at the American Legation from Cap-tain McCalla was in response to one from the First Secretary reporting the numerous fires then devastating the Tartar city, and the desperate situation of all foreign-ers. An urgent message from the Americans penned up

THE SEMI-SIEGE IN PEKING 243

in the Methodist compound, could not be got through the lines, though a heavy reward was offered, as the watch kept by the Boxer hordes was too strict.

After the general burning of foreign property in and about Peking, an Imperial Edict appeared, which touched however but lightly upon the deeds of violence already wrought, appearing to criticize the doers of these acts because they were done in the capital itself, and not as heretofore, at a distance. The question was raised whether it had ever been good usage for Governments to allow unrestrained license to their subjects. It is, there-fore, commanded once more that the Boxers disperse, indeed they must do so. Several previous edicts, it is said, had already given this advice, and all good Boxers had hearkened, struck their tents, and departed. There-fore those who now remain, being all bad ones, must be rigourously seized.

On June 16 another Imperial Decree was issued in-forming the Yamen that soldiers had been ordered to patrol the city as protection against bad characters who were now creating disturbance. Soldiers were specially appointed to protect the foreign Legations. If members of the Legations left Peking they must be protected, but as this would be difficult when the railway was not in working order, they should remain in Peking until the railway was repaired, when it might be considered what was to be done. Jung Lu was appointed guardian of the Legations, and advice was asked of the Minister as to the best positions for the Chinese soldiers to occupy in making their defense of the same.

The phraseology of the Imperial Edicts deceived no one, not even foreigners. Although the latter could by no possibility ascertain what was going on within the Palace, it was evident that the Capital was

244 CHINA IN CONVULSION

in the throes of a terrible crisis. On the 14th of June word reached the British Minister that at a meeting of the Grand Council it had been decided to attack Admiral Seymour's Expedition with the Imperial troops, and from this to a combined assault upon the Legations was a very short step indeed.

It was afterwards ascertained that on the 16th a Grand Council was held late in the afternoon to which were summoned by a sudden Decree all the Manchu Princes, Dukes, Nobles, and high officials, both Chinese and Man-chu, of the Six Boards and Nine Ministries. Numerous accounts, verbal and written, of this gathering, have been given, but perhaps the most detailed and presumably authentic is that which was embodied in the " Experi-ences of a Refugee at Peking and on the Journey South," published in the " North China Daily News/' August 8th.

According to this narrative the Manchus were first called to an audience of their own, and subsequently both the Manchus and the Chinese were received to-gether in the Council Room of the I Luan Hall.

The Empress Dowager opened the Council by saying: " The Foreign Powers have browbeaten and persecuted us in such a manner that we cannot endure this any longer. We must therefore combine to fight all for-eigners to the last, to save our - face ' in the eyes of the world. All our Manchu Princes, Dukes, Nobles and Ministers high and low, are unanimous in this determi-nation for war to the knife, and I approve of their patriotic choice. I therefore give you all this announce-ment, and expect all to do their duty to their country."

The subsequent proceedings partook of the character of nearly all Chinese deliberations, where each speaker is anxious to avoid committing himself, or, if he must

THE SEMI-SIEGE IN PEKING 245

speak, to drown all opposition with his violence, and if necessary, personal abuse. Hsu Ching Ch'eng, ex-Min-ister to Russia, and President of the Manchurian Rail-way, begged that the decision be reconsidered, since it was impracticable to fight all the Powers. To this Kang I replied that this would be unlike all former wars, for they now had the Boxers who were invulnerable to sword or bullet.

Yuan Ch'ang, a Tsung Li Yamen Minister replied that he had been an eye-witness of the Boxer attacks upon the Legations the day before, and had beheld the scene of the conflict strewn with the bodies of their lead-ing men, each with a bullet or two through them. How then could they be invulnerable? Her Majesty inter-rupted him to affirm that he must be mistaken, and that the bodies which he had seen could not possibly be those of Boxers, but of outlaws, a remark which extinguished the Minister at once.

Marquis Tseng begged that if there must be a fight it should be in an advantageous position, and not in Peking, and above all that the Legations should be respected. Some of the Powers were entirely friendly to China, must we fight them all alike? All the Manchus except Na T'ung, one of the recent accessions to the Yamen, were bent on war, but when he plead for peace the wrath of his clansmen rose to a boiling pitch, and he was denounced as a traitor. But he went on to say that if a fight must take place it should be near the coast.

The Empress Dowager glared at him while speaking, and seemed to expect Kang I to reply, who suggested that Na T'ung and Hsu Ching Ch'eng, who opposed the Manchu policy, should be appointed to go out to meet the Seymour Expedition, and stop its advance, since the latter was a persona grata to foreigners. This was pro-

246 CHINA IN CONVULSION

posed in the hope that they would be killed in the attempt.

His Majesty, the Emperor, took no part in the debate, but when he saw that the fatal resolution was about to be adopted he begged Her Majesty to reconsider the de-cision to fight all foreign nations, saying that the move-ment once inaugurated would make peace an impossi-bility in the future, and the destruction of the country imminent. The Empress Dowager paid no attention to his imploring words, and the Council broke up in an uproar of the Manchus against those of the Chinese who had opposed them, calling them enemies and trai-tors to the common cause. Na T'ung and Hsu Ching Ch'eng were obliged to go on their futile errand of stop-ping the Seymour Expedition, but at Feng T'ai were stopped by the Boxers, who paid no attention to the rank or mission of the officials, but compelled them to go to the Boxer altar and await the decision of their Patron Saint as to whether they should be beheaded, or merely turned back in disgrace. They were at last set free to go back, but told that if they persisted in accomplishing their errand they would be at once beheaded ; upon this they returned in humiliation to the Court.

During the following days there seems to have been a Grand Council almost every day. It is alleged that in one of these the Empress Dowager presented a fictitious communication from the Foreign Ministers, demanding that a special place be assigned to the Emperor, that he should be restored to rule the Empire, and that all the revenues of the Empire and all its military affairs be committed to their hands. Upon this she is said to have made an impassioned plea for the " rivers and streams," " the altars of the land and the grain," and fidelity to the

THE SEMI-SIEGE IN PEKING 247

high trust of ruling the Empire, and by this means the Ministers were all united as one man.

On the afternoon of June 19 the following identical note was sent to the Legations :

" The Princes and Ministers have the honour to inform the Minister of the United States that the Viceroy of Chihli has memorialized the Throne that he has received a communication from M. Chaylard, the French Consul-General at Tientsin, on the 17th inst., stating that the Admirals of the foreign fleets had demanded the sur-render of all the Taku forts by to-morrow a. m. at two o'clock or else they would attack them and take them by force. The Princes and Ministers have the honour to say that this news has caused them great astonishment. China has been so long at peace with the Powers that if now the foreign Admirals intend to seize the forts this would show an intention on the part of the Powers to break off friendly relations, and they would be the first to offend. At the present time the Boxer banditti have risen in Peking and cause public excitement. The Minister of the United States with his family and staff being here, his Legation is now in danger, and China will find it a difficult matter to give complete protection.

" The Princes and Ministers therefore beg that within twenty-four hours the Minister of the United States, with his family and staff, and taking his guards, keeping them under control, will leave for Tientsin in order to avoid danger. An escort of troops has been despatched to give protection en route, and the local officials have also been notified to allow the Ministerial party to pass."

The political atmosphere of the capital of the Chinese Empire had for a long time been in an electrical con-dition which presaged a storm. This note from the

248 CHINA IN CONVULSION

Yamen, addressed not only to the Ministers, but com-municated also to Sir Robert Hart, apparently as a piece of intelligence, without orders or recommendation to govern his action with regard to the staff of the Imperial Maritime Customs, was not merely the unanticipated clap of thunder, it was a bombshell. The Yamen's note was carefully dated at " 4 o'clock," to show at what time the twenty-four hours would expire. It is certain that when it was written the Government knew that the forts had been already taken, not on the 18th, but the day previous, but with Chinese indirectness they did not like to admit the fact. Up to that moment there had been no informa-tion that Tientsin was in danger, still less that Taku was threatened, and the action of the Admirals was naturally construed as premature and needlessly endangering the lives of all those at a distance from the seacoast. When the facts were fully learned some months later, an entirely new aspect was put upon the naval action.

The Ministers held a meeting that same evening at the Legation of the doyen of the diplomatic corps, the Spanish Minister, to determine what should be done, a decision of extreme difficulty and delicacy for a great variety of reasons.

The reply agreed upon expressed astonishment at the despatch which had been received, the Ministers being in complete ignorance as to any action in regard to the forts at Taku. The foreign Ministers could only accept the declaration and the demand which the Yamen made to them and prepare to leave Peking. But it was impos-sible to arrange for the departure within the short time of twenty-four hours. The Chinese Government must know that there were many women and children and that it would be a numerous procession.

The Tsung Li Yamen offered safeguards en route. The

THE SEMI-SIEGE IN PEKING 249

Ministers wished to know in what these consisted under-standing that the country was full of rebels. They did not doubt the sincere willingness of the Chinese Government, but as there were foreign soldiers on the way for the pur-pose of cooperating amicably with the Government in reestablishing order the Ministers wished these detach-ments to join the Legations that all might depart to-gether. They also demanded transport, carts, boats and provisions, and also to be accompanied by some of the Ministers of the Tsung Li Yamen. In conclusion they asked to meet Prince Ching and Prince Tuan the next morning at 9 o'clock.

There was a general agreement among the members of the different Legations that it would be necessary to leave the capital perhaps in great haste, and action seems for the most part to have been taken upon that hypothe-sis. Some there were, who felt that the only proper action was an absolute refusal to stir, but while others higher in authority spent the entire night in packing trunks and making preliminary arrangements, it was out of the question to act independently. Everything would hinge upon the reply to the joint letter of the Ministers to the Yamen.

Mr. Conger at once despatched a letter to the Ameri-can missionaries at the Methodist compound, informing them of the circular note from the Yamen and of the necessity for speedy departure. This arrived at its desti-nation some time during the evening. After nine o'clock a meeting of all the gentlemen not on duty at the time was called to consider what to do. It was resolved to write the Minister a letter pointing out the practical diffi-culties of leaving Peking under the conditions mentioned, as well as the probable consequences to those who did so, and also the certain massacre of the Christians neces-

250 CHINA IN CONVULSION

sarily abandoned. As the matter was one of capital im-portance, two other letters, from private individuals, were prepared and all these were personally delivered at an early hour on the following morning.

In the extended conference of the Ministers which fol-lowed, no reference was made to the demands in the letter to the Yamen for delay until the relief corps ar-rived, nor to the one that members of the Tsung Li Yamen should accompany the expedition. The only question appeared to be when the expedition was to start and this was apparently a matter of but a few hours more or less. A request had been made to the Yamen for one hundred carts to be placed at the disposal of the Legations. There was a definite intention to postpone the departure as long as practicable, but likewise a feeling that a protracted postponement would be impossible.

For those who felt themselves bound to do the utmost for their Chinese converts, the question what was to become of them was a pressing one. But upon this point it was impossible to get any assurance whatsoever. If the diplomatic corps could be said to have had any attitude at all upon a matter which did not come before them, and in which some of them took no interest, it was this : We are responsible for the welfare of our nationals only. Chinese converts are the subjects of the Chinese Government, and must ultimately fall into their hands. Nothing that we can do will avail to save them. It is all that we can do to save ourselves. While it is natural and proper that their spiritual guides and leaders should take a deep interest in the fate of their clients, and while it is impossible for humanity to contemplate coolly what that fate will probably be, especially in the case of the schoolgirls, we cannot allow sentimental considerations of this sort to govern our actions at this time. Should

THE SEMI-SIEGE IN PEKING 251

the missionaries remain behind they could do nothing toward the protection of the Chinese,, but would rather, while insuring their own destruction, make that of the Chinese more speedy. For this reason every missionary is to be ordered to leave with the Legations, and if he should refuse to go he must be removed by force.

Nothing of this was indeed explicitly uttered, for the reason that before the question had come to the final test a way had been opened not less surprising than the cleav-ing of the waters of the Red Sea for the children of Israel.

On the morning of June 14, as previously mentioned, two Boxers had been captured by the Germans, one of whom escaped and was reported to have taken refuge in the palace of Prince Su, opposite the British Legation, which was actually being used as a Boxer drill-ground and perhaps headquarters. This gave an excuse for re-porting to the British Minister that this place was per-haps a Boxer refuge, and asking for a military inspection of the premises. As a result of the conference with the Minister on the subject, the Japanese commander was asked to cooperate, and Col. Shiba, Capt. Halliday (British), together with Dr. Morrison and Prof. James went to the Fu and informed the Prince through his steward that the search was imminent, and asked formal permission to make it.

The Prince indignantly refused, alleging that he had no connection with the Boxers in any form. A second and more peremptory message brought the reply that the Prince had always been on friendly terms with for-eigners, but that if a search was insisted upon " his face could be saved " by his yielding to superior force. He met the inspecting delegation at one of the inner gates, welcomed them cordially, showed them every part of his

252 CHINA IN CONVULSION

place, and even opened the door to display his wives, con-cubines and eunuchs, dressed to the top of their bent and lined up in array.

At subsequent interviews it was arranged with Prof. James that in the outer courts of the Fu the many hun-dred Roman Catholic Christians rescued from the Nan T'ang, as already mentioned, should find temporary shelter. Thus by the energy and tact of two Englishmen, the way was already opened for a refuge for the addi-tional hundreds whom the Protestant missionaries would not abandon, and for whom no one in authority took thought.

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XV

CHAPTER 15. The Attack on the Legations

THE ATTACK ON THE LEGATIONS

AT a meeting of the Diplomatic Corps held in Peking on Tuesday evening, June 19, Baron Von Ketteler, the German minister, strongly dis-sented from the almost unanimous opinion of his col-leagues that it was necessary to leave Peking. Another adjourned meeting was held on the next morning at eight o'clock to await the reply of the Yamen to the note already summarized, which concluded by asking for an interview at the Yamen at nine o'clock, especially with the Princes.

As no answer came, the Baron informed his colleagues that he himself would go in any case, as he had sent a notification to that effect, not requiring a reply, on the evening previous. To avoid the Chinese objection that an armed guard of Germans would excite the animosity of the people, and especially of the soldiers, he had deter-mined to go with no escort of any kind and visibly unarmed. To the numerous objections made on the ground of the danger, he replied that a Minister on his way to the Yamen was not likely to be assailed, especially when his coming was known and awaited. If the Princes and Ministers failed to come to time, or to come at all, he could afford to out-wait them, and he had pro-vided himself with a book and cigars for the occasion.

The German Minister belonged to an old Roman Catholic family and was the nephew of an archbishop.

253

254 CHINA IN CONVULSION

He had been a military man and held the commission of a lieutenant in the Prussian Army. Being transferred to the consular service he came to China in the early 8o's and acquired the Chinese language with considerable success. During serious riots in Canton he so distin-guished himself as to win decorations both from the German and from the Chinese Government. When the post of Secretary of Legation was vacant in Peking he was again transferred to the diplomatic service, and held the office for some years. He was subsequently First Secretary at the German Embassy in Washington, from which office he was promoted to be Minister to Mexico for two years, after which he was again transferred to China.

He was a man of decided opinions, and his military ex-perience may not improbably have had its effect on his diplomatic history. His determination to have an inter-view with the Tsung Li Yamen quite independently of his colleagues was a characteristic trait, and was due to the conviction that he had a message to the Yamen of an important nature, although not by any means new. Aside from gaining information as to protection pro-posed, he wished to urge upon the highest accessible officials in the Empire that in driving the Ministers of eleven nations out of their capital they were taking a step which would ultimately put an end to the Manchu dy-nasty. This serious warning, presented under ominous aspects, would, he hoped, be enough to give them at least temporary pause.

Immediately at the close of the morning meeting of the Diplomatic Corps, the German Minister, accompanied by the interpreter, Mr. Cordes, proceeded to the Yamen in the usual official sedan chairs, passing east of the

THE ATTACK ON THE LEGATIONS 255

French Legation by the T'ai Ch'i Ch'ang street to the Ch'ang An Chieh, where they turned eastward to the Ha Ta street, which was entered just below the single Memorial Arch (Tan P'ai-lou). For several days, in passing through this street, groups of soldiers had been noticed standing about, but they had attracted no special attention at this time.

A few hundred yards north of the arch, at a point opposite the mouth of the Tsung Pu alley, about thirty soldiers were posted near a police station. Mr. Cordes, who was behind, saw the officer in command, who had a white button, and a feather in his cap, step a little to one side of the rest, and suddenly discharge a rifle at the Minister's chair. The Minister made no movement to leave the sedan and was no doubt immediately killed. Mr. Cordes instantly arose, and as he did so received a rifle shot in his thigh, inflicting a dangerous wound. But for his rising, the bullet would have penetrated his skull. The bearers immediately set down the chairs and fled. The outrider rode on rapidly to the Yamen and gave word of what had occurred, while Mr. Cordes summoned up his strength to escape if possible.

This seemed wholly out of the question, as behind him were crowds of soldiers, who at once opened fire on him. He ran toward the north, entering the first alley on the right hand side of the street, and thence by devious lanes, pursued for some distance by Chinese spearmen, made his way to the premises of the Methodist mission, at least a third of a mile distant. Here he saw for the first time a foreign face and lost consciousness. He was at once taken into the compound, and had his wound attended to by Dr. Ingram of T'ung Chou, who happened to be near at hand, and who considered the probabilities of

256 CHINA IN CONVULSION

recovery very slight. His escape was little less than a miracle, considering the number of his assailants and the severity of his injury.

The shot which killed Baron von Ketteler produced effects which the authors of the international crime never intended and could not have foreseen. Almost all the foreigners in Peking were already either within the Lega-tions or the general rectangle supposed to be commanded by them, or were at the Methodist compound, so that the news of the terribly significant tragedy was at once spread and its meaning universally and instantly appre-ciated. All thought of leaving Peking under any kind of Chinese escort was dismissed from every mind, the absolute certainty of treachery being now clearly seen. In this respect it is literally true that the death of the German Minister was a vicarious sacrifice which saved the lives of all the other foreigners in Peking.

On the afternoon of the day when this murder was committed, the Tsung Li Yamen had the effrontery to send to the German Legation a dispatch informing them that two Germans proceeding along that route had fired upon the crowd and had been fired upon in return, one of them being killed; and they demanded to know the names.

To this no reply could with self-respect be sent. The body was taken up and provided with a coffin by one of the friendly Chinese Ministers, against whom this was said to be one of the counts in the indictment which led to his execution a few weeks later.

It is a remarkable fact that the London evening papers of June 1 6th contained dispatches credited to the Tientsin agent of the " Laffan " News Telegraph Agency, saying that the German Minister in Peking had been murdered.

In some of the telegrams at least this was accompanied

THE ATTACK ON THE LEGATIONS 257

by the report that the Legations had been taken, but no other name was mentioned. There must have been some reason to expect an attack upon Baron von Ketteler, whose imperative manner was at that time particularly obnox-ious to the Chinese.

On the afternoon of that day tiie news reached Berlin from London and led to an extensive inquiry of the German Imperial Charge d'Affaires at St. Petersburg, the German representatives at Tokio and London, and the German Consuls at Chefoo and Shanghai, but nothing was known of the alleged fact. It is not often that a crime of this extraordinary character is telegraphed around the world four days in advance of its occurrence, and yet when it actually happens remains for some time unknown.

The occupants of the Customs compound on the other side of the block of which the palace of Prince Su com-prised the western portion, were now hurried over to the British Legation, whither the women had been already removed several days previous. For many days the streets adjacent to the Legations had been patrolled by Chinese troops. Now that a Manchu guard had opened fire upon a foreign Minister, the Chinese army was sup-posed to be committed to war with every foreigner, and it behooved them all to make the best use of whatever defence might be within their power.

Orders were sent to Captain Hall to escort the civilians gathered at the Methodist mission to the American Legation, the Chinese Christians being allowed to follow behind. By the time, however, that these orders reached the seventy Americans there gathered, they were notified that they must be prepared to leave the premises within twenty minutes, and with only such baggage as could be carried in the hand. As soon as this was made known,

258 CHINA IN CONVULSION

every one hastened to the fortress-church to open his trunks with a view to removing the articles of absolute necessity. As it was doubtful whether anything now-abandoned would ever be seen again, little pains were taken to lock the trunks, and the whole building was soon strewn with articles of the most heterogeneous descrip-tion.

All too soon the command to fall into line was given, the women and children behind the twenty marines, the 126 schoolgirls following, and after them the Chinese women and children, all loaded with whatever they could carry. The Chinese men and boys formed a large com-pany, many of them carrying burdens or trundling bicy-cles for the foreigners. Several cases of condensed milk, which it was impracticable otherwise to save, were served out to the Chinese, a few tins to each. Some weeks later, when it was no longer attainable, this would have been a priceless boon to the besieged. A party of German marines, detailed as bearers of the wounded interpreter, marched with melancholy mien in the line, the rear of which was brought up by the handful of missionaries, most of them armed with rifles or revolvers, or both. Several of the Chinese also were furnished with guns and many with Chinese pikes, in the use of which they had been indefatigably drilled each evening.

Taken altogether, it was a procession which even in the terrible uncertainties of the hour appeared to many who took part in it at once pathetic and ludicrous. One could not fail to be reminded of the children of Israel as they departed from Egypt, though so far from being laden with the spoils of the Egyptians, the refugees were in the matter of baggage very light indeed. Slowly the long and sad caravan passed out of the Filial Piety alley, southward along the great street toward the Ha Ta gate,

THE ATTACK ON THE LEGATIONS 259

thence turning westward into Legation Street. The Chair-man of the General Committee had the forethought to step down to that gate, and inform the commander of the Manchus posted there that, as the mission premises were being abandoned for the time, it would be a favour if he would station a guard at the outer door to prevent looting by the neighbours. About midway of the distance to the American Legation they passed the barricade at the eastern end of the premises of the Italian Legation. Here was planted the Italian machine gun, and here the re-mainder of the American marines met the party. For some unexplained reason the Chinese Christians were detained at this point for a long time.

The impassive faces of the numerous spectators who thronged the great street gave little or no sign of the joy and triumph which some of them must have felt, as they saw the visible closing in of the net around the for-eigner and his adherents. Perhaps the most striking thing in the whole proceeding was the quiet, matter-of-fact way in which the Chinese Christians themselves be-haved. Many previous alarms had served as rehearsals, and then, as now, there had been the same promptness and decorum in the movements of the schoolgirls as if they had been on their way to a religious service. Not a woman wept, not a child whimpered, but all instinct-ively obeyed orders and kept their places. One of the American marines, looking on with just admiration, re-marked :

" The Missionary Society that appointed those ladies to take care of these Chinese knew what they were about, for certain."

In order to follow the movements of the refugees from this point, some acquaintance with the topography of the Legation district of Peking is indispensable. By the aid of

26o CHINA IN CONVULSION

the map this becomes quite clear, but even without one it is easily comprehensible. There are three great gates in the southern wall of the Tartar or northern city of Peking. The middle one is called the Ch'ien Men or Front Gate, that half way between this and the south-eastern corner of the city is the Ha Ta Men. From each gate a broad street leads north, intersected at intervals by wide streets at right angles to it. Of these latter the one nearest to the southern wall of the city is Legation Street, called by the Chinese Chiao Min Hsiang or Instruct the People Street, which is about a mile in length, its west-ern terminus being near the Ch'ien Men. The next prin-cipal east and west street lies about a third of a mile further north and is called the Ch'ang An Chieh or Street of Permanent Peace. The western half of its course is immediately under the southern wall of the Imperial City; its eastern end opens into the Ha Ta Men great street.

About midway between the Ch'ien Men and the Ha Ta Men great street, and parallel with it, flows the so-called Imperial Canal. This is practically a mere drain for the surplus waters of the Imperial City, which pass by it through a water gate into the moat of the southern city. This canal is several rods wide, is lined with brick or stone walls six or eight feet high, capped with stone, and has a broad road on each side of it. Legation Street crosses it on a stone bridge called the Imperial Canal Bridge, and near the wall of the Imperial City the Street of Permanent Peace crosses by another bridge of the same name.

Within the double rectangle bounded by the city wall on the south, the Ch'ang An Chieh on the north, the Ha Ta street on the east, and another road to the west called the Board of War street, were situated all the foreign

THE ATTACK ON THE LEGATIONS 261

Legations except one — the Belgian ; also the hotels, banks, foreign stores, the Imperial Customs, the Post Office, and the incomplete Imperial Mint. Coming from the Ha Ta street westward, the first Legation on the north side, some-what isolated from the remainder, was the Italian. Farther on were the French Legation, the Hotel de Pekin and the Japanese and Spanish Legations. On the south side of the street was the German Legation opposite the French, the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, and one of the foreign stores. West of the bridge over the canal stands the Russian Legation on the north side, opposite the American Legation on the south, with the Russo-Chinese Bank, another foreign store, and the Nether-lands Legation, all on the south side of the street.

Passing up the canal from the bridge for a few hun-dred yards, one comes to the east gate of the British Legation, the southern extremity of which is not very distant from the northern wall of the Russian Legation. This fact later proved to be of great importance. North-west of the Legation, and adjoining it was the Imperial Carriage Park, an expansive area with numerous large buildings devoted to the storage of the elephant carriages, sedan chairs, and other vehicles used by the Emperor, with their appurtenances and trappings. On the northern side extending to the Ch'ang An Chieh were the spacious premises of the Hanlin Yuan, or Imperial Academy, which soon became a storm centre in the defence of the Legation.

The American refugees from the Methodist compound filed wearily into the United States Legation about noon, without the least idea of what disposition was to be made of them. Almost every one had come away with no op-portunity to make provision for food other than whatever happened to be at hand, but through the generous hos-

262 CHINA IN CONVULSION

pitality of Mrs. Squiers, wife of the First Secretary, the whole large company was promptly served with an in-formal luncheon. Not only so, but her amply stocked storeroom was placed at the disposal of her destitute countrymen and women, who were generously told to help themselves to whatever was in sight. Full advantage was taken of this permission, coolies and carts being loaded up repeatedly for several hours in the endeavour to remove as much as possible to the British Legation, which had been fixed as the general headquarters for all. It was largely due to this unanticipated and unexampled liberality that the American refugees were able with some degree of success to bear the privations of the siege, and it is not too much to say that in this way several lives were in all probability saved and the comfort of scores greatly enhanced. During the entire siege Mrs. Squiers was preeminently the Lady Bountiful of the occasion, looking after the wants of many of various nationalities with a lavish and an undi^. criminating hospitality.

Nor was she alone in this thoughtfulness for others' comfort. Lady MacDonald's extensive premises, like the British Legation itself, were turned inside out to accom-modate newcomers; her table was filled not only with British, but with Italians, Austrians and Belgians. The ballroom was turned into a bedroom for tired ladies by night, and served as their rest house by day. The smoking-room was given up to the gentlemen at night, and the offices were turned into a carefully tended hos-pital. Nothing which could have ministered to the as-sistance of the refugees or the wounded later on was omitted, some of the lady doctors acting as nurses in the International Hospital, which was thus recruited as would not otherwise have been possible. Both Lady MacDon-ald and her sister surrendered their bedrooms, the former

THE ATTACK ON THE LEGATIONS 263

in the day-time, for the use of over-wearied officers who had no quiet place to sleep off the fatigues of the wearing night duty.

After two hours' stay in the United States Legation, the American party were ordered to proceed to the British Legation, where they found themselves assigned to the church, a building centrally situated, but affording very narrow accommodations for so many. Some of the number took the precaution to enter the Chinese shops on Legation Street, taking possession of whatever was likely to prove useful, especially provisions, giving a re-ceipt when the owners were present, in other cases merely appropriating abandoned goods. By this prompt action much was secured that would subsequently have been un-obtainable, and was ultimately invaluable.

At the time of the arrival of the American contingent at the British Legation the scene was one of intense activity. Uncounted carts loaded with every variety of household furniture continually arrived. Swarms of coolies struggled through the broad passages, the stream of those endeavouring to enter becoming constantly en-tangled with the equally strong current of those trying to get out again in order to go back and reload. The whole Legation had been turned inside out, recharted, and its separate buildings assigned to different nationalities. This was the Russian house, that the French, and a third was devoted to the use of the staff of the Imperial Cus-toms. Similarly with the rest. The spacious front pavil-ion began to be covered with the most miscellaneous lug-gage, especially cases of provisions and wines, as this was the headquarters of the numerous Belgians, French and others in the employ of the ruined Lu-Han Railway, who had so narrowly escaped massacre at Ch'ang Hsin Tien.

The rear pavilion, as a conspicuous notice informed

264 CHINA IN CONVULSION

the weary wanderers who might be in quest of a resting place, was " Reserved," and was divided into several messes. In one corner two men represented what was left of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corpo-ration, in another corner several military officers had such headquarters as were possible, while the " Times' " corre-spondent was content with a mattress on the floor tiles, near which was stacked up in a huge pile his library, happily rescued just before his house was destroyed.

With the exception of a few who remained at their own Legations, and the company besieged already for four days in the Pei T'ang, or Northern Cathedral, the foreign community of Peking was now nearly synonymous with the residents of the British Legation. With the exception of those living within the legation quadrangle, by far the larger part of these refugees, even including the Cus-toms staff living but a few hundred yards distant, had saved very little of their possessions. Some had a single trunk, others a travelling valise, while here and there was one whose clothing was represented merely by what he had on at the time he entered the Legation.

The headquarters of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs was but a few minutes' walk from the British Legation, and nothing would have been easier than to have brought safely away the entire contents of the dwelling's and of the public buildings, including the Post Office, in which were heaps of valuable registered letters, accumulated for many days. There were members of the staff ready and eager to undertake this work, but per-mission could not be secured, as it was apparently sup-posed that in a short time the men would all return to their places and to their work, when the trouble would have been lost. All the voluminous records, correspondence, archives, and other documents of the Customs were thus

THE ATTACK ON THE LEGATIONS 265

needlessly lost, and even the priceless " Diary " of the Inspector General, Sir Robert Hart, for which the world has long been waiting, was rescued with some difficulty from the fate which overtook almost everything else. The indisputable fact that men who knew so much about China did not see the Boxer movement in the horizon nor yet apprehend it when it was at their doors, is one of the most remarkable psychological facts of modern times, but it is nevertheless a fact.

It has already been mentioned that the process by which the palace of Prince Su was made available for the Christian refugees was a gradual one. When they began to stream in on Wednesday afternoon, June 20th, they were for some hours kept in the passage in front of the outer gate under the trees, where it is not surprising that, hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. A party of women went over from the British Legation to look after them, soon after which Prof. James opened the gate and let them in to the outer courts. There, by dint of much Occidental help, rubbish was removed, sweeping and dusting executed, and a comfortable place at last pro-vided for all the women and children. A large kitchen was furnished with every requisite for cooking, including an abundance of coal, and the expansive divans afforded accommodations of comparative luxury. It was at this juncture that fire was opened by the Kansu soldiers on the Austrian Legation near by and that Prince Su prudently retired to the security of the Imperial City, his whole great establishment thereupon becoming the abode of the homeless Christians until they were driven out of it by an enemy more irresistible than Boxers and soldiers combined.

The American party had no sooner found their ap-pointed quarters, than it was decided to return to the

266 CHINA IN CONVULSION

Methodist compound with a band of as many Chinese as were available, to bring away as much as could be saved of the baggage which the military panic of the morning had needlessly sacrificed. The streets were as quiet as when the cavalcade had passed in the morning, and the long and well-armed procession of missionaries with rifles, and Chinese with pikes, was unmolested. The Manchu guard was found duly posted at the outer doors, but some of the neighbours had apparently come in over the walls, and not a little looting had already taken place ; some who were caught in the act were attacked and wounded by the indignant Chinese. By diligent use of the available means of transportation, and by the impressment of a few carts at good pay, a great quantity of property was rescued, without which the inconveniences of the siege would have been much increased ; yet clothing and other effects, worth many thousand dollars could not be re-moved and were lost.

There was a notion prevailing among the Chinese at this time, that at four o'clock in the afternoon the soldiers would open fire, this being construed as the limit of time within which the Legations were to have left Peking. The troops were not supposed either to know or to care what the Tsung Li Yamen might or might not say, but would take matters into their own hands, and if the foreign Ministers would not go of their own accord, they were to be driven out by force. Whence this rumour originated it is impossible now to determine, but it un-doubtedly hastened as well as cut short the salvage of property, all of which might else have been brought away in safety.

Promptly at the stroke of four, the troops of General Tung Fu Hsiang opened the expected rifle fire on the Austrian Legation. Soon shots began to be heard in

THE ATTACK ON THE LEGATIONS 267

every direction, and every one hastened to get under safe cover.

Explicit assurance had been given from Jung Lu him-self to Prof. James that there should be no attack upon foreigners at this time. Implicitly confiding in this dec-laration, the latter was on his way to the palace of Prince Su, in the interest of the native Christians to be quartered there by way of the bridge over the canal, near the wall of the Imperial city, when he was challenged by Chinese soldiers. Prof. James threw up his hands to show that he was unarmed. What followed, at the time and for long afterwards, was imperfectly known, though every effort was made to ascertain his fate. After the siege was over enough was learned to make it appear probable that he was taken before Jung Lu by the sol-diers. After a few days of captivity, and on his refusal to prostrate himself before the Boxer leaders, he was taken out and beheaded. The head of a foreigner an-swering to his description was afterwards exposed on the Tung Hua gate.

He was a man of scholarly habits, of long acquaint-ance with China and with a wide knowledge of the Em-pire and its people. He had especially interested him-self in a study of the development of the Boxer move-ment, having for some months made a careful collec-tion of all decrees and other documents bearing upon the subject. The results of this labour, like so much else of value, was lost in the general welter of ruin when all foreign property was destroyed on June 13th.

It is worthy of mention at this point that the long expected reply of the Tsung Li Yamen to the Diplo-matic corps, through the doyen, M. de Cologan, was received during the excitement of removal to the British Legation. It acknowledged the receipt of the letter of

268 CHINA IN CONVULSION

the evening before, and informed the Ministers that " in making the statement that you ought to leave Peking within twenty-four hours, we were guided by no other consideration than that of the disturbances raised by the bandits in the city of Peking itself. But the regions surrounding Peking being at present disturbed, it is to be feared also that the departure of a procession of the families of members of the Legation and their children cannot occur without danger. Since your despatch de-clares that it is impossible for you to prepare to leave within twenty-four hours, we naturally agree to the delay and to fresh negotiation.

" The relations between China and foreign Powers have not been strained by any animosity. But at present, by reason of the disagreement which exists between the people and the Christians, a state of things has actually occurred which could not really have been foreseen. With regard to the interview, the traversing of the streets is dangerous, and the Princes being daily on guard at the palace can not be in two places at the same time. The Princes and Ministers are pleased with the declaration of peaceful intentions, and a desire to safe-guard good relations." The letter concluded by asking what were the intentions and instructions of the Govern-ments.

The next day a reply was sent from the diplomatic corps, assuring their Excellencies that the Governments had never given any but the most friendly instruction in regard to China. The detachments were on their way to Peking for no other purpose than to assure safety. Attention was called to the firing upon the Legations, which had continued since the day before. This must be against the wish of the Government and chargeable to rebels, or to groups of soldiers acting independently.

THE ATTACK ON THE LEGATIONS 269

The Yamen was asked to have an immediate stop put to this aggression, so contrary to the terms of the note just received, and to the spirit of this despatch.

From the mere perusal of these formal and courteous letters no one would have had the smallest suspicion that the Government of the Chinese Empire was in the very act of making war upon the whole civilized world, that the Foreign Office was for the next six weeks to remain absolutely silent, ignoring the Foreign Ministers, and that the latter were to be bombarded for two months with shot and shell while at bay in their own Legations.

The shot that killed the German minister was fired by express orders of some one, probably Prince Tuan, who seemed from that time to wield the supreme authority, so far as any authority at all existed. Its echoes had scarcely had time to die away before the gravity of the act and its certain consequences made a government council a necessity — indeed it appears that there was one already in session at the moment.

The Manchu party pressed for a Decree ordering Jung Lu as Generalissimo of the Grand Army in the North, to bring his troops into Peking and formally at-tack the Legations, destroy them, and then proceed to Tientsin to exterminate the foreigners there, or drive them into the sea — which had been the favourite program of the Conservatives for some two years.

It is represented that just as Her Majesty was about to give her consent, the Emperor made a strong and pitiful plea for delay before embarking upon a policy which would be the ruin of millions of his unoffending subjects, and endanger the foundations of the Empire. He was overcome by his emotion, but he was treated with cold contempt and stinging insult both by the Em-press Dowager and by Prince Tuan and left the Hall

270 CHINA IN CONVULSION

weeping. No one among the Chinese dared oppose the Imperial will, and the fatal Edict was at once issued. The same afternoon the troops of Jung Lu crowded into the city, bringing their field and machine guns with them, and an immense supply of the latest and best magazine rifles.

From this time on the condition of the capital became like that of Paris under the wildest orgies of the Com-mune. Any one clad in the Boxer habiliments was in-vested with authority to kill, burn, and destroy at will, and no one dared oppose. Peking and Pandemonium were for the time synonymous terms. The Kansu troops roamed about through the city looting the residences of innumerable officials, regardless of their record or their predilections. The most bigoted Conservatives like Hsu T'ung (who longed to have a rug made of the skin of a Western Barbarian), and Sun Chia Nai, ex-Chancellor of the Imperial University (the sole relic of the Emperor's reforms of 1898), fared alike, and nothing portable was left in their houses. Whoever remonstrated was likely to be killed as well as plundered, and this happened to great numbers of the officials of the highest rank, until it is said that the streets were red with blood. The troops of Jung Lu were not behind the at-tainments of the Kansu ruffians in pillaging and murder, and although a Manchu Colonel of one of the regiments caught red-handed was summarily beheaded, as were also many of the soldiers, it was like " wrapping up fire in paper," and the riot and ruin went on largely unchecked.

The details of the looting of Peking by the soldiers of Tung Fu Hsiang and Jung Lu have been told by trust-worthy native witnesses, whose stories give a graphic picture of the condition of things in this unhappy city. One of these writers who occupied a dwelling very near

THE ATTACK ON THE LEGATIONS 271

to the Austrian Legation describes the horrible panic when it was known that the troops had been let loose. Those of his neighbours who made any resistance were shot at sight, but in his own case soft words and a yield-ing manner resulted merely in the removal of all his trunks and boxes, with all the furs, clothing, jewelry, and money which could be found, one party succeeding an-other to the number of seven or eight in swift succession. In some cases nearly all the clothing was torn from the persons of the officials in the eager scramble, and some members of every family in the street were killed by the wild and unintermittent firing, until the court-yards and streets were littered with dead bodies. Multitudes of the officials and other residents of Peking rinding that their property was despoiled and their lives unsafe from one moment to the next, got together whatever they could, and hastened to Tung Chou, where the same wild law-lessness prevailed.

Thence they endeavoured to make their way by boat to Tientsin, and since the sea route was blocked, by way of the Grand Canal to the south. In Tientsin as in Peking they were plundered and insulted, and many of them lost their all, while still others perished, no one knows where, at the hands of no one knows whom.

XVI

CHAPTER 16. The First Week of the Siege

THE FIRST WEEK OF THE SIEGE

THE British Legation had not been occupied four and twenty hours before many at least of the refugees were enabled to comprehend some-thing of the reasons for the disasters in the contempor-ary South African campaign. The seventy-nine British marines who had been suddenly summoned from the ocean to the defence of the Legation, together with their officers, had all the excellent qualities which British sol-diers and sailors for centuries have displayed the world around. They were brave, patient, and always ready for duty, and are entitled to all honour for their heroic and persistent defence in the face of almost overwhelming discouragements. But officers and men alike were young and without the smallest experience of the kind of war-fare in which they were now to engage.

There was not a man among them all more than 30 years of age. Many of them were barely past 20. Neither their experience nor their training in any way fitted them for garrison duty of the unexampled sort now to be suddenly required. The marines had been daily drilled in the routine manner for some weeks after their arrival, but nothing had been done toward forti-fying the Legation in any way whatever, except that a low earth rampart was thrown up about the entrance to the Legations to protect the machine gun which was there mounted. A few gunny sacks were filled with earth at

272

THE FIRST WEEK OF THE SIEGE 273

the main gate, but aside from these not a sand bag had been prepared or apparently even thought of.

One of the positions of vital importance to the whole Legation quadrangle was the premises of Prince Su. At the time when the siege began, it was outside of any line of defence, the British guard which had been previously posted at the upper bridge over the canal having been now withdrawn, and Japanese sentries being stationed along the northern wall of the Fu. Not long after an Italian post was established at the extreme left, which was never given up. East of the Fu, at a little distance, was the Imperial Maritime Customs compound, guarded by the Customs Volunteers. Across the street to the east was the Austrian Legation. South of that were the Customs Post Office and other foreign buildings; to the east of that was vacant land and south of this again, at no great distance, was the Italian Legation. These various premises were so related to one another by con-tiguity, and by intercepting barricades across the streets, that they appeared to be defensible for a long time.

In the very early hours of the siege Sir Claude Mac-Donald applied to one of the Americans whom he knew, for information as to whom among them he could de-pend upon for assistance in the innumerable matters re-quiring immediate and ceaseless attention. He was told that committees were already in existence covering every need, and that if it was desired, thoroughly competent men could be summoned within five minutes, who had already had considerable experience in their respective duties which they had executed with marked success. The result was the appointment within an hour of about a dozen committees on the lines suggested, the previous chairman being retained, reenforced by able and willing coadjutors.

274 CHINA IN CONVULSION

A large part of the civil as distinct from the military history of the siege in Peking is the story of the work of these committees. Several of them will receive more de-tailed description hereafter.

The General Committee, of miscellaneous and com-prehensive function, was engineered by the indefatigable and versatile talents of Mr. Tewksbury, whose tireless energy never appeared to flag even after the siege was raised. The other members of the body were Henry Cockburn, Chinese Secretary of the British Legation, Mr. Popoff of the Russian, and Mr. Morisse of the French Legations, Mr. Bredon of the Customs, Mr. Hobart of the Methodist Mission, with Mr. Stelle as secretary.

The work of fortification, which was independent of every other control than that of Sir Claude MacDonald, was entrusted to the Rev. F. D. Gamewell, who had enjoyed the advantage of two years of technical instruc-tion both in the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Cornell University, with considerable practice in field work, his studies having been interrupted by physical dis-ability which turned his attention to other subjects. His long and varied experience with numerous forms of Chi-nese construction, with the management and adjustment of Chinese labour, and with the strength and possibilities of all forms of Chinese materials, made his services in-valuable, and it is no exaggeration to estimate them as literally indispensable to the success of the siege defence. From the beginning to the very last hour, he was en-dowed by means of a greatly overworked bicycle with a limited omnipresence so far as related to the British Lega-tion. Early and late, by day and by night, in ihe heat and in tropical rains, he gave undivided attention to the single problem of how to render that Legation as nearly

THE FIRST WEEK OF THE SIEGE 275

impregnable as the serious natural disabilities of the situation rendered possible.

Other important committees were those which had in charge the food supply, the registration of the Chinese and foreigners, and the furnishing and distribution of labour. Upon the proper working of these various agencies depended the health and even the lives of both foreigners and Chinese.

The first steps taken by the Committee on Food Supply was to examine at once all the native grain-shops within the lines, and to set the Chinese to filling bags of rice which were taken either into the British Legation, or into the Su Wang Fu. Several tons of rice were found, some of it white, but most of it the musty yellow grain which the Pekingese so much use, and which they even profess to like better than the fresh white kind, but which to the uninitiated is particularly hard eating.

A shop at the corner of Legation Street and the canal was found full of new wheat, just from Honan, contained in huge cylindrical baskets made by winding long strips of rush-matting upward as the bin is filled. It was esti-mated by Mr. Fenn, who had the sole charge of the very important work of milling, and from whose comprehensive account of the food supply these facts are cited, that there were not less than 8,000 bushels of this wheat. Boxer proclamations and Boxer shrines were found in the shop, but nothing did more to defeat the plans of the Boxers than this same wheat, which was the staple of life, both for foreigners and for Chinese, and without which it would have been impossible to protract the siege until the 14th of August.

At first the unground wheat was carried on carts to the British Legation, or by coolies, to be ground there. But

276 CHINA IN CONVULSION

it was afterwards perceived to be much more economical of both time and labour to use the eleven complete mills and the fifteen mules of the grain-shop itself, which was also fitted with harness, baskets, bins, measures and sieves in abundance, so that the finished product could be car-ried over each day. Thus these mills ground almost un-intermittently for seven weeks.

As the situation of the shop became more exposed, and it was necessary to run the gauntlet of many hostile rifles on the way to and fro, it was decided to transfer both mills and grain to the British Legation. About half the wheat was taken to the Fu for the use of the Roman Catholic refugees, but their supply was injudiciously managed and long before the siege was over they ran very short. Four of the mills were still in operation within the stable-court of the British Legation for the benefit of foreigners, while three were left in their original position to grind flour and meal for the Protestant refugees.

At the beginning of the siege the Food Supply Com-mittee took an inventory of all food in the Legation, to form a basis for the issue of rations in case that should become a necessity. Of the rice, wheat, flour, corn-meal, soap, sugar, and butter, rations were issued during the greater part of the siege.*

* The following Indemnity Claim will be of especial interest to those who have traced the fortunes of the besieged in the Legations. It was presented to the British Legation, and was allowed in the list of " Private Claims " to be paid and charged against the Chinese Government. Thus, and thus only, it became true, as was reported to the British Government by the Chinese Minister to that country, that the Chinese Government was " pro-viding food " for the besieged Legations.

The numerous Couriers were paid for out of British Govern-ment funds, and the amount was included in the Government's Claim.

THE FIRST WEEK OF THE SIEGE 277

Friday, June 22. This morning there was an extraor-dinary scene, when without warning we saw troops of all nationalities pouring into the side door of the British Legation in the most complete confusion.

Nothing had happened to justify a panic, but it seems that peremptory orders were issued to the Japanese to abandon the Su Wang Fu, upon which they retired to their own Legation. There had been no casualties, and nothing whatever was known of the circumstances ; when

PETITION of the Kuang Hsing ("Broad Prosperity") Grain Shop, situated on the East Legation Street, at the Bridge over the Canal, for the compassion of His Excellency the British Minister.

(MATERIAL)

Red and white wheat.

Old rice (fine) ,

Old rice (coarse)

Long white rice ,

Best white rice

Medium white rice...

Glutinous millet

Millet

Yellow millet

Green beans

White corn-meal Yellow corn-meal

Best white flour ,

Sorghum

Black beans

Wheat bran

Yellow beans

White beans

Peas ,

Small beans

Total

(Piculs)

850 20 30

5 10

15

20

10

5

15

30

10

30

40

20

10

15

7

2

5

i,i49

(Rate) Taels

5-00

S.00

3.50 9.OO

6.00 500 4.00 4.00 4.00 500 2.60 2.60 450 2.00 2.80 1. 00 2.30 500 3.50 3.50

(Amount) Taels

4,250.00 100.00 105.00 45-00 60.OO 75-00 80.00 40.OO 20.00 75-00 78.OO 26.00

135-00 80.00 56.00 10.00 48.00 35-00 7.00 17-50

5.342.50

Also fifteen mules

Implements lost, mill-stones broken additional.

500.00

278 CHINA IN CONVULSION

to our astonishment, Italians, Austrians, and French came rushing onward, followed not long after by the Japanese and Germans, who abandoned their position on the wall without the firing of a shot. The Americans upon the wall seeing this headlong flight supposed that they were cut off, rushed down the ramp from the wall, accompanied into the British Legation by the Russians. At no other period of the fighting was there anything like a stampede, but this occurrence was so dangerous that it served as an immediate object-lesson in the necessity of a definite head.

It appeared that the Austrian, Captain Thomann, had taken command in Peking as the senior officer in rank. Having heard from an irresponsible source that the American Legation was abandoned, without taking steps to verify the fact, he issued the disastrous orders which produced this chaos, and imperilled the lives of the whole besieged party. Had the Chinese been prompt in percep-tion and in execution, nothing could have saved the garri-son from annihilation. As it was, the positions were re-occupied within a short period, and the damage was repaired.

The one valuable outcome of the experience was a request on the part of the ministers of Russia, France, Italy, and Japan, subsequently confirmed by that of the other Powers, that Sir Claude MacDonald should assume charge of the defences, which he did from that time.

During this same afternoon, what appeared to be shells came into the Legation, but some supposed them to be shots from the huge Chinese two-man guns (gingals), 8 or 10 feet long. The leaves and branches of trees were cut off and began to fall on all sides, while the air was alive with the scream of rifle bullets. Another story was current that the shells were fired by the troops of

THE FIRST WEEK OF THE SIEGE 279

Prince Ch'ing from the Ha Ta gate wall at the soldiers of Jung Lu.

Fortification of the house of the First Secretary with boxes of earth and sand bags was begun with great vigour. From the very first, and to some extent through-out the entire siege, there was a marked and an im-pressive contrast between the conduct of the representa-tives of the Anglo-Saxons, and that of many of the Con-tinentals, who for the most part sat at ease on their shady verandas, chatting, smoking cigarettes and sip-ping wine, apparently trusting for their salvation to fate ; while their more energetic comrades threw off their coats, plunging into the whirl of work and the tug of toil with the joy of battle inherited from ancestors who lived a millennium and a half ago.

The demand for sand bags began at this time, and work was started by all the women, greatly aided by a few rescued sewing machines, with an energy which speedily turned out vast numbers of them. Lady Mac-Donald pulled down and sent over almost all the legation curtains and other articles which could be utilized for this purpose. By long experience and steady applica-tion they were able to turn out complete one bag every four minutes, and sometimes in three minutes, — several hundred in two hours, two thousand in a single day. On the supposition that sand bags would be less conspicuous to sharp-shooters if of a dark colour, desperate and toil-ful efforts were made to dye each one in coal dust dis-solved in water, until after a day or two the hopelessness of the undertaking was manifest and it was abandoned.

The Italian Legation was given up and burned to-day. The Dutch Legation was also burned, as well as all the houses on each side of the Legation street apparently quite down to the Ch'ien Men, half a mile distant. Later

280 CHINA IN CONVULSION

in the afternoon there was an alarm of fire on the west and outside of the Legation. The bell on the tower was rung as a signal according to orders, and a scene of delightful confusion ensued. When the flames had been apparently subdued still another building caught fire. It seemed then impossible to save the house of the Chinese Secretary, all of whose goods and numerous books were tumbled out into the roadways and upon the tennis court, forming a very extensive public library.

A line was formed from the central well to the south stable court to pass the leather water-buckets, which, alas ! had shrunk and cracked until many of them were either leaky or had lost their handles. They were then supple-mented by earthenware, graniteware, iron and tin pitchers, pails, jars, foot-tubs, small bathtubs, teapots and many other incongruous utensils, most of which started from the well only partly filled, and by reduplicated jerking from hand to hand of excited men and women often arrived at their distant destination practically empty. But every one, of whatever nationality, worked energetically, wives of Ministers and Chinese coolies side by side, upon this, as upon other similar occasions, both willing and eager to help.

An order which would exactly suit the Chinese tem-perament was issued to-day, to use as little water as possible for ablutions, lest the supply should run too low, — a fear which subsequent experience proved to be without grounds. During the whole time of the fire there was a constant fusillade on the part of the Chinese, who hoped to take advantage of the damage to breach the legation walls. During this attack the first life was lost, a British private named Scadding being shot through the head.

To prevent a successful repetition of this incendiary

THE FIRST WEEK OF THE SIEGE 281

policy of the Chinese it was decided to pull down a temple near the southwest corner of the Legation. The work was one of considerable difficulty and not a little danger. The quantity of material found there was sur-prising, including heaps of silk stuffs, which were ulti-mately transformed into sand bags. From this time many of the servants made their appearance daily girded with silken girdles.

In the course of the afternoon one of the Christians rushed into the yard, covered with dust and glory, bring-ing a receipt from the Secretaries of the Tsung Li Yamen for the despatch which the Diplomatic Corps had sent yesterday afternoon. The Yamen proposed that any further communication should be forwarded to the Ha Ta gate, but this is far outside our lines and is wholly in-accessible. Forty years of continuous diplomatic inter-course with the Chinese Government has thus achieved the triumphant possibility of securing from the Foreign Office, a mile or so distant, an acknowledgment of the receipt of a document a little less than thirty-six hours after its reception!

Saturday, June 23. — Last night three 2-inch shells fell near the American Legation — a new feature of the attack. An order was issued that confiscated property of no great value may be given to destitute Chinese Christians, while that of more worth is reserved for fu-ture disposition. Dr. Ament is placed in charge of all such goods.

There was vigorous firing, especially about the middle of the forenoon, to the west of the Legation, from build-ings near where yesterday's fire occurred. While at dinner we heard the fire-alarm bell ringing again. It was a great conflagration in the Hanlin Yuan to the north of the British Legation. The soldiers who began the

282 CHINA IN CONVULSION

work of destruction first set fire to the outer gate on that street, then to the inner gates of each of the four court yards in succession, establishing themselves in a large hall of the third row of buildings where they kept up an incessant rifle-fire upon the Legation during the whole progress of the fire. The floor of that hall was subsequently found covered with their cartridge shells. The several gateways communicated the fire each to the one beyond, until the danger of a clean sweep of the whole premises made the peril of the Legation imminent, for the wind was blowing a gale from the north. To prevent the servants' quarters behind the Minister's house from catching fire appeared almost impossible, for they were not five yards from the nearer building which towered above them.

The British marines first breached the wall into the Hanlin court, and then gained entrance into the hall from which the Chinese soldiers had been firing. This could not long be held, however, for it, too, was soon in flames, furnishing for several hours a grand spectacle, until the massive roof fell in, when the many tons of earth and tiles acted as a partial and a temporary extinguisher.

Meantime every available man was set to work pass-ing buckets of water from the nearest wells, working the small fire-engines, and cutting down trees with much labour and not a little risk of being crushed beneath the trunks or other falling walls. These huge old trees were one of the most efficient means of spreading the flames. A large branch dropping into a yard was soon followed by a blaze in a new spot, since the woodwork was every-where extremely dry. One of the large halls standing nearest to the Legation had to be pulled down for our own safety. It was a difficult and dangerous undertaking,

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XT

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;w~E«sC** *

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WALL OF TARTAR CITY PIERCED BY BRITISH TROOPS

GATEWAY INTO THE FORBIDDEN CITY

THE FIRST WEEK OF THE SIEGE 283

for the building was lofty, with large and solid posts and roof-timbers. In this crisis the Fire Committee, headed by Mr. Tours and ably seconded by many others, outdid themselves. Captain Halliday was especially distin-guished for his energy and courage. When, a short time later, he was seriously wounded, the defence lost the services for the entire siege of an able and popular offi-cer, whose name was later appropriately affixed to the bomb-proof built over the front gate, which was called by the soldiers Fort Halliday.

About the time of maximum danger the wind sud-denly veered to the northwest, greatly encouraging the firemen and their assistants. The structure next in front of the one pulled down was filled with bookcases con-taining some of the choicest volumes in the Hanlin University, particularly a vast work called after its Im-perial patron, Yung Le Ta Tien, a cyclopaedia of Chinese literature of immense compass, never printed, but copied by hand. This is supposed to be the sole copy in the Em-pire. Owing to the depredations of unprincipled Han-lin scholars it was far from complete, for in China " he who steals a book is not a thief," since literature is hon-ourable, and its tools are often alike indispensable and unattainable.

Scores of the bulky cases were filled with the volumes of this encyclopaedia * bound in yellow silk pasted on the board covers, each book nineteen and a half inches long, twelve wide, and about an inch in thickness, having a strip of bright-coloured silk pasted on one cover with the four characters of its title. To the marines, as well as to many others who worked hard to put out the fire and to clear the building threatened, this was nothing more than a sample of the many unintelligible works thrown about

* See Appendix.

284 CHINA IN CONVULSION

in the greatest confusion on that memorable day. But to one who knows even a little of China it was a won-derful relic of the past, worthy of preservation at the hands of the " Foreign Barbarian," even if the Chinese themselves had cared nothing for it.

When it was probable that this building would burn with the rest, the contents of its boxes were unceremoni-ously tumbled into the yard, where they were soon buried under mounds of other books and lost to sight. An at-tempt was made to rescue this great cyclopaedia of learn-ing, but although several hundred volumes were col-lected, many others disappeared. Some, with bushels of other volumes and manuscripts, were thrown into the lotus tank and covered with rubbish to prevent them from taking fire in a mass. At a later period, when they had been thoroughly soaked with water from the fire engines, and by numerous rains, so that they had begun to rot, an order was issued to heap earth upon them to prevent them from infecting the neighbourhood. The execution of this command constituted the formal funeral of all that remained of the ancient Imperial Academy of China!

In the entire area of the Hanlin Yuan the only build-ings which escaped the fire were a hall called the Ching I T'ing (now empty except for eleven stone tablets on which are cut the sayings of the sage Ch'eng-tzu) and others the hall containing the cyclopaedia mentioned, and three small pavilions behind it. The first, like sev-eral others, was stored with Hanlin essays and with the stereotype blocks of numerous Chinese works, especially poetry, which, when once ignited, added greatly to the fury of the flames. Those blocks which remained were scattered about the premises or were used as firewood or as materials for barricades.

THE FIRST WEEK OF THE SIEGE 285

During this period of excitement the servants' quarters behind the Ministers' house were thought to be doomed, and most of them accordingly had their window and door-frames knocked out and all their contents removed. The dread of fire was so great that no place for all this material was thought to be safe short of the canal. Armies of Chinese men were engaged in furious demoli-tion of woodwork, while long lines of men, women and boys made the journey to the front gate with whatever they could snatch up, such as door frames, blinds, boards and timbers, all of which might much better have been piled up in some safe place for future use. Huge arm-fuls of packing excelsior were borne triumphantly to the distant water-course, women toddled along with baskets of horse fodder, and one lad, perspiring with the impor-tance of the great occasion, marched onward to victory with a mop in one hand and a fur hat in the other. Nearer the scene of action a devout old coolie was rooted to one spot holding a bamboo pole at an angle, repeating his prayers without intermission.

After two hours of hard work the fire was got under control and the danger was past. The air in several dif-ferent quarters was heavy with smoke, one fire being ap-parently the Electric Light Works; another was some-what nearer the Customs buildings and the Imperial Post Office. A German was brought in from the Russo-Chinese Bank mortally wounded.

A Chinese gun which had been planted in a small alley only 300 yards west of the south stable court, began late in the afternoon to play upon the two-storied house there and inflicted such serious damage as speedily to render it uninhabitable. The marines attacked the gun-ners with rifles, and the gun after a few discharges was silenced and soon withdrawn.

286 CHINA IN CONVULSION

Sunday, June 24. — One of the most promising gradu-ates in this year's class in the North China College at Tung Chou started off early this morning with a de-spatch written to Sir Robert Hart. The bearer was re-solved to get through with it to Tientsin, or perish in the attempt. It seemed a hopeless undertaking, and almost every one regrets his brave rashness. Nothing more was heard of him or his message until the siege was over, when he reappeared in Peking accompanying the relief expedition, with a story of adventures, not having been allowed to try to return to Peking from Tientsin.

Another Russian was reported mortally wounded this morning; and an American named King, who was on duty in the Russian Legation, was shot through the head. There are now more than a dozen cases in the hospital.

Word was passed about that white rockets were seen last night by men on the roof at the German Legation, the first at 1 o'clock and the second two hours later. There was a sharp attack by the Chinese on the Su Wang Fu, a gateway being burned, but as it had already been well barricaded with bricks, it could not be forced. Two of our best Chinese were mortally wounded at this time, a Methodist pastor named Wang Ch'eng P'ei, and a helper named Liu, both natives of the same Shantung village, both of them men of excellent character and deeply lamented.

As it was seriously doubted whether the Fu could be held, Sir Claude gave the order to have all the Chinese brought over from there into the buildings between the British and the Russian Legations, in a small alley called Ta-tzu Kuan. The transfer was carried out with very little confusion, some of the women and girls shedding a few tears as it was thus forcibly impressed

THE FIRST WEEK OF THE SIEGE 287

upon them that they had literally no abiding place. There was no protecting barricade to guard the passage across the canal, and a mule was shot near the gate, but no casualties among the Chinese occurred.

While these removals were still in progress there was another alarm of fire in a building just west of the stables attacked yesterday. For a time the danger was as great and the confusion even greater than on yesterday. The Russian marines who had been in the court were moved hastily out, and the whole yard was paved with their baggage and much other miscellaneous stuff. The west stable gate had been filled with sand bags, but it was soon again on fire; yet, though burned to a cinder, it was speedily reenforced by a strong brick wall to keep out the expectant Chinese soldiers, who were just outside in force. While the work was going on, bricks hot from the fire were thrown over the wall upon the workmen, our first introduction to one of the most formidable weapons employed by! the Chinese during the siege. The marines made a raid to the westward through a hole in the wall to clear out a lot of soldiers, capturing many Mauser rifles, large swords and pikes, which were brought and exhibited at the bell tower. In these opera-tions a British marine was badly wounded, and also Captain Halliday.

A house near the temple pulled down the day before yesterday was found to be in flames, and peril was now greater than ever. As this was not far from the build-ings into which the Chinese women and girls had just been moved, and there was risk of a general conflagra-tion in that neighbourhood, they were once more or-dered back to the Su Wang Fu. It was discovered that nearly two hundred cases of kerosene were stored in some of the rooms of the south stables, all of which

288 CHINA IN CONVULSION

were hurriedly moved out upon the tennis court, where they were subsequently covered with earth. Had the building which contained all this inflammable material been reached by the fire, it would have been impossible to check the flames.

It has been explained that all the Legations except the Belgian, Austrian and British were situated on Lega-tion Street, and three of them upon its south side. The German Legation, especially, was almost immediately un-der the city wall, which loomed fifty feet above them all, directly commanding every foot of their area. The Ger-mans had, since the 22d, maintained a post upon the wall, by means of a ramp close by, thus interrupting the Chinese communication between the Ch'ien Men and the Ha Ta Men ; but every other part of the wall was trav-ersed by Chinese soldiers at will, and frequently in great numbers. The American contingent mus-tered but fifty-three men to guard the Legation premises, and the officers were very reluctant to attempt to hold a long stretch of wall, with a force so inadequate, against unknown thousands of the enemy armed with numerous rifled cannon and the most modern weapons. Minister Conger during the Civil War in the United States had been himself a military man, the First Secretary of Lega-tion, Herbert G. Squiers, had been a lieutenant with fifteen years' experience in the United States Cavalry, and was a thorough soldier, with quick instincts and excellent judgment. It was due to their strenuous insistence that the untenable position was taken and held to the last, and that the physically impossible was made actual.

To-day both the Germans and the Americans made raids on the wall, the latter almost down to the Ch'ien Men, where the Chinese have mounted cannon. They drew the Colt's automatic gun up the ramp, made an

TARTAR WALL OVERLOOKING AMERICAN LEGATION

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THE FIRST WEEK OF THE SIEGE 289

advance and a feigned retreat and when the Chinese pursued en masse they were mowed down in heaps by the gun discharging more than 400 shots a minute. To as-certain the numbers of Chinese killed in these attacks is wholly out of the question, and it is much the safest way to follow the Chinese custom and record the total as " not a few." On this, as on all other occasions no prisoners were taken, all the wounded being either bayoneted, or thrown over the city wall. It was found that the cannon which it was hoped might be captured was too strongly defended to be got at, and the effort was reluctantly abandoned. An American marine named Kehm was injured by a piece of shrapnel, but not seri-ously. Another German was buried to-night.

Although this was Sunday, there was until long after dark no possibility of holding a service albeit several were planned. The demand for sand bags was incessant and increasing, and all day long the busy fingers of all the ladies and many of the Chinese women were turn-ing them out literally by the thousand. The theoretical bag is about thirty-two inches in length, by about eigh-teen inches in breadth, but fuller experiences showed that almost any size and shape would be useful some-where. There was an abundance of material found in houses about and much was brought in every day from foreign stores researched and from many unlikely places. The fabrics of which these sand bags were made was often such as to cause the ladies who made them to sigh over the " waste " of so much for which it would have been easy to devise other uses. Countless bolts of the finest silks, satins and brocades, worth from five to twelve dollars a yard, swiftly disappeared under busy fingers, and were soon on a level with the meanest sacking or excelsior, and after the first heavy rain the product was

290 CHINA IN CONVULSION

a rapidly disintegrating substance which bore no resem-blance to the original. Many tens of thousands of dollars worth of stuffs must have been absorbed in this appar-ently endless task of supplying the insatiable demands for defences against bullets.

These bags were filled from holes dug in the yard at miscellaneous places wherever earth was obtainable, and the task of packing them occupied a large force from early morning all through the day, and was partici-pated in by men, women and children. The Continentals, hitherto without specific functions, now found something to do, and one might see people of every nationality hard at the unaccustomed and fatiguing work, — a long-robed priest of the Greek Church shoveling earth into a bag held by the wife of a Minister, the string tied by a little Chinese boy, and the bag carried off by the indefatigable and ubiquitous chaplain of the Legation, Mr. Norris, who had just received a wound from a hatchet, while helping to put out fires.

The sand bags were carried to innumerable places in jinrikishas (of which there were a large number brought into the Legation), on a long cart, or on the shoulders of coolies. When once their usefulness was discovered the call for them could not be met, and the tireless labours of the many ladies in many separate buildings scarcely slackened, except when there chanced to be no more ma-terials, or the supply of thread was exhausted. The latter indispensable requisite for machine sewing seemed to be created from time to time as needed, and though occasionally it was reported as absolutely and entirely gone about half a peck of full spools was on hand at the close of the siege. The sand bags reappeared upon the summits of the outer walls, wherever a sentinel was sta-tioned, on the upper stories of the houses in the windows

THE FIRST WEEK OF THE SIEGE 291

and all along the front and sides of the hospital, which seemed particularly exposed to bullets.

Monday, June 25. — There was another fire in the night, and an excited Frenchman came very near ringing the alarm bell against orders.

Two Boxers that have been in the gatehouse for sev-eral days were this morning taken out and shot, their bodies being thrown into the canal. Heavy firing took place on the east of the Su Wang Fu, which was strengthened by request with twenty men. It is an in-creasing wonder that such a handful of men as ours can keep such multitudes of Chinese at bay.

Some of the horses have been loose in the yard since the stables were attacked. A lady physician met one of them in the night which had come through the moon gate in the wall, and seemed to be trying to get through the back door into the hospital ! Some of the animals have been struck by stray bullets, and to-day the first were killed for " French beef." At one of the messes there was some delay in serving the meat, apologized for by one of the ladies on the ground that the " horse was not yet curried." Most persons become accustomed to the taste and do not dislike it, some refuse it altogether, and a very few " prefer it to anything else." The ornamental rock-work in front of the theatre in the Legation grounds is hollowed out in many places for the reception of large kettles wherein the horse meat is boiled, superintended by a company of cooks girded with aprons made of chintz.

The United States marines on the wall tried last night to surprise the Chinese by a sortie, but they were discov-ered and retired. The Colt's gun is of no use against fortifications such as the Chinese have now built, and has been brought down into the British Legation. The Chi-

292 CHINA IN CONVULSION

nese are imitating our style of barricades in every par-ticular even to sand bags made of gunny sacks; and as they are not limited either for materials or for labor, their work is sometimes a considerable improvement on ours, and often very quickly and skilfully done.

Many of the private houses within our lines have been searched for material for sand bajgs. In one rich man's house, which had been deserted, a large quantity of silks and furs of great value was found, which one of the native Christians prevented the neighbours from looting. They were all brought into the Legation and added to the stock of confiscated goods. A party was sent out to the southwest to pull down Chinese houses as a protection against fire, and every such excursion adds to the accu-mulation of clothing and bedding for the Chinese refu-gees.

Soon after five o'clock in the afternoon rifle firing on the Legation suddenly ceased, a white flag was put out on the upper bridge over the canal, and a notice was posted on a board fastened to one of the stone posts, to the fol-lowing effect : " In accordance with Imperial commands to protect the foreign Ministers, firing must stop. A de-spatch will be delivered at the Imperial canal bridge." After brief delay a messenger with a white flag was sent to the bridge with a reply, likewise fastened to a board, as follows : " In compliance with the Imperial demand the despatch will be received." The bearer proceeded to the bridge, waving his white flag, when he saw many Chinese soldiers pointing their rifles at him. He hastily leaned his board against a post, not observing that the writing was turned inward, and beat a rapid retreat.

The whole operation, from the first display of the white flag until the return of the messenger, consumed but little more than half an hour, but the most sanguine

THE FIRST WEEK OF THE SIEGE 293

expectations were at once raised in every mind. Why should the Chinese display a flag of truce unless they had certain knowledge of the speedy arrival of a relieving column? The incident was the fruitful occasion for endless discussions pro and con, hopes and fears alter-nately belying one another, until those most expert in Chinese affairs owned themselves completely baffled by the strange turn of events.

Tuesday, June 26. — It was very quiet until midnight, when there was a fusillade either from the Carriage Park or the Hanlin. At night, especially, there is such a com-plex of echo and reecho from the high Legation walls, as well as those of the Su Wang Fu, etc., that it is utterly impossible, merely by the sound, to form any cor-rect idea as to where the firing really is.

The American position on the wall is one of great difficulty and danger. Last night Sergeant Fanning, one of our best men, was shot in the head while on duty there. The Japanese set fire to some buildings north of the Fu from which they were fired upon yesterday. The messenger who took the letter to the bridge says that yesterday there was no gun platform then in sight, but during the night one was put up, which the Japanese to-day went out and destroyed. There is the beginning of a bomb-proof covering over the front gate defences, and pits are being dug in various places to serve as refuges from the shells in time of extremity. They are long, narrow, and only a few feet deep, roofed with timbers of houses which have been pulled down, with doors, boards, mats and other like covering, with earth thrown on the top. Not one of them is anything more than a particularly damp, dark, shallow cellar, by no means proof against shells, but better than no retreat at all.

294 CHINA IN CONVULSION

A large quantity of wheat was brought in to-day from a shop on Legation Street, and other supplies are turning up daily. There is a continued discussion as to the nature and significance of the " armistice " of yesterday. It is regarded as certain by some, in view of the fact that rifle firing began at four in the afternoon of the 20th, and entirely ceased at five, an hour later, on the 25th, to the sound of many bugles, that the Government does exercise some control over it. The rear of Sir Claude's house is getting much battered by the bullets, and now the church near the centre of the compound has also been struck.

All day long the work goes on of making bags, bags, bags. Little Chinese and foreign children play with jinrikishas and bring sand bags to the front gate after they have been filled, for the bomb-proof building there; and while this is fine sport for the bairns, they actually do much more work proportionally in a given time than grown men.

Several messengers have recently been started off to try to reach the relief column, or to get through to Tien-tsin, all for high rewards. The last one was taken on the wall and let down into the southern city by a rope.

During these early days of the siege, while everything was still in more or less confusion, there began to be many signs of order emerging from primeval chaos, mainly through the exertions of the various efficient com-mittees appointed by Sir Claude as chief of the Legation and commander-in-chief of the defences.

The normal population of the British Legation consists in summer of only a few score foreigners and Chinese. By the sudden invasion of all nations it was increased to more than four hundred foreigners, and — at the begin-ning of the siege — to about six hundred Chinese, most of these living under very crowded and abnormal con-

THE FIRST WEEK OF THE SIEGE 295

ditions. In such circumstances the sanitary care of the place became a matter of supreme importance. The well-known slovenly and filthy habits of most Chinese ren-dered the task one of tenfold greater difficulty than it otherwise would have been, the small, low, damp build-ings used as servants' quarters being in many cases potential hot-beds of every kind of malignant microbe.

The artificial hillock which was converted into an out-door kitchen for the preparation and cooking of great quantities of the flesh of horses and mules, daily butch-ered there, became the sphere of influence of millions of flies, with which the air was black. The soil also was so saturated with blood and offensive animal matter that but for efficient sanitary treatment this slaughter ground would have been a plague spot. The great consump-tion of wine accumulated everywhere in a few days a vast number of empty bottles, which it was necessary to have removed, as the danger from splinters of glass, in case of their being struck by the constant showers of fragments of shells, was most serious.

The demolition of walls, the excavation of pits to procure earth for sand bags or for use as bomb proofs, the removal of bricks to build barricades, and the incessant transfer of materials of all sorts from place to place constantly generated litter and rubbish. But under the experienced initiative of Dr. Dudgeon, reenforced by the labours of several other physicians, it was not long before there was a visible improvement. A large staff of men had the word " sanitary " sewed upon their sleeves, and were exempt from being drafted for work on fortifica-tions. Paths were regularly swept, the lawn was reduced to a reasonable state of order, evils complained of were examined and as far as practicable remedied, until, con-sidering the inevitable conditions, the premises presented

296 CHINA IN CONVULSION

in general a creditable appearance. All litter and sewage had to be dumped into the canal as far as possible from the legation gate, and each hard rain removed it to the favoured regions of the southern city. But with all pre-cautions it was not always possible in the execution of order to reach " perfection's sacred height," as the fol-lowing letter of complaint will show. It was addressed to the General Committee by a native of France, and re-fers to the passageway across the canal to the Su Wang Fu, which was the only safe route for the latter weeks of the siege.

" To the Chairman of the General Committee:

" At the place said [called] " the tunnel " there is now eight o'clock horses' debris deposed. It is very bad for salubrity. Please commity do necessary some observation for filth."

In other words, kindly inspect and reform. When-ever, as at this time, the firing down the canal was dan-gerously frequent and accurate the disposition of the " horses' debris " and other offal became a matter of extreme difficulty, since it could neither be retained nor got rid of.

XVII

CHAPTER 17. The Struggle for the Wall

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE WALL

WEDNESDAY, June 27.— During the night there was heavy firing on the wall, and just before daylight a general fusillade all around, though perhaps not so severe as that of the previous night. Thousands of shots are aimed at the Legations every night, but no one has been hurt. An American marine, who complains that he has been on the wall for forty-eight hours continuously and that it is impossible to sleep there has just come down and has to stand his watch here. There are several barricades between the Ch'ien Men and ours, but the Chinese mostly keep behind the rear ones. It is thought that they now have four shell guns, some of which they use well ; they are good rifle shooters also. A French volunteer was struck by a ricochet ball in the back of the neck, but will recover. There are said to have been thirty-two casualties thus far. The deaths have been: three French, three Austrians, two Japanese, two American, both sergeants; two Russian, two Italian, three German, one British, eighteen in all.

Among the daily narrow escapes is the case where a bullet passed between the open fingers of a hand, through a fan which was held in the hand; and where a bare-headed volunteer, who was endeavouring to ascertain what was going on by looking out of a second-story window, felt his hair gently rising, as it was swiftly combed by the flying projectile. A bullet passed through the cuff of a sleeve, through the flap of the

297

298 CHINA IN CONVULSION

jacket, the edge of the trousers, through the flap of the jacket on the other side, and out again, leaving the owner of the clothing none the worse. It is a common saying that " every bullet has its billet," and that it is useless to dodge them, but for the ordinary human being it is practically impossible not to try to do so.

A census has been taken of the foreigners in Peking, with the following result:

CM-

Men. Women. dren. Total.

In the British Legation 191 147 76 414

Outside 54 2 3 59

Total 245 149 79 473

A British subject had a son born to-day, and Dr. Martin has persuaded him to call the child " Siege," per-haps with the hope that he may eventually be raised.

Nearly all day, especially in the afternoon, there is the same wild and furious fusillade as in the night, bullets whistling everywhere, with almost no reply from our side. The ladies, as usual, are cheerful and busy through it all, as if nothing uncommon were going on. About four o'clock a sudden and violent attack was made on the northwest, the bugle calling the Chinese to arms as often before. Soon after, for no perceptible reason, the firing abated. In a court north of the Su Wang Fu the Chinese tried to breach the wall, the Austrians being on guard on one side and the Japanese on the other. The latter waited until the Chinese had got inside, when they opened on them a cross fire, killing seventeen or more of tlieir number.

Two nights ago, after the Imperial placard had been displayed, the Japanese found their outer walls furnished with scaling ladders, which they demolished. Rags

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE WALL 299

soaked in kerosene and tied to poles, had also been pro-vided for lighting more fires. Every one is delighted with the Japanese as soldiers, strong and plucky, and never making any complaints that we hear of.

It has been suggested that to-day's attack may have been intended as a celebration of the first day of the sixth moon.

Yesterday three little Roman Catholic children strayed outside the passageway in front of the Fu, and two out of the three were shot dead. This afternoon handfuls of bullets are exhibited that were picked up near the church and the cooking kettles behind. It is a standing marvel that they do so little harm.

About 11 p. m., there was brisk firing on the north-west, and the bell tolled an alarm. The Chinese bugle sounded in many places, and there was a rain of bullets overhead for a few moments only. Then came the order to disperse, and the rest of the night was comparatively quiet.

Thursday, June 28. — A story is current this morning of a Chinese who has got through from Tientsin, and who brings the word that our relief army is starting " next Monday in three columns." The country about Peking is said to be full of troops, and it is very difficult to get in, and still more so to get out. There were six casu-alties yesterday, one fatal. The Chinese have got a gun in operation against the Su Wang Fu, and are now throwing bombs into it, so that gentlemen had to go over to get the schoolgirls out of a building which was in danger, and is now in flames. A French marine has just been brought in killed, and another wounded who died soon after. There are now twenty-two cases in the hos-pital, and the place is in considerable danger from the bullets, the windows being blocked with sand bags.

300 CHINA IN CONVULSION

Preparations were made for a general attack expected at noon, and there was vigourous shooting for many hours. Toward evening an alarm was sounded of an-other general attack, when a gun opened fire on the house in the south stables. The Italian gun was hurried over from the Su Wang Fu, and taken up into the second story of the threatened building. The fire was from the houses surrounding the open square known as the Mongol Market, where the Chinese have made a new gun platform. The building seemed about to be demol-ished, but the attack ceased as suddenly as it began.

The messenger sent out three days ago returned, having only gone seventy li [twenty-one miles.] He was ar-rested and tied up several times on suspicion. He met crowds of refugees flying from Tientsin. He had heard in general that the Taku forts had been taken, and that a large foreign army was on the way to Peking.

Friday, June 29. — At 3 a. m. a party of marines under Capt. Wray went out to try to capture the gun which did so much mischief yesterday, but although they got within a short distance many rifles opened on them, and they retreated. Only two marines were wounded slightly. The attack was apparently ill-planned and was a com-plete failure. All night long there was a perpetual fusil-lade, so that it was impossible to sleep.

The two-story building attacked yesterday evening shows the effects of a destructive cannonade which need not be continued much longer to bring the house en-tirely down. There were two guns at work, of different calibre. Not all of the shells exploded, perhaps none of them, but one killed a mule which is to be served up to-day. A messenger came over from the Fu to say that the shells have made a large breach in the rear wall, and now in the front one also. The gun is nearer, and

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TARTAR WALL WITH BARRICADE

THREE SUCCESSFUL BEARERS OF DESPATCHES

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE WALL 301

the shots are more frequent. The schoolgirls have been moved entirely out of the Su Wang Fu into a yamen to the south, where the Roman Catholic Christians have been and where they are far too crowded.

A Japanese has been killed working the Italian gun. Soon after noon there was fire seen in the Fu, which was found to be the great rear hall, and which could not be put out. Amid fierce yells of the Chinese soldiers, who saw victory in sight, the attack was pressed. One of the Japanese came over to the British Legation from the Su Wang Fu to borrow some fire extinguishers, and re-marked that last night, when the Chinese came in, the Japanese poured hot water on them, and now he would like something to " irritate their skin ! " The courage of the Japanese and the other defenders of the Fu keeps the Chinese from gaining more than a limited advantage by the fire they set.

One of the single ladies was over in the Fu the other day when there was a fierce attack. The Christians were much alarmed by the attack, but had the inspiration to sing the doxology. The Japanese soldiers stopped firing long enough to inquire what it meant, and then ap-plauded them with cheers. A highly esteemed British marine named Phillips was struck to-day by a spent bullet, while standing near the front gate, and was instantly killed. Dr. T. M. Lippett, surgeon of the American con-tingent, was also hit by a bullet while standing on the legation steps by the side of the Minister, receiving a dangerous fracture of the thigh bone which prevented him from taking any further part in the defence.

Toward dark a wounded Italian was brought in, and the French sent over to ask assistance in a sharp attack on their Legation about 6:30 p. m. Many Chinese have been carried in disabled, and have been taken to the Chi-

302 CHINA IN CONVULSION

nese hospital, which is over in the Fu. Cartloads of materials are brought from one of the foreign stores, dishes and dry goods especially.

To-day a beginning was made for a free laundry in Lady MacDonald's kitchen, kindly surrendered for the purpose. The workmen are nearly all entirely new to the business, and it is understood that no ironing is even to be attempted. The requirements in the way of soap are phenomenal, but in some way they always seem to be met. Fixed hours are appointed for receiving clothes, but to this many pay no attention, and are deeply grieved to find that they have arrived after the quota is filled. There is a limit to what even the most inexperienced washermen are able to do in disposing of soiled gar-ments under siege conditions. Two thousand pieces each week suggest such limits. When the demands are a trifle less urgent the public may be allowed to come each day from half past five to half past six o'clock. But as soon as congestion sets in the bulletin board notifies the public that " no washing will be received to-day.''

It is in sorting and ticketing the enormous mass of clothing that the genius of Mr. Brazier and his very com-petent Chinese assistants appears most clearly. Every customer has his number in a series for the day on which he brings clothes, and every article has the same number tied or sewed to it written on a slip of cloth. When all the numbers correspond with the facts, that is the ideal condition of things. But life is not all a bed of roses, tags will get mis-sewn, pieces will get mis-sorted. This makes every delivery day a dramatic occasion, in which the patience of the superintendent and the insistence of his clients are put in interesting competition — each side invariably winning. When pieces become strays and mixed with the endless piles of other articles, alike yet

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE WALL 303

different, then also there is a test of the power of busi-ness methods with pure fate, the latter not infrequently carrying off the prize.

That such an enterprise could have been carried through at all in cloudy weather and in the rain, with the inade-quate accommodations, unskilled labour, lack of appli-ances, amid incessant rifle and cannon firing, in which on more than one occasion the workmen were wounded, was a triumph of Occidental superiority to circumstances and a distinct tribute to the energy and ability of the Anglo-Saxon.

About 10 P. m. there was a severe attack on the north-west side of the Legation, made by some soldiers who broke into the Hanlin Yuan. A heavy rainstorm came on, with loud thunder and vivid lightning. This seemed to increase the fury of the Chinese distinctly, a phenome-non noticed on many other occasions. They appeared to consider each distinct clap of thunder as a signal of the approval of the whole Chinese Pantheon, and instead of retiring during the rain, as all Chinese have always done from the earliest ages until now, they redoubled their exertions, often suspending them altogether when the storm abated. This particular attack was more vicious than any that had preceded it, and will dwell in the memory of many long after other incidents of the siege are forgotten.

Thousands of cartridges must have been fired on that single occasion, but not one is known to have taken any effect. An alarm of a general attack was rung, and every one turned out in the pouring rain, but after a delay of fifteen minutes it was announced that the Chinese had been driven out, and quiet was once more restored.

Saturday, June 30. — Every one is talking of the attack last night. The American Minister, who was in many

304 CHINA IN CONVULSION

severe battles in the American Civil War, says he never experienced anything like the terror of such a continuous onset as this. In ordinary battles one side either wins or loses, but in this case for us it is a perpetual battle, with extinction in near prospect as soon as resistance ceases. An experienced German officer, not likely to be deceived, saw last night " searchlights, both fixed and conical," supposed to be those of a relief party. In all these days not a single word has come from the Pei T'ang (Northern Cathedral), but the sound of firing there is constant. There is an unverified rumour that the Japanese have received word from Tientsin about their troops.

Last night a bullet came through one of the windows of the church, but without hitting any one. Early in the morning there was an attack upon the French Legation, and a hundred coolies were sent for, the firing being for a long time very brisk: two marines were severely wounded. The French are said to be somewhat dis-heartened by their heavy losses, and no wonder. An American marine was shot in the arm this morning, but was able to walk to the hospital.

Toward noon it was reported that the German barri-cade on the wall could be no longer held, and no wonder, for their losses was terrific. [The total force was origi-nally one officer and fifty men, and on this fatal day four of them were shot dead while on the city wall, while an-other died in the hospital ten days later. Three others were shot, one in the face, one in the head and one in the thigh, ultimately recovering.] It is thought that there are three guns attacking the Germans, one near the Ch'ien Men, and probably two north of the Su Wang Fu. British marines went over to help the Germans, but were shelled out.

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE WALL 305

The guns to the north have started up again this morn-ing and shells are whizzing everywhere, many of which are aimed so high that three-fourths of them must have fallen in the southern city. This continued to some ex-tent during all the time that shells were thrown at us and must have been peculiarly depressing to the numer-ous Chinese on every side, who without the least warning found themselves savagely attacked by flying missiles, of which they have a special dread. There can be little doubt that the number accidentally killed in this way was very large.

The covering of the bomb-proof at the front gate of the Legation is being strengthened. Earth is brought in bags made of damask linen, and when they are emptied they are returned to be refilled. The jinrikishas con-tinue most useful in the transportation of these materials for defence, and the small boy is largely in evidence as the motor power. Stuff for sand bags comes in from the elegant satin hangings of the Su Wang Fu. Some of the civilian Italian volunteers on duty there often return to the British Legation loaded with piles of spoil, such as fancy clocks with models of steam engines incor-porated in them, and elegant garments in quantities.

A Chinese from the Fu says that in a water jar near where the fire took place yesterday a large quantity of powder had been found. It was brought over to the British Legation and at once put to use. An old woman, one of the refugees from the Southern Cathedral, was seen to-day coming out of the outer gate of the Fu, quietly toddling up toward the barricade at the upper canal bridge. She was hailed to know where she was going, and replied serenely that she was " going to buy things," oblivious of the existing condition of affairs. She had become dazed by her troubles, and had ap-

306 CHINA IN CONVULSION

parently lost her bearings. A Chinese came to the gate-house and asked for change for a dollar, as he wished to pay a coolie ten cents. He received ninety cents, all the change that could be collected, and went off quite satis-fied, as otherwise he might have had to give away the entire dollar. One of the oldest residents of Peking re-marked to-day that in all his life in China he had never yet found a cash on the street, but now they were lying about and of no use.

A shell struck a tree to-day between Sir Claude's house and the rear of the pavilion, and cut off a limb four inches in diameter, the fragments of the shell falling on the roof and breaking up several tiles. It is incomprehensible that when the Chinese have the range like this they do not make more and better use of it.

We have been in the Legation ten days, but only to-day has the first work been done on making a safe crossing of the canal to the Su Wang Fu. It is a route perpetually in use by both foreign and Chinese soldiers and civilians, and ought from the first to have been as safe as London Bridge, but it is still exposed to fire in several directions.

Sunday, July I. — An American marine named Tucher who was killed yesterday on the wall by a bullet through the head was buried last night in the Russian Legation. A Russian marine insisted upon digging the grave him-self, picking out the pieces of bricks, and smoothing the earth for a pillow, saying : " He was my brother — I served with him on the wall." Tucher was an excellent shot, and had done a great deal of execution among the Chinese soldiers, but was himself killed by a bullet through a loophole.

Within the past few days a bakery has been added to the other industries of the British Legation, superintended by the omnipresent chairman of the General Committee.

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This involves a great deal of work and planning, and after the best is done there may be failure, — as yesterday when the yeast failed, and the result was a batch of particularly hard bread. The rainy season is approaching; there was a shower last night, and to-day the clouds are thick and the weather cool. An order to shoot all dogs which are not tied up made much commotion, and is very spas-modically executed.

In the course of the morning word came that both the Germans and the Americans are giving up their posts on the wall. There is a call for 400 sand bags in one place, and enough others elsewhere to make 2,000 in all. Every nationality worked with extreme vigour in filling the bags, which were taken on carts, in jinrikishas, and on the shoulders of men, to the American Legation, to help in a barricade across the street, and for use on the wall. At one time during the day the Americans left their position altogether for more than half an hour, but the Chinese did not discover it, or suspected a trick, and the post was soon reoccupied. The Germans also lost the wall, retook it and again lost it with one man killed, and it was soon after occupied by the Chinese soldiers.

It is reported this morning that the French Legation was given up, and a retreat upon the strongly fortified Hotel de Pekin effected, but the Legation was retaken later. The fearless manager of the hotel, M. Chamot, has a staff of Chinese servants who bring over the meals of the guests of the hotel, many hundred yards distant, three times a day, even through a shower of stray bullets, and when pieces of shell are falling everywhere. One would not have expected any Chinese to display such non-chalant courage, especially as some of them have been wounded, or perhaps killed, and in consequence their number is diminished by so many. To an inquiry whether

308 CHINA IN CONVULSION

they did not consider it highly unsafe, one of them replied simply : " The meals of the foreigner are very important."

The Italian gun has been mounted at a window of the library in the second story of the students' quarters, and attacks some barricades in the Carriage Park through an opening well filled with sand bags. The books are scattered all about the place, many of them piled up as a barricade, and one of Bishop Ellicott's works is used to chock the wheels of the gun carriage.

The American Colt's automobile is hereafter to be placed in the British Legation outer gate, as being less liable to get jammed than what Lord Charles Beresford calls the " obsolete " Nordenfelt, the British gun. But even this is much better than the equipment of the Rus-sians, who left their gun on the platform at Tientsin and brought up some shells which do not fit anything else. When through a misapprehension of orders the Russian Legation was abandoned on one of the early days of the siege, these shells were prudently let down a well so as to prevent their being of any service to the Chinese. As they turned out to be defective in construction they were spoiled by the soaking and later had to be taken apart and laboriously refilled.

Capt. Wray, in command of a British party on the wall, was wounded in the arm; a British marine also at the same time and place, and two others in Su Wang Fu, while a Frenchman was brought in with a severe wound, and many Chinese who have been helping to carry sand bags in various places were likewise disabled. Our hospital is getting very full, and the growing aggre-gate of losses is extremely depressing, for there is an evident limit to what we can bear, and the total deaths to date are reported as thirty-two.

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During the afternoon a party was organized to make a raid on the Krupp gun which, firing at short range, has been doing so much mischief to the north of the Fu. The exact location of the gun was uncertain, and the way to reach it likewise a matter of conjecture. It involved co-operation between Italians under Lieutenant Paolini, who was in command, Japanese under Colonel Shiba, four Austrians, two Frenchmen, seven British marines, and five British students. The Japanese forced a way to the designated place, but the position was untenable and they retired with one man killed and two others wounded.

From a lookout on the north end of the stables in the British Legation there was a view of the whole proceed-ings. A lane running from the Canal eastward, opposite the Hanlin, was chosen as the point of attack by the mixed forces (including sixteen Italians) just mentioned. A hundred yards up the lane was situated a high Chinese barricade, near to which was a hole in the wall of the Fu, from which attempts had been made to enter the lane previously. Lieutenant Paolini formed his men and dashed up this line, upon which a withering fire was opened upon them from behind the barricade, as well as from loopholes in houses on the northern side of the lane.

Lieutenant Paolini was wounded in the arm, two Italians fell dead, and the column was driven back, but perceiving this hole in the wall, of the existence of which they had not previously been aware, they struggled with each other to get through it. A British marine es-caped badly wounded down the lane. Five British stu-dents, Russell, Bristow, Hancock, Flaherty, and Town-send who had volunteered for this effort, acted with great discretion. Russell ordered them to take shelter behind the projecting wall of a house until after all others had already escaped, a man at a time they could make the

310 CHINA IN CONVULSION

rush across the lane to the hole in the wall, the others firing at the barricade while one man was making the passage. Mr. Bristow, with great coolness, picked up a rifle which a marine had dropped, since the^ loss of a single weapon was a serious matter. All the students escaped unhurt except Mr. Townsend, who received two bullets, one in the back of the shoulder, and another in the thigh. The young men behaved like veterans, and the bravery and dash of the participants were conspicuous. But the unfortunate result was the loss of two Italians killed (the body of one of whom was not recovered), one Japanese killed, a British student interpreter wounded, and also two British marines — a heavy penalty to pay for an error in judgment at a time when every man is necessary to the defence.

The grain shop on Legation Street has hitherto been used as the best place to grind out wheat, as the stones are already in position, but the passage is becoming daily more dangerous. The house of the accountant is barri-caded on the whole length of the veranda to a great height for fear of shells, so that there must be a very slight circulation of air within. One of the impromptu additions to the defences there is an ice chest filled with bricks, on which are packing cases of earth. One of the small cypress trees near the cooking boilers for horse meat has a string of cash hanging confidingly upon it which no one seems to disturb. Money is of no more value to us at present than to Robinson Crusoe and his man Friday.

The evident imperative necessity of holding the city wall behind the American Legation makes it vital to de-fend from bullets the passage of the street at the base, (which is at present commanded by other parts of the wall), and also the long ramp leading up to the top, the

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE WALL 311

traversing of which is highly dangerous, shots being con-stantly fired whenever any one goes either up or down. It is for this purpose that so many sand bags are required. These must be put into position at the edge of a ditch that has been dug across the roadway as a partial pro-tection, but the work must be done at night to avoid drawing a steady and murderous fire from innumerable Chinese rifles in several different directions.

The best way to protect the ramp seemed to be by putting up a series of zigzags built of the bricks taken from the facing of the city wall itself, which were of huge size and weight. But the mortar with which they were laid proved to be far superior to that usually met with in Chinese construction, so that to dig out a single brick was a long and laborious process, and thousands were needed. Here, as in all other work required by the defences, at least fifty per cent, of the time of the Chinese was lost through the lack of suitable tools, and of the time which was actually employed often a full half was wasted because the tools which were to be had were of such inferior quality.

Whenever the Chinese began firing on suspicion that something was being done in the way of making barri-cades, the Chinese workmen soon learned not to expose themselves as at first, but to keep their heads well below cover. It was wonderful what patience they displayed under the disadvantages of working so hard in the dark, on such unyielding material, much of the time exposed to fire. Whenever the fire became severe they crouched around their leaders, sometimes clasping the legs of the foreign overseers whom they had learned to trust, as if in this way they were safer than when separated from them.

There are only twenty-six American marines holding

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the Chinese attacking army at bay, and the commanding officer, Capt. Myers, has been up there for a week to-gether! The discomforts were almost as pronounced as the dangers, for there was scant room, imperfect shelter from heat and rain, no intermission of the irregular Chi-nese rifle firing day and night, and the constant wearing sense of heavy personal responsibility for interests which it was impossible properly to guard, and fatal to leave unguarded.

Monday, July 2. — The morning is wet and the gentle drizzle shows that the rainy season has arrived. The " searchlight " was seen again last night, and speculation even ventures to identify it with that of the " Terrible," supposed to be with Admiral Seymour's force. The Chinese cannon has begun again this morning, and the Italian machine gun is sent over to the Hanlin grounds. The Chinese now mostly have a white strip on their arm with the word " Christian " printed on it, thus to some extent carrying out the suggestion of Yii Hsien, who wished the Government to compel all adherents of foreign religions to make that fact plain to every one by their dress.

The ladies are busy making sand bags out of Ningpo silks and tapestry, each bag of the value of about $10 Mexican. There was a large fire last night in front of the Shun Chih gate, next west from the Ch'ien Men, but there is no guessing what was burned. There is still another fire to the southeast, perhaps outside the city.

The Su Wang Fu is getting untenable, and there are fears that it cannot be held. The Japanese are bringing some of their provisions from there into the British Lega-tion, which shows that they have their anxieties about the outcome. An attache of their Legation was shot in the

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE WALL 313

head while building a barricade. The Japanese are most plucky, occupying a dangerous position and having al-ways large loopholes to shoot from, although smaller ones would answer just as well. Most of them have bandages of some kind on, and they do not give up unless it is imperative.

The northeastern wall of the British Legation is to be strengthened, lest we lose the Fu and the Chinese shell us from the side. The large flag tiles in front of Sir Claude's house are being torn up to-day to build an additional wall in case the Chinese get into the Fu and fire across from a new angle. The proprietor of the larger of the two foreign stores has given permission to any one who wishes to loot the place, and the marines and others have been helping themselves to the articles which they most fancied. As a result gram-ophones, phonographs and music boxes are in operation in the gate houses of the Legations as well as on the sentry posts.

Russian sailors have several times come into the yard where the school girls are, to their great fear and to the disgust of the ladies, who have complained to the Rus-sian Minister.

Tuesday, July 3. — Last night one of the correspondents sent off a thousand-dollar telegram giving the names of the killed and wounded to date, but it was never heard of again. Heavy rain fell early this morning and continued during the forenoon, everybody and everything being wet through. It is a marvel how the Chinese contrive to cook out of doors at all. The hospital is very full with about fifty patients, and even the long chairs of the nurses are occupied by the wounded. Last night there seemed to be some one posted in a tree who had the range, and while operating it was necessary to have mats

3 14 CHINA IN CONVULSION

hung before the windows and put the lights on the floor. Most of the waiting on the patients has to be done in complete or semi-darkness, as it is not safe to show a lamp anywhere, or bullets whiz !

The canal has become a torrent, with three or four feet of water in it, and there is no crossing to the Fu through the tunnel. The rain is deprecated because it is certain to delay our troops, on account of the heavy artillery. One competent authority says it would only hinder them one day, but others say ten. A rifle shot to-day carried away the halyards of the flagstaff at the main gate, which is ordered taken down and the colours are nailed to the mast.

The Chinese working party that went to the wall last night was unable to build the zigzags as the Chinese had the range of the ramp and the bullets were too thick. The last part of the night they worked to strengthen the barricades just wrested from the Chinese. The British and Russians are assisting in holding the wall.

For some days the position of our defenders on the city wall has been growing worse. The Chinese have been pressing forward in great numbers, and their shell guns and rifles, firing both ways, have made the American position exceedingly difficult to hold. The top of the wall is flat and between thirty and forty feet wide. Ramps for ascent always occur in pairs and are inclined toward each other like the limbs of a truncated letter A, the space between the points where the ramps reach the top being thirty or forty yards in length and directly op-posite one of the massive bastions by which at regular distances the wall is strengthened.

The American barricade has been injudiciously located at the head of the first ramp, leaving the other and the surface of the bastion undefended. The Chinese have

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built several barricades between the Ch'ien Men on the west and ours and have been all the while creeping nearer and nearer with a wall curving like the vicious tail of a scorpion on the surface of the bastion, where they are out of reach of fire. At the end they have just con-structed a high tower, which is only a few feet distant from our post, and from this inaccessible eminence they now hurl down huge bricks on the heads of our men, who are unable to reply.

That the Chinese must be driven out or the wall aban-doned was evident to Mr. Conger, Mr. Squiers and Sir Claude MacDonald, all men of military experience and of sound judgment. The execution of this important task was committed to the commander of the American con-tingent, Capt. John T. Myers, a cool-headed and capable officer, who entered into the plan with great spirit. In this movement twenty-seven British (including one civi-lian volunteer), fifteen American marines and as many Russians took part.

The marines distinguished themselves by the reckless courage which they displayed throughout. Capt. Myers in a few pointed words called their attention to the dif-ficulties to be overcome and to the fact that the lives of hundreds of women and children depended upon the re-sult of this encounter. He then led the way by over-leaping the American barricade, when they came at once upon the end of the barricade of the enemy, fortunately incomplete and easily overthrown. He was followed by the British and Americans, the Russians having been sent for an attack upon the enemy's ramp on the inner side of the wall. The attacking party was now behind the curving wall of the enemy's fortification, protected from fire until they were immediately upon the enemy, whose surprise was complete.

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The foremost man was Turner, an American marine and a skillful sharpshooter, who while making the charge was shot through the head and instantly killed, as was his comrade, Thomas. Capt. Myers accidentally received in the lower leg, from a Chinese spear, a wound which proved painful and dangerous, and which together with an ensuing attack of typhoid fever disabled him from further active service during the siege. A British cor-poral was wounded in the instep, and a Russian was also disabled. The rout of the Chinese was as complete as their surprise. A Lieutenant-Colonel, named Ma, of Tung Fu Hsiang's army, to which the troops belonged, was killed and his banner as well as another captured, besides numerous rifles and much ammunition. Fifteen of Tung Fu Hsiang's men were killed, and probably as many more were wounded.

The Chinese were driven quite a distance down the wall and their barricade was at once occupied and never after-ward lost. The moral effect of this gallant action was certainly not less than its military importance. It was probably owing to this incident, as well as to other similar sorties on the part of the Japanese and others, that the great Chinese army attacking the Legations were never quite able to see their way clear to exterminate the foreign barbarians at one sweep, justly fearing that, in the pro-cess, most of them might be permanently incapacitated from further performance of the ancestral rites so dear to the heart of every disciple of the Sages.

And here one may remark upon the immeasurable inaptitude of the Chinese during the siege. There were occasions, as on the day when the gathering at the British Legation took place, when it would have been easy by a strong, swift movement on the part of the numerous Chinese troops to have annihilated the whole

AMERICAN SENTRY TURNER, METHODIST COMPOUND

AMERICAN BOARD MISSION, PEKING

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE WALL 317

body of foreigners, and without serious risk to the at-tackers, but the opportunity was not seized. For several days they controlled the city wall behind the Legations throughout nearly the whole of its length, and could have massed there thousands of troops, and all their artillery in a night, rendering it impossible to drive them out, or to avoid extermination by their fire. This was what those abroad who knew the conditions, but had not heard the facts, expected.

At Tientsin the Chinese astonished all who had gauged their military talents by the experience of the war with Japan, and fought savagely, so that the allies suffered severely before Tientsin city was captured.

But there was nothing of this sort at Peking, for though the attacks were fierce and murderous, the Chinese soldiers did not expose themselves. Upon unnumbered occasions, had they been ready to make a sacrifice of a few hundred lives, they could have extinguished the de-fence in an hour. Yet they lost five or ten times as many men by sharp-shooting as they would have done in a rush. The artillery was badly served with poor shells, and the firing was inconstant and often wild, though no one wished at the time to criticize it on that account. Yet when the siege was over countless new Krupp guns were discovered which might have been employed simultane-ously with deadly effect. Some of them had never even been set up.

XVIII

CHAPTER 18. Dark Days

DARK DAYS

WEDNESDAY, July 4.— About half past nine last night a furious fusillade began on the northwest, west and southwest, singly and then together, which resembled a general attack. Every moment it was thought that the bell would ring an alarm, but this kept up with brief intervals until daylight. There was drizzling rain all night, and although not much water fell yet everything was again soaked through. No sign of the sun and, except for cards with a little flag drawn on them by a patriotic citizen, there was no sign of any celebration of the day.

The United States Legation itself is considerably de-moralized. Several Chinese who worked at night on the wall, are asleep in the secretary's room. The office of the Minister is in dire confusion, and covered with dust from the bricks and glass broken by the bullets. Legal digests, Congressional Records, the report of the Blackburn Com-mission, United States Statutes at Large, overturned ink-bottles, waste-paper baskets and curtain poles, litter the floor, while a bullet which passed through a transom has quite perforated the framed Declaration of Independence, between the twelfth and thirteenth lines where the ec-centricities of King George are criticised.

Last night distinct artificial lights were seen, unlike those of the night before, which are now supposed to have been heat lightning. The Chinese in the Fu have

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been a good deal alarmed at the attacks there, but they have been told that the girls in the houses near the Rus-sian Legation are no safer. To-day one of the girls who was inside a building in the Fu was struck in the leg by a piece of shell, and died of a hemorrhage. This was the only life lost among the whole number of schoolgirls, and unlike most of the others the child was with her own parents.

The Chinese plan is to break down the defences of the Fu ; but there are inner defences to be taken, so that it can hold out yet, and we are glad to know that it is to be defended at all hazards. Another Italian was killed there to-day, making a total of forty-three deaths thus far. The Japanese are giving some of the captured guns to the Chinese Christians who have volunteered, and they are standing their watches side by side. Yesterday one of the Japanese died in the hospital of hernia of the brain, but as it was supposed that he was in articulo mortis he was entered on the records as dead the day previous.

Some of the people living on Legation Street who have been penned up inside our lines have on hand a stock of pickles and other sauce, which they are now peddling out every day, the first sign of mercantile life we have met. The shelling on the wall is as brisk as in the Lega-tion. It is reported that a shell from the Ha Ta Men gun of the Chinese passed entirely over our barricade and struck that of the Chinese far beyond, making the bricks fly. Our men gave a responsive, and derisive cheer.

Thursday, July 5. — Although it was comparatively quiet last night, there was an attack on the French Lega-tion for half an hour or so, early in the morning. M. Chamot, the manager of the Hotel de Pekin has forfeited

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his place with walls ten or fifteen feet thick in places, adapted to withstand cannon balls. But the roof is the weakest part, and he reports this morning that under the heavy shell fire it is in ruins. Some of the pieces of shell brought over are of a new and dangerous pattern. It was reported that a coolie of his was shot to-day and two yesterday. It is a wonder that any remain. A young boy, who is one of Dr. Ament's flock, disguised as a beggar, his messages wrapped in oiled paper at the bottom of an old dish of gruel, was let down over the wall last night.

Improved sanitary arrangements are going into opera-tion in the Legation, and empty bottles in great quantities are being removed and thrown into the canal. For once nobody cares for them. Over in the Fu there are great crowds in every building, many of them sick, and the sickness is certain to increase unless their sanitary mat-ters are better looked after. A committee has been ap-pointed to see what can be done for the improvement of the sanitary conditions, which are now quite neglected.

There are many and anxious conjectures as to what it can be that hinders the coming of the troops from Tien-tsin, and it is feared that it may be the jealousy of the Powers among themselves as to who shall take the lead. It is feared that the Chinese representatives may have deceived some of the Powers into the belief that the Ministers are being carefully " protected," and the board put up on the bridge on June 25 is cited as a proof; though it seems unlikely that any one will credit this.

There are fresh barricades put up in the Hanlin, and David Oliphant of the British Legation, who remained behind to cut down a tree, was shot through the liver, and died in a short time. He had worked heroically upon the defences, with the grit of a true Briton, and was

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universally and deeply lamented. A German brought in a new kind of shell, unexploded, the mere weight of which would make it formidable. Many of those hereto-fore employed have seemed to have little force, and the damage has been trifling compared with what might have been expected.

One of our best and most valued native pastors, while on an errand with a party of others to bring grain from the shop on Legation Street, was fired at by one of the German marines near by. The Russians also came near killing some of the Christians by mistake as they were at work on a wall, and Sir Claude in conference with the French Minister has issued an order that every Chris-tian shall have a badge, as most of them already have.

The outer rampart of the front gate is being strength-ened with sand bags plastered with mud, which make a very effective barrier to bullets, and would even discour-age a Chinese shell. A new gun has been put up on a platform inside the Imperial City at the head of the canal, and the solid shot and shells go anywhere and every-where, many of them flying high as if meant for the southern city. An order has just been issued forbidding the disgraceful looting of the foreign store, which should have been stopped before it began. It has not only de-moralized the marines, but civilians as well. The tempta-tion to loot is practically the strongest in the world to the majority of the human race. This afternoon Dr. Gilbert Reid, while passing along Legation Street, was shot in the leg.

Friday, July 6. — During the night, which has now be-come the favourite time for the Chinese attacks, there was a great deal of rifle-firing and a few cannon shots. Yesterday afternoon one of their solid shot struck a Chinese cart near the Minister's house and overturned it.

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A Chinese woman was asleep in the next cart. From both the Legation and the wall heavy cannonading was heard last night to the southeast, and the usual hopeful inferences are drawn as to the proximity of our troops.

Some of the Chinese say that there is a reason for the expenditure on the part of the enemy of so many tens of thousands of rifle bullets in the spaces of the upper atmosphere. They can only account for our phenomenal resisting powers on the ground that we are protected by a supernatural being (an entirely rational hypothesis under the circumstances), and they are now aiming in a general wholesale way at "the prince of the power of the air," but to us it appears that he is our enemy in a variety of ways, and that it would be an error of judg-ment for the Chinese to injure him in any considerable degree !

To-day the Japanese made another sortie to capture the Chinese shell gun, which has proved so annoying. Like the previous attempts it completely failed, and the men were ordered back, Capt. Ando, commanding the volun-teers, being severely wounded. The Japanese laid the blame on the delay of the Italians cooperating in making their start and upon the refusal of the Chinese coolies to try to drag away a gun of great weight under a hot cross-fire. It is said that the Chinese like to work for the Japanese, who never kick and cuff them about as the manner of some is, and make a low bow to them when a difficult piece of work has been well done. The Japa-nese were obliged yesterday to retire some little distance from one position to a better one, but feel the great in-security of their hold upon the Fu as a whole, owing to the risk of fires set by the Chinese, who manifest the greatest zeal and ingenuity in this kind of warfare.

A shell from the Ch'ien Men exploded over three of

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the American marines in the main gate of the Legation, but, strange to say, none of them was hurt, although one of them expressed the conviction that it was " as close a call as I ever want." The Russian and the American flagstaffs were both carried away, the latter by the shell just mentioned, which made a huge hole in the gate-house roof, the flagpole falling with the tiles.

Capt. Ando died soon after he was brought to the hospital. He was an able and very popular officer and had done much to help on the defence, so that he will be greatly missed, especially as the numbers of the Japanese diminish so fast. Still another gun platform is being put up on the wall of the Imperial city, which means more mischief for us.

Another courier was started off to-night with the mes-sage, " Hasten, relief imperative." A student in the Russian Legation who had taken too much strong liquor charged at the Chinese barricade and was instantly shot, as were several of the enemy who tried to get his body.

Saturday, July 7. — There was a slight but persistent firing last night at the Fu, enough to keep some awake. There was nothing of importance on the wall, but a Chinese was slightly injured. There are reaffirmations of heavy firing heard in various places last night to the southeast (or southwest, as the preferences of the hearer dictates), and various fresh conjectures as to the relief. The messenger who was sent out last night returned through the water-gate because he was watched. He seemed much scared, and exclaimed with big eyes that the watchmen's rattles (quite harmless implements except to sleepers) were " Oh, so many! "

The Ministers are authority for the estimate that the Russians could spare at most 8,000 men from Port Ar-thur, and that had the gravity of the situation been known

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when the telegraphs were cut 10,000 men could have been brought from the Philippines. The most probable explanation of the delay is that the troops have been having a serious time themselves. The Chinese adage re-marks that " When the fire has reached as far as to one's eyebrows it is time to look out for what is just ahead," which may well have been the situation between here and Tientsin, since the Boxers are so numerous.

It is getting to be a serious question what to do with the numerous non-Christians who are caught within our lines. There are between twenty and thirty who are over in the Mongolian Superintendency Yamen to the south of Fu, many of them persons who were left in charge of that place when Prince Su left so suddenly. There are also many others living on Legation Street, and as there is a prospect that there will be a scarcity of food it is desirable to get rid of them; but we are afraid to send them away lest they reveal to the enemy our strait-ened condition. " When one is riding on a tiger it is diffi-cult to get off."

Cannon balls came into Sir Claude's dining-room to-day for the third time. One passed entirely through from north to south, just grazing the large painting of the Queen, knocking off an edge of the frame, but doing otherwise no damage. Still the room is not considered so wholesome for meals, the " feng-shui " being spoiled, and the large family, between twenty and thirty, have gone elsewhere, to eat if possible in greater quiet. One of Sir Claude's servants brought in a cannon shot to-day which had struck the roof and rolled off.

The committee appointed to investigate the Fu find its sanitary condition unspeakable. There are both small-pox and scarlet fever among the Roman Catholic Chris-tians, and in their crowded condition it is difficult to

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know what to do. Some of the Chinese in the servants' quarters back of the British Minister's house have had to vacate their rooms on account of the rain of solid shot, and this adds to the congestion at the Fu.

A furious rifle fire with shelling took place toward noon, and many shells burst near the main gate of the British Legation, mostly in the air. The Chinese guns are waking up in every direction. A Japanese and an Austrian were brought in wounded. The new gun plat-form on the Imperial City now shows two openings for cannon, and indicate what we are to expect when they get into operation.

In the desperate need of some sort of gun, to make at least an attempt to reply to these incessant attentions, one of our ingenious American military-civilians sug-gested that the brass barrel of a fire-engine might be util-ized for this purpose, by binding it with copper wire. On this operation the American gunner, Mitchell, was en-gaged all day, many ladies as well as gentlemen coming to inspect the progress of the novel manufacture, and expressing the opinion that it is " awfully clever, you know." The bullets were made of the mountain of old Chinese candlesticks, and other britannia-ware stuff, of which there are cartloads, brought in from the Fu as well as other fruitful depositories. While this work was in progress a party of Chinese who had been sent for tools to an abandoned blacksmith's shop within the lines came upon an old Chinese cannon. The leader was so pleased at his find that he hastened back to the Legation with it, to the neglect of other implements which were secured later in considerable numbers. As soon as the Chinese cannon made its advent the fire-engine patent was super-seded.

The Belgian engineers who were refugees from the

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Lu — Han railway, have at last begun in earnest to make a secure passage across the canal to the Fu. These rail-way men are volunteers, and each has a huge carving knife secured by copper wire to the barrel of his rifle in lieu of bayonet, imparting a bloodthirsty and culinary aspect to their warfare and greatly endangering their companions through careless handling.

The Russians are as impatient of the failure to estab-lish communications with the world as the most typical Anglo-Saxon, and in spite of the advice and even en-treaties of others who do not wish it to become, not merely difficult, but impossible to get messengers, the gentlemen of that Legation insist upon offering $10,000 (Mexican), to any Chinese who will get to the troops and bring a reply, and $1,000 to any one who will take a message through to Tientsin, the money to be paid as soon as the fact is proved. To the class of Chinese who alone could make the journey to Tientsin or to the troops, in any confidence of succeeding, the sum named is almost equivalent pro-portionally to giving an American a round million dollars for a few days' work. One result is to make the Chinese realize the hopelessness of the enterprise from a foreign point of view, so that despite the fabulous offer no one is willing to go even one way!

During a sharp attack on the French Legation many Chinese soldiers broke in and three of them were killed, while none of the French were injured. The Chinese again set a fire near to the Fu this afternoon. The shells for the Italian gun were used up, but Thomas, the British armorer, is using the empty shell cases fitted up with a pistol cartridge so as to explode the charge of Chinese powder and thus impel the solid amalgam shot which are being made to-day by the Chinese tinkers and black-smiths, who show great readiness and skill in the work.

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Sunday, July 8. — About 10 o'clock last night there was again furious rifle firing on several sides, which sounded like a general attack. One of the solid shots struck the edge of the roof of the British Legation chapel and knocked off one of the ornamental animals which are affixed to the corners of buildings. The British Legation was once the abode of a Duke named Liang, a grandson of the Emperor Ch'ien Lung, mostly known among Occidentals out of China from the fact that pottery made in his reign is peculiarly valuable. Palaces of this kind are the prop-erty of the Emperor, as all the Empire is supposed to be, and this place was sold to the British for £8,000 sterling, the owner being obliged to be content with a smaller one elsewhere. The pavilions still retain their original ap-pearance, but most of the buildings have been radically reconstructed.

The night was a very unquiet one. During breakfast word was brought from the Fu that another fire had been set, and a Japanese was brought in seriously wounded in the fighting which ensued. In a few hours this fire was extinguished, but there was another one immediately afterward, and continuous shelling all the forenoon. Sev-eral British marines and Customs volunteers went over to reenforce the Fu. At the latter the Chinese are using the poles, on which rags soaked in kerosene were tied, and they soon succeed in setting a fire in places where it would otherwise seen unlikely to catch. The fight with fire went on all through this anxious Sunday. At 5 p. m. the Japanese gave notice that the front gate to the Fu was on fire, and that the Christians must be removed or they would be massacred.

The chairmen of the leading committees were soon at work removing the Chinese to the houses east of the American Legation. Toward evening shells began to

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come into the British Legation from the west, striking the roof of the house of the Chinese Secretary; another did much damage in the building occupied by the Rus-sians. Altogether they made a particularly gloomy out-look. Commander Thomann of the Austrian warship " Zenta " was killed to-day at the Fu.

In the afternoon, after much preparation, the Chinese gun was fired in the gatehouse of the British Legation with immense noise and recoil, but the shot was too high. A later shot, however, was most successful. It is diffi-cult with an old piece like this, using foreign shells (Russian, refilled), to allow for windage, etc.

Monday, July 9. — During the night there were three distinct attacks on the plan with which we are now fa-miliar, bullets whizzing everywhere and leaves and branches falling. The Chinese cannon were intermit-tently discharged. Our new " International " is put in the Students' Library (the second story), where it is dis-charged with good effect at a barricade in the Carriage Park; but the gun recoiled so much that it broke the window and knocked out the sand bags. Capt. Strouts is in such need of sand bags that a large quantity of army blankets were turned over for this use, but the un-accustomed sewing machines have much difficulty with them. Solid shot, apparently from the new barricades, struck the gatehouse, and many others have fallen short in the road or the canal.

The Americans on the wall have begun a new barri-cade some fifteen yards east of the former one, and have not yet been fired upon in building it. The Protestant Christians who were yesterday removed to the building on Legation Street have been registered anew and put at work. The International gun succeeded in sending a ball through the porthole of the gun platform in the crest of

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the wall of the Imperial City. Thereafter it was noticed that these openings were closed by huge iron plates ap-parently plundered from the electric light works, except just as their gun was to be fired, when the plate was withdrawn for an instant, and immediately replaced. This would seem to put the gunners in as secure a posi-tion as if they were in mid-ocean, so far as our attack is concerned.

It is reported that three men were caught trying to set fires in the French Legation, although the facts seem to be considerably clouded by repercussive rumour. One of them offered to impart information. He says there are 8,000 men fighting us, some of whom are Jung Lu's troops, and others those of Tung Fu Hsiang.

In the afternoon a notice was posted on the bulletin boards at the bell tower, the news exchange of the Lega-tion, that a messenger sent out into the city had returned. Noah reviewing his first dove was not more filled with curiosity to know the general condition of the universe than were the besieged legationers. The man reported that the Ha Ta gate had for some days been closed and that he went out the Tung Pien gate, and thence outside the city walls to the Ch'i Hua gate. He found business going on as usual at the Four Portals, the crossing of the Ch'i Hua and Ha Ta main streets. As a proof, he brought specimens of his purchases in the shops. Thus if any of us had supposed that the globe had ceased re-volving simply because we were boxed up in our Lega-tion precincts, his error was made manifest. The Em-peror and Empress Dowager are said to be still in the city, and the " Peking Gazette " is issued as usual. Noth-ing is anywhere known about any foreign troops on the way!

Tuesday, July 10. — Last night there was the usual fusil-

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lade with shells and bullets, our International gun being fired four times at the main gate. The re-registration of the late emigrants from the Fu and their families was going on, and they were massed for convenience of counting, but nobody was hit. Some of the Continental troops who assist over at the Fu are very apt to become careless or panicky, while the Japanese are always steady, but inclined perhaps to be too self-confident. Nothing seems to have happened last night on the wall. A Brit-ish marine who has been assisting there during the night informs us that there is " nothing to do but just wait till some bloke stuck his head above the barricade, and then go for him." Is not this a compendious description of all defensive war?

Our gun was discharged several times at the Imperial City barricades, but with no perceptible effect. During the forenoon a great number of shells struck near the gatehouse and exploded, apparently aimed at the flagstaff. The eastern wall of the Legation is being elaborately strengthened with earth and timber braces. A shell struck a tree just over the heads of the workmen, and a shot hit the corner of the gatehouse and did much damage, but again no one was hurt, which is simply marvellous. To-day thirteen persons living within our lines were let out through the water gate by one of the Captains, with the usual complex result that by some he is regarded as a wise man, for saving their food, and by others as a fool for letting them impart our secrets to the enemy.

One of the Chinese within our grounds was yesterday found with some gunpowder wrapped in a handkerchief, but the man escaped. What was he going to do with it? It is again alleged that some of the Continental troops in the Fu was scared two nights ago and deserted their posts, and did not go back for half an hour. Two Rus-

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sians are reported killed at a new barricade and a German died of lockjaw from a wound in the foot. An effort was made by certain civilians to get the Commander-in-Chief to remove the flag from the gatehouse to some other posi-tion, as the shelling endangered the lives of so many women and children, the range having been accurately gained and well kept. But the Captain in charge was in-dignant at the interference, so the shells continued as be-fore, the assertion being that the gunners could not see the flag, and were ignorant whether they hit anything or not.

The British Legation gets the cross fire especially from the north and the west, and once a shell exploded and pieces flew into the room where the wife of the Russian Minister and some children were asleep — again no one hurt. The men that were caught trying to set fires in the French Legation are now said to have been not in it, but in some dwelling near by. They said that the soldiers send them on ahead to loophole the houses, and if any foreigners are seen, the soldiers come forward to attack them.

In the afternoon a party of British marines were sent to the French Legation to help, and the Norwegian who piloted them took them around by the Legation Street entrance, instead of through the safe alley ways in the rear. There they stood for some little time directly in front of and near to a Chinese barricade, until in re-sponse to their summons the front gate was opened to admit them. This incident has made a great deal of idle talk. There are more tales of men captured in or about the French Legation, one of whom says that, all other means of attack having failed, the Chinese are calling in miners from the western hills to blow us up.

Wednesday, July 1 1. — Another messenger was sent out

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yesterday at noon, and another goes to-day, despite the high offers of the Russians. Some of these couriers are ready to make the effort without any pay at all as their families are in the same boat with the rest of us. The house of the First Secretary was struck last night, and a piece of a shell struck the abdomen of a convalescent patient, who was lying on a long-chair of the hospital, and waked him up. Again no one hurt.

The messenger who tried to start to-day was fired on as he left the water gate, and ingloriously returned. The Chinese are pressing steadily forward against the re-maining defences of the Fu. Mr. Oliphant, brother of the one killed in the Hanlin, was brought in wounded in the leg, with a bullet which eludes search. Another Japanese is wounded in the Fu, where the barricades arc so close together that many men are injured by the bricks hurled at them from short distances. There is talk of trying chemicals to depress the spirits of the Chinese, but there is nothing of which we have a sufficient supply to make it really feasible.

The thermometer to-day was reported to be as high as 993^2 degrees Fahrenheit, and there have been a few other days like it. But in general the weather is far more tolerable than any one would have believed possible here. For a term of years there has been a keen controversy between the merits of the hills as a summer resort, and the seaside at Pei Tai Ho. But this year for the first time, and not unlikely the last, the whole community is agreed that by far the most wholesome thing for all, is to do what no one ever supposed could possibly be done at all: viz. spend the summer in Peking itself!

In the dearth of books it is a great pleasure to be cordially welcomed, as the refugees have been, to the

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use of the library of Mr. Cockburn, Chinese Secre-tary, to whom the reading public is under great obligations.

Thursday, July 12. — Everything is very tense at the Fu, where the position is described by one of the Italian volunteers as " hell." Six were brought to the hospital yesterday, and a German who was shot yesterday died in the night. A Boxer was caught this morning and ex-amined— judgment reserved. He was " looking for old iron " when caught, and had to be subjected to a long examination by the most astute intellects available before his story could be made coherent, and even then it lacked a little in the line of credibility. He thought the foreign settlement of Tientsin had been destroyed June 16, but admitted that it was reoccupied later, date uncertain. He also informed us that the Chinese attacking us were not allowed to use large cannon, but only smaller ones lest the Chinese should be incidentally harmed by them !

A young Japanese volunteer distinguished himself to-day by killing three Chinese soldiers. By the time the story had crossed the canal to the British Legation, it was said that he saw twenty Chinese soldiers put down their guns to set a fire. The Japanese made an opportune raid, took all the twenty guns and ammunition and killed half of the soldiers ! The position of a military historian ex-cept for individuals of peculiar temperament, cannot be an enviable one.

There is a small arsenal just east of the front gate in the British Legation. Crucibles are in operation all the time making bullets of a very hard and serviceable amalgam ; cartridges are being made for the Italian ma-chine gun, and blank cartridges, which the Germans have in large numbers, are being loaded with ball. Unfortu-

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nately the supply of powder is limited. There is an enormous supply of pewter, brass stoves, etc.

Shells have the range of a new barricade lately put up in the Fu, and broke it down, but it will be reoccupied. The Japanese sent for ten coolies in hot haste. Several Chinese were killed in or near the French Legation to-day, the accounts conflicting as to whether they were soldiers or only looters.

At the French Legation the Chinese are so near that they had the impudence to lean their banners against the wall of the Legation, and one was hooked over deftly. Mitchell, the American gunner, and Sergeant Preston of the " Orlando," tried the same thing with success in the Hanlin to-day, in the face of a sharp fire, and the former came away with the flag in triumph.

A lot of looters broke into the remains of the burned Hongkong Bank lately, poked over all the papers, turned the huge Chubbs safe on its side, which would require a large number of men, and evidently expected to get into it, which was impossible. A solid shot struck our gate house to-day and was buried several inches in the bricks, whence it was dug out with a dirk. There seem to be many different sizes of solid shot. About forty are now piled up in front of the Minister's house as samples and not one of them has done any damage, although one came through a room where sixteen Chinese were gathered, passed out and struck the roof of the main house.

Considering the number and capacity of the Chinese batteries on the wall of the city, at the gates nearest the Legations, behind and near to the Su Wang Fu, and on the wall of the Imperial City within a few hundred yards of the British Legation, that any foreign buildings remained standing four and twenty hours is marvellous. It was

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thought at the time and has remained a probability that some of the guns were so in line with the Imperial palaces that they were as unsafe for the Chinese Court as for the Legations, and hence a restraining hand was perpetually laid upon their muzzles. At the corner of the rectangle in which the Spanish, Japanese, and French Legations stood, to the north being the Fu, stood a building called the " T'ang-tzu," containing the tablets of the remoter ancestors of the present Dynasty, and this being in the direct line of the guns posted at the Ch'ien Men when directed at the British Legation, may have given the gun-ners pause. In China it is particularly unfilial to attack one's progenitors.

Friday, July 13. — At half past 9 o'clock last night a furious rifle firing began in the south-west and at the Fu, The latter continued through the night, with the big Chinese guns as an occasional accompaniment. Yet the marines in reply to a question said that it " was a very quiet night." In the morning shells began to come across a new diagonal, but still no one was hurt. One shot lodged in the room where the grain is stored, and a piece of shell struck the roof where men were at work repair-ing the hospital, while another fragment went through a sheet hanging on the line. There appeared to be six guns in operation all day. An Italian in the Fu was killed, and during the day three Germans were wounded. At the American Legation the Minister's house has been much damaged, with narrow escapes for Mr. and Mrs. Conger, who were at work in one room while the pieces of shell came down through the roof in the next one. The second story of the office building is much damaged by bullets. But this happened some days ago ; at present the shelling seems to be on the other side of the quad-rangle, attacking the Fu and the French.

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A Chinese prisoner has been examined and then cross-examined in a supplementary fashion, until there is suffi-cient to make a little bulletin ; which appears, after a long interval during which there is much curiosity to get the news. He affirms that the Emperor and the Empress Dowager are still in Peking; that Prince Tuan, Jung Lu, and Gen. Tung Fu Hsiang are in control of public affairs, and that Prince Ch'ing takes no part in them; that there are many Boxers yet in the city, their chief patron being Prince Tuan, in whose palace they are registered, fed and paid. These Boxers are ridiculed by the soldiers because they dare not go under fire at the front, in spite of their pretensions to be bullet-proof.

Tung Fu Hsiang's men are facing us on the wall, and Jung Lu's troops are attacking the French Legation. Sev-eral are killed or wounded every day, and the prisoner says that he was one of several men who were hired, at two Peking strings of cash for each body, to carry off and bury the dead. There are about 3,000 of Tung's men in the city. The Empress Dowager has forbidden the use of guns of large calibre in attacking the Legations, because of the harm they might do her loyal people ano^ their houses. Direct attack having failed, and our firing being better than theirs, it has been decided to starve us out.

Two weeks ago news came that foreign troops from 100 warships had captured the Taku forts, and occupied Tongku, opposite the Tongku railway station. The city of Tientsin was in a panic because of this. The ammuni-tion is brought here from the Southern Hunting Park. Imperial edicts are issued as usual, and business is going on in the streets. The four chief banks are closed. The Chinese soldiers believe that we have several thousand men under arms.

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If this man turns out to have told the truth his life is to be spared. He seems to tell a straight story, and mentions that the big gun attacking the Fu is in the yard of the electric light works.

Toward evening there was a particularly violent attack with rifles over at the Mongol market, on the south-west of the British Legation, but this was supposed to be a feint to cover a tremendous assault on the French Lega-tion, where the firing was much worse. For some time the Chinese have been separated from the Legation by only a wall, and though there had been rumours that a mine was being carried on, it did not appear that any active steps had been taken to counteract it. Perhaps this could not have been accomplished, as the buildings were themselves the eastern boundary of the Legation, leaving no room for a trench to be dug.

Soon after 6 o'clock there was a tremendous explosion, mistaken by some for an earthquake, and two of the houses in the Legation blew up, having been undermined. They were soon on fire. The first explosion buried several people, among them Dr. Von Rosthorn, Charge of the Austrian Legation, and Mr. Destalan, professor in the Imperial University. The latter was buried up to his neck, but was released, strange to say, by the second ex-plosion. Two French marines were on duty in the house and were buried, their bodies never being recovered.

As soon as the successive explosions took place, the Chinese made desperate efforts to take the Legation, in which, despite the most obstinate resistance, they were partially successful. The buildings were soon in a blaze and it was a wild contest between the fury of the flames and that of the Chinese, each making steady advance, so that at the close the French had lost about two-thirds of the area of their Legation, the Chinese occupying the

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ruins of the Minister's house and other buildings, and the main gateway.

There was a simultaneous attack upon the German Legation. Ten British and as many Russians went to the assistance of the Germans, who have lost many of their men. The attack was repulsed and many Chinese were killed. Throughout this attack the firing was more fu-rious and steady, and longer continued, than at any other time, being intended to cover the attack on the French. The United States marines on the wall saw several Chinese sneak along the foot of it and, firing upon them, killed many, the wounded being dragged away in the night.

Saturday, July 14. — This morning three Chinese wo-men went out of the front gate, and within two minutes two of them returned, saying that the third had been shot. She was brought in and buried, and thereafter exit from the main gate was forbidden.

While the workmen were strengthening the eastern wall of the British Legation, the overseer was covered with dust from the debris of the roof of Sir Claude's bathroom, which had been struck by a shell or shot. Soon after a solid shot entered the second story of the house occupied by the Customs mess and penetrated the bedroom, where two ladies were lying, after which it quietly rolled on the floor!

There are constant reports of suspicious sounds, like those made by mining, to the northwest of the students' library in the Carriage Park, and much criticism is in-dulged in that no more active steps to counteract it are taken, especially after the object lesson of the French Legation. There is a great lack of any kind of tools, and what tools there are seem to be needed in several places at once. The energetic manager of the Hotel de Pekin

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is sure that the flour mill where we do the grinding will be burned to-day, and there is the greatest activity in removing the grain which is still left, and also the mill stones, upon which we are absolutely dependent. There are urgent demands for workmen, which cannot be sup-plied, as all of them are overworked.

It is now said by those who seem to have the right to form a judgment, that the French will not be able to hold out in their Legation more than two days, after which they will retreat upon the almost impregnable Hotel de Pekin.

XIX

CHAPTER 19. The Armistice

THE ARMISTICE

WHILE dinner was going on on Saturday the 14th, word was brought that a messenger sent out four days ago by Sir Claude had returned. He was a watchman at the Southern Cathedral. He was arrested outside the Ha Ta gate, had his letter taken from him (which contained very little information), was beaten, receiving eighty blows, and was then sent to the headquarters in the Imperial City. Here he found a man whom he knew and was detained four days, at the end of which period he reappears with a letter signed: " Prince Ch'ing and Others." The letter was as follows :

6th Moon, 18th, (July 14th, 1900).

"Prince Ch'ing and Others to Sir Claude Mac Donald,

British Minister:

" In the last ten days the soldiers and militia have been fighting, and there has been no communication between us, to our great anxiety. Some time ago we hung up a board expressing our intentions, but no answer has been received, and contrary to expectation the foreign soldiers made renewed attacks, causing alarm and suspicion among soldiers and people. Yesterday the troops cap-tured a convert named Chin Ssu Hsi and learned from him that all the foreign ministers were well, which caused us great satisfaction.

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PRINCE CH'ING

THE ARMISTICE 341

" But it is the unexpected which happens. The rein-forcements of foreign troops were long ago stopped and turned back by the Boxers, and if in accordance with pre-vious agreement we were to guard your Excellencies out of the city, there are so many Boxers on the Tientsin-Taku road that we should be very apprehensive of mis-adventure.

" We now request your Excellencies to take first your families and the various members of your staffs, and leave your Legations in detachments. We should select trust-worthy officers to give close and strict protection, and you should temporarily reside in the Tsung Li Yamen, pend-ing future arrangements for your return home, in order to preserve friendly relations from beginning to end. But at the time of leaving the Legations there must not on any account whatever be taken any single armed foreign soldier, in order to prevent doubt and fear on the part of the troops and people, leading to untoward incidents.

" If your Excellency is willing to show this confidence we beg you to communicate with all the foreign Ministers in Peking, to-morrow at noon being the limit of time, and to let the original messenger deliver your reply in order that we may settle in advance the day for escorting you out of the Legation. This is the only way of preserving relations that we have been able to devise in the face of innumerable difficulties.

" If no reply is received by the time fixed, even our affection will not enable us to help you. Compliments. (Signed) " Prince Ch'ing and Others/'

This was the first of a series of communications all addressed to the British Minister, presumably as the senior Minister of those having Legation Guards. The

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style of the various letters, often clumsy and sometimes confused, was different from those usually sent from the Yamen, and there were indications that they were pre-pared by different hands; yet there was an evident ac-quaintance with the correspondence as a whole on the part of each writer, so that the alteration in tone observ-able from time to time was rightly attributed by the Foreign Ministers to the effect of what must be happen-ing in or near Tientsin.

There was no reason to suppose that Prince Ch'ing had any special connection with these missives, more than " Others," and the effect was to keep the Foreign Minis-ters completely in the dark as to the personality of those with whom they were in communication. It was morally certain that there was a radical division of council among the Chinese themselves, and that the capture of Tientsin must have produced a reaction from the stark insanity of the Manchu Council, which had unanimously resolved to begin a simultaneous war on the human race in general. But under the delicate circumstances it was necessary to conduct the negotiations with much reserve, constantly temporizing to gain time, which seemed to be the only thing in our favour.

This was the first communication which had been re-ceived in writing since the beginning of the siege, and upon its contents and the reply the fate of all the Lega-tions might hang, as well as that of the numerous other besieged, of whom the writers of this and all other letters took no account, studiously ignoring them throughout. Yet under these unique circumstances it was extremely difficult to obtain any information whatever as to the purport of the letter, and it was only after many hours that a brief abstract of a portion of it was posted upon the bulletin board, and when an urgent inquiry was made

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as to the intended reply, this was announced to be " a private matter ! "

After some time a meeting of the diplomatic corps was held, at which a reply was agreed upon in the following sense: The position of envoy is a sacred one in every time of war. What is the treatment which the Chinese have accorded to the envoys in Peking? They have been fired upon with rifles and artillery ever since June 20. No action is ever taken against the officials of a defeated power, but if the foreign envoys were killed, there would be grave probability of personal reprisal against those in official position in the city. The alleged attacks by for-eign soldiers are denied and it is declared that all of their fighting has been in self-defence. It would be well for the Chinese to cease their attacks. The Ministers see no reason for going to the Tsung Li Yamen. If it is desired really to open negotiations, a trustworthy mes-senger should be sent with a white flag.

During the day many solid shot and shells fell all about, and one passing through the laundry buildings knocked down bricks on the heads of the workmen, tem-porarily disabling two of them. Preparations are making to dig trenches at the corner where the Chinese seem to be mining. Congratulations are offered to the French to-day on the anniversary of the destruction of the Bastile.

Sunday, July 15. — There was much firing all day, both of shell and solid shot, the latter of a different size from any before seen, showing the miscellaneous nature of the Chinese supply. One of the shot passed through two sand bags and fell at the main gate. There was an all around fusillade about the middle of the afternoon. A party of fifteen went out to attack a building near the Mongol market, and the Chinese made a counter attack.

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" Heavy firing " was again heard to the southwest last night with the usual mixture of hope and incredulity among the besieged.

A young Legation student interpreter named Henry Warren was terribly injured by a shot in the Fu this afternoon, and died during the night.

The reply of Prince Ch'ing and Others to the letter of the diplomatists was received to-day. It withdraws the suggestion in regard to going to the Yamen for protec-tion. It says the Chinese must increase the number of their troops and restrain the militia from again opening fire and attacking the French Legation. The latter should not provoke attack. The Chinese Government will exert all its efforts to keep order and give protection, in accord-ance with general law.

The repeated allusions to the " protection " afforded by the Chinese Government " in accordance with general law " (in the intervals between its shells and its rifle-shots) was particularly grateful to the besieged, espe-cially when punctuated with delicate references to " our affection," which had already been strained nearly to the breaking point to make the " protection " valid.

At nine in the evening there was a specially vicious attack on every side, which sent the bullets whizzing in every direction, but it subsided within half an hour. About midnight there was another still more violent one of about the same duration.

Monday, July 16. — There was much discomfort and not a little danger in the Hanlin last night, owing to the use by the Chinese of fire balls, and bricks, against which there is no protection. One of the prisoners taken by the French the other day has now been sent out as a messenger (to the great disgust and vexation of his

THE ARMISTICE 345

captors, who wished to kill him) with a promise of 500 taels reward if he returns (which he never did). He was let down over the wall, carrying two letters written by Sir Claude, one in English couched in a boastful tone, as to our resources and prospects, and another in Greek letters giving a more sober view of the real situation, the former in case of capture, and the latter for informa-tion to friends.

The Norwegian who has made so much trouble at various times already is now ordered into a condition of semi-confinement in the south stable yard.

In the middle of a rainy forenoon word was brought that Capt. Strouts, the senior British officer, and Dr. Morrison, had been wounded while passing a particularly exposed place in the Fu, and that Col. Shiba (Japanese) also had a bullet through his clothing. The wound of Capt. Strouts was a most serious one and soon proved fatal. He was a brave officer, who had done the best he could in peculiarly difficult circumstances, and his sudden death sent a sympathetic thrill through the little besieged community. He was only 30 years of age, and was al-most sure of promotion in view of his exertions during the siege. Although not a military man, Dr. Morrison had proved himself one of the most important members of the garrison, being always in motion and cognizant of what was going on everywhere, being by far the best informed person within the Legation quadrangle. To this must be added a cool judgment, total disregard of danger and a perpetual sense of responsibility to help every one to do his best. For these reasons the " Times' " correspondent was much missed while his wound pre-vented him from taking the active part to which he had been accustomed.

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In the afternoon an American marine named Fischer, who had been killed on the wall in the morning, was buried, during the drizzling rain in the Russian Legation, the premises of the American Legation being too much exposed to hold a funeral there.

There have been very few shots to-day from the Chinese big guns, but the strange fact is remarked upon that while all the furious firing of yesterday afternoon, evening and night, harmed no one, to-day, while almost no shots have been heard, two persons have been killed and five wounded.

The death of Capt. Strouts necessitates a readjustment of military duties, Capts. Wray, Poole and Percy Smith being assigned certain commands, and Mr. Squiers (whose rank was Lieutenant) being appointed Sir Claude's Chief of Staff. Soon after five o'clock in the after-noon the funeral of Capt. Strouts and young Warren was attended, they being buried in a common grave. Just as the procession began, word arrived that a flag of truce had come with the reply of " Prince Ch'ing and Others," as already mentioned. Three or four shells burst over the heads of the funeral party, as if to accentuate the Chinese conception of peace and protection. The mes-senger who went up to the stone bridge to get the letter carried a white flag himself, but it was not conspicuous, and he did not wave it at all and was fired at for his stupidity. When, on his return, he was asked why he did not wave his flag as a signal, he replied simply that he did as soon as he was shot at.

The messenger comes from the Tsung Li Yamen with a letter for Mr. Conger, enclosing a cipher telegram in the State Department code, with three numbers of five figures each, signifying: " Communicate tidings bearer." This is densely mysterious, especially as it was written

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on a proper telegraphic blank. It is conjectured to have come from Tokio, or from Seoul, but why are tidings to be given to " bearer," and who is the bearer?

Tuesday, July 17. — Toward noon to-day there was an attack in the Mongol market which continued for some time, and a British marine was severely wounded at the south stables as a result. The messenger who came yes-terday was examined last night by Mr. Pethick, whose patient skill usually succeeds in extracting a certain amount of oil even from buckwheat shucks. It seems probable that there is considerable division among the Chinese themselves. The messenger was asked by Chinese officials if the foreign ministers were eating horse meat, and admitted it, but when pressed as to whether they used the sound horses for this purpose, re-plied that it was only those that were " spoiled " which were eaten, meaning probably such as were accidentally wounded by stray bullets, but not the less a very erro-neous dietary statement.

The prisoner taken by the French was examined, but he was too frightened to reveal much. He said that he was employed to bury the bodies of the Chinese who were killed, at 500 cash each, and that ten or more were buried every day. His beat included only the French and perhaps the German Legation fighting area, and he thought that some three hundred bodies had been buried in this way, all of which were taken outside the Ch'i Hua gate and put into a deep pit. The Chinese had spent several days in making the mines which destroyed the French Legation, and lost more than ten of their own men in the explosions.

Of what goes on in other regions on the west of the Legations, the prisoner knows nothing, there being no passage across, and really no communication. The

348 CHINA IN CONVULSION

Chinese troops were said to be under three different com-manders. He thought the Empress Dowager and the Emperor had left Peking. He knows nothing of any-foreign troops. He never went himself to the tea-shops where the current events are spoken of, but being a poor and busy man simply bought a cake on the street and slept in a doorway. Every few sentences he reminded the ques-tioner that he was not himself a Boxer of any sort, that he was a man with a bitter lot, and had an old mother over eighty years of age, as nearly all Chinese when reduced to extremities appear to have.

About the middle of the forenoon two of Jung Lu's soldiers came within our lines, and gave some crumbs of information or misinformation adapted to the needs of the hearers. They say that the soldiers now have orders not to fire, but to hold their positions. One of them says that his regiment of 500 men has lost 200 in killed and wounded. Many would desert, but the Boxers outside the city stop them, and they can only get through them by taking their weapons and leaving in bands of thirty or so. They say that between Tientsin and Taku the foreign troops defeated the Chinese. One of the de-serters was a bugler, but he did not blow his instrument in such a way as to please the musical taste of his su-perior officer, who partly chopped off the prisoner's ear by way of criticism, the remnant of the ear being pro-duced for medical treatment. He says that Gen. Nieh committed suicide in consequence of his defeat, but in the official Chinese reports he " fell at the head of his troops."

To-day Sir Claude and the Ministers replied to the last " Prince Ch'ing and Others " letter, saying that they were pleased that the Chinese Government intended to restrain " the militia " from firing upon the Legations,

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and that the latter never fired except in self-defence. The movements of the Chinese troops on the North Bridge inspired natural distrust, and we could not allow them a free passage. While anxious for peace the Ministers did not know who it was that was moving about near the Legations, constructing barricades and gun-platforms, and therefore there was no room for surprise if in self-defence we fired on them. It would be better for the Chinese to stop all these movements until confidence is restored. In conclusion it was mentioned that the letter and many large shells came simultaneously into the British Legation. This letter was forwarded to the Chinese by the convert Chin, who returned later with a reply of which the following is a summary:

" The foreign troops had been in the habit of strolling about the streets and firing rifles as it pleased them. On the 2 1st of June, a Manchu noble was going to court, when at the eastern gate of the palace he suddenly heard a rifle shot, and the bullet pierced the covering of his cart. This excited the anger of both soldiers and people and led to mutual attacks. Now that there is mutual agreement that there is to be no more fighting in future, there may be peace and quiet. East of the Ch'ien Men there are foreign troops who attack from time to time. If they could be controlled and moved from the wall it would be desirable."

To this letter the following reply was returned the next day : The letter of June 19th was first recapitulated. On the following day, the reply says, fire was opened at four p. m., and was continued until June 25th, when the board was put up on the bridge ordering a suspension of hostili-ties. A return messenger was sent with a reply on an-other board, but being threatened with rifles he returned, and no shot was fired by us. But at midnight the Chinese

350 CHINA IN CONVULSION

suddenly opened a heavy fire, and from that time the at-tacks continued. These attacks on envoys are without a parallel in the history of the world.

With regard to what is said about the agreement as to cessation of hostilities, preparations for attack must be considered as of the same nature as open firing. The Legations cannot allow gun platforms, earthworks, and barricades to be constructed, even though no firing takes place. The foreign troops cannot be withdrawn from the city wall, because much of the firing has been directed from there. It is difficult for the Legations to feel confi-dence because of repeated attacks upon them. We never fire except when we see people moving about, apparently preparing to attack, or building barricades, etc. The best way to suppress these attacks would be for the Chinese Government to cut off the supplies of ammu-nition. A request is made that sellers of ice and fruit may be allowed to come to the border, and dispose of these articles as in time of peace.

Late in the afternoon the messenger returned with an-other letter from the headquarters of Jung Lu, and sev-eral communications to the Ministers. Among the rest was a telegram to Mr. Conger, purporting to come from Minister Wu Ting Fang, and evidently belonging to the telegram asking that the " bearer " should be told tidings. There is some mystery about the business, but Mr. Conger replied briefly in cipher, saying that the Legations had been attacked with shot and shell for a month, and unless prompt relief arrived a general massacre was feared.

The complicated history of this despatch was not known until long afterward. Minister Wu Ting Fang had maintained that the Legations were safe. The United States State Department naturally asked him to produce some proof of it in the shape of a message from the long

THE ARMISTICE 351

silent Mr. Conger. His efforts to do so resulted in the first message to " give tidings to bearer," and this opened the way for Mr. Conger's startling revelation of the actual conditions, which opened the eyes of the World to the true state of things — or would have done so, but for the fact that the greater part of " the World " de-tected in it a clumsy forgery, in which the use of the State Department cipher, however, was an insoluble mys-tery. The correspondence, editorials, and subsequent ex-planations of this single incident would fill a duodecimo volume.

To-day a young French student incautiously went into the Chinese barricade during the cessation of hostilities, and was detained by the Chinese and sent as a prisoner to the Tsung Li Yamen. It was the general expectation that he would be tortured to make him tell what he knew, and then killed ; but these gloomy apprehensions were somewhat relieved by the arrival of a note from him saying that he was kindly treated and had enjoyed a good dinner. Toward evening he was sent back, presumptively the wiser for his rash experiment in the practice of armistices during Legation sieges in China.

A separate place on the bulletin boards is now reserved for " Military Notices," one of which, issued to-day, orders that loopholes are to be kept closed with a brick when not in actual use, and that, to ascertain what is going on outside, looking-glasses shall be employed. If this had been practiced from the beginning, it is thought that many lives would have been saved, the courage of all the fighters being much greater than their caution, which seemed to be deprecated as rather unbecoming and unprofessional. But recent losses have been so numerous and so serious as to compel the use of every safeguard.

352 CHINA IN CONVULSION

It was reported during "the afternoon that a high barri-cade was being put up west of the Russian defences on Legation Street. A large placard was prepared with Chinese characters threatening that if barricades were built the workmen would be fired on. As the work still proceeded in spite of this notice, the International Gun was sent over to remonstrate with the Chinese, and this, with much rifle firing, stopped the labour for the time being.

As soon as there was a cessation of hostilities the Chinese soldiers showed a disposition to swarm over their barricades and into ours, which was a serious em-barrassment, as it was undesirable that they should ex-amine our defences at close quarters. Over in the Fu seven of them came into a Japanese barricade in this way, when a Chinese non-commissioned officer came out and demanded their return. The Japanese officer replied that he would not kill them, to which the Chinese replied theatrically :

" Kill them, when they went in of their own accord under a flag of truce ? " and remained in a stage posture indifferent to the Japanese rifles until the men had gone back.

Wednesday, July 18. — There were only five rifle shots during the whole night, and for four and twenty hours there has not been a cannon ball or shell sent in to us. Mr. Gamewell, however, is working hard on the counter-mine ditches at the northwest corner of the British Lega-tion, refusing to pay the smallest attention to armistices, truces, or flags of truce, until the foreign relieving force reaches us. It is reported that Boxers with arms are freely roaming about everywhere in the city. West of the south stables, Chinese unarmed soldiers climbed up on their barricades fanning themselves and saluting our

THE ARMISTICE 353

people who were gazing at them. A shot fired at them by the Russians made them disappear rapidly. A time of truce is, in some respects, more trying in dealing with a Chinese than open attacks. " Open your mouth and he's down your throat. "

The return messenger was sent to the Yamen at ten o'clock, and with him two men, who are despatched in the hope of making purchases to open the way. Not receiving permission they returned, for in this case it seems not to be true that " trade follows the flag." The request to the Chinese to keep their men from coming to our barricades is renewed. There are fresh rumours that the Chinese Government has sent for Li Hung Chang. A United States marine came from the wall reporting that they have been at last enabled to bury the dead Chinese soldiers lying for many weeks in the sun, which have rendered sentry work there almost intolerable. He reports that twenty-eight bodies were buried west of our barricade, twenty-three on the east between us and the Germans, and eighteen on the ground below the wall. A Chinese officer says that the men with felt hats (Ameri-cans) have killed 300 of his men.

About two p. m. an excitement was caused by the an-nouncement that one of our Christians, sent out by the Japanese to Tientsin June 30th, had returned, bringing the first word from outside since the siege began. In due time the following account of his experiences was posted on the bulletin board :

" The messenger left by the Ch'i Hua gate, proceeding to Tientsin via T'ung Chou on a boat. He arrived at Tientsin July 5th, but was unable to enter the city, as it was surrounded by Chinese troops. He worked round the city gates and found a force of Chinese under Gen. Cheng posted north of the railway station, cannonading

354 CHINA IN CONVULSION

a force of Japanese holding the ground south of the sta-tion. On July 9th, Gen. Cheng was defeated and the messenger managed to get through the Japanese lines on July 1 2th and delivered the Japanese Minister's letter to the Japanese General. While in Tientsin he gleaned the following items : ' Gen. Nieh is dead. All the missionaries in Tientsin and outlying stations had left for home. The Taku forts were taken after a two days' attack.' On July 13th the messenger left Tientsin, being escorted by Japanese troops to the Red Bridge, and returned to Pe-king by road. Prior to his own arrival no news from Peking had reached Tientsin since the end of June."

The notice of the contents of the letter received by the Japanese Minister, Baron Nishi, was posted as follows:

" A mixed division consisting of 2,400 Japanese, 4,000 Russians, 1,200 British, 1,500 Americans, 1,500 French and 300 Germans leaves Tientsin on or about the 20th of July for the relief of Peking. The foreign settlement has not been taken by the enemy."

This bald summary, leaving much to be desired by way of explanation, was supplemented by minute frag-ments of other items, such as the suicide of the Governor General, Yu Lu ; the occupation of the Taku forts (known long before), and details of Japanese losses in the heavy fighting between Tientsin and Taku.

Under the circumstances it was not surprising that the most intense eagerness was felt by every foreigner to know the contents of messages received and sent, the effect of which might be of such grave import to every one concerned. With this natural thirst for information the American Minister, Mr. Conger, fully sympathized and constantly communicated to his nationals the substance of everything not expressly withheld from the public by agreement, but in this practice he stood quite alone. All

if* ■* ^?* ^i

IK

THE ARMISTICE 355

others imparted their information either to a select circle only, or, more frequently, allowed it to filter out through the highly absorbent but too often wholly unsatisfactory atomizer of the General Committee.

To-day Sir Claude had an interview on the city wall between the American and the Chinese barricades, with a Chinese Colonel, with whom an understanding was reached as to the terms of the armistice. These were later sent in writing for transmission to the Grand Secre-tary Jung Lu who, according to the statement of those who came in touch with the Legation, was the ruling power in the Government.

As a result of this, about four o'clock in the afternoon a blue-buttoned official named Wen Hsien (or Wen Jui), came from the Tsung Li Yamen, and nearly all the Min-isters went outside the main gate of the British Legation to see him, — an act justly criticized as undignified, espe-cially as the interview came to nothing. The notice which was posted informed the besieged that a Yamen secretary came, sent by Jung Lu in response to a suggestion made in a separate letter to him, that communication would be facilitated if a responsible official were sent to the Lega-tion. He had no special message, but promised to see whether " Peking Gazettes " could be procured, and a market established for ice, fruit, eggs, etc., and also to ascertain whether telegrams could be transmitted on be-half of the foreign Ministers to their Governments. He mentioned, what everyone knew a month ago, that tele-graphic communication was interrupted, and expressed the concern of the Chinese Government at the doings of the Boxers, who had caused the whole difficulty be-tween China and the foreign Powers. He reported that nothing had happened to the Northern Cathedral.

It afterwards appeared that this Yamen secretary had

356 CHINA IN CONVULSION

been by Imperial Decree appointed as one of the official Heads of the Boxers, which implied that he was in sym-pathy with them. The choice of such a man for an envoy to the Legations at such a time was thus a de-liberate insult, although this could not then have been known. The circumstances served to account for his nervous and embarassed manner.

Thursday, July 19. — Now that profound peace reigns within our borders, there is no longer a record of war's alarms as heretofore, and the thoughts of the besieged are turned from shells and bullets to eggs and water-melons. Notice has been sent to the Chinese that the following orders have been issued to the European troops : (1) They are not to fire unless fired upon. (2) Soldiers constructing barricades are to be fired upon. (3) Armed soldiers leaving their barricades in the neighbourhood of the Legations will be fired upon. (4) Unarmed persons carrying letters, etc., are not to be fired upon, but must not exceed two in number. If there are more than two, shots will be fired over their heads. If further advance is made, they will be fired upon.

During the cessation of hostilities all available labour is expended upon strengthening the weak places in the defences. We do not allow the Chinese to build new barricades, nor yet to repair old ones without interrup-tion, yet we are doing the same thing ourselves. This is because they have only to retire a few rods and they are safe, while we are fighting for our lives, and if we neglect our defences while lured by their wily peace talk-ing, it may prove our destruction. It is difficult to under-stand why the supply of eggs should continue to be of the most exiguous description.

Friday, July 20. — There were as yesterday only a few stray shots in the night, and everyone enjoys the un-

THE ARMISTICE 357

wonted quiet. Mr. Tewksbury, the indefatigable chair-man of the General Committee, spends a considerable part of his time in struggles to get a market started, but with very moderate success. The sellers of eggs seem to be afraid of being fired upon, but sometimes soldiers bring in a number in their sleeves. All of these, good and bad alike, are sold at the rate of four cents, Mexican, each, and are paid for at the provision stand in chits or promises to pay, which appear to be issued by the manager of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. This seems to be a new role even for that expansive and benevo-lent institution, especially as there is a general under-standing that the chits will never need to be cashed, but will have to be paid for by the paternal and now deeply indebted Chinese Government.

There is much discussion as to the reason for the over-whelming preponderance of Russians in the relief force said to be about to start. Many think it as good as cer-tain that Russia has secretly encouraged the Chinese to foment the Boxer disturbances, hoping that they would clear out foreign missionaries from the northern part of China which the Russians are supposed to have marked as their peculiar preserve. They may have whispered to the Chinese : " We do not tolerate these propagandists in our country ; why should you do so in yours ? " To others this appears as mere bottled moonshine, especially as the Russians have been in many respects as heavy losers as other nationalities, their bank, their Legation, their ecclesi-astical headquarters, and their cemetery having suffered in the same way as all the rest.

There is a deep trench dug in the northern part of the Hanlin yards within our lines, to prevent mining and a sudden attack by the Chinese. Here the workmen have struck what seems to be a quarry of soft stones shaped

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like cannon balls, for which it is probable they may have been intended. They are of miscellaneous sizes, and ap-pear to have been prepared by patient rubbing on a large stone, the grooves of which are plainly to be seen. They are found far below the roots of very old trees, and are met with in immense numbers. Every one is carrying off specimens, and the supply is unexhausted. No one is able to tell the age of the present Hanlin courts as now used, but it cannot be ancient measured on a Chinese scale of chronology. The counter-mining ditch behind the students' quarters has gone down to the foundation of the building, and though the space is limited it is thought best to keep on, as the risk of a mine at that point is great.

Now that the firing has ceased, there is leisure to look about, and see the results of previous attacks. The Ger-man Legation appears to have suffered more than other buildings, except the Hotel de Pekin. The house of Mr. Cordes, the interpreter, is smashed to small pieces in places: some of the shells made a hole as large as a hat going in, and coming out left one the size of a peck measure. In one of the upper rooms everything was knocked to slivers ; a bureau in fragments, but the mirror uninjured. Shells from three directions have been fall-ing there incessantly. Some of the roofs are merely gal-vanized iron, which is not exactly bomb-proof. The portico of one dwelling is in imminent danger of falling, and another shell would bring it down. Yet despite the great number of shells no one seems to have been killed by them, but all by bullets. Of the fifty German soldiers, ten have been killed, thirteen seriously and eight others slightly wounded. The new club building near by is not much damaged. The old one was burned.

M. Chamot, the manager of the Hotel de Pekin, says

BRITISH LEGATION GATE AND NORDENFELT GUN

FORTIFIED WALL AND MINE

THE ARMISTICE 359

that the Chinese are hard at work on their mines in his vicinity, and that they can be distinctly heard at it. He has laboriously countermined the main drain under Legation Street in front of his place for a long distance and is prepared to explode a mine with acetylene. He thinks that the defenders of his hotel fortress will never be driven from it, and it is evidently by far the most strongly fortified place within the lines.

At present they are daily employed in grinding grain for 1,662 Roman Catholic Christians, and for Austrians, French, Germans, and Russians besides, as well as for the guests of the hotel. He has an allowance of the common stock of wheat, and bakes three hundred loaves a day. Many animals are employed both day and night in the milling process, and it is said that some of the mules were the property of Hsu Tung, the tutor of the Emperor, whose home is near by. In the general ruin of the conflagrations his house was destroyed with the rest. The upper story of the hotel is an even more complete and all-around wreck than the German Legation.

So far as there is any one storm-centre of all the vari-ous attacks the Hotel de Pekin has been that one. M. Chamot and his courageous wife have been everywhere together, and have never once abandoned their place, though it was constantly struck by shells, and was several times on fire. The Chinese flags and barricades seem to be but a few rods distant from them. In the hotel we are told that a record of the shot and shells admitted to their compound has been carefully kept, and that on the day of largest receipts there were 124, a total of 487 in all thus far. The upstairs bedrooms are knocked into dust and splinters and are an utter wreck.

Throughout all the shelling the grinding of grain for the food of the garrison went on uninterruptedly, the

360 CHINA IN CONVULSION

buildings in which it was carried on being low and not easily hit. A vast amount of work has been done in the defence of this place, which is a wonder to every one. There are usually as many as seven different flags flying from the front entrance, the largest an American, in compliment to the proprietor's wife, also a small Danish, Irish, and Swiss banner, the whole making a most con-spicuous target defiantly flaunted in the face of the enemy to the very end. Chamot's cart, which was in perpetual motion on a limited scale, was also decorated with a French flag, but seemed to have a charmed immunity from being struck.

In the forenoon several volunteers went out to the banks of the canal to bury the numerous dead horses which have long been obtrusively objectionable, returning with several baskets full of cannon balls of assorted sizes, to the number of perhaps forty.

The French Legation has been destroyed to a large extent by the great fires following the explosion of the mines. At that attack huge breaches were made in the walls, when the Chinese pressed forward and fired three dwelling houses. The flames drove the French rapidly back to their present position. There were about forty men on guard at the time, and four marines were killed at the single loophole. A shell came into the chapel over the figure of the Virgin, and the opening has been utilized as a loophole, albeit not very accessible. The barricades strike one as being utterly inadequate and scarcely worthy of the name. If the French were to retire, the next defence would be Chamot's impregnable castle. It is re-ported that nine of the French marines have been killed and, including civilians, thirty or forty persons wounded.

In the afternoon a mat-shed was put up outside the front gate of the British Legation to receive officials.

THE ARMISTICE 361

Later in the day, but before any progress had been made toward completing the shed, the same Yamen secretary who came yesterday reappeared, bringing seven letters from the Yamen for five Ministers, the first communica-tion from that source since the siege began. Mr. Conger had a telegram returned which he had sent in with the hope that it might be forwarded, but the Yamen objected that if sent for one Minister, the same must be done for all.

M. Pichon had a telegram in cipher from Paris without date, but which cannot be later than Bastile Day (July 14th, when honours are conferred) notifying him of the bestowal of the cross of the Grand Legion of Honour, and of the occupation of the Taku forts, which we are beginning slowly to believe as a fact. It is also learned that the Chinese Government have instructed their min-isters to remain where they are, " on good terms with the governments to which they are accredited," and that when the French Government gave the Chinese Minister his passports, the Chinese Government replied by reap-pointing him.

In one set of communications, authenticated by the seal of the Tsung Li Yamen, was communicated to the repre-sentatives of Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Russia and the United States, the text of telegrams addressed to the Queen, the Emperors, or other Heads of States. The tenor was similar, with certain differences, and was of the nature of an appeal for assistance out of the diffi-culties in which China was involved. The date of the Decree directing the Grand Council to transmit the tele-gram to Her Majesty the Queen, and the other Heads of Powers, was dated July 3rd, apparently so that it might not be mistaken for an utterance inspired by fear arising from the fall of the Taku Forts and the resultant en-

362 CHINA IN CONVULSION

gagements. Yet that was the day upon which there had been a particularly heavy fire on the Legations, and on the preceding day an Edict had been officially published directing that missionaries should everywhere be expelled and converts forced to recant.

In another letter which was received simultaneously with this it was declared that so fierce and uncontrollable was the animosity among the people, that nothing but the destruction of the Legations would satisfy it, and urging the Ministers, therefore, to depart to Tientsin. The responsibility for any disaster, should they remain, was thrown upon themselves. A formal note was likewise received from the Yamen informing Sir Claude that a verbal Decree had been issued to the effect that the weather being now hot, the Legations required fruit and vegetables, which were to be at once forwarded to them. " Accordingly four cart-loads of vegetables and four of watermelons are sent herewith. " This extraordinary combination of war and watermelons was accompanied by the cards of Prince Ch'ing, Prince Tuan, Wang Wen Shao, Ch'i Hsin, Hsu T'ung, Ch'ung Li, Chao Shu Ch'iao, Wu T'ing Fen, Hsu Ching Ch'eng, P'u Hsing, Na T'ung, Lien Tuan, and Taun Ch'ang, all the Ministers of the Tsung Li Yamen.

To the letter from Prince Ch'ing and Others, again urg-ing the removal of the Ministers to Tientsin, and re-ferring in detail to the general situation, a reply was sent to the following purport:

In your letter the statement is made that there is a great movement in China beyond control, and that the anti-foreign feeling has gone so far that nothing but the destruction of the Legations will satisfy it. It is diffi-cult to believe this, in view of the desire of the Chinese Government to afford real protection. An Imperial edict

THE ARMISTICE 363

might be issued explaining that the Envoys are guests, and that it is important that they be left in peace. With regard to the proposed departure to Tientsin, it would mean that friendly relations have been broken off. The calamities on the Chinese officials and people in case of anything untoward happening would be indescribable. The Chinese Ministers in other countries are still at their posts. It would not be safe for the Envoys to go to Tien-tsin, for if they cannot be protected here how much less on the way there. You say that you cannot be responsible for any unforeseen disaster that may occur, but it is im-possible for the Chinese Government to free itself from responsibility.

During the afternoon a messenger who had been sent out to secure copies of the " Peking Gazette " returned with a partial file, which was distributed for translation. This is the birthday of the God of War (the 24th of the 6th moon) and as it is feared that the spirits who control the Boxers may have designated it as a suitable time for a renewed attack, orders have been issued for renewed diligence. With the opening of opportunities for trade, the string of cash which hung for several weeks on a little pine tree, has disappeared.

Saturday, July 21. — There were almost no shots during the night, although a few firecrackers were let off in honour of the birthday of Kuan Ti, the war god. It is now thought that since the Chinese did not attack us yesterday, they may not do so at all until the arrival of the relieving force.

More eggs are now to be had, but they are so few that they are sold only for the women and children, and when the scarcity is extreme, a certificate of illness is required.

The messenger who went out yesterday says that the soldiers affirm that between 3,000 and 4,000 of their men

364 CHINA IN CONVULSION

have been killed by us, and that on the night when the French Legation was attacked there were twenty carts carrying away dead bodies. There are said to be three foreign guns mounted over the Tung Pien gate. The Chinese are to move from their present positions within three days, but perhaps to others nearer to us,

In the afternoon more Yamen letters arrived, two for Sir Robert Hart, one of which inquired after his health, and spoke with regret of the loss of his house, of which the writers had just heard, although it took place a month ago.

DEFENCE OF FOREIGN LEGATIONS PEKING, CHINA

June, aoth to Aug. 14th 1900.

JKapa and Notes referring to t

respective defences were obtained from British • Chief Engineer Expeditionary Force, Japanese ■ Commanding Officer during Siege French - Commanding Officer during Siege, German Secretary of the Legation.

Major General Adna R. Chaffee U. S- V. Commanding China Relief Expedition,

Respectfully submitted,

H. B. Ferguson, fst Engrs., U. 8. A.

Chief Engineer Officer

Copyright tSOtt Fleming B. Revell Company.

CHAPTER 20. Siege Life

The demand for labour was clamorous and universal. Many of the Legation servants had fled some time before, and others had to be found for their places. All the numerous housekeepers must have a detail of cooks, table boys and coolies; the hospital required a staff always at the command of the surgeons; there were many horses to be fed and watered; the scavenger and other sanitary work was imperative and, like the bakery and laundry, did not admit of irregular depletion of employees. Some educated native Christians, like the scholar class of Chinese, were unused to manual labour and unfitted for it; but every grade and variety of talent was eventually utilized, especially those able to speak English, who could serve as messengers, interpreters, or overseers. А small percentage of men manifested а rooted and chronic dis-inclination to active effort, but еге long these idiosyn-crasies were dealt with on their real merits.

When the incessant calls for labour had first to be met, much confusion reigned for many days. Let an actual case stand as a sample:

At nine o’clock one evening an order came from Col. Shiba, commanding the Japanese in the Su Wang Fu, for ten men and fifty sand bags for immediate use. The superintendent secured the bags, but could find only four available men. He then waked up another gentleman who, being appointed on a wholly different committee had nothing to do with the present exigency, but assisted on general principles. On arriving at the Fu this gentle-man learned that Col. Shiba had already got the men needed from the Roman Catholics near at hand.

Meantime a note had come to the British Legation from the American Captain on the wall, requiring twenty men to raise higher the western wall of the eastern barri-cade, as the Chinese west barricade was firing into it.

SIEGE LIFE 367

The superintendent excused a lad too small to handle the huge bricks on the wall, and sent the same obliging substitute with the three men on hand to aid the band that were kept permanently in the American Legation for emergencies, but happened on this occasion already to have been working all day. When he arrived there the Captain who gave the order had been relieved, and his successor in charge knew nothing about any call for men, but informed the conductor of the workmen that it had been decided to postpone the work until daylight, when it would be done better. The ad interim assistant, the superintendent and the Chinese were then enabled to retire for what remained of the night.

Perhaps a summons arrived from the French to con-struct an important barricade. No men could be found, for it was late at night, when the labour market, espe-cially the free labour market, is generally closed. A visit to the Fu disclosed numbers of Chinese lying about, but each one proved to have some cherished and dangerous malady. One is the victim of a persistent diarrhoea, an-other shows by a limp that his lower leg is broken in two places, the crepitation of the bones being, as he alleges, distinctly audible; not, however, to the trained ear of the foreign examiner, who soon ascertains that the man is after all able to walk. Some deserve to be excused, but by degrees, between boys and men, the order is filled and they are sent to work.

The superintendent is no more than back at the Lega-tion, ready for bed after an exhausting day's work in reducing order from chaos, when a request comes for ten men immediately to work all night on a new and impor-tant barricade in the Hanlin Yuan. No one but the superintendent can find the men, and to the summons of no one else will they respond. Once more the Fu

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must be visited and every sleeping room entered with a lantern. In the darkness dusky forms are dimly seen prone upon the k’angs. Here the drafting process is re-peated, until at length the required number is obtained, but in transit through so many courtyards and in cross-ing the canal in the darkness it turns out that three out of the ten have escaped, and being unknown they cannot be identified. Аға later period every man had his number not only entered on the register but sewed upon his cloth-ing, so that evasion of duty like this became impossible.

About midnight one hears a great disturbance and angry remonstrances. The weary registrar is roused from his slumbers by an urgent demand for seventeen of the short shovels used by marines, wanted at once by somebody in another Legation. After an hour's hard work and a visit to every place where digging is known to have been prosecuted the day before, some of them are found, but upon being brought in as a part of what is wanted are refused, for they have not the serrated edges of the Austrian shovels. In the renewed search every doubtful spot is approached with a lantern.

“ Put out that light,” cries a sentry, with the addition of emphatic language. Не is informed that the search is being conducted under official orders and will be con-tinued until the required articles are found.

At a later stage, the duty of a ship's yeoman is added to that of the registrar, and the tools, as far as possible, had to be called in at night and kept in a box near the bell tower. Under careless Chinese use, spades, shovels, and picks, of which the supply was originally lamentably small and for which the demand was general and insistent, have their handles broken off and are rendered useless. The assistant registrar afterward added to his many other functions that of general repairer, and as far as possible

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counteracted the ravages of the wasteful coolie. The Chinese carpenters were kept busy making handles, as also the blacksmiths in their efforts to point iron rods so as to serve as picks or crowbars.

As the result of an orderly evolution of registry every Chinese on the premises came to be known not only by name but by his reputation; the better and more thor-ough workmen requiring little or no supervision, the lazy and inefficient ones needing constant stimulus. Each man was provided with a ticket good for that day only, en-titling him to one meal or to two, according to the amount of work done. When he had finished his work and eaten his meal he returned to his family in the Fu. After the Fu was mostly lost, and it became necessary to remove the Protestants to the vacant houses between the canal and the American Legation, the task of getting labour was much expedited. Those liable to night work were then kept on the premises where they were needed, and where they could not escape. If a man living in the Fu were derelict in his work at the Legation his pass was taken away and he could not get out to return to his family, a punishment generally quite sufficient, as their food depended upon him.

Some Chinese were fortunate or provident enough to have food supplies of their own, which rendered them in a measure independent. In a solitary instance a man of some education after persistently refusing to work, and repeated warnings, was at last tied to a post with his hands behind him, there to remain until his views upon the relation of military law to muscular activity and to rations became materially modified, which happened within a few hours.

The carelessness of the Chinese in everywhere knock-ing out the burning ashes of their pipes, made it neces-

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бату to forbid smoking in buildings. Those guilty of violating this rule were put on duty for four-and-twenty hours continuously. In an especially aggravated case the cook of one of the Legations was discovered to have built a fire of a dangerous and unlawful kind late at night, to see how to take care of his child. At whatever incon-venience to individuals the authority of the committee, found by experience to be just and wholesome, was sustained against all appeals, of which, however, there were but few. Those liable to punishment were sent to whatever work was most urgent; if it chanced that for the time there was none such, they might temporarily, escape.

But however perfect the system of registration and labour supply, the simultaneous demand for details of men who were not available necessarily made many hitches in the progress of military work. Thus six men were de-tailed for labour on fortifications in the Hanlin, but at that juncture a pile of sand bags had fallen in a heavy shower from a hospital window into a gutter, stopping ‚the drainage. The six men were deflected from the less to the more pressing task, but while on the way one of them was called off to carry to the Chinese hospital a woman who in a time of special danger had been shot in crossing the canal from the Fu.

The need of labour made it necessary to require from every able-bodied Chinese two hours’ work each day for the public, which often proved irksome alike to servants, mistress and superintendents.

Against this requisition, which was later supplemented by another for the whole time of one or more of the large staff of servants, some employers were disposed to re-monstrate vigorously. One gentleman who had at first been very energetic in his coóperation, at a later period

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asked a detail of men for the purpose of getting his pri-vate dwelling ready for a rain, and still later for two labourers to clear up the grounds of the Russian Lega-tion. The unforgetting Registrar recollecting that two of this gentleman’s servants had for some time evaded duty, went to his kitchen and called them out. They ob-jected that they were not liable, as they did not live in the British but in the Russian Legation.

“Exactly,” was the reply, “there is where you are to work,” and the amazed and abused master was then pre-sented with two of his own servants to do his own work in his own Legation!

The work done by the besieged Christians, often hard and exhausting, in no case rewarded with anything more than a bare subsistence, was in general performed with characteristic Chinese patience and perseverance, many of them, under the tireless supervision of foreigners, throw-ing into it much energy, and in some cases considerable skill.

Indeed their behaviour was almost uniformly admir-able. Instead of being a dead-weight to be carried by foreigners as many of these besieged feared they would be, they were soon found to be an indispensable means to the salvation of the rest, and except they had abode in the ship none would have been saved. As in all large bodies collected at random, there were some black sheep, and many speckled ones, but as a rule the patient, uncom-plaining fidelity of the Christians in toilsome tasks under dangerous conditions was beyond praise. The steadiness under constant attacks, and in the midst of repeated re-movals from one unsafe place to another, manifested by the Chinese women, and especially by the 120 and more school girls, were also noteworthy. Many Chinese were furnished with rifles, and fought at the loop-holes side

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by side with the plucky and soldierly Japanese, winning even their cordial commendation. A good number were killed in posts of danger, many others were struck by the innumerable flying bullets, two of the best helpers of the Methodists—one of them an ordained pastor—falling at the same time.

Many others fell victims to disease, and probably a score or two of poor Chinese children died from disease aggravated by mal-nutrition, but the mothers bore their deep grief with Christian fortitude, and uttered no word of reproach to the Fate in which all non-Christian Chinese have a firm faith, but rather thanked the Heavenly Father for such mercies as they still enjoyed.

Each day there was a gathering both of Chinese and foreigners upon the lawn, to examine the growing pile of clothing and other stuff brought into the Legation. This may be a fitting opportunity to explain in detail the method of dealing with confiscated goods. The area enclosed by the numerous Legations being extensive, it was inevitable that many Chinese families who had no connection either with foreigners or with the Boxers should find them-selves gradually encircled with troops, making entrance and exit increasingly difficult, and a prosecution of their ordinary business impossible.

As time went on most of these families became alarmed at the outlook and fled while it was not yet too late, some of them, however, leaving behind trustworthy servants to look after their premises. But numberless dwelling houses and many shops were absolutely deserted, some of the latter being well stocked with goods of many sorts, and many of the former being well furnished. In the confusion of the time it was inevitable that many shops and houses should be exposed to raids from neighbours who remained, as well as from needy Christians, many of

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whom had fled for their lives with only the clothing which they wore.

Soon after the general gathering into the British Le-gation, when it became necessary to check promiscuous pillage and to secure a wise use of the miscellaneous articles thus placed within reach, Dr. Ament was ap-pointed a committee with plenary powers. Ап impromptu depository of second-hand clothing was established on the tennis court lawn, resembling the storeroom of a Chinese pawnshop. For many days it supplied hundreds of Chi-nese with clothing and bedding for themselves and their families, until the demand appeared to be fairly met. But many Chinese were unable while at work to guard their possessions, and others ruined their clothes in the heavy rains, or while labouring in the damp trenches or on the wall; these had to be resupplied, yet still the inflow kept on. Foreigners, too, drew liberally from the same source, until the superintendence of the business became a heavy load of responsibility and care.

When there was a scarcity of material for sand bags the Chinese women cut apart many wadded garments, whose legs and arms, filled with earth, were used to add to the prophylactic embankments on the walls and house-tops. In quest of bag material, scores (perhaps hun-dreds) of Chinese houses were entered, but nothing was anywhere taken by force. Some of these dwellings had already been visited and largely despoiled, but others were fresh fields and pastures new. A great variety of articles which at first appeared to have no relation to the wants of a beleaguered garrison, ultimately proved to be most useful, especially tools from a blacksmith’s shop and an old Chinese cannon nicknamed “ Betsy,” ог “Тһе Inter-national.” Some of the abandoned dwellings had been forsaken in hot haste, and contained elegant garments,

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pieces of silk, furs, valuable chinaware, clocks and curios. A large quantity of such articles was found in the Su Wang Fu. One of the Japanese barricades was largely composed of trunks full of priceless raiment, seized as the most available material; all of this was ruined by contact with earth, or by rains, or was destroyed in the fires.

The Christians lodged in the Su Wang Fu gave early information of the probable concealment of a considerable quantity of sycee silver, which was brought away and stored in the strong room of the British Legation until the close of the siege. Small guns were also found in some of the shops, and also many irredeemable bank bills. On one occasion about seventy taels was discovered in a coal pile, and other amounts were doubtless confiscated by the Chinese on their own account.

The owners of two foreign stores on Legation Street decided to abandon them, bringing into the Legation what-ever could be saved. As the siege became closer and the risk in visiting the stores became evident by the whis-tling of bullets and the killing of one of the workmen, the owner of the larger one gave notice that whoever wished to take any of the remaining articles was wel-come to do so. It was an unfortunate and ill-judged step, which for a few days made looting legal, and so facili-tated the universal diffusion of intoxicating liquors that an order was soon issued forbidding any one what-ever to visit the place without the express permission of the General Committee. Thereafter, the articles res-cued were put into the hands of a commissariat and is-sued only upon due requisition, a course which should have been adopted from the first.

During the brief reign of unchecked lawlessness the general demoralization was very great. Many messes

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of poor Chinese ate their rice out of broken crockery, but with the addition perhaps of a plate-glass mirror set in a plush frame, or a cut-glass syrup pitcher flanked by a marble clock. The commissariat issued not only stores and utensils but everything which came to hand. All the memoranda of the progress of the siege were entered in note books, with pencil or pen and ink, all of which had been secured by application to the obliging supply com-mittee. One had but to make his necessities sufficiently known to insure such a supply for them as the case ad-mitted, for the besieged in a most literal sense had all things common. |

The bulletin boards, where were posted the translations of the “ Peking Gazettes” obtained during the armistice, were surrounded for days with a crowd that exhibited the keenest interest in the utterances of that unique publica-tion. Many of these were printed many weeks before, but some of them were highly important, and most of them quite new.

The most important utterance among them was a de-cree issued the day after the murder of the German Min-ister, but significantly making no reference whatever to that occurrence. It is a window through which the Chinese side of the international question may be seen. It ran as follows:

“Ever since the foundation of the dynasty, foreigners coming to China have been kindly treated. In the reign of Tao Kuang and Hsian Feng they were allowed to trade; they also asked leave to propagate their religion, a request which the Throne reluctantly granted. At first they were amenable to Chinese control, but for the past thirty years they have taken advantage of China’s for-bearance to encroach on China’s territory and trample on the Chinese people and to demand China’s wealth. Every

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concession made by China increased their reliance on vio-lence. They oppressed peaceful citizens and insulted the gods and holy men, exciting the most burning indig-nation among the people. Hence the destruction of the chapels and the slaughter of converts by the patriotic braves. The Throne was anxious to avoid war and issued edicts enjoining the protection of the Legations and pity to the converts. The decrees declaring Boxers and con-verts to be equally the children of the State were issued with the hope of removing the old feud between people and converts and extreme kindness was shown to the strangers from afar.

“But these people knew no gratitude and increased their pressure. A despatch was yesterday sent by Du Chaylard, Doyen of the Consular body at Tientsin, call-ing on us to deliver up the Taku forts into their keeping, otherwise they would be taken by force. These threats show their aggressions. In all matters relating to inter-national intercourse we lave never been wanting in courtesies to them; but they, while styling themselves civilized States, have acted without regard for right, re-lying solely on their military force.

“We have now reigned nearly thirty years and have treated the people as our children, the people honouring us as their deity; and in the midst of our reign we have been the recipients of the gracious favour of the Empress Dowager. Furthermore our ancestors have come to our aid and the gods have answered to our call, and never has there been so universal a mani-festation of loyalty and patriotism. With tears have we announced the war in the ancestral shrines. Better to do our utmost and enter on the struggle than seek some means of self preservation involving eternal dis-grace. All our officials, high and low, are of one mind,

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and there have assembled without official summons sev-eral hundred thousand patriotic soldiers [Boxers], even children carrying spears in the service of their country. Those others rely on crafty schemes; our trust is in heaven's justice. They depend on violence, we on hu-manity. Not to speak of the righteousness of our cause, our provinces number more than twenty, our people over four hundred millions, and it will not be difficult to vindi-cate the dignity of our country.”

Another Decree, in the “ Gazette” of June 21st, ex-presses the satisfaction with which the Throne has re-ceived the report of the Governor General of Chihli, Yú Lu, of the successful engagements at Tientsin on the 17th-19th of that month, and gives much praise to the Boxers who have done great services without any assist-ance either of men or money from the State. Great favour will be shown them later on, and they must con-tinue to show their devotion. The phraseology of the Decrees already cited serve as an excellent specimen of the Janus-faced utterances of the Empress Dowager in regard to the Boxers. They are violators of treaties, have been often rebuked and must now positively disperse, yet a few days later they are loyal and patriotic, and de-serve well of their Empress, who will reward them.

On the 24th of June the Board of Revenue is ordered to give Kang I two hundred bags of rice for distribution as provisions among the Boxers. Still another Decree of the same date mentions, as previously quoted, that since the Boxers—now styled “ Boxer Militia ”--аге scattered all around Peking and Tientsin, it is necessary and proper that they should have Superintendents placed over them (in other words be definitely and fully accepted as in the employ of the Chinese Government). Accordingly Prince Chuang, and the Assistant Grand Secretary Kang I were

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appointed to the general command, Ying Nien to act as brigadier general of the left wing, and Tsai Lan of the right. All the members of the I Но Tuan (it is re-marked) are exerting their utmost energies, and the Im-perial Family must not fall behind in harbouring revenge against our enemies. It is Our confident hope that the desires of each and all be successfully consummated, and it is of the utmost importance that no lack of energy be shown.

On the 27th, Edicts commanded Yü Lu to retake the Taku Forts, and to prevent the foreign troops from creep-ing northward; and ordered the distribution of one hun-dred thousand taels of silver to the divisions of troops in the Metropolitan districts, and a like sum to the БО ers assisting them.

During these weeks there are frequent references in memorials and in Imperial Decrees to the general law-lessness which had resulted from the encouragement to irresponsible private individuals, as well as to soldiers, to take vengeance. Were there no other proof, these documents alone would show that the Capital and its en-virons were under a reign of terror, against which there are numerous protests both from Censors and from the Empress herself.

But the mischief is always laid to those who pretended to belong to the Boxer Militia in order to plunder and kill, and it is these (and not the Boxers as a class) who are ordered to be rigorously dealt with. On the 2nd of July another important Edict appeared, under the egis of which the slaughter of all foreigners, mission-aries not more than others, and the extermination of all native Christians who would not recant, became a duty.

“Ever since Foreign Nations began the propaga-tion of their religion there have been instances through-

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out the country of ill-feeling between the people and the converts. All this is due to faulty administration on the part of local authorities, giving rise to feuds. The truth is that the converts also are children of the State, and among them are not wanting good and worthy people; but they have been led away by false doctrines, and have relied on the missionary for support, with the result that they have committed many misdeeds. They hold to their errors and will not turn from them, and irreconcilable enmity has thus grown up between the converts and the people.

“ The Throne is now exhorting every member of the ` Boxer Militia to render loyal and patriotic service, and to take his part against the enemies of his country, so that the whole population may be of one mind. Knowing that the converts are also subjects owing fealty to the Throne, we also know that they can bring themselves to form a class apart and invite their own destruction. If they can change their hearts there is no reason why they should not be allowed to escape from the net. The Viceroys and Governors of the Provinces are all there-fore to give orders to all local officials to issue the fol-lowing notification: All those among the converts who repent of their former errors and give themselves up to the authorities, shall be allowed to reform, and their past shall be ignored. The public shall also be notified that in all places where converts reside, they shall be al-lowed to report to the local authorities, and each case will be settled according to general regulations which will be drawn up later.

“ As hostilities have now broken out between China and Foreign Nations, the missionaries of every country must be driven away at once to their own countries, so that they may not linger here and make trouble. But it is

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important that measures be taken to secure their protec-tion on their journey. The high provincial authorities shall make close investigation into the circumstances of all places within their jurisdiction, and speedily take the necessary steps. Let there be no carelessness. (The above Decree is to be circulated for general informa-попу

The putting forth of this Edict was doubtless regarded by its authors as the happy issue of a long and doubtful contest, in which China by a few sweeps of a camel's-hair pencil had now obliterated forty years of the Past, and entered upon a new era!

On the gth of July Li Hung Chang was appointed Viceroy of Chihli, and Superintendent of the Trade which the rulers of China had by this time extinguished in that part of the Empire. Pending Li's arrival, the former Governor General, Yú Lu, was to consult with Prince Ch’ing as to the best measures to be taken, and the latter are warned against a slackening of responsibility.

On the 12th of July Gen. Nieh, who fought near Tien-tsin, is severely rated for his failures and blunders and deprived of his rank although retained in command (a favourite Chinese punishment), and in the same sentence his death at the head of his troops is mentioned without comment.

On July 15th the Acting Governor of Shansi quotes a Decree which had been issued on the 2oth of June to the several Governors General, and Governors, in which the following significant sentence occurs: “ They must suggest plans for safe-guarding the boundaries of the Empire against the aggressive designs of the foreigner, and see that reénforcements be sent to the assistance of the Capital, in order that no disaster befall the Dynasty.”

Three days later appeared a Decree which sets forth

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another aspect of the international troubles, again refers. to the murder of the Japanese Chancellor, and for the first time mentions that of the German Minister, nearly a month previous, carefully avoiding the least informa-tion as to the circumstances.

By this time the pressure of events succeeding the capture of Tientsin began to be severely felt in Peking, and the dissensions among the followers of the Empress were at their maximum.

“ The reason for the fighting between the Chinese and the foreigners sprung from a disagreement between the people and the Christian converts. We could but enter upon war when the forts at Taku were taken. Never-theless the Government is not willing lightly to break off the friendly relations which have existed. We have re-peatedly issued Edicts to protect the Ministers of the dif-ferent countries. We have also ordered the missionaries in the various provinces to be protected. The fighting has not yet become extensive. There are many mer-chants of the various countries within our dominions. All alike should be protected. It is ordered that the Generals and Governors examine carefully where there are merchants or missionaries, and still, according to the provisions of the treaties, protect them without the least carelessness. Last month the Chancellor of the Japanese Legation was killed. This was indeed most unexpected. Before this matter had been settled, the German Minister was killed. Suddenly meeting this affair caused us deep grief. We ought vigorously to seek the murderer and punish him.

“ Aside from the fighting at Tientsin, the Metropolitan Department (Shun Tien Fu) and the Governor General of this province should command officers under them to examine what foreigners have been causelessly killed,

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and what property destroyed, and report the same, that all may be settled together. The vagabonds who have been burning houses, robbing and killing the people these many days have produced a state of chaos. It is ordered that the Governors General, Governors, and high military officials clearly ascertain the circumstances, and unite in reducing the confusion to order and quiet, and root out the cause of the disturbance.”

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CHAPTER 21. Days of Waiting

DAYS ОЕ WAITING

the Chinese went out through the water-gate into

the southern city to buy fruit, but when others tried it a little later they were fired upon, so that the market is spoiled. Labour on the barricades was sus-pended at 11 A. M., the first time this has been practicable, as on most of the previous Sundays work has been more urgent than on other days.

The courier іо Tientsin with messages got off about noon, and the package was so large that he asked to have its size reduced a little for better concealment. (To many friends of the besieged the word brought by this courier was the first gleam of hope after almost utter despair.) The baby of Dr. and Mrs. John Inglis died during the day, and was buried at nightfall,—one of the six infants who succumbed during the siege.

It is rumoured that the Japanese, always the most en-terprising collectors of outside reports, have heard that our troops have already got half way to Peking travel-ling along the bank of the river. Tung Fu Hsiang is - said to have lost his influence, and his men are scattering from him, but according to others he has gone out to oppose our troops: The Chinese have put up a new barricade in the Hanlin. A Chinese soldier has in-formed some one that we are now surrounded by only about 900 men.

S UNDAY, July 22.—Early this morning some of

383

384 CHINA IN CONVULSION

Monday, July 23.—A' heavy rain came on in the evening yesterday and kept up all night. There were many collapses of barricades, and in the Hanlin a part of a house-wall suddenly fell, covering the mattresses upon which the volunteers had just been lying. The buildings in Peking are as insubstantial as any others in China, often being composed of small pieces of bricks not larger than one's fist, bound loosely together with mud and a mere suggestion of lime. The result is that whenever a heavy and continuous rain-fall occurs, the walls may be heard falling in all directions—often to the danger of those living within the flimsy structures. The rain is very destructive to the sand bags, especially to the more expensive ones, which are not meant for such a strain as this. Many of them collapse into mere heaps of slush.

Early this morning the Norwegian whose mind had become unbalanced took advantage of the rain, the dark-ness, and the slumbering guards, British and Chinese, to make his escape over the wall, desirous of speedily falling into the hands of the Chinese, where it is feared he will not fare so well as he expects. It is said that despite the apparent diminution in the number of Chinese troops, they are building new barricades. Yesterday a dog was sent from one of their fortifications to one of ours, with a letter in his mouth—all that is left in Peking of the Imperial Postal Service!

Tuesday, July 24.—It was very hot in the night, so that many could not sleep. The Japanese Secretary of Legation, Mr. Harahara, died of tetanus, greatly re-gretted both by foreigners and Japanese. He had the reputation of a great knowledge of China, and was uni-versally liked. There appeared to be a severe attack upon the Pei Tang last night, judging by the constant sounds

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of firing there. On the wall the coolies worked at the barricade till after nine o’clock, when the Chinese began firing on them, and the work stopped.

Notwithstanding the “truce” firing goes on, and four Chinese have been wounded in the Fu to-day, as well as one Italian. A mat-shed has been erected over the de-fences at the front gate of the British Legation, to pre-vent it from being ruined by the heavy rain, and only one shot was fired by the Chinese.

After dark a notice was posted that Col. Shiba had seen a Chinese who told him that foreign troops occupied Yang Ts’un on the 17th, and fought a battle on the 1gth. One hundred and fifty wounded Chinese of Tung Fu Hsiang’s army are said to have been brought to Peking, and foreign troops were forty И this side of Yang Ts’un. This news is discredited by Mr. Conger and many others, as being too fast an advance for the time during which troops must have been on the way.

Wednesday, July 25.—About I А. M. we were startled by hearing a great many rifle-shots in succession, mainly from the direction of the Mongol market, indi-cating that a renewed attack was beginning, but it was all over in less than five minutes. It is reported that yester-day a Japanese shot a Chinese who was getting over his barricade, a Chinese in retaliation shot a Chinese Chris-tian, when the Japanese returned the fire; the Chinese then wounded an Italian, on which a British marine killed the man who shot him!

Two days ago there were rumours of a large Chinese force from Pao Ting Fu, which would soon attack the Legations. Now it is said that troops are coming in from the Western Park, to be separated into two divisions at two of the Peking gates. There is a rumour that there was an attempt to blow up the Pei T’ang recently, but

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that it did not succeed, or that at least the Cathedral was not injured. The Chinese soldier who has been giving information to the Japanese, now informs them that a battle was fought on the 24th, between Ts'ai Ts'un and Ho Hsi Wu, lasting from noon till midnight, after which the Chinese retired on Ho Hsi Wu.

A flag of truce was sent during the day to the German Legation with several letters. One of these is to Sir Claude from “ Prince Ch’ing and Others” say-ing that a great many inquiries are being made of the Chinese Government as to the safety of the Ministers. The Chinese Government is willing to send replies from the Ministers to these inquiries, but they must have noth-ing in them of a military nature, and must be in plain writing, not in cipher. Another document raises once more the proposal of removing the Legations to Tientsin, pointing out that the number of rebellious people daily increases, and that something unforeseen is liable to happen. (1 has already happened, however). Travel is temporary, residence is permanent, and an escort could be provided which would make the journey perfectly safe. China does not want war. What means are proposed to stop it? It would be better to settle matters at Tientsin, therefore the Ministers are asked to pack up, and name a fixed day in order that provision may be made for their travel.

A messenger disguised as a fortune-teller was sent out with a repetition of the last batch of messages. The man that was sent to procure a number of “ Peking Gazettes ” has returned, having experienced some trouble and dan-ger, for which he was rewarded with fifty taels.

Thursday, July 26.—Only a few stray shots in the night, which was very hot and was followed by a day of the same sort. The fortune-telling messenger did not

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get away after all, being dissatisfied with some detail of his costume. At first his despatches were rolled up in the handle of an old umbrella, but this was criticized as too obvious, and he is now ruminating on a variation of dress for another attempt later.

The Japanese Soldier-Information-Bureau (now ri-pened into “one of Tung Fu Hsiang's body-guard ”) to-day offers the very latest. There was another fight at Ho Ня Wu yesterday, lasting till 3 P. M., twelve hun-dred Chinese being killed and wounded. The Chinese force included 5,000 soldiers and 3,000 Boxers. Li Ping Heng is said to have reached Peking, and the plan to deport the Ministers is thought to be his. In the after-пооп the Ho Ня Wu battle was revised so as to have begun at six o’clock, the Chinese being driven back ten li. By the same opportunity we learned that 4,800 troops had come in from the west, but they had left to join the Chinese army, with nine guns.

Mr. Conger puts absolutely no faith in any of these reports, but many others give them a qualified credence, “so as to hit it if it were a deer, and miss it if it were a calf.”

During the night there were continual isolated rifle-shots to show that we are watched, but no replies came from us.

Friday, July 27.—Much cooler last night. After breakfast there were rumours that a man had arrived from T'ung Chou, with the same man who has come so often before, bringing a report that the Chinese intend to make their last stand at T'ung Chou, and that if they should be defeated there, the Court would retire to Hsi An Fu, the distant capital of the province of Shensi, for which journey carts are said to have been already

impressed.

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The messenger who was to go out as a fortune-teller has made his second effort to get away and failed. The first time he was let down over the wall, met Chinese soldiers and pretended that he was sent to inspect their camp, but they told him that he could not get there with-out a pass. Then he pulled the rope, and was hauled up again upon the wall. The next time was at the east gate of the Fu, where he found himself surrounded by bar-ricades and became frightened.

To-day at noon he tried the third time. He had pro-cured a Boxer uniform, but he could not make any use of it. Two soldiers were willing to help him out, one to be the security for the other. The latter remained within our surveillance, while the other took the mes-senger to a distance of several li. When he left the messenger, the latter handed him a small piece of a for-eign lady’s hair-pin as a pledge, a token unknown to the security who had remained. Upon presenting this hair-pin certificate that the safe-conduct had been honourably executed, the two men were paid ten taels. The mes-senger was to have two hundred taels on his arrival at Tientsin, with his thirteen letters. (It is remarkable that all this elaborate preparation was worse than wasted. There was some little doubt about the trustworthiness of the man, but he was not seriously suspected. When he had got beyond the city he was advised by his brother either to kill himself outright, or go to the headquarters of Prince Chuang, and make a full confession, thus en-suring his own escape from punishment. This he did, and all the thirteen letters were sent out to the translators of the Tsung Li Yamen, who soon put them into circula-tion ш the Imperial Court, where those of them that were not in cipher were doubtless much enjoyed—as so many of their predecessors had already been).

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The Ministers yesterday had another meeting to con-sider what form of sound words to employ in replying to Prince Ch’ing and his “ Others,” so as to keep the matter in suspense as long as possible, with a minimum of definiteness—an aim for which diplomatic training is supposed to fit everyone perfectly. With regard to the matter of plain telegraphing, it was to-day replied that no Government would accept such telegrams, and no Ministers could send them, for they would not be accord-ing to usage, and would therefore defeat the very end proposed, which was to impart information as to the condition of the Ministers. Furthermore, it was impossible to affirm that the families of the Ministers are well, as they have suffered from the five weeks siege, and the lack of accustomed food. As for the omission of mili-tary information, this was easy to arrange, as the Ministers had no information in regard to the military situation, and therefore would be under no risk of sending that kind of intelligence.

The Japanese soldier-spy has told them that Jung Lu has five regiments (liang-tzu) at the Pei T’ang, two at the Hou Mén, or North gate of the Imperial city, three surrounding the Legations, while three more have gone to meet the foreign troops. Two hundred carts have been summoned to the Palace for the removal of the Court, and seventy more for Gen. Tung Fu Hsiang.

A Chinese who had beaten his wife was to-day put into a small light cangue, or frame-work about his neck, near the bell-tower, the cangue bearing an inscription: “THIS MAN BEAT HIS WIFE AND 1$ NOW PUNISHED FOR IT.” Не is surrounded much of the time by a curious crowd, both of foreigners and Chinese, who regard it as a novelty; indeed, there is reason for supposing that it is the first case in the history of the Chinese Empire—though

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this is undoubtedly a rash statement to make about any-thing.

There was a sensation during the afternoon on the arrival of red cards and a quantity of fruit, etc., for the Ministers, and a separate lot for Sir Robert Hart. The approximate census of the provision consignment is as follows: Melons, 150; cucumbers, 100; squashes, 100; flour, 1,000 catties; eggs, 500; ice, 24 blocks. In regard to the acceptance of these Imperial gifts there was, at this as at other times, wide divergence of opinion. Some refused to partake of them in any way, and wished them returned or declined. The controversy was sharply ar-gued on both sides, one of the Ministers being even me-morialized by a deputation of ladies against the acceptance of such treacherous bounty.

There was, however, no difference of opinion about the imprudence of using any of the flour, at least until it had first been tried upon а dog,—a suggestion presented by deputations of native Christains, which commended itself to all. It was put aside till urgently required, and had not been touched when the Relief Force arrived, but it was subsequently used with no apparent ill effects. These gifts were as before merely acknowledged by a receipt.

A letter to the Ministers through Sir Claude from the Prince Ch’ing combination suggests that the number of converts in the Legation premises is reported to be large, and the space small. The feeling is now quiet abroad, and the converts may very well be sent out, and directed to pursue their avocations. There need be no doubt and fear. It is requested that the number of them be esti-mated, and a day fixed for sending them out.

Sir Claude did not consider it worth his while to con-sult the Christians as to whether they wished to facilitate

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their own massacre by leaving their only place of refuge, and no reply to this artless communication was returned. In the evenings there are frequent gatherings around the bell-tower for singing.

Several songs have been composed bearing upon the siege, which have become very popular. The Russians sing their fine national air, the Germans “ Die Wacht am Rhein,” the British “God Save the Queen,” and the Americans the “ Star Spangled Banner,” with great good fellowship.

The messenger reports that a foreigner has been cap-tured by the Chinese, in a very forlorn and unkempt con-dition. We recognized him as an escaped Norwegian about whom we wrote on the 25th a note of inquiry. He is reported to have been taken to the headquarters of Jung Lu, who examined him and then sent him to the yamen of the prefect of Peking where he now is.

Saturday, July 29th.—The two ponies killed this morn-ing were found to have been preémpted by a parasite (filaria) in the flesh, making them unwholesome and dangerous. As the Chinese are never deterred by any trifles of this nature, the meat was accordingly sent over to the Fu, and another pony substituted for the foreigners.

A sensation was caused by the arrival of the boy who was sent out on the night of July 4th, disguised as a beggar. He brings a letter to Sir Claude replying to his of the 4th which gave the details of the siege up to that time, and the number of killed and wounded, and which stated that Chinese troops had fired into the Lega-tion quarter continuoüsly since June 20th, and that the Legations were hard pressed.

Notice of the contents of the letter from Tientsin, which is written by the British Consul, is posted on the bulletin board as follows: “ Tientsin, July 22nd. Your letter

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July 4th. There are now 24,000 troops landed, and 19,000 here. Brig. Gen. Gaselee expected Taku to-mor-row. Russian troops are at Ре! Ts'ang. Tientsin city is under foreign government, and Boxer power here is ex-ploded. There are plenty of troops on the way if you can keep yourself in food. Almost all the ladies have left@l ientsin DR. Caries

The more this strange communication was con-templated, the more extraordinary it appeared. The one vital question to persons in a state of continuous siege is as to when relief may be expected, and on this point the letter not only gave no information whatever, but its phraseology was so ambiguous as to be unintelligible. Even the number of available troops was left a matter of debate, the whole culminating in the singular intelli-gence that “there are plenty of troops on the way if you can keep yourself in food.” This led to the very natural inquiry, what would become of the troops if Sir Claude found that he could not keep himself in food?

It was not until long afterward that it became dimly known that the benevolent purpose of the writer of the letter was to disguise the fact—which it was thought might be fatally depressing to the besieged—that at pres-ent there was nothing whatever in immediate prospect for their relief, and that they might as well adjust them-selves to these conditions.

The messenger lad reported that he left the Red Bridge above Tientsin July 23rd, and slept at Yang Ts’un in a locomotive boiler. The railway bridge there was not de-stroyed. That day he saw only Chinese infantry—the main body being at Ре! Ts’ang 8 miles west of Tientsin.

He saw no Boxers there. The night of the 24th he spent near Ho Hsi Wu. That day he saw parties of Boxers in the villages, but none on the road. At Ma

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| Tou the river was in flood, many boats moored, but few in motion. On the 27th he reached the Sha Kuo gate of Peking. The telegraph poles and wire along the river were all gone, the railway was everywhere torn up, and the rails either buried or used for making Boxer swords. The highway to Tientsin was in good condition. The crops everywhere looked well, and the villagers were attending to their farm work. There was a Boxer organization in every village.

When the messenger left Tientsin the foreign troops had not advanced beyond the defence wall. АП the ya-mens in Tientsin were occupied by foreign troops—chiefly Japanese. All Boxers had left the front at Tientsin, be-cause they were so badly punished in battle. The Chinese soldiers despised them because of the contrast between their previous extravagant pretensions to invulnerability and their present flight.

The Japanese subsidized body-guard soldier of Tung Fu Hsiang informs them that there has been “ a battle ” at An P’ing on the 26th, when there were seven hundred Chinese killed, their army retreating on Ma T’ou. A miltary Harmony has now been constructed with a view to reconciling the dates given by the body-guard expert, with the evidently authentic information of the messenger lad, as follows:

Summary of Battles under the patronage of the soldier of Gen. Tung Fu Hsiang: Ts’ai Ts’un battle, July 24th; Ho На Wu battle, July 25th; An P’ing battle, July 26th; Chinese army at Ma T'ou, July 27th. The messenger boy reports that he slept at Yang Ts’un on the 23rd, Но Hsi Wu, 24th, Ma T'ou, 25th, Yú Chia Wei, 26th, Peking, 27th. There is thus no material contradiction between

these reports. The word of the intended escape of the Empress Dow-

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ager is confirmed by four others, as well as the soldier-spy. Yesterday an experiment was made in getting rude cobbling done by one of the Christians, and watch-repair-ing by a Roman Catholic refugee.

Sunday, July 20th.—Last night there seemed to be heavy firing about the Pei T’ang, or Northern Cathedral. Early in the morning the intellectually aberrant Nor-wegian was brought to our lines by a Chinese guard, looking much like a wreck. He had been manacled, and remarked that all the gold in the world would not induce him to repeat the experience. It gradually leaked out that he was asked a great number of leading questions by Jung Lu, and others, showing that they have a very correct knowledge of what is going on inside the Legation prem-ises. One inquiry was about the pits which were being dug, probably the bomb-proofs, and another as to the amount of damage done by the Chinese firing. The Nor-wegian gave the whole thing away by frankly stating that the Chinese fired too high, and as there was soon after a marked depression of the muzzles of their rifles (and of the spirits of the besieged to match) it was pro-posed to shoot the man as a deserter and a spy. More temperate counsels prevailed, however, and he was thence-forth kept in a state of surveillance until the siege termi-nated. 7

An Austrian marine, who was acting as а cook in his Legation at the time it was abandoned, says that when the order was given to retreat, he was at work in the cook-house and knew nothing of it, supposing that the firing was due to the Boxers, and was unimportant. Hearing the bullets whizzing he went out to see, and was imme-diately struck with the total absence of any Austrians at the barricade; he was himself soon hit by a bullet that made a flesh-wound in both legs. Crawling back to the

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guard-room he wrote his name in his own blood on the wall, explaining that circumstance, lest he should die unknown to the rest. Finding that the Chinese did not enter, he tore up his clothing, made rough bandages ‚and crawled to the barricade at the Customs, pursued by bullets. It is now generally recognized by impartial ob-servers that the abandonment of the Austrian Legation at the time was utterly inexcusable.

Mr. Sugi the dispenser of Japanese-Chinese intelligence has taken a small house just outside the Japanese lines, opening on the Customs lane, where he receives messages and whence he dispatches couriers. His body-guard soldier to-day informs him that there are 25,000 Chinese troops at Ma T’ou awaiting the foreign army, which is 30,000 strong and retired yesterday on An P'ing.

A messenger sent out to Ch’ang P’ing Chou, north-west of Peking, met refugees from Tu Shih K’ou. There are said to be Russian troops coming hither by way of Kalgan, but whence is a dense mystery known only to the immortal gods. It is now affirmed that all but two of the gates of Peking are stopped with sand bags.

During the afternoon the Chinese began to build a new barricade along the south side of the bridge which crosses the canal under the walls of the Imperial city. This was at once observed from the north stables, and reported. The Italian gun was sent up there to attack the work-men, and fired several shots, until the gunner (Italian) got a bullet through his hand.

The method of the Chinese was very business-like and effective. There was no one in sight, but now and again a brick or two came around the corner, and then others were thrown on it, until the wall began to show up. Sometimes a box full of earth or bricks was suddenly pushed around adding to the fast growing barricade, but

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still no one in sight. The shots fired at them did the Chinese no harm, and did not in the least impede their work. Before dark the new wall stretched along the whole bridge front, and during the night it was completed, very high and strong. Much of their work elsewhere was done like this, and having practically unlimited ma-terials and labour, they were able to execute a great deal in a short time. Everyone sympathized with the Russian gentleman who remarked the next morning: “ That new barricade makes me very uneasy.”

Another and rival messenger just in from Somewhere, tells us that Yang Ts’un was completely destroyed by foreign troops “two or three days ago,” they being in steady advance. This makes necessary а revised Har-mony of the Peking Anabasis, involving great intellectual labour and highly uncertain results.

A few “ Peking Gazettes” have been secured, but there is nothing of commanding interest. The issue of July 23га contains a long joint memorial from Үй Lu, the Governor General of Chihli, and Gen. Sung Ch’ing, giving confused details of the attacks upon the Foreign Settle-ment from the 8th to the 11th of July. The “ Gazette ” of July 11th also had a long memorial of the same de-scription from the Governor General. The Chinese losses are admitted to have been severe, but then those of the enemy were “not small.” The Empress Dowager is com-forted by information that the Arsenal at the Treaty Temple is not so injured that it can not be repaired. The tone of the later memorial, which was sent two days be-fore the last and successful foreign attack, is much less hopeful, giving details of the numerous foreign forces present and prospective, and each of them makes it plain that “large reénforcements ” will be needed.

A paragraph from the former memorial is interesting

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as illustrating Chinese strategy under depressing con-ditions: “I have consulted,” Үй Lu says, “ with Gen. Ma Yü K’un, about the mode of continuing the warfare, and we have come to the conclusion that in the first place it is necessary to force the foreign troops to retire from the foreign settlement of Tientsin, and then to at-tack them at Taku. I have consulted on this subject several times with Generals Ma, Nieh, and Lo, and we hope to be able to take the Taku Forts.” A Rescript ap-proves this mode of action (as well it might, considering that it is the Report of a Committee of Civil and Military Rats as to the best Method of Putting a Large Bell on several Foreign Cats now in possession of Our Attic).

In a memorandum by the same Governor published at the same time, he informs the Throne that “ Boxers of different places in my province have at different times arrived at Tientsin, and taken part in the battles. At present there is a Boxer-chief of the district of Ching Hai who has come with 5,000 Boxers, and presented himself to me. Seeing that he is a man physically strong and mentally capable, I have ordered him to choose a resi-dence and await instructions. I have also: directed that fire-arms and provisions should be distributed to his fol-lowers. In case of any merit on his part in future, a special report will be made by me on the subject.” А Decree announces that as a reward for the numerous vir-tues of Jung Lu, he is to be allowed to ride with two bearers through the Forbidden City (a privilege which he was unable to retain for any length of time.)

Monday, July 30th—The new barricade at the head of the canal commands the whole roadway on each side down to the city wall, and although passage is forbidden, there are many ‘shots fired at the pertinacious Chinese who will take the more dangerous route, instead of the

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perfectly safe one through the tunnel. A Roman Catholic was killed this morning outside one of the houses near the Fu, along the canal road. A Cossack who was suf-fering from malaria took this morning a twelfth of a grain of strychnine by mistake for quinia, but he was saved from the toxic effects with some difficulty.

It is a great strain on the human understanding to digest, and especially to coördinate the incessant contra-dictory reports which come from every quarter. Here is to-day’s budget: Col. Shiba’s messenger says that he left Chang Chia Wan (three miles from T’ung Chou) at eight o'clock on the evening of the 29th. There had been desultory fighting there' from 3 to 8 P. M., and many Chinese were killed. The foreign troops had advanced on Ma Топ on the morning of the 29th, the Chinese fall-ing back upon Chang Chia Wan, with about 10,000 men. in the afternoon a candy-seller from T’ung Chou, who had been sent out as a spy, returns with the story that there are foreign troops at Yang Ts'un but none this side. As this is not the news we wish, the man is tied up, until he can revise it! He also informs us that Li Hung Chang is here, and has been given three days to make peace. А courier was sent off early this morning with eleven letters, and during the day it was reported that two who had been dispatched yesterday by Mr. Sugi had returned. One of them has brought word of a battle just south of Ma T’ou, on the 29th (or 28th.) These men say that they saw a man who had been in the Roman Catholic village of Chia Chia T'uan, eight miles from T’ung Chou, who reports that foreign troops have come there to relieve the Catholics, who have been standing a little siege of their own.

There are wild and contradictory accounts of what is seen from the American position on ‘the wall, looking

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down into the southern city, singular movements of carts, horses, coolies, etc., in great confusion. It is said that Sir Robert has received a cipher telegram of nearly an hun-dred words for which he has no cipher key—so that it is unintelligible.

A reply was sent to-day to the letter suggesting that the Chinese Christians might return to their “ avoca-tions,” now that the country is quiet. The Ministers mention that in view of this statement they were sur-prised at the sound of heavy firing at the Pei T’ang, which was evidently being attacked. The barricade at the north canal bridge is referred to, and the fact that a continuous fire is kept up from there, and also against the French and the Russian Legations. There is a strange contra-diction between the above professions and the actions described. There are European officers and soldiers at the Pei T’ang. If such attacks as these can not be pre-vented, it is difficult to see how similar assaults could be prevented on a journey to Tientsin. Explanations are wanted in regard to this matter, before discussing the question of transport.

Prince Ch’ing and his “ Others ” in reply informed the Ministers that, in the preparation for the journey to Tien-tsin, the Chinese Government would of course provide carts and chairs for going to T’ung Chou. Brig. Gen. Sun Han Lien with a picked force, and also some of Gen. Sung Ming’s troops would be the escort; notice a few days in advance is requested. In reply to the letter just quoted it is explained that the attack on the Pei T’ang was due to the converts going out in all directions to plunder for food. The people joined the crowd of Box-ers, and made continuous attacks. А Decree has now been issued that if the converts do not come out to plunder they are to be protected and not attacked. The troops

3

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of Gen. Tung were building a road across the canal, and the Legation mistook it for a barricade, which was a mis-understanding on both sides. With regard to the pro-posed departure, it is not an easy matter to adjust. It was only after much arrangement that it was possible to give guarantees against mischance. The matter is one of the greatest importance, and we could not purposely deceive. We ask you not to be over anxious, but to come to a decision.

Tuesday, July 31.—During the night, there was what one of the British marines called “a tidy bit of firing ” down the canal. The Chinese complain that we fired first on them as they were working on their “road” (barri-cade), which is true. Despite their promise of cessation of hostilities, the Chinese do not suspend their firing any-where. The supply of eggs has never been large, and now that the Chinese have beheaded a man who was bringing supplies for sale, and the French guards have shot an egg-seller, there are not likely to be any more.

The Chinese soldier-spy brings to the Japanese his usual tale of military news. The foreign army advanced from Ma T’ou fighting, arriving at Chang Chia Wan late on the afternoon of the 30th. The Chinese army is eight miles south of T'ung Chou. The “ Ch’ang An Vic-torious Army” of fifteen regiments, which left Нап Fu June 27th, is expected at the Southern Hunting Park to-day, and is to make a forced march to Tung Chou. It is thought that there may be 4,000 or 5,000 of them, and as they are not foreign drilled they will add but little to the Chinese strength in a military way.

The five great armies hitherto controlled by Jung Lu are said to have been turned over to Li Ping Héng, who had arrived from the south a few days before in obedi-ence to a special summons, and whose influence was at once

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thrown into the scale in favour of further hostilities, so that they began to be more pronounced in every direc-tion. Tung Fu Hsiang has leave of absence for ten days. Li Hung Chang (who is already in Peking) will arrive at Tientsin in two days. A dispatch from Chi Nan Fu reports that Yuan Shih K’ai, the Governor of Shantung has “revolted and joined the Germans! ”

A party of Mr. Gamewell’s men who were at work on the fortifications, were to-day called off to make a “brick-proof ” for the north-west corner of the Han-lin, where bricks and bottles are coming over almost every minute, and “ make the men nervous.” The Hague Peace Conference should have included these weapons in its condemnation, along with the “ dum-dum bullet.” A barricade has been built in the night across the north side of the bridge at the Legation Street. At present the bridge is very unsafe, owing to the perpetual sniping from the Chinese barricade at the upper bridge.

XXIT

CHAPTER 22. The Renewal of the Attack

\ ү 7 EDNESDAY, August 1.—During the night the mentally unbalanced Norwegian broke away from the Japanese Legation where he was under restraint, and went to the Hotel de Pékin. The proprietor brought him to the British Legation at 2 A. M., whence he was sent back to be put under watch again. The barricade at the south gate of this Legation, to pro-tect the crossing of the canal, was finished last night, and we can now breathe a little more freely, but still there is a certain (or rather a very uncertain) amount of danger in going to Legation Street by this route.

The Committee on Food Supply have been very active in getting together everything which could be used, and especially in the steady and most important work of get-ting the grinding done properly and in season. Upon this the continued existence of all the besieged depends. As the duration of the siege is so uncertain and the matter is one of vital importance, careful stock-taking has been had as to the visible food supply. There seem to be about 600 pounds only of white rice, 11,500 of the “ yel-low,” or old rice, and 34,000 pounds of wheat. If all other supplies were unavailable, it is estimated that the public _ stores could furnish one thousand persons each a pound of wheat and one third of a pound of rice each day, for five weeks. There are about thirty available ponies re-

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maining, which at the rate of three every two days would last twenty days.

A visit to the wall shows a vast improvement in the defences there as compared with the period when the first effort was made to build a worm fence of bricks to the top of the ramp. Now this has been completed, and is perfectly safe from shots in any direction. Each of the barricades on the wall is built up very high and strong, and could not be rushed by the Chinese even if they had the disposition, which since the night of July 3rd they have never exhibited. Between the two terminal barri-cades there is a long path on the wall, protected all the way so as to be entirely safe for passage. The western barricade is held conjointly by Americans and Russians.

Another letter from “ Prince Ch'ing and Others” has been received, continuing the subject of the previous cor-respondence. It says that last night some converts again fired on the posts of the Government troops, wounding two of them. If the converts are not amenable to control, it is to be feared that they will produce a great dis-aster, and ruin the whole situation. The strictest re-straint is requested so аз to avoid further hostilities. We hear that the converts have collected in great numbers, and that they do not wish the Envoys to leave Peking, their hope being that they will thus have a perpetual support. The Foreign Ministers ought not to fall into this trap. A reply is requested within two or three days, as to the date of the Minister's departure.

It seemed best to the Ministers to respond as if they were arguing with rational beings, as there was no cer-tainty into whose hands the correspondence might fall. Accordingly a reply was sent to this nonsense the follow-ing day. The Legation is defended, not by “ converts,” but by guards. All day and all night there had been shoot-

404 CHINA IN CONVULSION

ing from the new barricade on the north bridge, and not a shot was fired in reply. It is difficult to see why this is kept up. The Foreign Envoys are in great difficulty about the plan to go to Tientsin on a certain day. What security could the Legations have that the firing would not begin en route?

It is learned from the telegrams received through the Tsung Li Yamen to-day, that Mr. Conger's telegram of July 17th saying that the Legations had been bombarded by shot and shell for a month, had made a great sensa-tion, and that relief would be sent. It is singular that both the tidings of our distress and the intelligence of the effect produced by the announcement of it, should each have been transmitted through the Tsung Li Yamen. A Shantung Christian named Chang, who was dispatched to Tientsin on the 18th of July, returned to-day with a reply to the Japanese Baron Nishi from Gen. Fukushima, say-ing that there had been unexpected difficulties in the land-ing of the 5th Japanese Division, but that most of the troops had already reached Tientsin and the remainder were constantly arriving. The messages sent out from Peking had made the situation there universally known, and many councils had been held as to dispatch of a relief expedition. It was expected that within two or three days from the date of writing, which was July 26th, an expedition would start.

Other letters brought the same or similar intelligence, which makes it clear that the reports which have been coming in so frequently and so regularly from the heavily subsidized body-guard soldier-spy of Gen. Tung Fu Hsiang’s are deficient in the element of coördination with other facts of contemporaneous history—in other words they are pure fabrications, which have served their one purpose of holding the attention of the besieged, and

THE RENEWAL OF THE ATTACK 4o5

which have kept them studying the map and making esti-mates of the probable present situation of “ our troops.” Those who had all along discredited the military narra-tives, were enabled to say with much and iterative em-phasis: “ I told you so.”

This last messenger, although he had been promised a large reward for executing the commission which he had so well fulfilled, said that he did not care for money, would not accept it, and only insisted that he should be furnished with a return packet of letters as soon as pos-sible. He explained that he was risking his life for the general good, and not for private gain. To the Japanese, as well as to some others, he appeared to be a very eccen-tric individual. Within two hours he was sent off again on the coveted errand.

A telegram to Sir Robert Hart mentions the results of the fighting at Tientsin July 15th, and states that sub-sequent to it arrangements for the relief were being ha-stened, and inquiries whether the Chinese Government is protecting us and supplying us with provisions, etc.

This last sentence exposes the “true inwardness ” of the water-melons, egg-plants, and cucumbers, all of which had been sent in not for the purpose of serving as food, but as padding for the dispatches of the Chinese Ministers to various Western Powers, all of whom were now assured that the Government was doing its utmost to make the besieged experience ideal happiness, so that their lot was upon the whole an enviable one.

It is reported from Japanese sources that their losses in killed have been ten, (including the Chancellor of the Legation) of whom five are soldiers, three Legation of-ficials, one an officer, and one a civilian. There have been seven badly wounded, and thirty slightly so. The dead are buried in a special spot in the grounds of the Su Wang

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Fu, and when the siege is over the bodies are to be taken up, cremated, and the ashes transferred to Japan.

During the siege a litter of kittens has made its ap- -pearance, two of which have been adopted by the ma-rines in the main gate, have had coloured ribbons put on their necks, and sleep serenely in the loop-holes!

Thursday, August 2—One of the Continental Min-isters who was for a long time very timid and pessimis-tic, remarked in our gate-house this morning: “ Well, we are going to get out of this.” He seems to think the thermometer is rising.

The two soldier-spies returned to-day, and one gave an account of the retreats of their phantom foreign armies as far as Yang Ts’un! He was somewhat alarmed at finding his fictions rated at their true value. Instead of falling into a passion, as the unskilful Occidental would have been likely to do, his shrewd Japanese employer smiled upon him, and remarked that he was aware all along that the tales were a tissue of fabrications, inso-much that he had never even mentioned them to Col. Shiba at all! Considering that each day a careful ab-stract of the reports had been drawn up, illustrated with maps, and the whole at once posted on the bulletin board, this was almost as robust a falsehood as the marching and retreats of the imaginary forces from Tientsin. In-stead of being dismissed, the soldier was told that he would still be paid, if he would hereafter bring in reports which were somewhat more veracious than any of those which had preceded, but from this date he ceased to be quoted by any one as a military authority.

A man who was sent out for the purpose, returned to-day with a fresh lot of “ Peking Gazettes,’ which con-tain some crumbs of news.

On the 28th of July a memorial appears from Yu Hsien,

THE RENEWAL ОЕ THE ATTACK 407

the Governor of Shansi, who reports that the district magistrate of the capital of his province, T’ai Yuan Fu, had sent word of a Boxer gathering which invaded his yamen and had asked for troops. Upon investigation the Governor learned that the crowd was a small one, and that only one man had come to the yamen demanding food, and he was not a Boxer. He recommends the dis-missal of the magistrate. (There is probably much more їп this little incident than appears upon the surface, and it not improbably signifies that Үй Hsien was engaged in inculcating the teaching among his subordinates that Boxers were not to be interfered with, and that any official guilty of obstructing them would be promptly cashiered.)

The same Governor mentions that he was about dis-patching four “ camps ” of infantry and two hundred cav-alry to Peking, in obedience to a Decree, but that in ac-cordance with a later Decree their destination was changed to Kalgan. He also reports that he is about to raise fresh regiments. (It was learned later that he marched at the head of his troops for the relief of Peking as far as Huai Lu Hsien, at the entrance to the Ku Kuan pass leading from Chihli to Shansi. Learning that Peking had already been taken, he returned to his own capital, where he later welcomed the Empress Dowager on her flight to the remote west.)

A Decree of which the date is uncertain, but apparently of July 28th, states that Hsü Ching Ch’eng and Yuan Ch’ang, two of the Ministers of the Tsung Li Yamen, had been denounced as of bad reputation, and as given to serving their private ends in dealing with foreign affairs. At an Imperial audience they have made wild proposals, and used the most improper language. Their suggestions have tended to introduce divisions (1. e. be-

408 CHINA IN CONVULSION

tween the Empress Dowager and the Emperor) and have been extremely wanting in respect. In order to inspire awe in the minds of other officers they are both con-demned to immediate execution. (The above two officials were sacrificed to the fury of the Empress, apparently at the instigation of Li Ping Héng immediately upon his arrival at Peking. Hsü Ching Ch’eng was the Chinese President of the new Imperial University, had been Chinese Minister to Russia, and was an enlightened and liberal man. At an Imperial audience of unusual impor-tance the Emperor reached over the dais upon which he was seated, grasped the sleeve of Hsú, and exclaimed, “Tf China is to fight the World, will it not put an end to China?” At this the numerous Manchu nobles present manifested great indignation, and someone cried out that Нза had laid hands upon His Majesty, and began to re-vile him openly. He retired as soon as he was able, very much frightened. The same day Li Ping Heng is re-ported to have reached the Capital, and the following day both Hsú and Yuan were executed. Their real crime was in daring to advise against the insane course of the Empress Dowager, as urged by Prince Tuan and the rest, in endeavouring to find some way of adjusting the growing difficulties, in alleged truckling to foreigners by visiting the Legations secretly, and in taking up the body of the German Minister when it lay exposed in the street, and encoffining it.) It was at once perceived that this was a most ominous proceeding, displaying the temper of the actual rulers of China as nothing had yet done. Yesterday preparations were made for extending our line to the southwest of the British Legation, by taking in the ruins of burned buildings near the Mongol Mar-ket, and making barricades of them with a view to keep-ing the Chinese at a greater distance. This was done to-

THE RENEWAL OF THE ATTACK 409

day by Mr. Gamewell and his men, under Lieutenant von Strauch of the Customs (formerly of the German Army), a brave and skillful officer, who threw himself into the new movement with the greatest zeal. The work was designedly Берип at a time when the Chinese sol-diers are usually torpid (taking their opium and resting after the fatigues of their early rising), and the work was for a long time not even discovered. It has enlarged the area under our control by a space perhaps fifty yards wide to the west, and stretching the entire distance from the Carriage Park on the north to the Russian Legation on the south. Many court-yards were crossed, many houses perforated, and a final barricade made of flag-stones in the one furthest west. When at last the Chinese found out what was going on, they made a par-ticularly spiteful attack, piercing a wooden door, and wounding a Chinese, but notwithstanding their utmost efforts they were never able to recover any part of this tract and hold it against the defence.

Toward evening another courier arrived,—the one who took the messages July 23rd, conveying information of the safety of the Legation and the besieged up to that time. The greatest excitement prevailed, both before the posting of the news (which happened almost immedi-ately, as the letters were mostly for the American Minis-ter) and afterwards. The cipher dispatches and letters gave the dates of the military movements for the relief of Tientsin, and information as to the probable order of advance by columns of the relieving force, which did not, however, correspond to the actual movements later on. One of the letters contained the judicious advice to “Hold on by all means,” and another said: “ Keep heart, aid coming early. Troops pouring in.”

The letter of Consul Ragsdale to Mr. Conger, although

410 CHINA IN CONVULSION

very brief, was of special interest to Americans for the welcome glimpse into the doings and feelings of their distant countrymen: “July 28th. Had lost all hope of seeing you again. Prospect now brighter. We had thirty days’ shelling here, nine days siege, thought that bad enough. Scarcely a house escaped damage. Excitement at home intense, of course. Our prayers and hope are for your safety and speedy rescue. Advance of troops to-morrow probable. McKinley and Roosevelt nomi-nated. Also Bryan—Vice-President unknown.”

A letter from Lieut. Col. Mallory, 41st U. 5. Infantry, said: “A relief column of 10,000 is on the point of starting for Peking. More to follow. God grant they may be in time.” Under date of August 30th, Maj. Gen. Chaffee announced that he had just arrived at Tientsin.

Some of the other letters mentioned that attacks had been made by Boxers upon Chinese Christians in the dis-tricts of Tsun Hua Chou, Shan Hai Kuan, and many other places. That the Russians had been fighting near Chin Chou in Manchuria, and that Newchwang was much disturbed, as all Manchuria seemed to be rising against foreigners, and the hands of the Russians were likely to be full there. The Yangtze valley was said to be also very unquiet, although the two Governors Gen-eral, Liu K’un Yi, at Nanking, and Chang Chih Tung, at Wu Ch’ang, were doing their best to keep order. Li Hung Chang was still at Shanghai, and his coming north to Tientsin considered doubtful. Tientsin was governed by a joint foreign Commission. Germany and the United States were each to send 15,000 men, and Italy 5,000. Tientsin was full of soldiers, with more constantly arriv-ing. The railway was running between Tientsin and Tongku. Many ladies and children had been sent to the

THE RENEWAL OF THE ATTACK 411

United States on the transport “ Logan.” All property at ‘the sea-side resort at Pei Tai Ho was destroyed.

For some time it has been known that there was a stock of Chinese samshu, or strong wine somewhere, but recently it was traced to a shop in Legation Street, where they deal in condiments, sauce, etc. Mr. Tewksbury went there with some men on behalf of the General Com-mittee, and found a sick man asleep above a large wine-jar. He was forced to remove, and the fluid was all poured into the street, which was highly perfumed, to the value of many taels. The jar had been sealed up once before, but the thirsty marines had broken through the seal.

The messenger who brought the welcome news of prospective relief says that, when he reached T’ung Chou, instead of taking the usual route he went east, spending one night on the way with Chinese soldiers. On his return he had his letters sewed into his hat. He left Tientsin by the west gate, making a wide detour so as not to excite suspicion, yet got through in very good time.

Friday, August 3.—The Committee on Confiscated Goods is busy this morning going through the houses which are within the territory captured yesterday, and a great deal of stuff was found which will be of service.

CHAPTER 23. The Relief

There is a fire in the Imperial City, but it is impossible to determine where it is. The following has just been

posted:

Census of the British Legation, August Ist.

Soldiers ‚British and ой еге наан 73 General’ Hospital, чойлдев...........:......х. 40

412 CHINA IN CONVULSION

Legation residents:

Foreign men Se. ser en see IQI Foreign women e ОШ: 147 Foreign ehildren „un... 76 Sa eee Legation residents: Chinese Men € eerie 180 Chinese women 2.3. nase Ех 107 Chinese" children m е 69 ES PO E O 883

This afternoon the Yamen sent to Sir Claude, an un-dated cipher telegram from Lord Salisbury, in which he complains of having heard nothing since July 4th. The Ministers are trying the experiment of sending cipher telegrams through the Yamen. The latter send notice of the appointment of Jung Lu to escort the Ministers to Tientsin, a piece of impudence which even for the Chinese Government is nothing less than colossal, con-sidering that he has spent the whole summer in trying to kill everyone in the Legations.

In reply to Sir Claude's remonstrances about the in-cessant firing upon us, the Yamen blandly remarks that it was the result of a misunderstanding, and that it is more or less on the same footing as the morning and evening bells of the temple priests. “It is really hardly worth a smile.” Іп confirmation of the morning-and-evening-bell theory, it is mentioned that the wife of one of the Ministers has been heard to say that, now there is so little firing of rifles and no shelling, she cannot sleep!

Over at the Fu some Chinese coolies have brought

THE RENEWAL OF THE ATTACK 413

rifles and ammunition for sale at one of the out-posts. (This circumstance probably gave rise to the widely cir-culated story that during the siege a part of the ammuni-tion was bought frem the attacking Chinese troops. It was, however, stated as a fact that a Japanese paid one of the Chinese Imperial Guard two dollars for 140 rounds of ammunition, and that within a quarter of an hour the two men were diligently attacking each other!)

Saturday, Aug. 4.— There was much less firing last night than before. The Nordenfelt gun was put up on a high platform at the angle of the newly annexed territory behind the house of the Chinese Secretary, and has a very dissuasive appearance. “Oh, he's little, but he's wise. He's a terror for his size.”

The Ministers had a meeting and agreed to ask the Yamen to send mutton and other supplies for the ladies and the sick, but the action was not unanimous, and some of the besieged protest against it vigourously, as a dis-play of uncalled for weakness. A letter was received from the Yamen, informing the Ministers that the various Foreign Offices of the different Nations concerned wish the Foreign Ministers escorted out of Peking, and de-siring a speedy reply. Two Russians who were at work in the Russo-Chinese Bank incautiously exposed them-selves too much, and were wounded this afternoon, ap-parently by the same bullet. One of them died during the night.

At an adjourned meeting of the Ministers during the afternoon, the draft of a letter in reply to the Yamen was agreed upon, to be sent to-morrow. The general pur-port is that the Ministers must be allowed to communicate with their Governments direct, and that they can not re-ceive instructions through the medium of the Tsúng Li

414 CHINA IN CONVULSION

Yamen. Foreign Ministers in China must have the same rights that Chinese Ministers at foreign courts at pres-ent enjoy.

With this letter were sent cipher telegrams to the vari-ous governments from the Ministers, asking for instruc-tions as to leaving, in compliance with the Yamen’s de-mand. The object of this is to gain time, as the replies at quickest can not be received in less than ten days or two weeks, since the telegrams have to be sent, according to the Yamen’s letter of to-day, by courier to Chi Nan Fu, the capital of Shantung. It is understood that at least one of the Ministers incorporated in his dispatch a hint of the object of raising the inquiry at all, with the suggestion that there need be no haste as to a reply. In the interim the Yamen was told that, when these replies are to hand, the Ministers will be in a position to arrange the matter of leaving ог remaining—(a prediction and promise which was more than fulfilled.)

Yesterday the Ministers had for the first time tried the experiment of all sending cipher dispatches to their re-spective governments, to be forwarded by the Yamen, and it is understood that as they have not been returned they have been forwarded.

There is a species of censorship established over out-going telegrams, to the deep indignation of some of the correspondents who do not wish their opinions revised by a committee.

At the Su Wang Fu soldiers without arms crowd around our sentries in a very friendly way, as the Imperial Edict arranging for the departure of the Ministers is well known and we are supposed to be soon leaving. A soldier who has been useful in getting copies of the “ Peking Gazettes ” for us, took occasion to observe: “You are

THE RENEWAL OF THE ATTACK 415

alive; we are dead. The foreign army is on the way, and has driven back Gen. Sung Ch’ing, 140 li from here.” Rumours among the Chinese say that among the for-eign troops there are many “ blacks,” who are supposed to be from India.

Sunday, August 5.—A report has got around that the Chinese are intending, if the Foreign Ministers do not accede to the proposition to go at once to Tientsin, to attack the Legations in earnest. After nearly three weeks of comparative quiet, with steady preparation under the invariable persistence of Mr. Gamewell, there are many who are quite of the mind of the German soldier who exclaimed on hearing the rumour: “Let them come on!” (Lässen sie kommen.)

There was a hard rain last night for two hours or more, and everything is fresh to-day. No walls have fallen in the Mongol Market addition to our territory, as was feared. This is the first Sunday when no work has been done at all. Several Chinese children died yesterday and to-day. The Roman Catholics are very short of food, — юг what reason is not quite clear, as the total stock appears to be good. In the afternoon there were letters from the Yamen again, one of which conveyed expres-sions of sympathy to the Italian Legation on the death of King Humbert (of which they had not previously heard.) The news was communicated by Lo Feng Lo, who is accredited both to Great Britain and to Italy. Other letters to other Ministers communicated inquiries as to health, etc.

The following letter was sent out to-night to the Allied forces, and it was through the use of this information that the British and American troops entered Peking so early.

416 CHINA IN CONVULSION

COPY OF MESSAGE SENT TO COMMANDER ALLIED FORCES:

August 5, 1900.

“Т enclose map showing Manchu City south wall, with lines in rear, including Legations now occupied by us. Our position on wall is strongly held, is about 300 yards long, and equally distant from the two city gates, and is indi-cated by flags, Russian and American at each end. The left of the position (American) covers the water gate, an opening under the wall, about forty feet wide and twenty feet high, and through which any number of men could pass without difficulty; arriving within our lines, could take one or both the gates by assault, following down the wall and in the rear from the street. 500 men for each gate would be a sufficient force, especially if assisted by artillery fire from outside. The wall of the Chinese City near the south gate is in bad condition, and far easier to take than any part of the Manchu city wall, which is thicker and higher. The ground from Chinese City south gate up to houses in that city is open. After shelling, an advance up the main street towards the middle gate, then turning to the right in the direction of the water gate, ought to be made without any very great diffi-culty. I deem this the safest and most feasible entrance into Peking. See Slater’s Code, using Ragsdale’s code number.”

(Signed) CLAUDE MACDONALD.

Monday, August 6.—Between two and three o’clock this morning there was a furious rifle attack, such as we have not had for a long time, beginning with the Mongol Market region and apparently going all around. It con-tinued for perhaps half an hour. It may have been stirred up by the steady work on the barricades in the new terri-

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WATER GATE, PEKING, THROUGH WHICH ALLIES ENTERED

THE RENEWAL OF THE ATTACK 417

tory, which are being strengthened all the time. A Chinese barricade fell down at the French Legation, and the Chinese had the presence of mind to set up a great yell-ing, beating of drums, etc., to distract attention. There was much alarm at some of the houses in the British Legation, and in one of them the second story was aban-doned for the night as unsafe.

The alley through which the egg-sellers and the pur-veyors of news have made their entrance into the Japanese lines, has been walled up, so that we are again isolated from the world, except for the driblets of news—largely of an obituary nature—filtering through the Tsung Li Yamen. During the afternoon another communication arrived from that august body, in reply to those sent yes-terday referring to the various home Governments the question of return to Tientsin. The Yamen has forwarded the dispatches, thus recognizing the right of the Ministers to ask for instructions. They also explain the attack of last night by saying that some foreigner made a great noise, so that the Chinese soldiers thought they were being attacked, and replied in kind!

Tuesday, August 7.—The night was much more quiet than the previous one, though there were some shots. To-day is the “ Japanese Decoration Day ” (the thirteenth day of the Chinese seventh moon), the equivalent of our “ All Souls ” festival, and they have put flowers upon the eight graves of their dead, —the touch of nature which makes the whole world kin.

The sand bags in the windows of the hospital are all giving way, and are to be taken down and used to fill up the unsightly holes in the tennis-court where earth has been removed. Despite the general quiet there is firing near the Mongol Market, and a Japanese was brought in from the Fu wounded in the leg. A telegram

418 CHINA IN CONVULSION

was received to-day from the Yamen with condolence for the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, of which there was no previous information.

To-day after elaborate preparation and many emenda-tions, the Register of the Siege in Peking is published, and put upon the bulletin board. It was originally headed “ Commander in Chief, Sir Claude MacDonald,” which is understood to have been in accordance with a vote of the Ministers, asking the British Minister, in view of his twenty-four years of service in the British Army, to take the command, which no one else was willing to do. This was the more appropriate, as it was agreed that in the last extremity the British Legation was to be the place for a final stand. Now that the siege seemed nearly over and the unremitting exertions of Sir Claude for the gen-eral welfare were about to end, it appeared somewhat un-gracious to assert, as some of the Continentals seemed disposed to do, that he was not their “ Commander іп Chief.” Some final appeal in a military way there must of necessity be, and aside from the previous agreement of the Ministers made in the presence of a deadly регі, no more competent or more suitable candidate than Sir Claude was either available or requisite.

In the evening Mr. Squiers prepared a long message to be sent out to the troops, recommending the Southern City as the best point of attack, as being less defended, more easily entered, affording a shorter distance, largely through open spaces, where there can be no loop-holing buildings, and having the water-gate accessible. Other letters of this kind have been sent also to the British detachment.

XXIII

THE RELIEF

EDNESDAY, August 8.—During the night j \ \ there was considerable firing in the region of the Mongol Market, a few Chinese creeping through the ruins and throwing bricks at the guard on the high platform where the Nordenfelt gun is placed. It was this that gave rise to the story that this post was “attacked.” It is impossible for all to look at the matter in the same light, and there are some who are fully per-suaded that this addition to our territory, instead of being (as it really is) a source of additional security, is rather the reverse.

There was an auction yesterday of much confiscated property, clothing, furniture, etc., bringing several hun-dred dollars to a relief fund for the Christians. A French marine accidentally shot another this morning through the lungs, the man dying not long after. Nothing but the grossest and most inexcusable carelessness could have occasioned such а calamity. Work was begun outside the main gate of the British Legation on a trench leading to the canal, where a platform is to be put up for the Austrian gun to command the bed of the canal, down which it would at any time have been possible for a bold and determined enemy to have made an effective rush in the night. On the west side of the Hanlin compound a countermine is being made for the Chinese mine, which has not, however, been discovered.

419

420 CHINA IN CONVULSION

A meeting of the Ministers was held to-day, and strict economy was enjoined in the use of food. It was agreed to say to the Yamen that in view of the kindly feeling manifested by them in the communication of tidings of the death of kings and princes, it would be greatly ap-preciated if like kindness should be shown to the women and children here, in arranging for the furnishing of eggs and vegetables. They were also to be asked to take over more than an hundred neutrals who are still within our lines.

In the afternoon a circular dispatch came from the Yamen to announce that yesterday Li Hung Chang had been appointed a High Commissioner to arrange terms of peace between China and the Powers, with the Gov-ernments of which he is to correspond telegraphically.

One of Col. Shiba's informants says that there are at present only about 2,500 Chinese troops in Peking—the rest having gone to confront the foreign army. He also reports that another body of 50,000 foreign soldiers has been landed at Taku. It is thought that the appointment of Li as Peace Commissioner may mean that there has been a decisive victory at Yang Ts'un, but one of the Ministers would not be surprised if the expedition had not yet started, owing to difficulties of transportation, etc.

Sir Claude replied to the letter conveying sympathy for the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, remarking that notwithstanding these agreeable amenities it still remained true that he could not put his head out of his own Lega-tion without the danger of being shot! This is the fiftieth day of the siege.

Thursday, August 9. —During the night there was a great deal of firing from the north bridge, not only down the canal but on the British Legation. Tt is rumoured that there has been a general change of the Chinese

THE RELIEF 421

soldiers attacking us, the Manchus taking the place of the Chinese, who have been sent out to meet the troops of the enemy. Bullets rattled through the Legation grounds, and during the night a groan was heard, but no out-cry. In the morning it was found that a Chinese Roman Catholic “ Brother,” whose head was turned to the north and who was asleep on the outer pavilion, had been wounded in the chest by a glancing bullet which perforated his clothing and made a flesh wound near the ensiform cartilage. The man was perhaps stunned, for he did not even wake up, and when he did it was to find himself bloody.

Specimens of the “food” eaten in the Fu have been brought over on a tray, consisting of a mixture of chaff, sorghum seeds, wheat, and the leaves of plants and trees, made into flat cakes. A request has been sent that those who can do so will go out and shoot dogs and cats for the Chinese, to serve as food. There has been a recount of the Catholics in the Fu. The census is 755 women and 546 children, a total of 1,301. The men, who were absent, number 412, making a grand total of 1,713.

Friday, August 10.—About three o'clock this morning there was a sudden and very violent attack begun in the Mongol Market, running all around the circle. It lasted only about fifteen minutes, but during that time it was as vicious as anything we have had. At the signal of a rocket the firing suddenly ceased. Before it began, there had been a Boxer killed and another wounded west of the Market. There was also much shooting down the canal.

In the morning an aged Catholic priest slowly walked the entire distance from the Legation Street bridge to the entrance of the Fu, against many remonstrances, attract-ing at once the fire from the north bridge. There were

422 CHINA IN CONVULSION

twenty-six shots directed at him, but not one struck him. Yesterday some one counted thirty shots fired at a little girl, and an old woman gathering greens became a speedy target. Some Chinese do not seem in the least con-cerned when fired at, while others are terribly alarmed. One of the Chinese was cautioned not to go into danger, but would not heed, when a bullet pierced his clothing over the abdomen. From that time he became more pru-dent, but his caution assumed the form of a thick wad of cloth over the place where he had been hit, assuming that the next bullet would strike in precisely the same spot!

One of the diplomatic military authorities says that there were shots enough fired into the British Legation last night to have killed, if properly directed, every person in it. The intention certainly was not lacking, but the execution was imperfect. The trouble began in a corner of the Mongol Market where a bag of powder was found yesterday.

Designs are invited for a Siege medal to be struck in commemoration of the experience. One of the mottoes suggested has been the words “ Mene, mene, tekel, up-harsin,” but one of the besieged was heard to object to this on the plausible ground that “not everybody knows Latin.” The total of several auction sales thus far comes to $681.

About three in the afternoon there were rumours of the arrival of a messenger from the troops en route to Peking. There was a letter from the Japanese Lieut. General Fukushima, dated near Ts'ai Ts'un on the 8th. The Japanese and the American troops had defeated the enemy near Pei Ts’ang on the 5, and occupied Yang Ts'un on the 6th. “ The Allied forces, consisting of Americans,

THE RELIEF 423

British, and Russians, left Yang Ts’un this morning, and while marching north the General received the letter of Col. Shiba. It is very gratifying to learn from your letter that the foreign community are holding on, and it is the earnest wish and unanimous desire of the Lieut. General and all of us to arrive in Peking as soon as possible, and deliver you from your perilous position. Unless some un-foreseen event takes place, the Allied forces will be at Но Ня Wu on the gth, at Ma Топ on the roth, Chang Chia Wan on the ııth, T'ung Chou on the 12th, and probably arrive at Peking on the 13th or 14th.” А letter of a similar tenor was also received from Gen. Gaselee.

The messenger got among Chinese soldiers, who de-tained but did not search him, and coming back he was forced to help track a boat. Still he made a relatively quick trip, leaving Tientsin Sunday night, reaching the foreign troops Wednesday morning, and arriving at Peking Friday afternoon. He came in through two half-manned barricades disguised as a coolie searching among the ruins of buildings.

Many telegrams were received making inquiries, and others with news. Mr. Conger received one from Wash-ington asking information about his telegram of July 18th, and giving him a name to insert in his reply to establish authenticity. This seems to be an indication that the Yamen is suspected of having sent bogus messages.

There is still no answer from the Yamen in regard to food, except a strange verbal message purporting to come from Jung Lu to the Chairman of the General Committee asking him to make out a list of what he wanted, which Jung Lu would furnish, and for which Mr. Tewksbury could pay him later! The messenger brings a rumour that Li Ping Héng was wounded in the shoulder at Yang

424 CHINA IN CONVULSION

Ts’un. One of the Ministers thinks it a pity that it had not been a little lower( but the wound eventually proved fatal.)

There was an attack on the German Legation last night, as well as on the British, and this morning a message came from the Yamen apologizing for it, and saying that they had beheaded the man who made it!

A cow was killed the other day, to the great joy of everyone who could get some of it. One of the legation ladies sent for the cow’s liver, only to find that it had been calmly appropriated by the marines. An attaché of the British Legation sent up for a part of the cow’s kidney as a great luxury, but it had been already dis-tributed. The sympathetic superintendent of the meat ap-portionment, however, not wishing to disappoint him, sent the man the kidney of a horse, “ without note or com-ment;” afterwards meeting him, he inquired how he liked it. He had enjoyed it greatly, and remarked that while eating it he had forgotten that he was in China!

In the afternoon Lt. von Strauss made a sortie on a Chinese barricade in the Mongol Market addition, which provoked a great deal of retaliatory firing. Showers of bricks came over; one of the British marines had his head cut open, and two Chinese were badly stunned. The bricks are much more dangerous than the bullets. Fortu-nately the worst brick attack came while the Chinese work-men were at their afternoon meal, so that the most of them could stand quietly under shelter and watch the bricks curve through the air to their harmless destination.

In the evening a hard rain came on, and with it an attack, the firing being especially furious at each loud clap of thunder. It really appears as if it were considered

as a signal from the gods for the encouragement of the Chinese.

THE RELIEF 425

Saturday, August 11.—Two ponies were condemned this morning on the ground that they were affected by phthisis, but they were absorbed by the less fastidious Chinese, and another horse and a mule were substituted. Dogs, cats, magpies, crows, and sparrows have all been shot for the Catholics, who got the condemned animals. It is proposed to give the grain directly to each family, instead of having it cooked in a common kettle and di-vided.

There is some indication of special activity on the wall of the city, where the Chinese flags have been removed, but the number of soldiers seems increased. They have begun firing on the American Legation again, and a ball went through the door of Mr. Squier’s office and pene-trated the outer door of the (so-called) iron “ safe!” Bullets struck some of the other buildings, and one came into the Minister’s bed-room. After several weeks of comparative immunity from this kind of attack by day, its sudden resumption by the enemy is peculiarly exas-perating.

Sunday, August 12.— There was intermittent heavy firing during the night at no very long intervals, making it difficult to sleep. There were rumours of sharp attacks in various directions. An Austrian and a German were wounded, and a Frenchman killed. A Russian on duty on the wall was slightly wounded. Another Russian died in the hospital yesterday, and also a French marine. Over at the Fu there was a great deal of yelling during the night. Col. Shiba had kerosene tins beaten, and the Italian soldiers shouted, whistled, and cried “ Bravo” to one another, to give the Chinese the impression of un-limited numbers.

It was understood yesterday that a deputy official was to come to-day to open a market, but no one appeared.

426 CHINA IN CONVULSION

A man who sells eggs to the French Legation soldiers has told them that there was a battle at Chang Chia Wan yes-terday, and 3,000 Chinese were killed. There are some appearances of a panic in the city. Jung Lu is said to have taken poison. It was very hot all day, and it was often remarked how trying this must be for the marching troops.

In the afternoon there was a sudden and savage attack

on the Mongol Market defences, to which the Nordenfelt gun replied. The bullets fell thick, and very low. There was a melancholy funeral of two Frenchmen to-day, just on the eve of what we hope is to be the raising of the siege. The ladies of the United States Legation were busy to-day making sand bags for the German Legation defences. The Austrian gun was taken to the stable-yard. A letter was received from the Yamen saying that the Princes and Ministers would come to the British Legation to-morrow to confer with regard to the cessation of hostili-Нез. The French Captain La Bruce was killed early in the evening in his own Legation, while walking to a barri-cade. It might have been well to have replied that this Legation is at present a very unsafe place for “ Princes and Ministers.” Sir Claude planned to receive them in his own house. The Spanish Legation would have seemed a far more suitable place, but at last a mat-shed was put up outside the front gate. The Chinese do not believe in receiving them at all.

lt is reported that a Chinese gun at the Ha Ta gate has been firing blank cartridges, so that the Germans did not think it worth while to reply with rifles. At a loop-hole in the Mongol Market region, two nights ago, a bullet cut clean through the small board over the open-ing, so that the bricks dropped down without having been

элла жансын аа йе

THE RELIEF 427

hit. It is becoming a favourite plan with the Chinese now to keep on firing away at a loophole and its neighbour-hood, until the wall gives way. Sometimes they get the range, strap the gun tight, and keep blazing away at one spot. Our Nordenfelt yesterday knocked down a sec-tion of the Chinese barricade in this manner, but the hole was promptly filled up with sand bags.

Monday, August 13.—The attack which was expected came off, and was practically continuous all night, and very violent. The Chinese soldiers and their rifles seem to be different from those before used, and the bullets (Männlicher) have much more penetrating power. Many barricades were much weakened and must be repaired. It is marvellous that no one in the British Legation was hit during the night. The firing was more consecutive than at any time since the siege began, and strangely in-congruous with proposals for peace, —another of the many glaring absurdities of our situation. The impression given by these repeated and furious onsets is that, the time being short, they must annihilate us immediately. The shooting was much lower than hitherto.

There was a meeting of the Ministers in the forenoon to consider the place of receiving the Yamen Ministers. It is difficult for the Ministers to refuse an interview with the Yamen, because it was on the ground of being use-ful in helping on such negotiations that they declined to go to Tientsin.

At half past ten o’clock, however, came a letter from the Yamen to say that the Ministers have reopened hos-tilities (!), by killing an officer and 26 men in the region of the Board of Works (just west of the British Lega-tion), and as “the Yamen Ministers are busy,” they can not come as agreed! There was no reply as to the pur-chase of food, and not an atom of news from outside.

428 CHINA IN CONVULSION

Both the German and the American Legations were at-tacked last night, the former at very short range. Notice is posted that arrangements have been made to take photo-graphs of the siege positions, etc., with a camera which belongs to a Japanese, and there are fortunately enough photographic chemicals available for the purpose.

Some Chinese cavalry leaving the city yesterday by the Ch’ien Mên were fired at several times from the wall, but this is not the alleged resumption of hostilities, but the fact that men were killed on the west of us. The Chinese officer who was shot is said to be a Captain who had guaranteed to take the Legation within five days, which time was up yesterday. This, however, is not authenti-cated. The American and Russian flags have been put up on the wall to-day, and a staff prepared for the British flag.

About eight o'clock in the evening there was, as ex-pected, a furious attack in the Mongol Market region, which was kept up for a long time and only died down to be again resumed. An hour or so later there was a second, likewise very furious and vindictive.

Tuesday, August 14.—The distinction between to-day and yesterday was entirely obliterated, as no one could sleep, and very few made any pretence of even going to bed. The battery on the wall of the Imperial City began firing Krupp shells during the night, about ten shots in all. One of these fell in a dressing-room off Sir Claude's bed-room, and made a complete wreck of it. Three others struck in the front gate fort, one of them coming through the gate-way and knocking over by its concussion those who were at hand.

Between eleven and twelve o'clock there was an alarm on the bell of a “ general attack,” and every one turned out—the first experience of the kind for nearly six weeks.

THE RELIEF 429

Sir Claude was on hand and, after waiting to see how many appeared, dismissed them after a brief delay as if it were a mere drill.

Three hours later there was a second alarm, which was caused by the fear that the Chinese were about to make a rush into the Mongol Market defences. Volunteers were assigned their positions, and the attack was as savage as those which had preceded, and as unsuccessful. It was alleged by some of the Volunteers that the Chinese officers were heard urging the men to make the long-expected rush, crying “Don't be afraid —we сап get through,” to which after a short interval there was the response, “ It can not be done.”

In preparation for this attack all the big guns had been made ready, the American Colt's Automatic in the main gate, as usual, the Nordenfelt on its high platform back of the house of the Chinese Secretary, the Austrian and the “ International ” in the Mongol Market addition. In firing the latter, owing to its recoil and uncertainty, it was necessary to have a large porthole, and Mitchell, the American gunner, had his arm shattered by a rifle-ball while discharging the piece. When the shell-gun opened fire on us, the Colt's replied, and the gun was eventually silenced, or at least suspended operation.

All through the night at irregular intervals could be heard the deep baying of the Nordenfelt, the irresistible and simultaneous discharges of which must have been very depressing as well as exasperating to those within its range. The attack at the Fu was fierce as elsewhere, but it did not drive the Japanese from their position, for the Chinese did not charge. The same was the case in the Hanlin, and likewise in the French Legation, be-tween I and 2 A. м.

A French priest and the Belgian doctor were slightly

430 CHINA IN CONVULSION

wounded during the night, at the British Legation— among the very few casualties to civilians within that area during the whole siege. The Japanese doctor at the Su Wang Fu had a ball through his leg, a British marine was wounded in the shoulder, and a German who had been wounded previously and had recovered, was killed, also a Russian on the wall. It was understood that yes-terday the Yamen had notified the Ministers that what-ever Chinese officer reopened hostilities should be court-martialed. The proceedings of this fearsome night were a singular commentary upon this imaginary truce.

Between 2 and 3 А. м. there was distinctly heard the sharp rat-tat-tat of a machine gun far to the east, and it was at once concluded that the foreign troops are at hand. The yard, even at that early hour, swarmed with eager groups discussing the probabilities. The question was raised whether the machine-guns which we heard might not be in the hands of the Chinese themselves, and it was remembered that Li Hung Chang had ordered a large number of them many years ago. (It was not then suspected, what was afterwards said to have been a fact, that these particular guns had been captured from the Chinese, and were probably a part of the very equipment referred to.)

Many excellent designs have been sent in for the pro-posed commemorative medal, and to-day they are repre-sented by drawings placed on the bulletin board, and votes are solicited as to the material, the pattern, the in-scription obverse and reverse. A limit of time is also fixed. Unfortunately for the best effect, the all absorb-ing interest in the impending relief deprives the mere pictorial symbol of much of its interest, so that the voting halted, and was soon altogether abandoned.

In spite of the heavy firing none of our barricades were

THE RELIEF 431

overthrown, and the strength of those most threatened in the Mongol Market tract had been almost doubled within twenty-four hours. During the forenoon it was learned that the shell-gun on the Imperial city, which fired so much last night, had been taken away, which indicates activity of some sort. Our Austrian Maxim has been removed to the north stable court to be ready for it, however, should it begin again.

There has been a sound of heavy cannonading to the eastward all the morning. From the wall the Southern City seems to be quiet, but Chinese troops are hurrying in through the Ch’ien Mên, instead of going out, as yester-day. The bulletin-board has a notice that “ the sentries in charge of the south gates have received orders not to allow any civilian to leave the Legation without a special permit from the officer in charge of the defences, since in case of a general attack by retreating Chinese the services of every available volunteer will be required.”

Another order announces that “ women and children and persons not on duty are requested as far as possible to keep within doors to-day, as there.will probably be considerable danger from dropping fire.”

From the city wall an excellent view is to be had of the bombardment of the Ch’i Hua gate, upon which thus far not much impression seems to have been made. There is also a heavy attack at the Tung Pien Gate, and all the time the deep rumbling of the heavy booming guns of “our troops.” “Blessed are the people that hear the joyful sound.” The troops on the wall thought those outside would “ be lucky if they got in to-morrow night.”

Soon after two o’clock, Mr. Moore, who was on the wall, reported to Capt. Hall that he saw foreign troops in the distance; though this was doubted, it soon proved to be the case, and he was sent post-haste to convey the

432 CHINA IN CONVULSION

news to Sir Claude MacDonald. It was at first errone-ously supposed to be the Germans who had been sighted, but they soon showed up as British.

The excitement was now at its height, and the few who had leave to do so, not being on duty, hastened out through the Russian Legation to the street, only to be told that the troops were already making their way into the Tartar city through the water-gate. There was at the time very little water, but the mud rendered the entrance through the narrow passage somewhat disagreeable, yet it was only for a few rods and unworthy of mention as a difficulty in a march.

The regiment which made the first entry, was the Ist Sikhs and then the 7th Bengal Rajput Infantry, and Gen. Gaselee was one of the first officers to be seen. The banks of the canal were lined by Chinese, and the few Europeans present, among whom was Sir Claude, tried to raise a cheer, but their voices were unequal to the task and it was a feeble failure!

On reaching the British Legation there was such a riot of joy as is seldom seen in Asia, and such as was never seen in the Capital of the Chinese Empire. Every-body swarmed out to see the glorious spectacle. The Rajputs cheered as they marched, till they brought up on the tennis-court, beyond which there seemed to be no-where to go. The next regiment was the 24th Punjab Infantry (Frontier Force), who went cheering past the hospital filled with brave but disappointed, yet happy, men who had lived through it after all, and now saw the day of rescue.

It was remembered that the ıst Sikhs regiment is des-cended from the one which helped take Peking forty years ago. The 1st Bengal Lancers came next, having had to

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THE RELIEF 433

wait for the Ch’ien Mên to be forced; then a detachment of the Royal Welsh Fusileers, the 23rd Field Battery, the Hongkong Regiment, and the Royal Marines.

By this time the limited available spaces of the tennis-court and the Legation roads and paths was more than exhausted, and the whole place was one complicated tangle of Sikhs, Rajputs, Lancers and Fusileers, with Chinese and the besieged Occidentals everywhere at once.

In the midst of this wild welter the American 14th In-fantry arrived, to add to the joy and the chaos, and everyone is asking to know where some one else is, and what is going on in that segment of creation outside of the Peking Legations.

The troops were no sooner in the courts than Gen. Gaselee relieved the sentinels on duty with his own men. One of them (a Sikh), was assigned to the front gate fort where the Colt’s Automatic was pouring out its reck-less welcome in a thunder of rat-tats. There he was imme-diately hit by a bullet through a loophole and went promptly to the hospital. The tumultuous cheering of both the besieged and the relievers roused the Chinese from their afternoon nap, and they began the fusillade with renewed vigour, but apparently without any notion of what the altered conditions denoted. For a time the bullets were falling thickly all over the Legation, and the wife of a Belgian engineer was wounded in the leg, — the only case in which a lady received any injury from shot or shell during the whole siege.

In a very short time a large hole was blown into the Carriage Park through the thick wall to which we had owed so much, and in a brief time that expansive en-closure was filled with the jaded horses of the Lancers. The Chinese shots grew less in vigour, fewer in number,

434 CHINA IN CONVULSION

more distant in space, and died away to nothing. The men who had so long manned the barricades facing us “folded their tents like the Arabs, and silently stole away ” (except that so far as they had any tents they left them in situ), and were to be seen and heard no more.

XXIV

CHAPTER 24.

FROM THE TAKU FORTS TO THE RELIEF OF PEKING

of the Allies from the coast to the capital have

been detailed at length by more than one com-petent observer, they will be sketched here only in the briefest manner, —though of the deepest importance and interest.

While the clouds were thickening about the all but doomed city of Peking, a splendid fleet had for weeks been proudly riding at anchor off the mouth of the Peiho. There was good reason for indecision as to their move-ments.

By the middle of June it was obvious to everyone that the political complications were so grave that no peace-ful solution was at all likely. Тһе Mephistophelian cynicism of the Edicts of the Chinese Government, the fact that the regular troops and the Boxers were every-where fraternizing, and the increasing evidence that the Throne was privy to the councils of extermination, made the situation difficult beyond precedent, surpassing the flight of the wildest imagination previous to this experi-ence. Peking was already cut off from the world. There was an unknown body of Chinese troops between the capital and Tientsin, where the McCalla-Seymour Ex-pedition was soon to be fighting for its life against over-whelming odds. Gen. Nieh was somewhere, and there was a great camp of his troops at Lu T’ai, which could

435

N S the military events connected with the progress

430 CHINA IN CONVULSION

be brought to bear upon the line of communication of the fleet with the Settlement of Tientsin. There were signs that those troops were about to move, that the river itself was being mined with torpedoes, and that the Taku Forts were to be strongly reinforced, so that their capture without enormous loss would be out of the question.

On Saturday, June 16th, the Admirals held a Council and under these exigent circumstances determined to send an ultimatum calling for the disbandment of the troops, and announcing that if it was not complied with before 2 A. M., the United Squadron would destroy the forts. Admiral Kempff, representing the United States, dissented from this step, but that fact did not in-fluence his subsequent actions.

The questions in what is termed “ International Law ” thus brought to the front, have served for much debate, and many vigorous editorials ever since. But at the time, and under the circumstances, it is difficult to see what else the Admirals could have done with any self-respect, or with any regard to the interests of their respective Powers. It is quite true that it was this ultimatum which directly led to the corresponding order to the Lega-tions to leave Peking within four and twenty hours, and it is likewise a fact that the effect of the attack upon the Taku Forts by the Allied Forces was to fire the Chinese national feeling, as nothing else had ever before done. In some respects it is comparable in its conse-quences to the effect of the assault upon Fort Sumter upon the people of the North, at the opening of the American Civil War.

Nevertheless, if the Taku Forts had not been taken within a few hours of that time, it is a moral certainty that not only would the Legations in Peking have been even in lar greater peril than they were placed by this

FROM TAKU TO RELIEF OF PEKING 437

act, but that it would have been hard to save the lives of a single man, woman, or child of the large numbers who were at Tientsin, and who as it was were rescued from deadly peril only with the greatest difficulty.

The Chinese Commander of the principal Fort acted with more decision and courage than was expected, and an hour before the time limit had expired opened fire upon the fleet, and hostilities had begun. The Forts were for the third time assailed by foreign guns, which in 1858 had taken them within the compass of twenty minutes, while the succeeding year the Forts had been able to beat back a combined squadron of thirteen British and French gunboats. On the present occasion the fight lasted about six hours, when the last gun was silenced and the north Fort was stormed, the British and the Japanese entering simultaneously, and the other contin-gents a little later, the Chinese soldiers prudently aban-doning the position in hot haste.

A shell from the British “ Algerine ” exploded a maga-zine in the south Fort, which blew up, with a magnificent column of black smoke, 500 feet in height, the wreckage falling for miles around. By 7:30 all the Forts had been taken, with a loss of 21 killed and 57. wounded on the part of the assailants. But for various errors of judg-ment on the part of the Chinese, and their lack of resolute-ness, the results might have been very different.

The situation at Tientsin was now serious, but no in-formation regarding it had reached Taku, the communi-cation having been completely cut off. It was impera-tively necessary to get word to the fleet of the dire dis-tress of the foreign settlement. In this emergency James Watts, a young Englishman of 22 years, volunteered to ride with despatches through forty miles of country swarming with Boxers. He started under cover of dark-

438 CHINA IN CONVULSION

ness on a pony, with three mounted Cossacks, for a journey of twelve hours, knowing only three words of Russian. He had to speed through villages where men were sitting with rifles and fixed bayonets, his flask was shot away, and the lives of all were in momently peril. The horses swam a creek near a hostile village and reached Taku, where the despatches were delivered to the Russian Admiral. This brave act saved the lives of the besieged at Tientsin, and was subsequently rewarded with a decoration.

From Tangku to Tientsin the railway was largely torn up by Boxers, and the last part of the distance was made with extreme difficulty by the relieving forces. They were welcomed by the besieged with great joy, a full week after the Forts had been taken.

In case relief did not come, the military authorities had seriously debated the question of the necessity of abandoning Tientsin altogether, and retreating upon Taku.

The relieving body had no sooner reached Tientsin than a party was sent out to rescue in turn the force of Admiral Seymour which though but a few miles from Tientsin was unable to move on account of the large number of the wounded and the strength of the enemy. To the fortunes and misfortunes of that famous expedi-tion it will be desirable to devote a little attention.

Early in June Admiral Seymour had proposed that the senior naval officers should consult in regard to mutual protection, and the first meeting of this kind was held June 4th, the officers of eight nations being present. Two days later at another consultation it was agreed that if communication with Peking should be cut off, it should be reopened with whatever force was necessary.

On the oth another conference was held owing to the

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FROM TAKU TO RELIEF OF PEKING 439

receipt of an urgent telegram from Peking, the Ministers saying that unless they were soon relieved it would be too late. Capt. McCalla was resolved to go to the relief of the United States Minister, and Admiral Seymour in like manner declared his intention to start at once, and ex-pressed a hope that the rest would coöperate.

The force which left on the morning of the roth was composed of зоо British, 112 Americans, до Italians, and 25 Austrians. The train proceeded to Yang Ts’un where it had to stop for repairs. There it remained for the night, and there two more trains joined the expedition, making a total number of 112 Americans, 25 Aus-trians, 915 British, 100 French, 450 Germans, 40 Italians, 54 Japanese, and 112 Russians. This was increased the next day by the addition of 200 Russians and 58 French, to a total of 2,066 men.

On the 12th a guard having been left at Lo Fa, it was found that the line was much cut up in front. А party was sent out to An Ting to prevent more damage and to hold the station there. The party was attacked three times by Boxers, who retreated with the loss of fifteen men.

About the middle of the forenoon there was another onset by 450 Boxers, who advanced with great courage and enthusiasm, but who were repulsed with a total loss of about 150. As the party at An Ting was out of ammunition a retreat was ordered.

On the 13th Maj. Johnstone was sent towards An Ting, but was attacked in a village adjoining the railway. The Boxers lost about 25 men killed, while there were no foreign casualties. The party returned to the main body on the evening of the 14th. On that day there was a fierce and determined assault by Boxers in great numbers on the train at Lang Fang. They advanced in a loose

440 CHINA IN CONVULSION

formation, with the utmost courage under a withering fire, and some even reached the train before they were killed. Their loss was about тоо. Five Italians who were on an exposed picket in an abandoned village were killed.

At 5:30 P. м. a messenger from Lo Fa in the rear reported that the guard was being attacked by a large body of the enemy. A train was taken down the line to assist them, when it was found that the fight was over, and that the Boxers were retreating having left about 100 killed. Two small cannon had been captured from the Chinese. Two seamen were dangerously wounded, one of whom died later.

On the 15th the line was repaired under a strong guard, but the road below Lo Fa to the rear was reported broken up, and the Boxers were concentrating on Yang Ts'un to cut off the retreat of the expedition.

On the 16th a train endeavoured to get through to Tientsin, starting at 4 A. M., but returned at 3 P. M., because the line was too much damaged. Both provisions and ammunition were now running short; the expedition was entirely cut off from its base and since for three days there had been no intelligence from Tientsin, it was ignorant of what was occurring elsewhere. It was vital that the rear should be protected; but when on the 17th a train reached Yang Ts'un it found the station de-molished, communication more than ever cut off, and no supplies obtainable. Messages had been sent back to Tientsin with orders for junks and provisions to be sent to Yang Ts'un, but no couriers had got through, and even if they had done so no boats could have been sent. From the 13th of June to the 26th there was no com-munication from the Admiral to Tientsin or vice versa.

FROM TAKU ТО RELIEF OF PEKING 441

As an advance was now felt to be an impossibility the recall of the trains in the front was determined on.

The following day— June 18th—a new aspect was put on affairs by a strong attack at Lang Fang, not as here-tofore by Boxers, but by the regular troops of Tung Fu Hsiang, who had been stationed in the Hunting Park south of Peking, and who now began to “ bear a hand” in a decided manner. The force including cavalry was estimated at not less than 5,000 men, armed with the latest magazine rifles. This gave the first definite knowl-edge that Imperial troops were arrayed against the ex-pedition. They were driven off, but rallied, and when repulsed were supposed to have lost доо killed. The loss of the Allies was six killed, and 48 wounded.

At a conference the next day (19th) it was decided to abandon the railway trains, and to withdraw to Tien-tsin, marching by the left bank of the river, conveying the wounded and the necessaries in boats, four of which had been taken by the Germans below Yang Tsun. A start was made at 3 Р. м. A six-pounder gun had to be thrown overboard before one of the junks would float. The men were unskilled in handling the clumsy boats, and no Chinese were to be had. The enemy opened fire but were driven back. Several villages had to be carried by rifle fire or by bayonet charges, which were invariably successful. A one-pound gun used by the enemy was harassing, but its position could not be located. The distance made this day was eight miles. The Chinese cavalry hovered about all day firing occasionally, the enemy using artillery which was replied to in kind. Sev-eral villages had to be taken by fighting, the enemy being strongly posted in Pei Ts’ang. It was decided after a rest to make a night-march.

442 CHINA IN CONVULSION

On the 21st the enemy made an increasingly stubborn resistance, and their gun-power was augmented so that but six miles were made. The lighter containing the guns filled and sank, and had to be abandoned, only the Maxims being saved.

At 4 P. м. the expedition arrived opposite the Imperial Chinese Armory at Hsiku. A party of 100 men under Maj. Johnstone was sent across the river to rush the position, and at the same time a German detachment crossed lower down, capturing several Krupp guns. The two parties soon cleared the Armory, the main body crossing the river and occupying the place, which was commodious and defensible by the numerous captured guns. The provisions remaining were sufficient only for three days at half allowance, but the next day when there was an opportunity to make a search, 15 tons oÍ rice were found. This set at rest all fears of starvation.

Renewed efforts were made to communicate with Tientsin, but in vain. The Chinese made a most de-termined attempt on the 23rd to retake the Armory, but were wholly unsuccessful. Immense supplies of guns, ammunition, and war material of the latest pattern were found there; thus the great want of food and ammuni-tion being suddenly met it was possible to hold out for several days. The number of wounded was about 230 and on this account it was impossible to force a way to Tientsin, now but a few miles distant. The couriers had all been either killed or stopped. Guns were mounted and a Boxer stronghold down the river was attacked with such good effect that thereafter the enemy was more quiet.

A courier succeeded on the 23rd in getting through to Tientsin. Although captured and tied for a time to a tree, he had destroyed his message and was released.

FROM TAKU ТО RELIEF OF PEKING 443

A Chinese soldier taken prisoner the next day said that Gen. Nieh’s army was much discouraged at their failure, having attacked with 25 battalions of 300 or 400 men each. On the 25th the relief column under the Russian Col. Shirinsky appeared in sight, to the joy of all. The wounded were transported across the river, and the whole force followed later, bivouacking on the bank for the night. On the 26th, after the return march had com-menced, Lt. Lowther-Crofton, and Mr. Davidge, Gun-ner, remained behind to destroy as far as possible the contents of the Armory, which were of the estimated value of three million pounds sterling. After the work of destruction had been accomplished the officers re-crossed the river, mounted ponies which were in waiting, and overtook the main body.

During the whole sixteen days it was difficult to esti-mate with precision the numbers of the enemy. At first they were simply Boxers armed with spears, but later the Chinese regulars, and perhaps the best fighting men to be found in the Empire, joined them. It was unfore-seen that these soldiers would join in the attack, and this alone made the whole enterprise impracticable.

The gallantry and steadiness with which it was con-ducted by this mixed contingent are worthy of all praise. Admiral Seymour in his official report especially com-mends the conduct and services of Capt. Von Usedom of the Imperial German Navy, whom he had nominated as his successor in case of accident, and also Capt. Mc-Calla, each of whom were wounded.

The dramatic incidents of this attempted relief expedi-tion attracted universal attention, and whatever else the enterprise may have accomplished it disposed once for all of the favourite proposition so often advanced that it would be possible for a small but well organized and

444 CHINA IN CONVULSION

thoroughly equipped foreign force to march through China from end to end without effective opposition.

An important result of this failure to force a way to Peking was the profound conviction on the part of many military authorities that the Capital could not now be reached without an enormous army prepared for all con-tingencies, and able to hold open communications with their base against any possible force which the Chinese could bring. Extreme confidence in foreign ability to deal with Chinese opposition, thus gave way to a much juster estimate of the difficulties to be faced when the Chinese were thoroughly aroused and poured forth in practically illimitable numbers.

The story of the Siege of Tientsin deserves far more space than can be devoted to it in these pages, for taken altogether it is perhaps not less remarkable than the Siege in Peking.

It should be remembered that the Foreign Settlements, French, British, and German, lie along the Peiho, be-ginning a mile or so below the native city and extending for another two miles or more, with an average breadth of perhaps half a mile. An earth rampart fully ten miles in length surrounds the settlements, the native city, and the suburbs. The vicinity of the city itself and that of all the settlements, was crowded with Chinese villages, each of which became a natural and a convenient nest for Boxers and for Imperial Soldiers in their attack.

The rampart which, could it have been held, would have made an excellent defence, was partly within and partly without the lines, and the handful of foreign soldiers, aggregating about 2,400 when reénforced by the Volunteers, was totally inadequate to guard so long a line, attacked by perhaps five thousand Chinese troops, with an indefinite number of coöperating Boxers.

FROM ТАКИ ТО RELIEF OF PEKING 445

Instead of making a strenuous attack in two places at once, the Chinese contented themselves with a galling rifle fire from across the river, and indeed from every direction. The bombardment by shells began on Sunday, June 17th—the day of the fighting at the Taku Forts— by a plan evidently preconcerted, and continued with occasional intermittence until the city was captured a month later.

The miscellaneous foreign community retreated to the Municipal Hall, a lofty structure in the Norman style, well adapted to serve both as a fort and a hospital.

The larger part of the non-combatants gathered there under siege conditions, but a considerable number of the missionaries were invited by Mr. Edmund Cousins, the hospitable agent of Jardine, Matheson & Co., to his com-pound, where also the native Christians to the number of over 500 found accommodation in the expansive go-downs. As in Peking, so here at the beginning of the siege, the Christians were regarded as a menace and a nuisance, and as in Peking so in Tientsin, it was not long before it was perceived that without their help the necessary labour simply could not have been performed as practically all other Chinese quit their work and fled.

The whole settlement was barricaded with bales of goods from the godowns, a task which, owing to the long distances and the number of cross-streets, involved a great amount of exhausting labour. The men among the Christians carried water, ammunition, and provisions, and dug the numerous graves, the women did the hospital washing, picked over the camel’s-wool for pillows, and performed much other useful service, winning in the end unstinted praise.

The arrival of the relief force at Tientsin did not prove the immediate deliverance of the Foreign Settle-

4406 CHINA IN CONVULSION

ments from perpetual attack, as had been expected. The enemy was numerous and gradually became aggressive. After a fierce and bloody contest, the Eastern Arsenal was taken on June 27th, a slightly inaccurate report of which by Yü Lu, the Governor, found its way into the “ Peking Gazette,” and enlightened the darkness of the besieged in the Legations. The military relations were, it is true, sufficiently harmonious, but that did not lead to the vigorous action which any one or two of the de-tachments would have been likely to take by themselves.

A Fort situated at the junction of the Peiho and the Grand Canal was the key of the position, for it com-manded the native city, the suburbs, the settlements, and the line of advance to Peking by rail or river. The dif-ficulties of the Allies were enormously increased by the inexplicable lack of suitable artillery, theirs being far in-ferior to that of the Chinese. Many of the Chinese guns were difficult to locate, and practically inaccessible, but their range was excellent, and their attacks most annoy-ing. Оп а single day six shells were thrown into the Temperance Hall, occupied as the head-quarters of Gen. Dorward and his staff. One shell went through the dinner-table while the officers were at tiffin, followed im-mediately by another equally well aimed.

It was unsafe to appear anywhere upon the streets on account of random shots, the steady rifle fire, and the con-stant shooting from loopholes in Chinese houses in the French settlement and elsewhere, at every foreigner who showed himself. The settlements were full of spies, many of them posted in foreign houses deserted by their owners, whence they kept up a perpetual fusillade. Some of them even acted as signalmen for the Chinese gunners at a distance, indicating at what places to direct their fire, and it proved practically impossible to detect and dislodge

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them all, but as many as were caught were immediately executed.

The center of the fighting and the key of the position on the east side of the river was the railway station, the holding of which was recognized both by the Chinese and the Allies as vital. The courage and persistence of the Russians at this point more than once saved the day. They guarded the pontoon bridge, and bore the brunt of the heavy fighting in the exposed positions between the river and the captured Arsenal. On one occasion en-gines were urgently needed down the line. There were locomotives at the station, but the problem was how to get them out under the heavy shell fire. Russian in-fantry made a wide feint attack to attract the enemy’s attention on the left, while two engines on which steam had been got up, and three trucks were to make a dash over a mile of exposed embankment.

Hardly had the first puff of white smoke appeared from the funnel, when the Chinese saw what was going on and at once turned their guns upon the train. Four shells whizzed over it and then two fell just short; speed was gathered and the gunners did not again get so near, but the gauntlet had to be run for a mile or so, and it was made warm for them all the way. It was a daring deed dashingly done, and the most exciting inci-dent of the day.

On the sth of July transportation was provided and the ladies and children who were still left in Tientsin were sent to Tangku, on the way to some safer place than a settlement which was daily being shelled. A previous party had escaped just in time to witness the attack on the forts, and to be within range of the fire,—to their imminent peril, from which they all happily escaped.

For a summary of the following events, as for some

448 CHINA IN CONVULSION

which have been previously mentioned, we are indebted to the gráphic and trustworthy narrative of the Corre-spondent of the “ London Times,” who called attention to the surprising and unique fact that 10,000 European troops were being held in check by about 15,000 Chinese braves, the former paralyzed by the lack of long-range guns; thus repeating the lesson which England had paid so dearly to learn in South Africa—the importance of heavy artillery.

The inactivity of the Allied forces encouraged the Chinese to renewed efforts. Not content with vigorously shelling the settlements, they were busily engaged in pushing out their lines in a south-westerly direction, until eventually their flank rested on the ruined building at the race-course, their left remaining as before on the mud wall where the Lu T'ai canal flows through it. Their lines thus stretched from north-east to south-west over a distance of about six miles, in a rough crescent or semi-circular shape, having the settlements for a centre. A British battery of naval guns on the mud wall at the extreme west of the northern line of defence was in a precarious position, being under a harassing fire from front and rear, besides being enfiladed. The settlements, now become one huge camp, were subjected to a severe cross-fire, in addition to being bombarded from the fort near the city and from the batteries on the north bank of the Lu T’ai canal. The practice made by the Chinese gunners showed signs of considerable improvement, so that an increasing amount of damage was done and the casualties in barracks grew frequent. Inactivity was no longer possible; something had to be done.

The most pressing need was for the clearance of the rear and flank of the battery of British guns on the mud wall, and this was accomplished on the oth by a com-

FROM TAKU ТО RELIEF OF PEKING 449

bined wide flanking movement to the south-west, working around eventually to the north-east until the West Arsenal was captured and cleared. This was accomplished by the Japanese blue-jackets and the American marines, who entered together, the Japanese flag flying over it soon after. The whole movement was well planned and well executed by the British, Japanese and Americans in com-bination, the naval battery was relieved in flank and rear, and the settlements were subjected to no further cross shell-fire.

The next day passed quietly, the Chinese even refrain-ing from attacking the outposts at the railway station, which had not before happened since the siege opened. They began again on the 11th, and were only repulsed after three hours’ sharp fighting, in which the French and Japanese lost heavily, and the British and Russians slightly. The Boxers had bayonets, and as they got into a string of railway trucks lying outside of the foreign lines, the soldiers had to turn them out at the point of the bayonet. The difficulties in getting the Allied artil-lery into position were great, owing to the lack of ma-terial, tools and machinery. These were at length over-come, and on the 13th it was arranged that a combined movement of the Russians, assisted by the Germans, should be made on the batteries of the Chinese at the Lu T’ai canal, with a force of perhaps 3,500. Another body of about 4,500, consisting of Japanese, British, Ameri-cans, French and Austrians, was to advance under cover of the western battery of British naval guns and attempt the capture of the city of Tientsin.

The forces of the Japanese and British, under General Fukushima and General Dorward, started at 3 A. М., making a wide flanking movement similar to the one on the oth.

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At daylight the British batteries attacked the Chinese position. The Allied troops converged on the West Arsenal about a mile from the south gate.

During the morning there was a terrific explosion caused by the blowing up of a vast quantity of brown prismatic powder stored in a magazine connected with the East Arsenal and situated near the Lu T'ai canal. A colossal cloud of smoke stood up white and still against the clear blue sky—a “wonderful and beautiful sight.” In the settlements nearly every one got the impression that his house had been struck by a shell, and many, running out to see what damage had been done, found this marvel in the sky.

The plan was to advance against the south gate, which the Japanese were to blow up and so effect an entrance; on their right were the French, and later, through an error, the Americans under Col. Liscum; on the left were the British.

The day was hot, and so was the fire from the British battery as well as from the Chinese guns and the innu-merable rifles on the wall. The plain is dotted with tumuli each representing a Chinese grave, but they af-forded very little shelter for so many soldiers at so short a distance from the enemy. Col. Liscum fell pierced by a bullet, and the loss of the Americans, as well as of the other detachments, was very great, perhaps amounting to ten per cent. of the forces engaged, and including a great number of officers. If the Chinese infantry and cavalry which during the whole morning had been seen drawn up on the plain to the westward had taken an active part in the operations, matters would have been still more serious. As it was, the failure of ammunition and the difficulty of making effective headway made the situation bad enough.

FROM TAKU TO RELIEF OF РЕКІМС 451

Hour after hour passed, but the blowing up of the south gate did not take place. At length Gen. Fukishima sent word to Gen. Dorward that he should himself oc-cupy his present position throughout the night, to which Gen. Dorward agreed. Meantime no report had come from the Russians whose operations on the north were a principal part of the work of the day. It later appeared that they had been very successful. After heavy fighting they had captured the batteries on the north bank of the Lu T’ai canal, and pushing on to destroy two Chinese camps, left a force to attack in the dawn, the main body returning to camp with the loss of about 150 men. ` At three o’clock on the morning of the 14th, the Japa-nese crossed the city moat, blew up the entrance to the bas-tion of the south gate, scaled the walls, and opening the gate itself from the inside, admitted the rest of the force. The Japanese, French, British and Americans poured into the city, the Chinese dispersing like clouds before a strong wind. The Chinese position, had it been properly defended, was one of irresistible strength, but Chinese troops are incapable of resisting a resolute attack of Western or Japanese soldiers and had virtually aban-doned their defence before there was any external evi-dence of that fact.

The city was no sooner captured than a Tientsin Pro-visional Government was organized by the Military Com-manders, and installed in the yamen of the Governor General, who had fled, and who seems to have killed himself and his whole family at Yang Ts’un.

From the öccupation of the city onward for a period of nearly three weeks, the whole world, especially the tiny segment of it imprisoned in the Peking Legations, was anxiously waiting to know what was next to be done toward their relief. The correspondence in regard to

452 CHINA IN CONVULSION

the matter would fill volumes, and there is more between the lines than in them.

Considering the proximity of Japan and the complete-ness of her military preparations, it appeared to many that, in the dire emergency, that Power would surely be intrusted with the task of rescuing the besieged of all nations, lest by undue delay they should all be massacred together. Japan was ready to do the work, provided she were asked to do so by all the other Powers. The “ other Powers ” had their own ideas, some of which were ex-pressed and some of which were repressed. In case Japan were to execute this commission, what was to pre-vent her from retaining the territory which would be once more hers by right of conquest? Every one had vivid memories of the events following the war between China and Japan, when the latter Empire was defrauded of the fruits of her victory by “diplomacy,” in other words by superior force.

The result was what every one, even the besieged themselves, anticipated, and diplomatically next to noth-ing was done beyond exchanging notes and ascertaining by slow processes of conference, proposition and explana-tion, iterated and reiterated, what the Powers respectively were not prepared to do. Troops meantime were pour-ing into northern China from the uttermost parts of the earth, with more and ever more to follow.

There was not wanting evidence that delay might be fatal to the success of the relief of the Legations, but the inevitable difficulties attendant upon the movement of large bodies of troops in a foreign land under unpropi-tious conditions, especially when as now flying several different flags, made it unlikely that anything would be done before September. The effect of the repulse of Admiral Seymour, as already remarked, was to inspire

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extreme distrust of any but the most thorough prepara-tion, especially as it was thought that the Chinese might be able to mass perhaps fifty thousand troops to oppose the Allied advance. The Americans and the British were alike impatient for a forward movement, but noth-ing seemed decided upon.

It became known at a later day that the influence of Jung Lu had been exerted in Peking to minimize the unavoidable attacks upon the Legations, and that, while he could not repress he could in some degree neutralize the vicious energy of Tung Fu Hsiang; and in this he was to a considerable degree successful. Jung Lu was in communication with trusted Chinese at Taku and at the Pei T’ang Forts, who perfectly comprehended the situation. It was learned from messengers who left Pe-king at the time when the capture of Tientsin was first known there, that the party of Prince Tuan and Tung Fu Hsiang was practically irresistible, and that it would not do to wait till September to start the army of relief. This information was communicated to Mr. Detring, one of the commissioners of the Imperial Customs, and by him to the Allied Commanders.

On the зга of August a five hours’ conference of the Allied Generals was held, at which it was decided to start the next day, despite the fact that it was in the midst of the rainy season when the difficulties of trans-port are likely to be almost insuperable. Аз it was they were truly colossal, and were greatly augmented by the heterogeneous nature of the Allied forces, and the end-less variety of their equipment. The latter was at all points insufficient, even that of the Japanese, who had to provide for a division instead, as originally planned, for a brigade. The road was blocked with carts of all sizes and kinds, from the light little wagon used by the

454 CHINA IN CONVULSION

Japanese to the heavy army wagons of the Americans, drawn by four enormous mules and capable under any ordinary circumstances of hauling immense loads. The total number of troops was in the vicinity ОЁ 20,000, of whom the Japanese had about 10,000, the Russians 4,000, the British 3,000, the Americans 2,000, and the other Powers each but a few hundred. All the larger con-tingents were provided with artillery, the Japanese alone having perhaps as many guns as all the others combined.

On the afternoon of the 4th the British and American troops moved out toward Hsiku, where Admiral Sey-mour’s expedition had taken the Armory. The route lay through the endless series of villages which line the Peiho on either side. Heavy rain had threatened, and on the way it began to fall, making the roads slippery and furnishing a foretaste of what might be expected if the fall should be heavy and continuous.

Before the village was reached the rain had stopped. Gen. Gaselee took up his headquarters with the British troops to the left of the place, and the Americans to the right. Orders were issued for an early start on the fol-lowing day, and the force lay down on the wet ground to snatch what sleep they might before the impending fight. The British troops consisted of four companies of the Welsh Fusiliers; the ıst Bengal Lancers; the 12th Field Battery and the Hongkong Artillery, with two naval 12-pounders and four Maxims; the 15% Sikhs, 250 of the 24th Punjab Infantry, and 400 of the Rajputs. The Naval Brigade was to coöperate with the Rus-sians and French, preparing the way for an attack on the enemy’s left.

The American force under Gen. Chaffee consisted of 450 marines, the 14th Regiment, 1,000 strong; the oth Infantry, 800 strong; two Hotchkiss guns, and the Fifth

FROM TAKU TO RELIEF OF PEKING 455

Field Battery under Capt. ВеШу. The Japanese division was under Gen. Yamaguchi, Gen. Fukushima being Chief of Staff, with three field batteries, and six mountain batteries. The Russians had two infantry regiments with a nominal strength of 2,000, two field batteries (eight guns each) and some squadrons of Cossacks. The French, only a few hundred in number, were infantry from Tongking, with two mountain batteries firing melinite.

The enemy were intrenched in a position running roughly north-east and south-west across the river and the railway, their right resting on an embankment, their left five miles away on the other side of the river, near the fifth railway bridge, beyond which the country was inundated. The main strength of their position was in the centre where it crossed the river. Here was a skil-fully concealed series of rifle pits and trenches from which it would have been exceedingly difficult to dislodge a courageous enemy. On the left bank of the river their position was protected along its whole length by a canal.

The combined forces of the Japanese, British, and Americans were to operate against the enemy’s position on the right bank of the river, the Japanese leading the attack, the British supporting, and the Americans in re-serve, while the Russians and French, assisted by the guns of the Naval Brigade, were to operate on the left bank.

About 3 A. M., the Japanese moved forward and cap-tured a battery which would have enfiladed a front at-tack on the епету’з centre. There was an artillery duel for a time, when the Japanese under a galling fire made a charge for which the Chinese did not wait, although they inflicted severe losses on the Japanese before taking flight. The whole army advanced, the Americans on the

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left, the British in the center, and the Japanese on the right. Here and there the Chinese made some slight resistance at long range, and it was expected that they would make a stand near Pei Ts’ang where they were supposed to hold strong positions, but while they had the positions they had not the disposition to stick to them. The fight was practically over when the first trenches were rushed. Before 9 А. М., the Japanese occupied Nan Ts’ang, after which all firing ceased.

The Japanese had borne the brunt of the fight, and their losses were all out of proportion to those of the other forces engaged, being estimated at about 60 killed and 240 wounded. The British lost four killed and 21 wounded, while the Americans lost none. The Russians on the left bank had six wounded. The Chinese loss in men was not large, owing to their being protected by a mud wall, but they lost “face ” and lost heart, a far more important matter than the actual number killed.

The whole army spent the night at Pei Ts’ang. On the morning of the 6th there was another encounter with the enemy at the ruins of the railway station of Yang Ts’un which lasted for about four hours, the Chinese being driven back on the town of Yang Ts’un, the Rus-sians shelling them, and the Bengal Lancers clearing them out of the villages. The effect of the previous day’s action was throughout apparent, the enemy fight-ing in a very half-hearted manner. The heaviest losses were sustained by the Americans, 65 killed and wounded in the 14th Regiment, and nine in the gth. The British losses were under 50, the Russians had seven killed and 20 wounded.

The troops were exhausted after their two days of marching and fighting in excessive heat, and it was de-

FROM TAKU ТО RELIEF OF PEKING 457

cided to remain at Yang Ts’un during the whole of the following day, to rest the force and to wait for supplies. .

The advance was resumed on the 8th, the whole force to march thereafter on the right bank; the Japanese in front, the Russians next, the Americans following, the British bringing up the rear, while the French were to remain at Yang Ts'un. The Japanese were quick marchers and the Russians slow, slouching along with frequent halts at a pace hardly exceeding a mile an hour, which greatly embarrassed the Americans in their rear, who were often compelled to halt on the sandy plains in the hot sun, while the Russians were resting in the umbrageous vil-lages in front. This fact was of importance as accounting for the large number of casualties which they suffered from the heat, the Americans and the British being obliged to do the heaviest marching in the hottest hours oí the day.

The superior organization and equipment of the Japan-ese were everywhere conspicuous, and their position in the front of the column gave the enemy no time to rally, so that their retreat was in reality a long and rapid flight before the agile men from the Land of the Rising Sun, who gave them no respite and no pause. Gen. Fu-kushima, the moving spirit of the pursuit, was asked if his troops were not very tired, and replied: “Yes, but so are the enemy.”

His plan was to keep them on the run at all costs, and it was carried through perfectly and with great suc-cess. His cavalry and mounted infantry were usually pushed ahead about three miles in advance of the main body of infantry. Whenever they got into touch with the enemy they dropped back upon the infantry, which was then extended and sent forward to go thoroughly

458 CHINA IN CONVULSION

through all the villages to the right and left of the line of march. While the infantry rested after this, the cav-alry pushed on again, and the process, to the consterna-tion of the pursued, was repeated.

On the morning of the gth the Japanese shelled the Chinese out of Ho Hsi Wu, who after some skirmishing fled, leaving the place to the Japanese. The same day the Bengal Lancers and the Japanese Mounted Infantry came on a body of 200 Chinese cavalry, scattering them, killing about fifty, and capturing four banners of Gen. Sung and Gen. Ma.

On the 10th the main body was at Ma Tou, and though the march was not a long one the road was lined with stragglers. The place where the Chinese had break-fasted in the morning was strewed with melon rinds. They had no commissariat and lived on what they could pick up, such as melons and Indian corn.

The next day the weather was a little cooler, and to the great relief of the troops, rain fell. The army brought up at Chang Chia Wan, and the Japanese shelled the enemy out of a position south of T’ung Chou, from which they retired into that city.

Early on the morning of the 12th (Sunday) the Japanese advanced to assault the east south gate, and found the city evacuated by the Chinese troops and no resistance offered to an entrance, though the city wall is strong and high and could easily have been defended. By way of saluting their own general the Japanese blew in the outer gate of the enceinte, and the city was quietly occupied. Gen. Yamaguchi issued a proclamation assur-ing safety and protection to non-combatants, and promis-ing to respect the rights of the people in their homes. The Japanese took the southern half of the city, and the French, who had now reappeared, the northern part.

FROM TAKU TO RELIEF OF PEKING 459

The Allies spent the night of the 12th at T'ung Chou, and on the next day began the last march to Peking, now only twelve miles distant. The Japanese advanced along the stone road leading to the Ch’i Hua gate, the Rus-sians south of them, but to the north of the canal, on the road to the Tung Pien gate of the southern city. South of the canal, on the road to the same gate, marched the Americans, and still farther south, the British.

It had been arranged that at a distance of three miles from Peking, the four columns were to halt, and that another conference should be held to decide on a plan of attack. But the Russians, instead of halting, marched close up to the city walls, and meeting no opposition thought it possible to effect an entrance. But they had not reached the gate before a hot rifle fire from the corner of the northern city wall met them, and their loss was heavy, including the Chief of Staff, Gen. Vasilewski. They became tangled up inside the Tung Pien gate, which had been forced open, and for many hours made no progress.

The Japanese advanced to the vicinity of Ch' Hua gate early on the morning of the 14th, working under cover of houses toward the vicinity of the gate, which they hoped to blow up. But the rifle fire from the wall was so sharp that the Japanese suffered severely, and it was decided to bombard the wall. The bombardment began about 10 A. M., and continued for some hours without much visible impression being made. Only the heaviest artillery would have breached the wall of the gate, and the number of sharp-shooters made impracticable any ap-proach to blow it up. More than a thousand shells were wasted, as well as the whole day, and nothing had been gained. It was decided to wait until night to blow up the gate. It was then successfully accomplished, the lofty

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tower being set on fire, and the Chinese troops driven from the wall with great slaughter. All honour to the brave troops of every nation, and most of all to the sturdy Japanese!

The American troops had come early in the fore-noon to the corner of the southern city wall, near the Tung Pien gate, where some of the men scaled the wall. The main body came in at the Tung Pien gate, as the Russians had done before them, and found themselves within the southern city exposed to a heavy fire from its northern wall. Their detachment entered the southern city at about the same time as the British, but they missed their way, and it was many hours before they reached the water-gate, entering the British Legation some time after the British, a part of each of these forces forcing open the Ch’ien Men, or main gate of the wall between the cities.

The British were fortunate in finding the Sha Kuo gate, on the east face of the southern city, almost en-tirely undefended, though a party of Chinese cavalry had first to be shelled out of a village in front of it. A small guard was left to hold the gate, the 24th Punjab In-fantry was sent to occupy the Temple of Heaven, and the remainder of the force advanced along the main east and west street of the city, more than half the way to its centre, when they turned north in the direction of the water-gate, in accordance with the advice previously quoted in a letter from Sir Claude MacDonald to the Commander of the Allied Forces. When the British advance emerged from the houses to the south of the canal, at some distance from the water-gate, there were still Chinese riflemen posted at the Ha Ta gate to the east, who opened an ill-directed and ineffectual fire. The

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FROM TAKU TO RELIEF OF PEKING 461

first officer to enter through the gate was Major Scott, of the ıst Sikhs, accompanied by four of his men, with Capt. Pell, and Lieut. Keyes, Aides to Gen. Gaselee, who with his staff was close behind.

From the water-gate by way of the Russian Legation (the only safe route) to the British Legation, was but a few minutes’ walk, where the deliverers were welcomed with an outburst of joy, which to those who experienced it can never be other than a vivid recollection while life itself lasts.

The Siege in Peking was raised! Once more the Occidental had met the Oriental in a face to face death struggle, and by means of intrepid resourceful-ness, indomitable perseverance in the face of obstacles, supreme courage confronting deadly dangers, and the Superintending Providence of God, had been victorious. It was the dawning Twentieth Century victorious against the Middle Ages, a potentially glorious Future vanquish-ing an inert and lifeless Past. In it was the seed of a New China, and Hope for the Far East.

XXV

CHAPTER 25. The Fortifications

was over, although much still remained to be

done to render the relief effective. Before add-ing anything on that head it may be well at this point to mention in somewhat fuller detail, a topic to which no justice has yet been done, but which can not be omitted altogether—siege house-keeping.

Under the abnormal conditions of the siege, the exi-gencies of domestic life (if such a thing could be said to exist) deserve to be depicted by a woman's pen. Every building on the grounds was crowded, sometimes almost to the point of suffocation. The mess of Lady MacDonald was generally about thirty-five in number, and the whole establishment was literally turned inside out for the benefit of the besieged; Sir Claude's office and library became a hospital, the smoking-room was occu-pied by gentlemen by night, and the ball-room by ladies, while for weary officers there was, during the day, an overflow into the sleeping apartments of the ladies of the house. It would have been difficult to suggest anything for the comfort of the sick, or for the welfare of the besieged, which was not promoted by the administrators of this hospitable establishment.

The quarters of the legation doctor, ordinarily occu-pied in the summer by one European, or at most two, suddenly became the abode of eight and twenty men,

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Т speaking, the Siege in Peking

THE FORTIFICATIONS 463

women and children, distributed into four different messes. Their servants’ quarters absolutely swarmed with Chinese, and the minute back yard was always over-flowing with eager candidates for participation in the next kettle of rice, always just about ready for distribu-tion.

The Customs mess (in the Escort quarters) was of variable size, the number ranging between thirty and forty, and as the dining-room was small it was neces-sary to serve the meals to five different detachments, when all were on hand. But a large part—perhaps опе-half—were members of the Customs volunteers, assigned to duty in various parts of the defences, oftenest in the Su Wang Fu, for a period of twenty-four hours at a time. Food had then to be sent over to them three times a day. This greatly augmented the care of so large a family, yet two capable English ladies ably and success-fully managed it all. |

The number of American missionaries who came in from the Methodist compound was about seventy. They were assigned to the occupancy of the church, a rectan-gular structure situated near the median line of the com-pound, measuring forty-three feet in length by twenty-five in width. On each side of the entry was a small closet, and one of these was provided with a winding stair-case to the loft. The rear of the audience room was occupied by a platform, surrounded by an altar-rail and furnished with a lectern. Passages on each side led to the small robing-room in the rear. Most of the available space in the main room was absorbed by more than a dozen large wooden seats, each with a book support in front.

Trunks of all sizes were piled at the entrance, and out-side under the projecting eaves. The mattresses were

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spread for the night wherever there was room, the dispo-sition for sleeping much resembling the ground plan of a box of sardines. Some of the gentlemen found tempo-rary and precarious lodgment on the edges of one of the pavilions, and later, as already mentioned, in the smoking-room of the Minister’s house. The two closets on each side of the entrance were soon cleared out and turned into wash-rooms, every superfluous article being relegated to the loft.

At a later stage this attic was itself transformed from a lumber room into a dormitory. A high platform in the middle (representing the arch in the ceiling of the church) and the surrounding spaces in front, in the rear, and on either side, were found choked with the accumulation of the entire Legation for decades. Among the mass may be mentioned the balls and pins of the bowling-alley, huge packing-cases, iron bed-steads with-out their ropes, scores of windows used for winter fittings to the dwelling-houses, punkah fans, shelves, trunks, boxes, relics of the Queen’s Jubilee in the shape of trans-parencies, lanterns by the hundred, theatre scenery, rush-mats, reed-screens, cubic yards of copies of the some-what useless treaty between Great Britain and China, and piles of legation archives and accounts, running back to the ancient days of the East India Company, — all profusely decorated with hoary cob-webs accumulated under successive ministries.

Under the energetic superintendence of a few gentle-men and ladies, much of this material was removed else-where, leaving space for narrow bed-rooms in which nearly twenty persons found much better accommodation than had been before available. The loft was built to conform to the general Chinese architecture of the Lega-tion, having windows upon the east side only, making a

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circulation of air an impossibility—a circumstance little adapted to promote comfort in the heats of July. Yet despite a due allowance of sand-flies, fleas, and mosqui-toes, it was discovered that the inconveniences almost amounted to luxuries, and by mutual exchange of quar-ters the sick and the weary could always find some haven of comparative rest and quiet.

The small room in the rear of the church, already men-tioned, was made to do duty as the only store-room for such provisions as had been gathered, or at any later period turned up. At first even a part of this was used as а ladies” bath-room, which was replaced later by the little lamp-room at the front entrance. Sergeant Herring obligingly gave the mess his own kitchen—a tiny one at the back of his quarters, with a small Chinese range— and had his own meals prepared on a Chinese stove on the door-step, or wherever he might be.

In the effort to get all the needed articles cooked at once on this minute range, the cooks were forced to exert themselves to the utmost, every hour of the day. А small kerosene stove and a little spirit lamp were in constant use as accessories, but as there was no oven it was only possible to bake biscuit in a kerosene tin. To get quantities of food cooked at one time under such conditions, without perpetually having some of it scorched, would appear out of the question—yet it was accomplished.

One of the greatest and most serious perplexities, suffi-cient to drive an Occidental cook to complete distraction, was the incessant demand upon the kitchen for hot water. It was wanted for cooking the regular meals, it was called for by the occupants of the house to which the kitchen belonged, by the marines, by the mothers of sick babies, and by the Chinese ad libitum. Fortunately two

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large braziers were brought, which materially relieved the pressure on the kitchen, so that tea, coffee, and a certain amount of hot water could be provided near to the church—the kitchen being distant from it half the width of the Legation compound. It is to be borne in mind that while many were able to drink the water from the principal wells without even filtering, perhaps half of the company were less fortunate, and had to be sup-plied with that which had been thoroughly boiled.

The indispensable utensils for cooking on a large scale were happily provided from the stock distributed by the owners of the foreign stores. Yet the provision was far from complete. There was a great lack of large dishes, and it was sometimes necessary to soak beans, or to make biscuit, іп a wash-bowl. The dishes must often be washed in cold water, when there was no other. For it must be remembered that the first contingent of about thirty-two persons were summoned to breakfast at 6.30, and must finish their meal and make way for the second section, who at no long interval gave way to the third. (Later the three divisions were condensed into two.)

Sideboards for this large company there were none, except the altar, and all the surfaces—seats, book-rests, window-sills—were uniformly aslant, affording no sup-port for crockery, which had to be continually passed out through the window to be rewashed, a task of some difficulty during the frequent heavy rains. A similar embarrassment was felt on rainy days, in drying the dish-cloths, the supply of which never seemed to run short, being mysteriously recruited from odds and ends which turned up (table-cloths and napkins being practically and happily unknown).

АП this unceasing round of work was carried on by three different sets of cooks and servants, each of which

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had always to hasten its work so as to be out of the way of the next relay; yet there was never a quarrel, and no friction worthy of the name.

: During the height of the rainy season, the only place in which to put away food was a small wire-screen safe, about a foot and а half square—there was no ice-box and no ice. A few rods distant was the slaughter place for ponies, haunted by millions of flies, and the only way to keep meat from their attack was to have it always covered with a cloth—a very temporary device in the hot damp days of July.

There was a standing committee of three ladies who planned the menu for the three daily meals, and two others—changed each day—attended to setting the tables and saw that each meal was ready on time. The in-genuity of this committee in so planning an extremely limited diet as to make the most of it, was positively marvellous,—a housewifery that frequently served up the flesh of tough mules so that no one would have suspected its origin, and that made tasty puddings without milk, butter, or eggs.

The lady in charge of the hospital kitchen also showed great skill in making palatable dishes for the wounded, and if at any time there happened to be a little left which would have spoiled before the next morning, she was invariably able to make such arrangements as to forefend that catastrophe. Little committees of the foreign Chris-tian Endeavor children busied themselves in carrying around whatever might be left on hand, distributing to those in need, and to the sick Chinese, who were always so hungry after their perpetual diet of porridge that all scraps from a foreign table were welcomed with joy.

Much of the time there were sick ones among the mess who could not eat the coarse brown bread and the old

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yellow rice, and for such, whatever the stress of other work, appetizing dishes were always ready. There were also wan little babies, for whom their mothers had to cook in a passage-way so narrow that if one stooped down no one else could pass, and for many, many nights these tired mothers were kept awake by the moaning of their own infants, or perhaps by the cries of some of the others, for whom no other place was open and for whose ills there was no respite and no help. In the recapitulation, all these disadvantages and inconveniences appear most formidable, but at the time they were submitted to with a patience and a courage which never once failed, and which was not a little promoted by a daily half-hour serv-ice of prayer and praise in which many passages from the Psalms, the prophecies, and the epistles, were made to become luminous with a new light, glowing like a diamond in the dark.

Although this is in no sense a military history of the Siege in Peking, yet a few words in regard to the fortifi-cations of the British Legation must not be omitted. These it may be remembered were early in the siege put in charge of the Rev. F. D. Gamewell, whose edu-cation as an engineer proved a unique qualification for a unique work. At the request of Sir Claude MacDonald he also undertook in a few instances work outside of the area of the Legation and its precincts; but this was exceptional.

The barricade on the west side of the Legation Street bridge was made eight feet thick, with five feet of earth intended to stop cannon balls, for which it is probable it would have sufficed. One of the military engineers con-sidered that such an elaborate defence, each of the double walls being of the thickness named, was quite unneces-sary, but after the German losses had become very heavy

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he wished it continued. There was a similar experience of change in military opinion as to the value of thorough-going fortifications, in the Mongol Market, where the bullets penetrated fifteen and eighteen inches of rubble— or common Chinese wall.

The Russian Legation was practically not fortified at all, for what reason it is difficult to comprehend, although there were barricades in some parts of the premises.

At the south end of the Mongol Market lane, the barri-cade built was five feet thick, and solid. The north and south walls were reénforced so as to be always eighteen inches thick, and in no case was dependence placed on a single line of bricks, where there are sure to be many cracks, and where there is always a chance of penetration by a stray bullet. This reénforcement continued up to a point opposite the house of the First Secretary. Beyond that the outer line began with a thickness of two feet. The importance of this was-illustrated by the fact that on the very day on which Mongol Market defences were finished at 11 A. M., by 4 P. M. the Chinese had every house opposite loopholed, and twelve loopholes in a single building.

The ordinary penetrating effect of the Mauser bullets on Chinese bricks was from one-half to three-quarters of an inch; but in the case of the Mannlichers used dur-ing the closing days of the siege, the damage was much greater,—the bullets leaving deep pits, and rapidly cutting away any wall. On the last Monday morning of the siege Mr. Gamewell was called up to build extra walls to check this destructive and corrosive fire.

The courts next beyond the one last mentioned were protected in the same way, under constant attack. Dur-ing all the building of fortifications, at which probably an average of fifty men were employed every day except

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Sunday, only one man was killed, and that was due to his total disregard of repeated cautions not to expose himself unnecessarily. The barricade immediately to the west of the south stable-court was four feet in thickness, aside from the outer yard wall, and was one of the strongest in the whole line, as it was one of the most exposed to attack. It was a marvel that the two-storied house in the stable-court did not fall. Behind the stable-yard gate was a barricade three feet thick slanting to the north-west, and next beyond that was a platform built for the Italian gun, the wall being very solid, and eight feet thick. The next wall was twenty inches thick, inde-pendent of the original outer wall, and very strongly built. Beyond this was a sort of fort, with five loopholes, very securely put up, and after that a rubble wall four feet in thickness, reénforced by still another substantial wall.

Further to the north stood “ Fort von Strauch,” which was the situation of the “ International ” gun at the close of the siege. The gunner, Mitchell, stood behind it when he was wounded, and not to one side. Directly to the west of this, and not more than fifty feet distant, was the Chinese barricade. Still further beyond is a court which is directly under the wall of the Carriage Park.

The death of the marine who was killed at the stable-court early in the siege first called the attention of the military men to the need of sand bags. Before that time they said they had enough, but it was discovered later that the director of the work of fortification was right in his consistent declaration that there would never be enough of them until the relief column reached the Lega-tion. After a time every officer was converted to the value of sand bags, and made frequent and liberal calls for them.

Behind the Students’ Library a deep trench was dug as

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a countermine, between ten and twelve feet deep, and only ten inches from the wall of a two-storied building whose foundations were only three or four feet below the ground. Digging this trench was at great risk of undermining the building, but the risk of being blown up was also a serious one, and it was risk against risk. The trench was not absolutely continuous, but the main sections were connected by cavities which went from one to the other, or as nearly so as the roots of a large tree would allow. It was almost certain that this digging would have de-tected any Chinese mine, as it was 12 feet deep, and at that time of year the water line was thought to be about 13 feet. In the first court of the Hanlin a countermine was begun which extended some distance into the Car-riage Park, but it was discontinued as superfluous, and was a standing jest for a long time.

In the Hanlin grounds the line of defence was at first weak. The second line, however, had a two foot brick wall very strongly propped, and reénforced to stand ar-tillery fire. Being short of bricks, the workmen used a great number of the wooden plates of books, mostly poetical works in the Hanlin Library. From this point eastward to the north stable-court the whole line of wall was likewise reénforced for withstanding artillery, and there was a trench 12 feet deep just behind the de-fence for the whole length.

In case this should have been rushed by the Chinese, the pavilion immediately to the rear had a loophole three and a half feet in thickness to enfilade the enemy. This pavilion, itself, by the way, was perforated with solid shot from the batteries on the Imperial City wall, seven shots striking within the space of ten feet. One of them went through a heavy post, 16 inches in diameter, and shattered one of the marble tablets let into the

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wall. The book-cases of the Hanlin had been set up in the yard, and covered with tar-paper simply as covering-screens, so that the Chinese should not be able to detect the movements of the defence. A smaller pavilion in front was loopholed to prevent the approach of the enemy unseen, and there was a second strong line of defence behind. The larger of the two pavilions (called the Ching I T’ing) was named “ Fort Strouts.” Another smaller one to the north was loopholed in the same manner.

At the east end of the Hanlin the artillery defences were carried up two-thirds of the way to the top, but were never wholly completed. The most eastern of the fortified positions was styled “ Fort Oliphant.” Immedi-ately in front of this the defences were very strong, con-sisting‘of an enormously thick wall, eight feet through at the base, and a trench 13 feet in depth. The steps up to the elevated sentry-posts were made of the wooden cases which when found contained the great Ming Dy-nasty Encyclopedia, “ Yung Lê Ta Tien ”, but were now packed solidly with earth. The strength of the Hanlin position as finally fortified was great, and if the Chinese had been able to screw up their courage to the point of a desperate charge, the positions could have been cap-tured only with the greatest difficulty, and with the sacri-fice of a great number of lives, for which happily they were at no time quite prepared.

The defences of the eastern side of the Legation (the Hanlin being on the north) received perhaps more labor-ious consideration than those of any other quarter. On the 29th of June—only nine days after the siege be-gan—Col. Shiba informed Sir Claude that at the outside he should not be able to hold the Su Wang Fu more than two or three days longer. Sir Claude communicated to Mr. Gamewell the information, with the comment, “ You

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should know this.” The result was a most elaborate plan of defence which was a surprise alike to Chinese and to foreigners, who were perpetually asking “ What is the use of all this work?” The use was to guard the Brit-ish Legation at its weakest point, in case the Su Wang Fu should be abandoned, and the Chinese should plant artillery on the high mounds of the Flower Garden be-longing to the Fu, which was separated from the Lega-tion only by the width of the canal road. The Chinese would have been able to mount guns within fifty yards (or less) of the residence of the British Minister, and it was difficult to see how апу part of the Legation grounds could have then been held for an hour.

The fortifications by way of defence against this danger began at the end of the north stable-court, and extended in an unbroken line to the Escort Quarters, a little north of the main gate of the Legation. The post on the roof of the cow-house at the north end was a very strong position, and a very exposed one, being much nearer to the batteries on the wall of the Imperial City than any other, as well as close to the enemy's positions which attacked the northern end of the Fu. The wall of the stables themselves on the canal front was about fifteen inches thick, and with great labour this was reénforced by a wall five feet thick, strongly braced both at top and bottom throughout its whole length. At the upper end of the stable-court there were countermines, lest the Chinese should attempt to blow up the post. The tunnel was run to the west about five feet, thence north twenty-five feet, and then east the same distance, but no sign or sound of Chinese mines was found, and the very ex-istence of the countermines was not generally known. From the stables to the Escort quarters the same plan of defence against possible cannonading was pursued

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throughout,—thick and high walls made of earth well rammed down, and stoutly braced by the heaviest avail-able timbers against the buildings opposite at every point.

Тһе cannon balls and shells of the enemy received оп this side did much damage. One of the three brick col-umns in the second story veranda of the Minister’s house was knocked down into the yard below, but extra posts were put in under the supports of the roof, so that it did not give way. On the last night of the siege one of the smaller roofs of a room adjacent to a bed-room in the Minister's house was crushed in by a shell, as already mentioned, but the injury throughout the siege from this source was surprisingly small.

The discerning reader will perceive that, amid so many military men at a time of such peculiar strain, the task of a civilian charged with one of the most important duties of the defence, was one of peculiar difficulty and delicacy. The sense of responsibility was at times al-most overwhelming, and, aside from sometimes working twenty hours a day, the necessity of having the most discouraging military secrets confidentially imparted was enough to wear out the constitution of one in the most robust health.

Perhaps in no other order throughout the entire siege did Sir Claude MacDonald exhibit to better advantage sterling good sense, than in placing Mr. Gamewell in a position absolutely free from military interference of any kind, with responsibility to the Commander in Chief only. When this fact was thoroughly established, all occasion for friction disappeared, and the civil and the military defence dove-tailed into one another in an ad-mirable and most effective way. At the close of the siege Mr. Gamewell received a cordial letter from Sir Claude acknowledging the common obligations to him

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for his services, and Mr. Conger in a similar note justly added that “to you more than to any other man we owe, under God, our preservation.” A few days after the relief forces arrived, one of the British subjects who had been through the siege took occasion to ask Gen. Gaselee what he thought of “our infant fortifications? ” Gen. Gaselee replied that he was greatly surprised at the extent and the effectiveness of the defence conducted, and especially with the amount of work done in the time at the disposal of the besieged; and that the fortifications and everything connected with the defence were “ beyond all praise.” :

In the official report of the events connected with the siege of the Legations, Sir Claude MacDonald states that an important effort to betray the Legations was only dis-covered after they had been relieved. “Among some documents seized by the German troops was found a letter addressed to the General commanding at the Ha Ta gate on the subject of mines. The writer had been a teacher at the British Legation in the employ of Her Majesty’s Government for four years, and was well known to the student interpreters; together with all other teach-ers he disappeared about the middle of June. The letter was dated the beginning of July, and pointed out that the Generals methods of attacking the Legation were faulty, and were bound to lead to considerable loss in the future as they had done in the past. The proper method of attack, the writer said, was by mining; to assist the General in his attack he enclosed a correct plan of the British Legation, with which he was well acquainted, and marked on the plan the most suitable place for the mine to be driven. Eager inquiries have been made, since the siege was raised, for the writer of the letter, but as yet he has not been found.” The fact that with such de-

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tailed treachery as this freely offered to the Chinese, they failed to drive a single mine under any part of the long front of the British Legation, adds one more to the already long list of surprises connected with the defence.

In view of the supreme importance of the subject it may be worth while to devote a little space to a brief summary of some of the foregoing aspects of the defence of the Legations, by a competent military authority, Lieut. Col. Scott-Moncrieff, of the Royal Engineers, who con-tributed an article on the subject to the “ Royal Engineers Journal” (April, тоот.) Only a few points can be se-lected. The reader is indebted to him for the excellent map of the defences which accompanies this volume.

“The first thing which strikes one on looking at the plan of the whole defensive position is the enormous number of buildings crowded together on the ground. Even in this respect the plan comes short of the truth, for if the houses had all been actually drawn it would have added to the confused mass of buildings shown, in such a way as to obscure essential points.

“Some of the Legation compounds and yards have many trees standing in them. The trees were both a help and a hindrance to the besieged. They obscured the look-out, tended to spread conflagration when a fire broke out, and falling branches were often a source of danger; but they afforded some protection, and prevented the enemy from seeing in. The massive and heavy roofs of the Chinese buildings though giving considerable com-mand were not much taken advantage of by the assailants. The two-storied houses in the Legation, though heavily bombarded, acted most efficiently as traverses, so that it was quite possible to move about freely inside the de-fended area. This was very much noticed by the relieving force when they entered. The noise of the musketry and

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machine guns was incessant, projectiles of all sorts were whistling overhead, yet on the lawn-tennis court of the British Legation ladies were moving about so freely that it was like a garden-party. The defences of the British Legation were, by all consent, the strongest and best of any of the works in any part of the position. The engi-neer who devised and superintended them was an Ameri-can missionary, the Rev. F. D. Gamewell. He was one of a considerable number of American missionaries who were sheltered during the siege in the Chapel of the British Legation, and whose skill in organization and cheerful energy contributed largely to the comfort and well-being of the garrison.

“There were по engineers, military or civil, among the garrison of the British Legation. Mr. Gamewell made it his business to be always working at and improving the defences. Walls liable to artillery fire were strength-ened and strutted. Walls supporting roofs, or in any way doubtful, were propped and buttressed, traverses were made in every possible passage, openings and communica-tions were made freely throughout the defensive line, barricades and flanking caponiers were made in every place where it was possible they might be needed, deep trenches were sunk across every part where the enemy might be expected to mine, the upper stories of houses were barricaded, loopholed and strengthened, and above allin every place ample head cover was given to the firing line, so that only as much of the man as came opposite the loophole was exposed.

“On the west of the British Legation in one of the large sheds of the Imperial Carriage Park, the enemy be-gan a mine, the failure of which is very instructive. They started in the direction of a strong barricade and breast-work inside of our works in the Flanlin. They were

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heard at work, and a countermine was started, which however, did not go far. The enemy apparently heard the countermine, and changed direction to their right, heading for the Students’ Quarters, a double-storied building close to the boundary wall. They seem to have lost their bearings, and kept edging off to the right, so that they worked round in an almost complete semi-circle, and ultimately were heading away from their objective. This was afterward discovered, when, after the relief was accomplished the mine was opened. It was found that the atmosphere in the mine was so foul that it was impossible to keep a light burning, and as the Chinese were probably working in the dark, it is little wonder that they missed their way. The difficulty of keeping the true direction of a small mine gallery, even when one has the aid of lantern and compass, is well known, and in this case the enemy were probably unable to use any such assistance. Some empty powder-boxes and powder-hose were found in the mine, but no charge.

“ The last and most furious assault on the Legations was delivered on the 13th and 14th of August, when the enemy knew it was their last chance. But the defences were sound and the hearts of the defenders good, for relief at last was near. The closeness of the attack may be gauged by the fact that when Major Scott and his Sikhs, who were the first to enter the Legation, relieved the Marines of the Legation Guard at the Mongol Market barricades, and were greeted with cheers, they at once received a volley of brickbats from the enemy a few yards off!”

It was gratifying intelligence to all who were interested in the work of the siege and its results, to know that so many who took an active part in it were promptly re-warded by a due recognition of their services,

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The last six pages of the British White Book, (China N. 4, 1900) are exclusively occupied with dispatches from Sir Claude MacDonald to the Marquis of Salisbury, calling attention to the singular services of a great number of individuals, both military and civil, including almost every nationality. Among those selected for honourable mention were Capt. Halliday, already mentioned, who fought with conspicuous courage at close quarters ; Capt. Poole, who was not absent from duty for a single day or night during the whole 55 days; and Capt. Strouts, who was killed. The British Volunteers, among whose number David Oliphant and Henry Warren were killed, are highly commended.

Mr. Dering, Second Secretary of the British Legation was in charge of important defences. He was always alert, and had also the difficult task of deciding what ponies or mules should be killed for food, each of the owners naturally being desirous of reserving his own as long as possible. Mr. Cockburn, Chinese Secretary, was both a Volunteer, and in charge of the very important correspondence between the British Minister and the enemy. His house was an especial target of shells and rifle bullets. He was ably seconded by Mr. Ker the Sec-ond Chinese Secretary. Capt. Percy Smith, a retired officer, was especially useful on the city wall in difficult and dangerous circumstances. Mr. Clarke-Thornhill, formerly of the Diplomatic Service, was an active and willing Volunteer.

The Rev. Frank Norris, Chaplain of the Legation, ren-dered invaluable services outside of his especial duties, in work with pick and shovel in the trenches and on the barricades; and also in taking charge of and encouraging the Chinese converts in their work on the defences. He was always ready, willing, and cheerful; though severely

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wounded by the explosion of a shell in the Su Wang Fu, he stuck to his work, and was at all times a splendid example to those about him.

Mr. Tours of the Consular Staff, and Mr. Tweed of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, were indefatigable as captains of the Fire Brigade, which several times saved the Legation. The former had such arduous duties that at the close of the siege his health gave way completely, and for a long time he hovered between life and death.

Dr. Morrison, Correspondent of “ The Times ”, acted as Lieutenant to Capt. Strouts, and rendered most valuable services. Active, energetic, and cool, he volunteered for every service of danger, and was a pillar of strength when matters were going badly. By his severe wound on the 16th of July his valuable services were lost to the de-fence for the rest of the siege.

All the Student Interpreters are warmly praised. They behaved with pluck and dash, yet a steadiness under fire worthy of veteran troops. The Volunteers belonging to the Imperial Maritime Customs likewise distinguished themselves, and soon after the siege received the promo-tion which they had so well earned.

Mr. Nigel Oliphant took an important part on several occasions until he was seriously wounded, on the 18th of July.

In another supplementary dispatch Sir Claude asks that the thanks of the British Government be conveyed to Lieut. Baron von Rahden, of the Imperial Russian Navy; Capt. Myers, U. S. Marines (wounded) ; Lieut. Darcy, French Navy (wounded) ; Lieut. Baron von Soden, Imperial Ger-man Marines; Lieut. Paolini, Italian Navy (wounded) ; and Lieut. Hara, Japanese Navy. In addition to these, the skill, tenacity, and courage of Lieut. Col. Shiba, of the Japanese contingent, are mentioned as worthy of all

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рга1зе. His dispositions were taken with the greatest skill, and he contested every inch of ground, thereby giving time for the defences of the British Legation to be put in order; and as a direct effect of this the lives of very many of the garrison were saved.

Don Livio Caetini, Second Secretary of the Italian Legation, is commended to his Government for his de-votion and ability, having never once quitted his post, which was a barricade exposed to a very severe shell and rifle fire. М. von Strauch, a member of the Imperial Maritime Customs, formerly an officer of the Prussian army, was in command of the Customs Volunteers, and was Of the greatest assistance to Sir Claude, who was much struck by his zeal and intrepidity. He and Dr. Velde of the Hospital are especially commended to the German Government. M. Fliche, an ex-officer of the French Cavalry, was an orderly constantly under fire, and for his gallantry was recommended to the notice of the French Government.

The United States has few methods, aside from the vote of special thanks by Congress, of accomplishing the highly desirable objects aimed at in the decorations and honours thus worthily bestowed. It was therefore the greater gratification to the besieged and their friends to find in Washington telegrams of Jan. 4th, 1901, the fol-lowing: “The British Ambassador has communicated to the Secretary of State a dispatch recently received by him from the Marquis of Lansdowne, commending the gallant conduct of certain Americans who distinguished them-selves last summer during the attacks on the Legation quarter in Peking. The text of the dispatch is as follows :

“Му Lord : With reference to my preceding dispatch of this day’s date, I have to inform you that Sir С. Mac-

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Donald has brought to my notice the conduct of certain gentlemen who particularly distinguished themselves dur-ing the attacks on the Legation quarter, and who gave invaluable assistance both to him personally and to the defence in general.

“Sir Claude mentions the names of the Rev. F. D. Gamewell of the American Methodist Mission, and Her-bert G. Squiers, Secretary ofthe U. S. Legation. He states that the Rev. F. D. Gamewell carried out the entire de-fences of the British Legation, and that these defences have excited the admiration of the officers of the various nationalities who have since inspected them. As а tribute to their excellence he mentions that notwithstanding a constant rain of rifle-fire during the five weeks of the siege, not a single woman or child in the Legation suf-fered. He adds that a deep debt of gratitude is owed to him by all the besieged.

“ Herbert Squiers acted in the capacity of Sir Claude’s Chief-of-Staff after the death of Captain Strouts of the Royal Marines. Sir Claude says that his earlier services in the United States army were of great use in the de-fence, and that he can not speak too highly of his zeal and ability. The barricades on the Tartar wall were designed and carried out by him, and under Sir Claude's orders he drew the plan for the entry of the troops which was conveyed to Gen. Gaselee by a messenger let down from the wall.

“ I request that you will bring the names of these two gentlemen to the favourable notice of the United States Government, and express the appreciation felt by Her Majesty’s Government of their eminent services.

(Signed) LANSDOWNE.”

This series of graceful recognitions of merit is fitly

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concluded by the following dispatch to Sir Claude Mac-Donald, published in the White Book relating to the siege in Peking.

FOREIGN OFFICE, Feb. 10th, 1901.

“ As the present report completes your account of the siege and relief of the Legations, I desire to take this opportunity of stating how highly His Majesty’s Govern-ment value these admirable and exhaustive records of an episode of the deepest historical interest. The gallantry with which the siege was maintained by all the foreign forces engaged, more especially after the failure of the first relief expedition, and the consequent disappointment of the besieged, coupled with the energy and courage with which the efforts of the regular forces were seconded by Ше Legation Staffs and other civilians, has commanded the admiration of the whole civilized world.

“ His Majesty's Government desire also to place on record their appreciation of the important part borne by yourself throughout this crisis. On the 22nd of June at the request of your colleagues you took charge of the defence, a position for which from your military train-ing you possessed exceptional qualifications; and from that day you continued to direct the operations of the garrison until the relief took place on the 14th of August.

“ Information has reached His Majesty's Government from various sources that the success of the defence was largely due to your personal efforts, and more particularly to the unity and cohesion which you found means of estab-lishing and maintaining among the forces of so many different nationalities operating over an extended area. Competent eye-witnesses have expressed the opinion that if it can be said that the European community owe their lives to any one man more than another, where so many

484 CHINA IN CONVULSION

distinguished themselves, it is to you that they are in-debted for their safety.

“ Т can not conclude this dispatch without asking you to convey to Lady MacDonald the thanks of His Majesty’s Government for her unceasing and devoted attention to the welfare of the sick and wounded. Her work and that of the ladies who assisted her have earned the last-ing gratitude not only of those who were benefited by her ministrations, but also of their relatives in Europe who were kept for so many weeks in a condition of most painful anxiety and suspense.

LANSDOWNE.”

XXVI

CHAPTER 26. After the Siege

HEN the relieving columns marched into the

V V Peking Legations they received a glad wel-come from all the besieged, who had been look-

ing for their coming with such mingled fears and hopes. But it was soon evident from the bearing of the rescuers, as well as from their remarks, that they were considerably disappointed in us. They found a large number of gentle-men and ladies going about as they would have done under ordinary circumstances, except that many of them were on sentry duty. The specific occasion of the disap-pointment felt and expressed seemed to be that the be-sieged did not look sufficiently pinched with hunger, and that some of them—especially the ladies—were far too well dressed, and met the relieving army with glad smiles and cheers, instead of bursting into hysterical sobs. As one of the bright young women phrased it, “they seem to have expected to find us lying gasping on the ground.” Several of the besieged were only visitors in Peking who had been caught in the effort to leave on the very day when trains finally ceased to run, and these ladies, at least, had lost none of their belongings. All the rest, however, displayed the singular feminine talent for mak-ing a little go a great way in dress, as they had done in food, and even under the most depressing circum-stances of lack of changes of raiment, of persistently rainy weather and absence of all ordinary facilities for washing

485

486 CHINA IN CONVULSION

clothes, not to say for starching and ironing, often blos-somed out in attire which showed no signs of hard usage or of age.

All the ladies alike appeared to rise to the occasion in a way to make one proud of the civilization of the West, which has found so large a place for the energy and the diversified talent of the fair sex. The wives of the American and the Russian Ministers were especially as-siduous in working for the comfort of those who were wounded and in the hospital, giving up anything and everything for their comfort. When the detail for clean-ing the hospital failed to appear, Madame de Giers one day seized the mop herself and more than made good his place.

Many of the women, through the entire siege, were quite as cool and as courageously hopeful as the men. During the severest attacks they sat diligently working on the sand bags without pause, nor was there ever any-thing in the smallest degree approximating a panic. Noth-ing at the time (nor in subsequent calm review) appeared more surprising than the cool way in which everything about the siege was taken as a matter of course, and the facility with which the necessary adjustments were swiftly and tactfully made by all the women alike, and pre-eminently by those who chanced to have any especial re-sponsibility placed upon them.

During the whole of the siege the numerous children played about the grounds, and seldom with any restraint upon their movements. They paraded as “ Boxers,” and as companies of soldiers sent to arrest Boxers. The small-est mites had their little flags and cartridge-belts, and joined in the incessant sport. They made deep holes in inconvenient situations, but as these were said to be for “ bomb-proofs ” they could not be disturbed. They tugged

AFTER THE SIEGE 487

at heavy bricks and timbers which were placed in pre-posterous positions to be regarded as defences. They filled tiny sacks, made for their especial use, with earth, and heaped them up passim, to guard the works which they had constructed.

On one occasion a redoubt of this sort built by infants of the “ Number four” size, was totally demolished by some of those of the “ Number ten ” variety, to the in-dignation of the justice loving mammas, who remonstrated with the big boys for their harsh treatment of the little ones. But the leader of the attacking party drew him-self up proudly and replied: “ In time of war they ought to have put a guard over their works, or else they might expect to have them captured!” As there seemed to be some reason in this military view of the case, the matter was dropped. On another occasion some children of missionaries were seen throwing stones at another com-pany of lads, who were returning the compliment; but upon inquiry each side hastened to explain that “ They were trying to break down our barricades, and we wouldn’t let them.”

It has been already mentioned that there was a foreign child born during the progress of the siege, a circum-stance which was commemorated in the name bestowed upon him—“ Siege Moore.” There were probably several Chinese babies introduced into the world at the same inauspicious epoch, but of these there is no record. More than one of the Chinese schoolgirls was married during the early days of the imprisonment, as their parents could not take care of them, and they could not otherwise go to their prospective homes.

Of the number of Chinese who died of wounds, or of illness, it is impossible to speak with any accuracy, as it was impracticable to collect satisfactory information. It

488 CHINA IN CONVULSION

has been already mentioned that the mortality among Chinese children was very heavy. Six foreign infants succumbed to the hardships of the time. The following semi-official table of casualties among (һе defenders of the Legations is of great interest, but it ought to be understood that it does not represent the final account, which is perhaps not to be had in a completely accurate shape. When the marines left Peking, a few too weak to be removed remained in the hospital. The very first British marine to be wounded (Sawyer) was the last one to die, long after his comrades had gone back to their ship. Something similar may have been true of some of the wounded in other detachments. As soon as the ter-rible strain of the siege was over, most of those who were able to do so left Peking, and many of them left China. Among them were several who seemed to be in perfect health, only “а bit tired.”

CASUALTIES AMONG VOLUNTEERS DURING SIEGE IN PEKING.

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1 Baron von Ketteler, German Minister.

з Mr. von Cordes, Chinese Secretary, German Legation.

3 Including Surgeon Captain Ando.

4 Including Мт. Wagner, a Frenchman in the Imperial Maritime Customs,

489

AFTER THE SIEGE

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490 CHINA IN CONVULSION

A fearfully long list of deaths has to be added to these tables, which cannot without danger of serious omissions catalogue those who, in places widely distant from each other, and at intervals of weeks or of months, lost their lives as a direct consequence of the Siege in Peking. The tables will therefore be understood to refer to the time when the siege was raised, and not to the final result.

The incidental references to the International Hos-pital, which constituted so important a part of our re-cuperative energies, should be supplemented by a few notes, most of which are culled from an article by a British lady physician well qualified to write on the sub-ject.

The large proportion of the medical faculty represented among the besieged was truly remarkable. Altogether there were, of all nationalities, twenty men and women with medical and surgical degrees, including Dr. Ts'ao, a Chinese physician of the American Methodist Mission, and a retired naval surgeon.

The Hospital was opened on the day after the siege began, Drs. Poole and Velde being the staff. The women doctors were asked to nurse, which they gladly did. There were two trained nurses, and other ladies to help. The physicians who had to leave home at an hour's notice had of course few drugs and dressings. The British Le-gation was poorly stocked, as Dr. Poole had only just come out. Fortunately Dr. Velde had a large supply, all of the German army type, —iodoform gauze tied up in little packets very much compressed, to be cut into strips, with white muslin gauze squares, about five inches each way, folded and compressed into another very small pack-age. He had also a sterilizer, which later had to be used when muslin curtains took the place of the white gauze,

AFTER THE SIEGE 491

and bags of peat or saw-dust that of wool. Instruments were always sterilized for operation.

To most of the assistants the experience of shot and shell was new. The hospital first occupied two rooms in the Chancery bungalow, but gradually, as the number of the wounded grew, more rooms had to be taken over, until there were an operating-room with two tables; five wards and beds for five patients in the hall; a conva-lescent ward for officers and civilians in Lady MacDon-ald’s house, and another for marines elsewhere. Three American ladies superintended the kitchen and stores; they were beyond all praise.

The Hospital had of course first claim to commissariat stores, but nowhere else was there such fragrant pony-soup, such really eatable mule stew. Officers and men ap-peared to think it worth while to be slightly wounded to

get a few days’ good feeding. Owing to the difficulty of “diverse tongues ” the men were “ warded ” by nationality wherever possible,—at any rate no man was in a room where he could not talk to some one. Italians and French were together, with a French Sister in charge; Russians were in another room, where they were most tenderly cared for by Madame de Giers, herself. The Germans were often put with them and one room was always full of the bright, interesting little Japanese. English and Americans naturally went together. There was one ward for officers and civilian volunteers, and here were nursed British, American, German, French, Italian, Austrian, Dutch, Australian, and Russian.

It was wonderful how the stores and supplies came in —beds and bedding, shirts, and all that was necessary. They represented very much self-denial on the part of some, and exhibited many expedients. The under pillows were made of straw from the packing of

492 CHINA IN CONVULSION

wine bottles, eider-down quilts were cut up for soft pillows, a long piece of Chefoo silk found in the Mongol Market made shirts, as did best damask linen and bright yellow cotton. “ Imperial” shirts these were called.

There were very few bedsteads; matresses were placed on the floor, but every man did have a mattress from somewhere, as well as sheets and pillows.

The families of some of the Legation people went with-out mosquito curtains for the whole siege, that the men in the Hospital might be supplied with this luxury—al-most, indeed, a necessity. Some of the marines had first-aid dressings in their haversacks, but the civilian volun-teers had none, so that their wounds were not cared for until their arrival at the Hospital.

The character of the wounds was not that of open warfare, for the fighting was all behind barricades. Cor sequently the proportion of head injuries was large. Sec-ondary operations, undertaken on account of symptoms, often disclosed bits of material—shirt or trousers—which had been driven into the wound, or the missing bullet or fragment of shell. The proportion of shell wounds was small, only one, of the face proving fatal. There were three perforating wounds of the larynx. Two cases of compound fracture of tibia developed tetanus, each of which was fatal.

A case of strychnine poison has been already alluded to. Chloroform inhalation, continued for two and a half hours, followed by the stomach pump, brought about re-covery, and the second day the man was dressed, return-ing to duty the day following.

Towards the close of the siege several cases were in-valided with diarrhcea and dysentery. Among the Rus-sians there were two deaths from the latter, but they were

AFTER THE SIEGE 493

known to be exceedingly careless about their drinking water. There were three cases of typhoid, one of which died after removal to Tientsin. With the exception of the two tetanus cases, there was during the siege no death of any one who survived his injury twenty-four hours.

No hospital notes were kept during the siege, which was a cause of regret, but no one had the time. At the Pei T’ang, explosion from mines was the cause of most of the casualties.

In his dispatch to the Marquis of Salisbury regarding the conduct of the defences, Sir Claude MacDonald makes especial reference to the Hospital, and to the two physicians in charge. During the siege 166 cases passed through the Hospital, twenty suffering from illness, the rest surgical cases. Owing to the devotion and skill of the two medical officers, 110 of the wounded were eventually discharged cured. Dr. Poole was inde-fatigable at his work, always sympathetic and cheer-ful. The wounded of all nationalities spoke most warmly of his devotion and skill. At the conclusion he was struck down with fever of a very danger-ous description, and had to be invalided. The sick-bay steward, Mr. Fuller, is highly commended for his care and gentle treatment of the wounded, and the willing and cheerful manner in which he carried out his duties. Miss Myers and Miss Brazier daily filtered the water for the Hospital (a task by no means easy with a hand-pump filter) and carried it there themselves, often with bullets and shells bursting in the trees overhead. Several of the ladies received, for their tireless labors in nursing the sick, the well merited order of the Red Cross. Miss Jessie Ransome was personally decorated by King Ed-ward, while Miss Lambert of the Anglican Mission, Miss

494 CHINA IN CONVULSION

Abbie Chapin of the American Board, and Miss Dr. Saville of the London Mission, received the decoration in China.

Immediately upon the conclusion of the siege, the Americans met and adopted resolutions recognizing their obligations to the Marines by whom they had been de-fended for so long a time, to Sir Claude MacDonald, Her Britannic Majesty’s Minister, and to Minister Con-ger. From the latter the following communication was received at about the same time:

“ PEKING, August 18, 1900. “ The Besieged American Missionaries:

“To one and all of you, so providentially saved from threatened massacre, I beg in this hour of our deliverance to express what I know to be the universal sentiment of the Diplomatic Corps, the sincere appreciation of and profound gratitude for the inestimable help which you and the native Christians under your charge have ren-dered toward our preservation. Without your intelligent and successful planning, and the uncomplaining exect-tion of the Chinese, I believe our salvation would have been impossible.

“ By your courteous consideration of me, and your con-tinued patience under most trying occasions, I have been most deeply touched, and for it all I thank you most heartily. I hope and believe that somehow, in God’s un-erring plan, your sacrifices and danger will bear rich fruit in the material and spiritual welfare of the people to whom you have so nobly devoted your lives and work.

“ Assuring you of my personal respect and gratitude, believe me, Very sincerely yours,

E. Н. Соксек.”

INDEX TO GROUP OF AMERICAN MISSIONARIES.

г. Rev. С. W. Verity 2. Miss Amy Brown 3. Mrs. A. H. Smith 4. Rev. W. T. Hobart 5. Rev, John Wherry, D.D. 6. Rev. W. Е. Walker, D.D. 7. J. Н. Ingram, M.D. 8. Rev. Н. E. King 9. Rev. G. R. Davis то. Rev. А. Н. Smith, D.D. 11. Rev. C. A. Killie 12. Rev. W. B. Stelle r3. Rev. Gilbert Reid, D.D. 14. Miss Grace Newton 15. Miss Luella Miner 16. Miss Nellie Russell

17. Miss Maud Mackey, M.D.

18. Miss Elizabeth Martin 19. Mrs. Е. D. Gamewell 20. Miss Gertrude Gilman 21. Miss Anna Gloss, M.D. 22. Mrs, С. М. Jewell

23. Miss Gertrude Wyckoff 24. Miss Ada Haven

25. Mrs. Howard Galt

26.

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Mrs. J. H. Ingram Rev. Е. М. Chapin Miss Janet McKillican

. Mrs. Gilbert Reid and child

Miss Eliza Leonard, M.D.

. Mrs. С. A. Killie

Miss Alice Terrell

. Miss Jane Evans

Mrs. C. Goodrich Mrs. W. Е. Walker

. Miss Emma E, Martin, M.D.

Mrs. C. E. Ewing and child

. Mrs. F. M. Chapin . Miss Mary Andrews

Mrs. J. L. Mäteer

. Rev. C. Goodrich, M.D.

. Miss D. M. Douw

. Miss Ruth Ingram and sister . Miss Grace Goodrich

. Miss Esther Walker

Miss Marion Ewing

. Miss Dorothea Goodrich

. Master Carrington Goodrich . Master Ernest Chapin

. Master Ralph Chapin

The following American Missionaries were not on hand when the picture wastaken: Rev. F. D. Gamewell, Dr. G. D. Lowry, Rev. C. E. Ewing, Rev. W. S. Ament, D.D., Rev. and Mrs. С. H. Fenn and family, Rev. J. L. Whiting, Dr. and Mrs. J. Inglis, Rev. Howard Galt, Miss Bessie McCoy, Miss Abbie Chapin, Miss А. Н, Gowans, Miss Н. E Rutherford and Miss Grace Wyckoff,

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AFTER THE SIEGE 495

Three days previous to this, Sir Claude had written to the Chairman of the General Committee, as follows:

“ BRITISH LEGATION, PEKING, Aug. 15, 1900. “Dear Mr. Tewksbury:

“T have been busy these last few days, and feel quite worn out, otherwise this letter would have been written before.

“I want to express to the American members of the Committee of General Comfort my high appreciation of the good work they did during the siege, and of the ready and loyal manner in which they anticipated my every wish.

“With such men to work with, work becomes а pleas-ure, and is bound to be crowned with success. This remark applies to all the American missionaries who took part with me in the siege. Their work and support were un-stinted, intelligent, and most loyal, and I have no hesi-tation in saying that I consider that their presence in the Legation saved the situation. Yours very truly,

CLAUDE М. MACDONALD.”

A few days later, the following telegram from the President of the United States was received by the Min-ister :

“ The whole American people rejoice over your deliver-ance, over the safety of your companions of our own and other nations, who have shared your trials and privations ; the fortitude and courage which you have all maintained, and the heroism of your little band of defenders. We all mourn for those who have fallen, and acknowledge the goodness of God which has preserved you, and guided

the brave army that set you free. Wo. McKINLEY,”

496 CHINA IN CONVULSION

Two days later the following communication from the Queen was received by Sir Claude MacDonald.

“ Warmest congratulations on your safety, after such a terrible time of anxiety to us all. Trust you, Lady Mac-Donald, and children are well as well as the others.

VIRALE

A separate telegram was sent from the same source.

“ To the Officer Commanding the British Marine Guard :

I thank God that you and those under your command are rescued from your perilous situation. We, my people and I, have waited with the deepest anxiety for the good news of your safety, and a happy termination to your heroic and prolonged defence. I grieve for the losses and sufferings experienced by the besieged.

У. Rel?

* ж ж ж ж ж ж

The siege in Peking was scarcely raised before many of those whose homes were in the city, hastened to visit the sites of their dwellings, to see in what condition they then were. Most of them were found to resemble the premises of the Methodist Mission, where the Americans had been in a state of semi-siege for twelve days. On these spacious grounds, in three distinct divisions, sepa-rated from one another by intervening streets, had been seven dwelling houses, three chapels, two boys’ schools, one large girls’ school, two training schools, two hos-pitals, two dispensaries, and eight native houses. The University of Peking was a large two-story building en-closed by a high wall, on extensive grounds.

AFTER THE SIEGE 497

When it became possible to revisit this familiar spot, one could have ridden on horse-back everywhere except where the cellars of the buildings had left dangerous pits. It was difficult to find anywhere a whole brick, and aside from occasional sheets, or parts of sheets, of galvanized-iron roofing, it was difficult to find anything whatever to suggest for what the premises had been used. From all the compounds together not enough splinters of wood could have been gathered to kindle a fire. The outer walls of the premises, as well as those of the buildings, had been excavated down to the bottom of the founda-tions, to remove every brick, and every tree had been not only cut down, but dug up by the roots, so that the exact situation of each could be determined by the deep and irregular holes. The only exception was a fine old tree standing just within the main gate, upon which the notices and bulletins had been daily posted during the semi-siege. Why this was spared is somewhat of а mystery, unless it may have been supposed to be the abode of a spirit; but it served as a landmark without which it was difficult to determine where anything had once stood.

On the University campus a flock of an hundred sheep, intended for the use of the troops, were quietly grazing. Few Chinese were anywhere to be seen. Many of the neighbouring dwellings were destroyed together with the Mission property, either through accident, from revenge, or in gratification of the wild instinct of promoting universal ruin. Most of the neighbouring court-yards were found full of bricks and other looted material, but only a trifling fraction of that which had been lost could be recovered. The large bell of the church had been buried but was afterwards exhumed, on the locality becoming known. This process of sepulture for compromising

498 CHINA IN CONVULSION

articles was one of which the Chinese made great use, especially in the concealment of rails and ties from the railway, but in many cases unfriendly informers made the last state of those who had ventured upon this method far worse than the first.

The condition of the Methodist compounds may serve as a type of all the premises destroyed in Peking. Ina few instances walls were left standing as if to mark where the buildings had once been, but this was excep-tional. In almost every compound there was the same monotony of absolute and total destruction, unrelieved and hopeless.

The total amount of property destroyed belonging to the various Protestant missions in Peking, has not been exactly ascertained, but approximately it may be said to comprise thirty-four dwelling houses, eighteen chapels, eleven boys’ schools and one” university, eleven girls’ schools, four training schools, eleven dispensaries and eight hospitals, besides more than thirty summer-houses at the western hills, and several others at the sea-side.

Within a few days of the arrival of the troops, the Protestant Cemetery at the southwest corner of Peking was visited, and it was found that the tales which had been told of its condition were only too true. All the enclosing walls had been pulled down, and even the foun-dations were dug up. The long avenue of trees, nearly forty years old, had been destroyed, monuments had been overthrown and broken into fragments, and thirteen of the graves had been opened and the bodies removed; some of them had evidently been used for a bonfire, only a+few fragments of bones and here and there a metal button remaining to tell the tale.

This savagery, so alien to the usual Chinese respect for the dead, differentiates the Boxer rising from any

DNIMAUA ‘NOISSIN LSIGOHLAW AO SNINA ОМТУНА ‘NOISSIN NVIVALAAISAYd AO SNINY

AFTER THE SIEGE 499

anti-foreign movement which had preceded it, and may serve as a gauge of the violence of the volcanic forces deliberately let loose. The Russian Cemetery received the same treatment, which indicated that despite the appar-ently exceptional relations existing between Russia and China, at the crucial moment there was no discrimination between one barbarian and another.

On the 19th of August a memorial service was held for Гагсп von Ketteler in the German Legation, with mili-tary honours, the body having been brought back in the Chinese coffin where it had been deposited by the kind in-tervention of one of the members of the Tsung Li Yamen who was not carried away by the prevailing insanity of the hour. On the 6th of September a still more im-pressive memorial service was held on the Ha Ta great street, the coffin being deposited at the spot where the German Minister had been basely shot seventy-eight days previous. Some companies of German soldiers were in attendance, with a band, and many members of other Le-gations. A part of the brief exercises was a stirring ad-dress delivered by a Chaplain named Kessler, review-ing the career of the late Minister, and enforcing the obvious lessons to be drawn therefrom.

It was a strange and an impressive spectacle, taking place as it did on one of the great arteries of the ancient Capital of the Empire, which with all its experience had never witnessed conditions like these. The chair of the Baroness, in deep mourning, stood beside the coffin; the streets were lined with interested European spectators, and with impassive Chinese, perhaps dimly wondering what it was all about. What a change of circumstances within that two and a half months, and what a wonder that events shaped by an unseen Hand had brought about such a surprising revolution, for the man who fired the

боо - CHINA IN CONVULSION

shot was already in the custody of the Germans, admitting the act, but explaining that he was obeying the orders of his immediate superiors.

During the entire siege more than seventy Chinese Peking carts stood in the British Legation, a reminiscence of the expectation that an overland journey to Tientsin would be soon undertaken, and they would all be wanted. As soon as the besieged began once more to go upon the streets, there occurred one of those surprising alterations of conditions to which despite their perpetual recurrence it was difficult to become accustomed. The city was flooded with foreign troops, and such Chinese as had re-mained soon began to perceive that nothing would be safe in merely Chinese possession. Accordingly many of them who had foreign friends among the besieged, or even mere acquaintances, hastened to confide to them the carts and mules which in the sudden and universal demand for transportation, it was impossible to save from confiscation. Thus was realized the Chinese adage which says: “ Nothing to eat in the morning, and at night a horse to ride.”

The disagreeable and dangerous pervasiveness of some of the Continental soldiers became so obtrusive and in-trusive, that it was necessary to remove the Chinese Christians, especially the school-girls, from their siege quarters to safer and more secluded places. The quest for suitable headquarters occupied some of the guardians of these helpless wards for many weary days. In many cases Chinese who had been in good circumstances were more than willing to put their property at the disposal of any foreigner whom they knew, to prevent it from being despoiled.

In two instances considerable bodies of Chinese Chris-tians were lodged by the consent of the military and 1е-

AFTER THE SIEGE 501

gation authorities in the palaces of Manchu Princes, which had been abandoned by their owners in terror. As the extensive complicity of all the Manchus in Peking with the Boxer movement became established as a fact, it seemed increasingly probable that the property in these places would be promptly confiscated. In accordance with the express advice both of the British and the American Ministers, it was decided to sell the property thus abandoned, and to use the abundant proceeds for the support of the destitute Christians, the number of whom continually increased as refugees from distant places began to have courage to come into the city.

This step gave rise to much misapprehension, and when the story was repeated with unconscious exaggeration by those ignorant of the peculiar circumstances, led to the propagation of much absolutely unsupported scandal. It would have been quite possible to have refused to enter these places at all, but having entered them, the only way to preserve the property from miscellaneous looting was to take possession of it under the highest authority then in existence, and to use it in ways which that authority ap-proved.

With the flight of the Empress and the Court, the whole Chinese army disappeared from vision, dispersed in many different directions, harrying the people through the regions where they passed, and anon congregating in Pao Ting Fu and other centers, only again to scatter. The mere occupation of Peking was probably regarded by them simply as an untoward incident, and by itself ac-complished little or nothing toward the settlement of the numerous and intricate questions arising upon every hand. The extensive supplies of arms which seem to have been sent to Peking during the siege, were concealed in a great variety of places, many of them coming to light in un-

502 CHINA IN CONVULSION

expected localities. Young Fargo Squiers with a com-panion discovered a great number of cases of Mánnlicher carbines; two of these they conveyed to the American Legation, but upon returning for the rest, it was found that the French had seized them. Mr. Tewksbury learned through a Buddhist priest that in a temple a short dis-tance outside of the Chang I gate of the southern city there were stored several cases of 3% inch shells belong-ing to the captured Krupp guns. On reporting this to the United States officers, a Major and a guard were sent to take possession. Similar finds were made in other quarters. қ

One of the most interesting discoveries was the mode of construction of the elaborate gun-platforms which the Chinese had put up inside the south-eastern corner of the Imperial City, for attacking the Legations and the Su Wang Fu. These were built of pine poles of large size carefully and strongly lashed together, supporting a plat-form about twenty-five feet in height, with an area of about twenty-five Бу forty feet. A long ramp led up to each one, for dragging the guns into position. A careful count showed that not less than seven hundred poles had been required for each platform. They were provided with strongly built roofs of two inch planks and the port holes, which had been dug through the coping of the city wall, were protected from rifle-firing by doors of 3-16 inch iron as bullet shields,—apparently some of the plun-der from the electric light works. Either one of these batteries properly worked ought to have made the Brit-ish Legation and the Fu untenable after two hours firing; yet, except during the final night of the siege, the execu-tion actually done was trifling.

The water-gate directly below these gun-platforms had been most securely barricaded with bricks and stones, as

BRITISH LEGATION WALL

CHINESE GUN PLATFORM FOR FIRING ON THE LEGATION

AFTER THE SIEGE 503

if to prevent the besieged from making a rush on the Imperial and Forbidden cities, and capturing the Court! At the same time, the corresponding gate in the southern wall of the northern city, through which as already men-tioned, the first foreign troops actually entered, was left wholly unguarded, some of the iron bars being altogether lacking, and the remainder easily removed.

By far the most interesting sight in Peking after the relief, was the Pei T’ang, or Northern Cathedral, which had been defended with supreme courage from the 16th of June (four days before the Legation siege began), until the 16th of August (two days after the Legations were delivered), when the first entry, singularly enough, was made by the Japanese troops. The extensive grounds are adjacent to the west wall of the Imperial City, and had been attacked from a gun platform similar to the one just described, situated at the north-west corner of the wall, but on the outside, as well as from rifle-platforms only a short distance off. Just beyond the north wall of the orphanage premises was situated a large magazine stored with sulphur and other materials for the manufacture of powder, of which the Chinese made incessant use.

During the sixty days of uninterrupted attack there occurred four explosions, due to the mining of the Chi-nese, which was indefatigable and on a large scale. Two of the four were very severe and resulted in great loss of life, especially among the Chinese children. In one of these explosions the roof of a building fell in and buried an Italian officer five feet deep in the debris. It was supposed that he was of course killed, but some hours after, when there was leisure to attend to it, excavations were made, and he was found to be uninjured!

The Cathedral was terribly battered by shells, but most of the bullets were fired far too high to do much execu-

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tion. During the whole two months of the Cathedral siege, the attacks of the enemy were never intermitted,— as was the case at the Legations—and in all that weary time no messengers were able to get out, and no outside news was received. During the period of semi-truce at the Legations, those besieged in the Cathedral, hearing no more artillery, naturally concluded that the Chinese had been victorious, and that the Legations had suc-cumbed.

The total number of foreigners imprisoned in the prem-ises was about ninety, of whom forty-three were officers and marines. There were several thousand Chinese, and a very inadequate food supply, as Bishop Favier had ex-pected that they would all be rescued within a short time after the siege began. At the close there was absolutely nothing to eat, the besieged having been reduced to two ounces of food a day; and when the relief arrived even this morsel was not available, and the civilians had agreed to go without food that what there was might be given to the fighters. The Mother Superior, a venerable lady of great age, never wavered in her conviction that the Lord would assuredly save His little flock. She lived through the siege to see her prophecy fulfilled, and then quietly passed away in peace.

The accurate foresight of the Bishop in forecasting the coming storm was equalled by the heroism of all those who passed through this frightful ordeal, which on some accounts was much worse than that experienced by those in the Legations, as its duration was longer, the attacks continuous, the resources more meagre, the defenders a mere handful against vast numbers, and the harrowing suspense in regard to what was taking place outside was never once broken. Whatever may be the fate of Chris-tianity in Peking or in China, the Northern Cathedral

AFTER THE SIEGE 505

will always remain as a witness of what Christian men and women, Chinese as well as Europeans, can do and suffer for a faith to which they have given their whole selves, and for which they would gladly have given their lives.

The following additional notes upon the Siege of the North Cathedral are condensed from an account by Rev. Gilbert Reid.

There were congregated there 30 French officers and marines, Io Italians, 13 French Fathers, 20 Sisters, and 3,200 native converts.

There was food enough for about 500 usually living on the place, but the task of feeding six times that num-ber was a serious one.

At first the Chinese had eight ounces of food each day, but toward the end this was reduced to two ounces. The men worked well as long as their strength remained, but afterwards could not do much more than crawl about and keep up a mere existence. The supply, such as it was, chaff, grass, and leaves of the trees, could only have lasted a few days more, and then famine and pestilence would have occurred. The foreigners fared better as their strength was indispensable for the defence.

The attack, at first by Boxers, began on June 15th, when forty-eight of the enemy were killed. By June 20th, Chinese soldiers appeared, and ever afterward continued to be the chief factor. On that day they also began cannonading, firing with one gun straight into the main entrance of the Cathedral grounds. The marines made a rush upon the enemy and captured the gun, which was the only artillery they had during the whole siege. The cannonading thus began earlier than at the Legations and was more severe. For three days the Cathedral was under fire from at least fourteen guns, while the number

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was ordinarily not less than four, including one from the Palace grounds, and another from the palace of Prince Li.

There were twenty-eight successive days of shelling,— being four days more than the whole period in which any of the Legations were shelled. During these days as many as 2,400 shells were fired, and on June 24th, 380 shells burst in the grounds.

The only defenders of the Cathedral and its vast crowd of helpless refugees were the forty marines who were sent from the foreign guard, stationed at the six different places where the fortifications were made strongest. The French were supplied with 2,000 rounds of ammunition, but the Italians had less. As soon as one of their number was killed a Chinese would take his place. Night and day this small number had to keep watch, and be ready to resist every device of the enemy.

The shelling left its marks on every other building as well as on the Cathedral itself. But the greatest effect was from the powder explosions. As many as eighty persons were killed in one explosion, and 400 in all, of whom 120 were children. The loss among the natives was mainly from these mines. The Foundling Hospital was a total wreck, a fitting illustration of the designs of the enemy.

At the beginning as many as 600 of the native con-verts were armed with swords and spears, but when the Chinese soldiers began firing shot and shell, such equip-ment was useless. Forty rifles and one gun were the defence against perhaps 2,000 rifles and a dozen guns.

However superior the strength and number of the enemy, they made no attempt to assault and enter the place. The shots of the French were too well aimed to encourage such an attempt. A kind Providence rested

AFTER THE SIEGE 507

over the place, and the united prayers of each morning brought their blessing in rich munificence.

The enemy who fought, and the Empress and advisers who schemed, had clearly one intent, and that was the annihilation of the body of Christians who never fired a shot except in self-defence. To the credit of Catholic France and Catholic Italy the calamity was prevented.

The defence was one of sublime heroism. The head of the Mission, Bishop Favier, was the leader of courage. While untrained to martial deeds, he maintained cheer-fulness and hope, and by calmness of spirit and trust in God, kept in check any panic among the converts, and all despondency among the marines. Half of the Italian defenders, and both of the French officers, with three marines, were killed, or one-fourth of the total. How-ever desperate the position, the Bishop never lost heart.

The Siege in Peking, from whatever point of view it is regarded, will always remain a memorable experience in human history. It was the culmination of a movement without any parallel in the annals of the past, and which is not likely to be repeated under any future conditions. There is much about it which is obscure, and much which will perhaps remain so. But as an example of the stead-fast, patient courage of a handful against a host, of the sagacious use of slender resources, of the bravery of men and the fortitude of women, of unfaltering trust in God, and of a great deliverance wrought by Him against all human probabilities, it is a story, however inadequately told, which the world will not willingly let die.

XXVII

CHAPTER 27. The Hand of God in the Siege

THE HAND OF GOD IN THE SIEGE *

his Chaplain what he considered to be the proof

of the authenticity of the Bible. The Chaplain replied: “The Jews, Your Majesty.” Should any one ask what is the evidence of a Providence which watches over the affairs of men, the compendious answer might well be: “ The Siege in Peking.” Instead of submitting the case to argument, it is better to confine our attention to a few outline facts.

т. The preservation of the lives of the foreigners in Peking before the Legation guards arrived. There is probable, but not certain, evidence that the Grand Coun-cil held a meeting at which the question of exterminating all Occidentals in Peking was discussed, and nothing but the vacillation oí Prince Ch'ing seems to have delayed the act.

2. The arrival of the Legation guards by the very last opportunity. Had they been two days later, the utter and irreparable ruin of the railway and the general blaze throughout the country would have prevented them from coming, as it prevented Admiral Seymour a few

| \REDERICK the Great is said to have inquired of

* The substance of this address was delivered at a Union Thanksgiving Service, held in the British Legation grounds, Peking, Sunday morning Aug. 10th, after the arrival of the re-lieving army.

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COMING OUT OF CHURCH, PEKING

THE HAND ОЕ СОР IN THE SIEGE 509

days after. This would have insured the massacre of every foreigner at once.

3. The immunity from attack while foreigners were unaware of their serious peril. Many were scattered in distant parts of Peking, and some even at the Western Hills, as if nothing were wrong. They were gathered in by the Sth of June. The largest part of all, twenty-four in number, travelled without escort thirteen miles, from T’ung Chou, through a region seething with animos-ity to foreigners, not only without attack, but with no threatening symptoms of any sort.

4. These Americans just mentioned, with others to the number of seventy, took refuge in the large premises of the Methodist Mission, where for a period of twelve days they were in a state of semi-siege, a time which was a most important rehearsal of the coming period of far greater trial. An elaborate organization was at once effected, committees of many kinds chosen, fortifications and defences begun, sentries mounted, the Chinese Chris-tians drilled and armed, so that when the whole body of foreigners assembled at the British Legation, and the British Minister desired the active coöperation of the Americans, the whole machinery was in order, and it was only necessary to slip the belt on the wheel for it to begin to work.

5. The safety of the native Christians. When the sudden murder of the German Minister led to the order that all foreigners should repair to their Legations, noth-ing was said in regard to the native Christians. They were regarded as outside the sphere of influence of the Ministers, who took no action in regard to them at all. To many they were an unconsidered and a negligible quantity. Largely through the agency of the lamented Professor James, who was killed at the very time of the

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entrance of the Christians to the palace which he had helped to secure for them, they were graciously and mar-vellously provided for, at a time of dire extremity, in the Su Wang Fu. Little as most of us realized it at the time, this palace and its grounds were absolutely essential to our salvation. Without it the British, Spanish, Japanese, French and German Legations could not have been held, and without the services of the Chinese Christians the work of defence could not have been prosecuted. It might have been said, “except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.”

6. In round numbers there were probably three thou-sand persons to be fed during the siege, exclusive of the many hundred marines. Many foreigners came into the Legation, as did nearly all the Chinese, without any pro-vision whatever. It was inherently improbable that any considerable food-supply could be obtained within our lines, for a siege of unknown duration. Yet in a grain shop on Legation Street was discovered between one hundred and two hundred tons of wheat of this year's crop, recently arrived from Honan. Besides this, there were mountains of rice, white and yellow Indian corn, pulse, and much else. All the shops in Peking dealing in foreign goods were within our lines, and their stores were immediately available, and during the whole siege were absolutely essential.

There was a large supply of ponies for the races, as well as mules, most of which were consumed for food, while nearly all the remainder were needed for hauling, grinding grain, etc. The food for all these animals was supplied as remarkably as that for men and women. Con-siderable sorghum and beans were discovered, besides a huge pile of millet-straw close to two dwelling-houses which had been burned,—one on either side of the straw,

THE HAND ОЕ СОР IN THE SIEGE sıı

which was not disturbed. Many old residents of Peking were surprised to find the water of the eight wells in the British Legation was of great excellence, and it was abundantly proved that it could be safely drunk without being filtered or boiled. While there were heavy drafts on these wells during the great fires, they never once failed us.

The fuel supply was absolutely unlimited, though had it been absent nothing could have taken its place. We were surrounded by hundreds of thousands of pounds of coal, which had only to be brought a short distance. Wrecked buildings afforded all the kindling needed and abundant timbers for fortifications.

7. Miscellaneous supplies were procured from the for-eign stores; and clothing for many foreigners, who had not even a change of garments, was found at tailor shops near by. One of the greatest, most imperative, and con-stant needs, was material for sand bags, of which perhaps 50,000 may have been made. At first, legation curtains, damask tablecloths, and any and every fabric obtainable was used. Later the supply from the foreign stores and Chinese sources seemed literally inexhaustible, and to the end never gave out. From Chinese dwellings within the lines, or without, were procured enormous quantities of clothing most useful for the destitute Chinese Christians, until their wants in all directions were amply supplied, much being sold at auction for their benefit.

Materials for the defence were discovered in many places, notably in a blacksmith's shop, where were ob” tained an anvil, bellows, smelting-pots, and best of all, an old Chinese cannon which proved invaluable. И was mounted on an Italian carriage, loaded with Russian shell refilled by the British armourer, charged with Chinese

512 CHINA IN CONVULSION

powder, and fired by an American gunner—justly termed the “International Gun.” In many shops and houses were found britannia-ware to the extent of several cart-loads, much of which was used in making balls for the cannon, and shot for the Italian one-pound gun, besides many bullets. Of all the miscellaneous stuff which came to hand, very little proved amiss in the end.

8. The restraining hand of God upon the Chinese. When foreigners were on their way to the Legations, and everything was in a chaotic state, the Chinese might readily have annihilated the whole body at a blow. While the Chinese held the city wall, they could easily have made every Legation uninhabitable if they had used the right means. Rifle shots alone would have been suffi-cient.

Then they adopted well-chosen plans to burn the British Legation, by the spread of fires set on the out-side. Of these attacks, three were fierce, persistent, and dangerous in the extreme. Yet in the end they not only all failed, but we were left in each case in a stronger posi-tion than before. More than once the wind suddenly veered about, saving us from what appeared to be immi-nent destruction. Buildings being removed which shel-tered the enemy and which might spread fires in our Lega-tion limits, we were better protected. The destruction of the Hanlin Yuan was the means of extending our line of defence a considerable distance, the position being later made almost impregnable.

More terrible than all else was the threat of mining. This we knew to have been actually begun in two places, and perhaps elsewhere, one mine in a building in the Carriage Park, and one on the wall near our most ad-

vanced post to the west. Why were these mines never finished?

THE HAND OF СОР IN THE SIEGE 513

The Chinese might at many different times have made a sudden and a violent attack at a weak point, from which it would have been difficult to defend ourselves, the lines being very long and the defenders few. Had'we been attacked by European or Japanese troops, they would cer-tainly have crept down the edge of the Canal in the dark, where our rifles could not command them, and have rushed the front gate. Only two days before the siege was raised, was a platform completed for the planting of a gun to prevent this, though, owing to the greater peril elsewhere, the gun was never mounted upon it. A few hundred Chinese, willing to throw away their lives to ensure the capture of the Legations, would have taken them at any moment during the first month of the siege. Why was it never done, or even attempted? The Chinese were in some way kept from following up the principal advantages which they gained.

At the very beginning of the siege nearly all the Lega-tions were abandoned in a panic, but the Chinese did not enter, and the positions were reoccupied. At another time the city wall was abandoned, but the Chinese did not find it out until too late, and it was at once retaken. When the new battery had begun to play on the house in the south stable court, a few shots threatened to bring the house tumbling down. Rifles attacked the battery and it was withdrawn, and never replanted there.

At a later date shells were thrown into the house of the Chinese Secretary in a way to threaten the whole Legation, as well as that one dwelling. Again the rifles assailed the gunners, and after five shots the battery was withdrawn permanently. Time after time, when the gunners appeared to have got the exact range, the shell-ing ceased. The very last night of the siege the shells were most destfuctive, but only ten shots were fired, and

514 CHINA IN CONVULSION

the next day the gun was gone. The most terrible en-gines of destruction were rendered comparatively harm-less.

It has been estimated that between a million and а half and two million bullets must have been discharged at us. In some of the earlier attacks, when we appeared to be surrounded by several thousand foes, there seemed to be 124 shots a minute, or more than two a second. Yet excluding men at the loopholes, only three or four persons are known to have been injured by these bullets in the crowded British Legation, where there were prob-ably never less than 800 persons on an average, and some-times over 1,000. One marine was killed in this way, and two or three others wounded, and the last day of the siege two civilians were scratched. After the relieving force had entered the Legation, the only injury received by any lady took place. No child was hit, though the yards swarmed with them.

Careful count shows the number of shells and shots fired at all the Legations during the siege to be about 2,000. In the British Legation it is believed that no one not on duty at the loop-holes was ever really injured by any one of these, although a few Chinese were hurt by bricks knocked down by cannon balls. Hundreds of solid shot fell in the Hanlin courts, in the Ministers’ houses, and in other crowded places. Why were these innumer-able missiles so harmless? For a long time there appeared to be from twelve to fifteen guns playing at once. Thir-teen bomb-proofs were laboriously dug, but so far as is known not one of them was ever entered to escape from a shell.

9. The restraining hand of God in warding off disease. The overcrowding was excessive, the conditions most unwholesome. Orientals are impatient of sanitary re-

THE HAND ОЕ GOD IN THE SIEGE 515

straints. Whooping-cough, measles, typhoid and scarlet fevers, as well as small-pox, have all been experienced during the siege, by both foreigners and Chinese, but there was no contagion to speak of, and no epidemic. What an opportunity for the development of Asiatic cholera! Bad and insufficient food had caused consider-able mortality among Chinese children, and the aged, but in general the vital statistics have been extraordinary. There was no known case of heat-stroke, and for this latitude the weather throughout was phenomenal.

The physicians available for service were exceedingly numerous and skilful. One of the most intelligent pa-tients declared that in no hospital in the civilized world would better care and more tender nursing be secured. Lady doctors laid aside all professional etiquette, and were content to act simply as nurses. Under the circum-stances, the percentage of losses in the hospital cannot be considered large, especially among so many serious cases.

то. The Lord sent a spirit of confusion among our enemies, who feared us far more than we feared them. Their most savage attacks seemed designed to prevent us from making sorties which they exceedingly dreaded and tried in every way to prevent.

On our part there was a spirit of unity rare to see. Greek, Roman Catholic and Protestant Christians frater-nized as never before. We represented every country in Europe except Turkey and Greece, besides three in Asia, and the United States. What a Noah’s Ark! Yet the thought of Plato and the hint of Cicero, concerning “the common bond ” which links the whole human race was seldom more strongly felt, realizing the idea of Paul that we are all members one of another. Amid political and military jealousies this fact will remain a precious

516 CHINA IN CONVULSION

memory. The harmony of the defended was well matched by the bravery of their defenders.

In all these things we see the Hand of God in the Siege in Peking. In many of its aspects it is fully and com-prehensively anticipated in Psalm CXXIV, especially the seventh verse, which was sent home as a telegram the day after relief came. We honour the living for their heroism in defending us. We cherish the memory of the brave dead. But most of all we thank the Lord who brought us through fire and water into a healthy place.

XXVIII

CHAPTER 28. The Punishment of Peking

tion of the capital of China by European troops,

in 1860. At that time, every consideration was shown to the feelings of the Chinese: the city was left uninjured, and within a month of their first entry the troops were withdrawn from within the walls. Great things were hoped from the blow to the national pride involved in this brief occupancy. It was confidently ex-pected that it would prove the death-blow to the old stubborn arrogancy that has so long looked down upon the foreigner as an outcast and a barbarian, and made Peking a closed city to the outside world.

But after more than a generation of intercourse with Europeans, Peking must still be called an anti-foreign city from first to last.

Although the Yamen Ministers have gone to the Lega-tions for occasional banquets, it has always been notice-able that there were no return visits at their own homes, and the effort to introduce such an innovation a few years since was a blank failure. Except in the case of the missionaries, it is still true that the homes of the city are tightly closed to the outsider.

The number of treatments in the various hospitals, es-pecially in the pioneer one of the London Mission, has amounted to hundreds of thousands—perhaps even to a million or more—and many wide and effectual doors have

517

| \ORTY years have elapsed since the first оссира-

518 CHINA IN CONVULSION

thus been opened to the Chinese heart; but, taking Peking as a whole, it has remained irreconcilable in its contempt and hate.

It has long been known that the native pundits who teach foreigners the language would not recognize their pupils on the street should they meet them, because, what-ever their private views might be, to do so would cause the pundit to lose “face,” or self-respect. And what was true of scholars was to a considerable degree the case also with the tradesmen, who were willing enough to absorb the foreign dollars, but who despised their owners. The same was also true to a large extent of the working class—even the coolies—who felt themselves immeasurably the superiors of those for whom they toiled --а view not, perhaps, unlike that entertained by the Jews in Babylon toward their conquerors.

The southern city of Peking has always prided itself upon being far more pronouncedly anti-foreign than the Tartar city. It has steadily resisted every effort to buy a foot of its sacred soil for missionary purposes, and if there have been occasional exceptions in the success of such attempts, they have but served to emphasize the general rule.

Such has been the response of the capital to the first foreign occupation, when leniency and magnanimity of treatment were scrupulously observed. The second occu-pancy has occurred under circumstances widely different from the first, and with consequences never to be for-gotten by the Chinese. If the crimes that led to it were of a singular atrocity, their punishment also has been of a singular completeness. cu When the Boxers first arrived in practically limitless numbers, they were distributed like soldiers all over the city, and fed, as soldiers often (but not always) are, at

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the expense of the people. This would have been a heavy tax, but it was followed by much worse. In order “to guard the Legations,” the large detachments of the troops of Jung Lu, Commander-in-Chief of the provincial army, and of General Tung were brought in. These soldiers were related to the Boxers much as scorpions to grass-hoppers.

Between them the city was reduced to an acute pitch of misery such as it had never known since the arrival of foreigners. Many families were extinguished, and іп others only one or two out of eight or ten members re-mained alive. Hundreds of house doors were walled up entirely, which often meant that there was no one left. The savages from the province of Kansu who followed General Tung speak a strange dialect almost unintelligible to the Pekingese, but they have written their names in blood. They are to the Chinese in Peking what the Chaldeans from afar were to the ancient Jews, “ a hasty and a bitter people.”

The ruin of all Christian property was but the be-ginning of destruction. During the week of burn-ing, the relatively few foreign houses by no means suf-ficed to quench the unquenchable thirst for places to loot and to destroy. On some days one could count six or eight distinct fires in different quarters, the greatest of them all being the destructive conflagration outside the Front Gate, in the southern city, where were situated the richest shops and the most flourishing trade of Peking.

When it was once more possible for foreigners to traverse the streets of the city, the desolation which met the eye was appalling. Dead bodies of soldiers lay singly or in heaps, in some instances covered with a torn old mat, but always a prey to the now well-fed pariah dogs. Indeed, dead dogs and dead horses poisoned the air of

520 CHINA IN CONVULSION

every region. The huge pools of stagnant water were reeking with putrid corpses of man and beast; lean cats stared wildly at the passer-by from holes broken in the fronts of shops boasting such signs as “ Perpetual Abun-dance,” “ Springs of Plenty,” “Ten Thousand Prosperi-ties,” and the oft-quoted maxim from the Great Learning, “ There is a highway to the production of wealth.” One might read over the door of a place thrice looted, and lying in utter ruin, the cheerful motto, “ Peace and Tran-quillity.” For miles upon miles of the busiest streets of the northern and southern city not a single shop was open for business, and scarcely a group of persons was any-where to be seen.

But the capital of the Chinese Empire had no sooner been occupied by the Allies and its territory distributed for purposes of patrol among the several military contin-gents represented, than the Chinese began to adapt them-selves to the new relations with the same ease with which water fits itself to the dish into which it is poured. The Japanese, having the command of the Chinese written language, were the first to enter this new field, and in three days the whole city was inundated with little flags with a red disc in the middle, and thousands of doors began to be ornamented with the legend: “ Compliant subjects of the Great Japanese Nation.” For some time 11 was common to meet Chinese with such flags, the upper space blank, and only the words “compliant sub-jects” inserted, the nation to which they gave their adherence being left to be filled in later—a striking com-mentary on the “ patriotism” of the Chinese. Of ten men on the streets, eight would probably be “furnished with flags of different lands (in cheap imitation only, and much the worse for a heavy shower). The advice so often given by Chinese to one another not to “ follow

THE PUNISHMENT ОЕ PEKING 521

foreigners ” has, then, brought about this result, prob-ably unique in the history of mankind.

Not only were flags made the symbol of allegiance to other and unknown countries, but the English language was tortured to compel it to announce this allegiance. “ Belong Japan ” was the notice on an old shed in the great На Ta street. “Noble and good Sirs,” read another placard, “please do not shoot us. We are good people.” Surely never was there stranger and more unanticipated fulfillment of the prophecy that “the sons of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee,” than the cir-cumstance that within a few doors of a temple which served as a Boxer headquarters one read the surprising legend, “ God Christianity men,” while the remainder of the alley was decorated with the reiterated petition, “ Pray officer excuse. Here good people.”

There was not only no business doing in Peking in the early months of the occupation, but the very sources of commercial prosperity had been cut up by the roots. In the northern city were four allied banks, each with the character “ Héng,” denoting Perpetuity, and the syn-dicate (supposed to be owned by a eunuch of the Palace) was considered as safe as the Bank of England. In the third week in June the Chinese soldiers plundered each of the Perpetuities, which have ceased to exist— as for a time did all other cash-shops and banks. The streets were abundantly supplied with bank-bills, which blew hither and thither with the gusts of wind and the swirls of dust, and were impartially nosed over in the gutters by the few surviving dogs.

It was not many months, however, ere the shrewd Chinese had a system of cash-shops once more in opera-tion, greatly modified by the inrush of foreign dollars which now became the standard currency of the city.

522 CHINA IN CONVULSION

During the extreme political uncertainties of the winter, it sometimes happened that the price of silver in terms of Peking cash suddenly advanced, at one time to the extent of twenty-five per cent within a period of about three weeks. This was supposed to be because silver can be buried with facility, while brass cash is much too bulky, and it was considered only prudent to confide one’s bullion to Mother Earth, who, when not tampered with, is practically the only safe banker in the Empire.

That the gates of Peking, so intimately associated in the minds of all Orientals with the safety of the people, suf-fered severely during and after the siege has been al-ready mentioned. The Boxers were responsible for in-directly igniting the outer tower of the Ch’ien Mên dur-ing their costly conflagration of June 13th, and the inner tower was set on fire accidentally through the carelessness of a signal party after the British troops were in posses-sion.

The outer tower of the Ha Ta gate also disappeared in flames and smoke during those stormy days, while that of the Ch' Hua Men was destroyed by the Japanese on their entry. After the foreign soldiers took charge of Peking the city gates were never closed at all, the de-pendence for security being not upon the wall but upon the guards and the sentries at the outposts.

The first instinct of the Occidental on taking posses-sion of a Chinese city is to provide facile means of ingress and egress. The Chinese seldom make gates except in the middle of the walls on each face of the city, to the great inconvenience of trafic and with a waste of time utterly intolerable to Westerners. Peking had not been occupied three days before the hole already mentioned had been blown through the walls into the Imperial City, at the head of the canal above the British Lega-

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tion, and this has ever since been an important thor-oughfare. At a point more than half-way up the east face of the same wall another slit was cut also, wide enough to admit of the passage of carts, saving many hours of time in crossing the city. But the greatest innovation of all was at the southwest corner of the Tartar City, where the British dug a tunnel quite through the entire outer wall, making an arch, securely boarded in, and labeled in Chinese “ English Gate.” It has a barricade on the outside and on the inside, and has become indispensable to foreigners, although the Chinese will doubtless hasten to close it up when they have the power. The cutting thus laboriously drilled through the tough concrete, on which dynamite is said to have made but a faint impression, gave an interesting exhibition of the internal anatomy of the fourteen and a quarter miles of this vast protecting rampart, which after all failed to protect.

During the spring there was witnessed the remarkable spectacle of the demolition by the Royal Engineers of the south-western tower at the corner of the wall of the northern city, that its timbers might be employed for the rehabilitated railway to Tientsin. It will be remem-bered by those who have ever visited the Capital of China that each face of these towers has eight and forty little windows each provided with the board shutter on which is painted the picture of the mouth of a cannon—a not inapt symbol of the general defences of Peking.

Directly in front of the Temple of Heaven was the new terminus of the Tientsin and Peking Railway, formerly at Ma Chia P’u, a mile or two outside the southern city. A huge breach was made in the wall of the southern city, through which the trains enter, reminding the traveller of old York in England—an innovation for

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which, but for the Boxers, we might have waited long. In front of the station stretched a long row of electric lights, the plant of which was rescued from the Summer Palace by the British, and was now for the first time made useful.

The carts and wagons which cluster about the sta-tion on arrival of the trains were kept from overrun-ning the platform by a long line of stone posts with a familiar look. One face read “ Southwest boundary Wang Family,” and the next “ Northeast boundary Chang Family.” They came from the corners of cemeteries in the country, the practical and unsentimental Occidental soldier finding the removal of these landmarks the easiest way to accomplish his end.

The original terminus of the Lu-Han Railway, one of the first enterprises of this sort undertaken by the Chinese Government, was placed at Lu Kuo Ch’iao, on the Yung Ting (or Hun) river, so as to be at a safe distance from the Capital. During the military occupation it appeared to be a suitable opportunity to extend the line directly to Peking, no questions being likely to be asked. This was accordingly done, and a hole was blown in the west wall of the southern city, and the rails laid near the dividing wall between the cities and parallel with it. The station was fixed just outside the Ch’ien Men.

The British military authorities, on the other hand, determined upon a line to the Peiho at T’ung Chou, which was at once begun on the same facile terms. The em-bankment passes through the enceinte of the Ha Ta gate, to a station just outside the water gate through which the British relieving force entered the city; from the Ha Ta gate eastward it passes under the wall in a direct line, through a breach in the wall of the southern city.

Thus T'ung Chou, which cut off its own hope by refus-

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ing the railway when it was first projected, may yet through its agency be raised, as it were, from the dead.

The plan of the Allies in this and numerous other im-provements appears to be to introduce practical ameliora-tions of existing conditions which may have to be defended by pressure for a few years, after which it is hoped that the Chinese will so thoroughly appreciate them that there will be no call for a return to the previous conditions.

Let it not be supposed that because Western modes of transportation are increasingly employed, Asia is sud-denly to be hustled into the abandonment of its past and of its traditions. Perhaps the best symbol of that past and its traditions is the patient, slow, but sure-footed camel, who has always abounded in Peking streets, “а prince in winter, a beggar in summer,” with bits of hair here and there clinging to his almost bare hide. The long lines which used to be seen loaded with tea for Russia have disappeared, but droves of them are still bringing coal from the western hills as of yore. It is a Chinese adage that when the camel carries despatches, whatever may be said of his speed, he is at least sure. Attentive contemplation of their apparently expressionless visage may reveal the ground-plan of a sly half-wink, as if the leader of the long line of deliberate creatures were calmly ruminating thus: “Ah! Т perceive that you believe you could get on and not use me. Ah! you were wrong, as you shall see; for I am strong, I can wait long; here I belong; long after you and yours are gone, here I shall ре.”

The numerous jinrikishas which had begun to form so prominent a feature in Peking, and which were so utterly extinguished by the siege and its concomitants, again became all-pervasive, forming a useful link in the not too

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abundant facilities for locomotion. Carts once more began to ply for hire, at rates somewhat advanced above those of former days, and the streets, including the few which had been metaled, after being badly worn by the heavy army and other traffic, were repaired, although but superficially, if at all, by Ше military authorities.

In ordinary times the dust is partly laid by throwing on the roads all the waste water of the city, but for many months this was altogether pretermitted, and the result was such depths of loose, friable soil as passed all pre-vious experience, which was already sufficiently painful. The whole winter may be said to have been one semi-continuous dust-storm, reducing life to its lowest terms, although the climate is not in ‘itself objec-tionable.

Under the military government of the city, Peking was lighted at night as it had never been before, in many places every house being required to maintain a lamp at the door. Even on the walls of the Imperial City, and in places where heretofore there had usually reigned Cimmerian darkness, small kerosene lamps shone clear, enabling the traveller to see his way with sufficient distinctness. Even the smaller alleys were thus lit to some extent, and in the larger streets, as outside the Ch’ien Men, the effect was not unlike that of a Western row of street lamps. The military also endeavoured to teach the Chinese how to keep their streets and alleys clean, an art never previously acquired in the capital of China. Had the occupation of the city been prolonged, there ought to have been a marked improvement in its san-itation as a whole; but that the Chinese themselves will ever adopt and enforce regulations like these is too much to expect. Аз the saying goes, “When the windlass stops, the garden-beds dry up.”

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The huge piles of lime which during the siege were so conspicuous in readiness for the repair of the Peking highways, were absorbed by military or by private indi-viduals, who will doubtless never again find such material so conveniently provided. A huge combination of cap-ital had a “corner” on all the lime-kilns in the Western Hills region, as well as on all the brick-kilns, and expected to realize great sums when rebuilding once set in.

The siege barricades were everywhere entirely re-moved, and the British Legation was soon put into its normal trim and tidy condition. But the wall at the extreme end of the north stables was left as the reliev-ing forces found it, battered by the incessant impact of bullets, shot, and shell, the whole surmounted by a damaged lookout, surmounted by decaying sand-bags, while beneath on the outer face of the wall are printed in bold capitals the significant words: “LEST WE FORGET.”

The disposition of the refuse from the cavalry stables appeared to have been a perplexing problem. It was ill solved by making huge winrows in the spacious broad-ways in front of the Imperial City on the south, forming a perpetual Gehenna, where lean and mangy dogs during the bitter winter weather reposed in peace and security on the warm and reeking manure piles. One of the military eccentricities was the renaming of all the Peking streets, one being “ Gaselee Road,” another “ Stewart Road,” etc., so that when an American sol-dier informed one that his barracks were at “the corner of Ave. A and 5th St.” in the southern city, it was neces-sary to study a new map.

The presence of so many foreigners in the Capital ren-dered the pursuit of philological researches both easy and fascinating. One of the more recent arrivals wished

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to know why the Chinese were always saying “ Quite so,” and what they meant by it. It turned out to be merely a reflection of the impatient foreigner, whose most imperious demand is k’uai-tsou (go on fast) Still another thoughtful observer noticed the singular fact that the Chinese appeared familiar with one of the most doubt-ful of French novelists, and frequently spoke his name —“ Zola,” tsou-la (gone)!

The one phrase of pure and unadulterated Pekingese which is more certain to be heard than any other, is the expression “ Pukou pén’rh”—meaning that the sum of money supposed to have been mentioned is less than the article cost. It is said that “ poko” is a Filipino word, meaning “a little,” and it was soon introduced into Pekingese as a new slang phrase with a wide range of meaning. A defective postage-stamp was “ pukou péw rh,’ and so was а lad who failed to win a race with his fellow, or a lamp chimney with a flaw.

The city in which all foreigners were but lately stormed at with shot and shell, now began to display posters in Chinese informing the natives at what places schools might be found where English, French, Russian, or Jap-anese could be learned. The walls of the entrances to the Forbidden city bore huge hand-bills notifying the whereabouts of the “Y. М. С. A. Reading, Writing, and Coffee Rooms,” while on West Legation street might be observed the announcement printed in neat capitals: “The work-shop in which any iron-work are pro-posed.” French and German advertisements everywhere abounded, and the main street of the southern city bris-tled with notifications in every leading European lan-guage, as well as in Japanese; they were of every variety, from a barber’s shop with its colored pole. to the per-emptory announcement at the railway station in front of

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the Temple of Heaven: “ No Admittance Except on Bus-iness.”

The Winter Palace, within the innermost recesses of what the troops have dubbed “ The Sacred City,” was vis-ited during the winter by many thousand persons, mili-tary and civil, and later by a stream of tourists, and while all of its buildings may not have been entered, the greater part of them are now as familiar to us as the palaces at Versailles, and have been photographed times without number. It has been well known that from the very first opening of these apartments to the select circle, the curios and bric-a-brac began to disappear, until, ere weeks had passed, nothing portable was left in sight, and but little of any kind which would be worth carrying away. It is sup-posed that much still remains within the storehouses and treasuries with which the residences of princes and the Imperial family are amply provided; but for the exclusive and haughty Manchus who have so long ruled China, it is difficult to regard their abodes as other than hopelessly defiled by the contamination of the Barbarian for so many moons.

There were left the foreign musical instruments, an organ, a baby-organ, and a piano, all horribly out of tune, together with a pile of books in the Emperor’s library, some silk-covered mattresses on the divans (stuffed with cotton), and the usual worthless bric-a-brac of the Chinese mansion, all that is really valuable having been removed to some other sphere of usefulness. Some time ago there was the huge brass (or bronze?) elephant with his preposterous accompaniments of a train, but like the real animals in the city he seems to have gone the way of the rest, and perhaps some time when a visitor’s vest-pockets had an unusual bulge, it was owing to this two foot monstrosity tucked carelessly away inside!

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As the restrictions upon entering became more strin-gent, the number of doors closed up with a long type-written set of rules and regulation multiplied, until there were many places, once easy of access, closed to all comers. And the public was politely requested not to kick the Chinese attendants because they declined to open doors which they were forbidden to unlock. This cau-tion was not unnecessary, as the demeanour of the mili-tary portion of the visitors frequently demonstrated. They are used to being minded without question, and to have a “heathen Chinee” refuse to do what they told him was intolerable.

On the whole the more minute and reiterated inspec-tion of the “ Palaces ” was disappointing. We knew all the while that they must be much the same as other Chinese elegant dwellings, yet we had a secret hope that it would prove otherwise. To begin with, courts in the Winter Palace are surprisingly small in area, and one is not without a feeling of pity for an Empress and an Emperor who should have to put up with much smaller breathing-places between their dwellings than some of their humbler subjects. Why the palaces were laid out on such a scrimped pattern is as unaccountable as the like phenomenon in the village hamlet, where the land, being worth absolutely nothing at all, is treated as if it were the corner-lot of a city, and must not be wasted. Taking into account the far ampler accommodations of the build-ings used as headquarters by Count von Waldersee and the German officers, it is easy to see why they should have gradually displaced in favour the others in the more “ Forbidden City ” itself.

This “ Western Court” (Hsi Yuan), which has long been the city home of the Empress Dowager and the Emperor, is situated to the west of the main Forbidden

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City, to which it forms a species of annex. The abode of the former (called Ying T’ai) was the handsomest building in Peking, with rich black-wood carving adapted to entrance the eye (and to hold the dust) in an unusual degree. In the adjacent courts there were theatres, lotus-ponds, and endless pavilions, while at the south-western angle there was a stretch of what is probably the most extensive and elaborate rock-work in China, so skilfully concealing the relatively small areas of the enclosure that the general effect was that of intricate labyrinths, though the whole tract is but a few rods in width.

Still further east is the palace of the Emperor (Nan Hai Tzu) in which for many months he was confined upon an island in gilded misery, daily sitting on the ter-race on the southern side overlooking the lake, and vainly longing for a turn in the wheel of Fortune, which, when at last it came, by no means brought the relief expected.

On the night of the 17th of April the Ying T’ai Palace of the Empress Dowager was largely destroyed by a fierce fire, which was so rapid in its spread that the Commander-in-Chief of all the Armies was rescued through a window, while his Chief of Staff, Gen. von Schwartzhoff, who returned to his room to save val-uable papers, was burned to death immediately. It is altogether likely that these, and similar disasters, are largely if not entirely due to the careless manner in which Westerners introduced their huge stoves into the fragile structures designed to be heated only by braziers, or at most by coal fires under the brick floor. The first step taken by the Occidental is to build brick partitions, and to wall in the verandas, and the next is to set up his stoves with pipes of all sizes, made of the most imperfect ma-terials, protruding through the flimsy wooden lattice-work at all heights and angles. The Chinese servants, in the

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effort to suit their masters and keep the fires always hot, stuff the stoves to the top with fuel, and then leave the stove door open to prevent too rapid combustion. With such antecedents the consequences experienced are almost inevitable.

‘From the Nan Hai Tzu to the Ying T’ai, and northward along additional lotus-ponds, extended the line of the toy railway built for the delectation of His Majesty, where he was wont to ride in the carriages pushed by coolies so as to insure immunity from railway accidents. For the accommodation of the handsomely furnished cars elabo-rate sheds had been built, but the vehicles had long been entirely exposed to the weather, and during the rains and snows had not only parted with their elegant varnish, but likewise with every scrap of plush and velvet trimmings. A string of open freight cars was daily employed for removing the manure from the stables of the German cavalry.

The hitherto inaccessible Coal Hill became greatly appreciated by the Chinese as a recreation park, for which it was much frequented. At its eastern side near the base is pointed out the gnarled and stunted pine-tree on which the last Emperor of the native Ming Dynasty hung him-self in 1644, when he saw that the Manchus had entered his Capital and seized his Empire.

In the beautiful Iho Park, within the inclosure known as the “ Summer Palace,” or Wan Shou Shan, several miles northwest of Peking, the Empress spent much of her time, and it was here that she was visited by her favourites in the official ranks, bring-ing word of everything said and done outside. These spacious and beautiful grounds, known as the Moun-tain of Ten Thousand Ages, were іп 1860 visited by the besom of destruction as a penalty for the

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treachery of the Imperial Court in capturing and tortur-ing Sir Harry Parkes and others while protected by a flag of truce. Within recent years the buildings have been restored to something of their pristine beauty, and re-stocked with those elegant adornments inseparable from Oriental luxury.

It is a strange fate which has overtaken this pleasure park that, at the expiration of just forty years from the former destruction, it should once more fall into the hands of the Barbarians, and, while not this time reduced to absolute ruins, should yet be unmercifuliy looted. Even the huge Buddhas were toppled over with violence to get at their true inwardness, and the looters have often been rewarded by securing old Chinese treasury notes dating back to the middle of the fourteenth century.

The crowning Temple to the Five Hundred Buddhas, on the crest of the hill, which almost alone escaped the devastation of 1860, has now been less fortunate, for in some unexplained manner a fire was started in it, and though its structure was too massive to fall, its walls are blackened and cracked from the effects of the intense heat.

From the lake at the base of the hill upon which this Temple stands to the summit, stretched a splendid suite of apartments, which when inspected by civilians were found to be scenes of wreck and ruin. The rooms were littered with broken fragments of carved partitions, and pieces of immense plate-glass windows, while prisms of chandeliers and broken bulbs of electric lights strewed the floors. That portion of this palace assigned to British care was carefully guarded and kept in fair condition, while all bric-a-brac still remaining was removed to a place of safety and securely guarded.

The fate of the Imperial palaces in falling into the

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hands of the invader was matched by that of the abodes of the Princes, Dukes, and other nobility, all of which were promptly pitched upon, as a “ military necessity,” for headquarters. The former palace of Prince Ch’un in the southwest corner of the city in which the present Emperor was born (and which therefore had to be given up as a residence and rebuilt as a family temple) was occupied by Gen. Stewart. Among its unique features was a model of a Chinese junk made with great fidelity in details, but built on a foundation of brick and stone in an artificial pond, where the occupants might go and imagine themselves on a voyage. This was employed by the British as a small-pox hospital!

A still more surprising curiosity, however, was a model of a small steam-boat likewise on a rock-work basis in another pond, in which were decks, upper and lower, steering-wheel, cabin with complete set of berths, each state-room with a foreign lock, etc., etc., all complete. This proved a most useful mine to the carpenters in refit-ting the Fu for foreign use, and all the cabin flooring, the locks, gangways, and the like, were unceremoniously transferred to the rooms of the General and his staff.

At another palace in the neighbourhood there was sup-posed to be treasure buried, which the officers tried in vain to discover. At length a representative of the owner succeeded through Li Hung Chang in getting a pass for men and carts to go by night and remove whatever was concealed, the British officer being politely requested to shift his bed (temporarily) while the jars of ingots buried beneath were being exhumed!

XXIX

CHAPTER 29. The Capital in Transformation

less dwellings of those whose names are known all over China were open to inspection, and with the inspection commenced what was practically a trans-formation. A particularly desolate place of this sort on an alley opening on the Ha Ta street was pointed out as belonging to Wéng T'ung Ho, formerly tutor of the Emperor. The Austrian contingent took possession of the house of Ch'ung Li (Governor of the Nine Gates of Peking)—a very attractive place not at all like the typical Fu and quite neat and clean. When the late owner sent over to ask for a fur garment as the winter was coming on, they genially replied that they had none to spare! Ву an arrangement with the Italians, the Tung Chou Christians and their shepherds occupied the premises known as the Chao Kung Fu, north of the Tung Hua gate, and close to the Imperial City wall. This place was owned by someone who had an eye to the picturesque, and built a very pretty two-storied building facing east and west, called the “ Ying Ch’un Lou,” or “ Chamber to Welcome Spring.” Ап enemy at Court promptly de-nounced the audacity of erecting such a structure which should command a view of the Imperial City, and the Empress Dowager saw her opportunity and fined the unhappy welcomer of the Spring one hundred thousand taels. As he was unable to raise more than forty thou-

535

A SIDE from the residences of the nobility, count-

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sand taels, the Empress kindly confiscated his place for the remainder, and gave it to her own younger brother, whose son was living in it when the troubles came on. The owners were very willing to have foreigners in occu-pation, as their premises were thus safe from further pillage than they had already undergone from the Ital-ians, and they have now been put in good order again at some ехрепзе. A considerable Christian community is lodged in numerous houses all around. The hours by day and night are sounded by a watchman on the large 500-pound bell of the North China College at T’ung Chou, which was stolen by the Boxers when the place was burnt, carried to a village and buried, and later rose from the dead and was brought to Peking. This bell and three or four bunches of keys are all that now remain visible of that institution of learning, aside from low rows of brickbats on its former site, and numerous pits.

After the occupation of the premises by the T’ung Chou station, Mr. Tewksbury, its indefatigable manager-in-chief, employed the chamber mentioned above as a printing-office, whence have issued, together with much else, numerous copies of the tonic-sol-fa hymn-books to replace those destroyed last year. One of the rooms con-sists of five expansive divisions, and appeared to be fore-ordained for a chapel, which it has become. It is now filled every Sunday with several hundred Christians, and the Duke and Duchess who formerly lived there regularly attended the morning worship. During the winter the premises, through Prince Su as middleman, were leased to the Mission for two years at a fair price, payment beginning at the signing of the Protocol in January. At the back of the room used as a chapel hung a large tablet draped with white silk, as the Chinese symbol of mourn-ing, and across its front were hung, against a background

THE CAPITAL IN TRANSFORMATION $537

of blue cloth, tags of silk containing the names of those members of the T’ung Chou church who gave their lives in witness of their faith. The list, though far from com-plete, embraced the names of forty-four men, forty-six women, and forty children.

The Missions of the American Presbyterians and of the American Methodists were each lodged in the resi-dences of the gentry, with full approbation of the owners, who would otherwise have lost everything left in these dwellings. The latter Mission required accommo-dations for the students of the Peking University, and for the hundred or more school-girls who had been suc-cessfully carried through the siege, but for whom a secure domicile was imperative.

The experiences of the London Mission refugees were so unique that a few paragraphs may well be devoted to them as strikingly illustrating the exigencies of the time.

On account of the absence of the male members of the Mission, Miss Georgina Smith found herself in charge of about 200 destitute refugees who had no food and no means of getting any. Тһе compound next to the London Mission on the southeast was vacant, having been owned and occupied by a Manchu family active in the Boxer outrage, who had promoted the destruction of the mission buildings and later walled in a portion of the land for their own use. Now they justly feared punishment and had all fled, and the authorities, legation and mil-itary, handed over this place to Miss Smith with all which it contained.-

She had no money and could get none, but she issued tickets for a certain amount of grain, redeemable on demand at the neighbouring shops just resuming business. The latter preferred the orders to ready money as they were liable at any moment to be robbed by the Russian

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soldiers, against whom Miss Smith was provided with a written protection signed by the General, which was framed and in constant requisition.

The furniture of the premises was left untouched, and funds were raised in the only präcticable way by the sale of the furs and other clothing of the establishment. All the converts were set to work and the proceeds thrown into a common fund, a plan which worked surprisingly well. Contracts were taken for making mattresses, quilts, and horse-cloths for the British troops, and then for the Germans. Later another contract was taken to furnish hay for the Indian horses, and finally to undertake the scavenging of the German section of the city, thus pro-viding full employment for all. Preachers, teachers, hos-

pital-dispensers, and all others received a uniform allow-` ance of about sixpence a day.

When German rule replaced that of the Russians the whole district would have been impartially occupied and incidentally looted but for the prompt action of Miss Smith, who offered to provide the Germans with furni-ture for barracks, officers’ rooms, etc., on condition that the matter should be left entirely in her hands, and no soldiers allowed to enter the homes of the people, On these terms the non-Christian Chinese in the neighbour-hood gladly collected all that was required, and countless families were saved from spoliation.

The authorities with the aid of the Christians sought out some of the chief Boxers and dealt with them, while others through intermediaries offered to make restitution or compensation for the injuries which they had inflicted on Christian families, and in this way provision was made for widows and orphans. In recognition of her distin-guished services Miss Smith was presented with six pairs

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of the gorgeous “ Myriad People Canopy,” the highest popular honour in China, and not often bestowed.

Attentive consideration of an instance like this makes it strikingly evident how much may be accomplished by one resolute and resourceful Western woman, and how hope-less it would be to judge of such conditions and the steps required to meet them without full and accurate acquain-tance with the facts.

The Government of China has always been conducted through the agency of the six Boards, of War, Rites, Works, Revenue, Civil Office, and Punishments, mostly situated on a street named after one of the most impor-tant—the Board of War. At the wide doors con-cealing the arcana of this Chinese official life, foreigners have for the most part hitherto gazed from afar. Every one of these Boards was promptly occupied by the mili-tary, as well as several other Government Bureaus in the vicinity, some of which were destroyed during the occu-pation, and others, like the Board of Revenue, burned somewhat later.

The Board of Works and the Board of War fell to the British as headquarters of an Indian regi-ment, the tall and dusky warriors of the hill tribes of the Indian frontier making themselves at home in the ample apartments at their disposal. The thrifty Japanese contrived to get the west side of this same street redis-tributed so as to come within their lines, and then sent a caravan of mules working day and night for a long period, and carried off from the Board of Revenue treas-ury a sum reported to be at least three million taels, in silver ingots. This same Oriental race, who appeared to know much more about Peking than the Pekingese them-selves, promptly fastened their talons on all the principal

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Imperial granaries, and are said to have gained posses-sion of rice to the value of several million dollars—their indemnity being thus automatically paid with no diplo-matic pressure whatever, or any consent asked of any “ Power.”

Perhaps one of the most characteristic structures in China is that of the Board of Punishments. Allthe Boards are situated almost in a block just west of the British Legation, but this stands by itself to the west of the divid-ing street of the city. You know when you get to it, because you seem to be going into a basement as you alight from your cart and look down into the main entrance, which is several feet below the average level of the road. If your visit is in summer, you will see a huge pond in the first courtyard, and the same repeated in every other. If you enquire of one of the attendants, remaining after the Empress took her flight and somebody liberated all the hundreds of prisoners then confined there, to what height the water really comes when it is highest, he raises his hand to about the level of his neck, “ To here.” “ But,” you observe, “then there must be water in all the side-rooms, which you see are on a still lower plane ” “ Of course,” he replies simply.

Scattered about the court were parts of the Complete Laws of China, at present much more conspicuous in Pe-king by their absence than otherwise, and records of cases innumerable, now gone to the region which Carlyle com-pendiously referred to as “ the mud-gods.”

The prisons proper, of which there are perhaps twenty or twenty-four (or perhaps forty-eight, it does not mat-ter), are all just alike, old buildings with brick walls, with thick wooden gratings to the windows, which a Euro-pean prisoner would whittle in two with a pocket-knife in fifteen minutes, and within, two-inch planks laid on

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piles of loose bricks. Copies of the “ Peking Gazette” were at first (just after the siege) as thick here as the leaves in Vallombrosa (or thereabouts), and that was far the best place to get complete files at that time, when all others had omitted to “take in ” the “ oldest daily paper in the world.” Later the place was used as an Interna-tional prison for a select lot of criminals, or alleged crim-inals, who had not been condemned by the military, and were sent to the Chinese to be tried by their own officers.

In the spacious Carriage Park adjoining the British Legation on the west, which was such a thorn in the side of the besieged, there are several large halls for the storage of the Imperial furnishings.

The British relief corps had no sooner occupied the Legation than a hole was blown in the Carriage Park wall by means of dynamite, and the swarthy Pathans and Beluchis filed into the large pastures thus placed at their disposal. It did not take long to run out of doors the lacquered тей and yellow Imperial equipages, se-dan-chairs, wedding-chairs (including the one used when the Emperor was married), and elephant-carriages of an eccentric and peculiar construction, where they were after-wards exposed to the vicissitudes of the hot August sun and the pouring rains.

Mountains of paraphernalia were found in every build-ing—silk cushions, satin pillows, gorgeous harnesses and trappings of every description and of no description at all. Mule-loads of this elegant rubbish were brought into the Legation for sale by auction, or perhaps for transmission to the distant Isle of the Ocean whence came the “ fierce and untamable Barbarian” (as the British used to be termed in Chinese despatches). Both in the expansive grounds of the Carriage Park and in the far larger ones of the Temple of Heaven, parks of artillery stood serenely

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awaiting fresh orders, the mules meantime trampling in the mire hundreds of moth-eaten official hats made of felt, and furlongs of once elegant and costly silk coverings of bridal chairs and palanquins. The tall weeds, undis-turbed for no one can say how long by the hand of man or the hoof of beast, rapidly disappeared, and the entire spectacle was one adapted to make Celestials weep.

The destruction of the Hanlin Yuan has been described in connection with the narrative of the siege, but a few additional details deserve mention. The principal literary monument of the most ancient people in the world was obliterated in an afternoon, and the wooden stereotype plates of the most valuable works became a prey to the flames, or were used in building barricades, or as kindling by the British marines. Priceless lit-erary treasures were tumbled into the lotus-ponds, wet with the floods of water used to extinguish the fires, and later buried after they had begun to rot, to dimin-ish the disagreeable odour. Expensive camphor-wood cases containing the rare and unique Encyclopedia of Yung Lé were filled with earth to form a part of the ramparts for defence, while the innumerable volumes comprising this great thesaurus were dispersed in every direction, probably to every library in Europe, as well as to innumerable private collections. Not a few of the volumes were thrown into the common heap to mold and to be buried like the rest.

Thousands of Hanlin essays lay about the premises, the sport of every breeze, serving as fire-wood for the troops. Odd volumes of choice works furnished the waste-paper of the entire Legation for nearly two months; they were found in the kitchens, used by the coolies as pads for carrying bricks on their shoulders, and lay in piles in the

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outer streets to be ground into tatters under the wheels of passing carts when traffic was once more resumed.

Of the varied forms of Nemesis connected with the up-rising against foreigners in China, the fate of the ancient and famous Hanlin takes perhaps the foremost place. Out of twenty or twenty-five halls, but two remained and a few months later every trace of these had been removed from the Hanlin premises, which are now a part of the British Legation grounds. On the northern side a high wall has been put up, with scientific loopholes concealed in its upper part, and protection for gunners in arched recesses at the base, while a clear space is left in front to make a surprise impossible.

Within three minutes walk of the British Legation stands an old yamen known as the Li Fan Yuan, which had to do with Mongolian affairs. During the siege it was barricaded and loopholed, and sgrved as one of the numerous points from which to attack the Legations, being directly across the main road from the northern end of the Su Wang Fu, and but a few rods distant. When the siege was over the buildings were found to be in ruins, and some sales of loot were conducted there by the Italians, but otherwise the place was completely aban-doned.

During the winter this ancient Government Bureau was fitted up as an International Club, at the rear of which it was possible for members to order meals in parties or singly, while a large room was devoted to the indispensable bar. In the front building there was a large room supplied with the latest British and Conti-nental periodicals. The most recent telegrams were posted upon a daily bulletin, and on a large placard were registered the names of about five hundred members of

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the Club—mostly the military officers of the eight differ-ent nations represented in Peking, whose flags floated serenely from as many staffs at the entrance.

The part which the Tsung Li Yamen, or Foreign Office, has taken in the relations between China and the West is well known. It has been an Oriental circumlocution office, not to transact but to prevent the transaction of business. It was itself an epitome of the double-dealing, shuffling, and treacherous policy which has marked the course of China’s intercourse with her “ Sister Nations.” A just fate has overtaken it, for while guarded by a party of Japanese soldiers, the various interpreters of the Lega-tions went on a set day and unitedly sealed each the bureau containing the records of the correspondence with his own country, so that they are in the safe custody of all the Powers, while not accessible to any one solely— least of all to the Chinese. Surely the humiliation of a great Empire could scarcely go lower than this.

On the first of May these records were restored to the custody of the Chinese officials appointed to take them over, but one of the terms of settlement between China and the Powers involves the abolition of the Yamen as a Bureau—the only fit manner of dealing with this cum-brous and exasperating piece of Oriental machinery.

The questions with regard to the survival of the rec-ords of Chinese yamens and other public offices in Peking, is naturally one of much interest to the Chinese them-selves. From repeated and diversified inquiries one seems justified in inferring that as a rule there is noth-ing whatever left of the documents of any of the six Boards, or of the public offices of any sort with the excep-tion of the Tsung Li Yamen.

Among the numerous offices for preparing the ma-terials for future histories, are two historiographers’

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bureaus, the one belonging to the State and called the Kuo Shih Kuan, which is situated in the Imperial City, inside the Tung Hua Men. The records of the Emper-or’s sayings and doings were kept in the Ch’i Chü Chu which was located, as we are told, within the limits of the Hanlin Courts. When the latter were attacked, the records were prudently moved to the Kuo Shih Kuan for safe keeping. A Chinese teacher who visited the place, ascertained its present condition. He reported that it was closed, but that the contents have long since been scattered to the winds of heaven. During the anarchy following upon the occupation of Peking, whoever had a mind to do so visited the place and carried off whatever he chose for waste paper, and although there may be some parts of the archives remaining, nothing is said to be complete, and all might as well be lacking.

On the night of the 4th of June, 1901, a building called the Wu Ying Tien in the southwest corner of the For-bidden City was destroyed by a fire, the origin of which was disputed. It was a Throne Hall, or Imperial Pavil-ion, and its contents were archives of State, edicts, rec-ords, books, and blocks of governmental works, and attached to it were the Recording Office and the office of one of the Grand Secretaries. It was the final act in a long series of conflagrations and destruction, the ulti-mate effect of which can not fail to be far-reaching.

The Astronomical Observatory situated on the eastern wall of the city, and containing the ancient and wonder-ful products of the genius of the early Jesuits in China, Verbiest and Schall, was speedily dismantled by the French and the Germans, every one of {һе instruments being removed to the French or German Legations, and in the process the needless incidental damage was so great that the whole place was left a wreck. The Chinese

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looters were not long in following those from abroad, and the iron railings which once enclosed the terrace were broken off in mere wantonness, and many of them stolen —as why should they not be, since the place was ruined? It is a perfectly just reflection that this vandalism of Continental troops, under orders from their highest mili-tary authorities, is far less excusable than the attack of the savages under Tung Fu Hsiang on the Hanlin Yuan, for that was done under strong excitement, and this de-liberately and against the protests of a large part of the civilized world.

The Examination Grounds display the same reckless destruction. The cells for the students (a little less than 8,500 in number) open in front, with a roof slanting back-ward, supported on two or three small poles. Other wood-work there is none. Yet in order to secure this trifle of material for kindling, hundreds of the stalls were pulled down, as well as the buildings at the entrance.

It should be mentioned that the foreign troops in urgent need of firewood during a cold winter, demolished indis-criminately whatever buildings were most convenient— yamens, old granaries, and temples. It was reported that by the time the winter was over, hardly any temples re-mained in the city of Tung Chou.

The headquarters of the American troops during the military occupation of Peking were in the Temple of Agriculture, a spacious series of enclosures in the south-ern part of the Chinese city. One of the main halls was employed as a hospital, and another as a supply depót for the commissariat, displaying long rows of hams, cases of tobacco, boxes of army beans, and barrels of beef.

One of the side halls became a reading-room, and others were hospital wards. Another had been used for the storage of the gilded and lacquered specimens of

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agricultural implements, the plough, the seed-drill, the harrow, the brush-harrow, the spade, the broom, the pitch-fork, and smaller utensils such as baskets and broad hats. АП of these were unceremoniously hustled into the open air, and some of the smaller articles furnished convenient fuel for the gth and 14th Regiments of U. S. Infantry.

The officers for whose headquarters the main halls were used had no sooner taken possession, than they began to Lave holes cut in the venerable walls and large plate-glass windows inserted, a proceeding which must have ap-peared to the shades of the divinities worshipped as an additional profanation and humiliation.

The marble altar where the Emperor worships old legendary Shén Nung was a convenient place for the cavalry horses to be left in charge of the nearest coolie, and the choice spot of earth which the Emperor is sup-posed to cultivate with his own hand every successive spring, as an example to the tillers of the soil all over the Empire, was quite indistinguishable amid the dense growth of omnipresent weeds.

Across the wide street opposite the Temple of Agricul-ture is the vast area, at least a mile on each face, in-closing the Temple of Heaven. For many years it was absolutely inaccessible to foreigners, and even during the minority of the present Emperor it was difficult to set one's foot inside. Now there is not a single Chinese anywhere to be seen, the keepers having been all driven away by the British when they took possession imme-diately on reaching Peking. One can drive his cart quite up to the lofty terrace leading to the triple cerulean domes denoting the threefold heaven. Each gate was sentried by a swarthy Sikh soldier—the personification of the domination of a greater empire than that of Rome in its best days—who merely glanced at you as you passed

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or asked unintelligible questions in Hindustani, and made a respectful salaam when he was informed in several European languages, as well as in Chinese, that you were unable to catch the drift of his observations.

The door to the great circular building devoted to the ancestral tablets of the Manchu dynasty stands wide open. It contained a huge tablet on the northern side, to Imperial Heaven, and eight cases—four on a side—to the eight Emperors who have thus far reigned during the past two hundred and fifty-six years. Every one of the eight cases, with heavy carved doors, has been broken open, and every one of the eight tablets to the deified ancestors has been taken away by British officers for transmission to the British Museum—an act of almost justifiable reprisal for Chinese treatment of the foreign cemetery.

The Emperor’s Hall of Fasting was used as the head-quarters of the British army in this part of the city, and every day was partly filled with many cart-loads of loot —silks, furs, silver and jade ornaments, embroidered clothing, and the like. This was daily forwarded to the British Legation, and sold at auction for the benefit of the army, to be soon replaced by as much more. The personal apartments of the Emperor in the rear served as the bedrooms of the officers, who looked mildly sur-prised when the circumstance was communicated to them at their dinner, and merely gave an inquiring glance, as much as to say, “ Well, what of it, don't you know?”

The seventh section of the Peace Conditions imposed by the Powers upon China provided for defences around the Legations and for the removal of all Chinese build-ings from their vicinity. The “Legation Area” was construed to embrace at least all the territory within a rectangle bounded on the south by the wall of the city,

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on the north by the wall of the Imperial city, on the east by the Ha Ta street, and on the west by the median line of the city, leading to the Ch’ien Men; but that part lying north of Legation street, and west of the Board of War street will probably be excluded as superfluous. ` Within this broad tract, measuring more than a mile in length by perhaps half a mile in breadth, the most revolutionary changes at once began, such as the dem-olition of dwellings, yamens, and temples, and the gen-eral rehabilitation of the old Legations, with the most liberal additions.

Opposite the Austrian Legation stood a green-tiled building which contained the Tablets of the pre-Imperial Ancestors of the founders of the Manchu Dynasty. This comes within the territory demanded for the Legations, and will be removed, the efforts of the Chinese and Manchus to save it having proved abortive. Its removal is in itself a fit outcome of the Manchu effort to end all relations with the rest of the civilized world by destroy-ing its representatives.

The Japanese take in the Su Wang Fu, to which they have a strong claim, while the Italians, the French, and the Austrians, in like manner will cover a large part of the fighting area of the siege, absorbing the site of the Imperial Maritime Customs, the Imperial Mint, and the unfinished Chinese Bank.

The abolition of the immemorial buildings belonging to several of the six Boards was vainly resisted by the Chinese, who will be helpless in the presence of the new fortresses commanding the Imperial palaces. It is a bitter humiliation, but one which the Court of Peking richly deserves.

That Court was itself the great contriver and executor of the crime against all nations in Peking, and some of

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its agents have suffered a fit penalty. The provincial Treasurer of Chihli, Ting Yung, whom a Military Com-mission held at Pao Ting Fu in October adjudged guilty of the death of the fifteen British and Americans killed near that city, was there beheaded, together with others of lesser importance. During the winter two other officials of high rank were handed by the Allies over to the Chinese authorities to be beheaded in Peking, Ch’i Hsiu, and the son of Hsü T’ung, Hsü Ch’eng Yu.

No Chinese had more to do with promoting the attack upon foreigners than Li Ping Héng, former Governor of Shantung, and subsequently the active agent of the Empress Dowager. He either died or committed suicide, and was subsequently bewailed at his home in Chang Те Fu, Honan.

Imperial Decrees ordered and subsequently certified to the death of Prince Chuang (who was allowed to strangle himself), of Yu Hsien, the most infamous of them all, under whose personal superintendence forty-five for-eigners were hewn down at his yamen in T’ai Yuan Fu, of Chao Shu Ch’iao, Ying Nien, and others of less notoriety. Kang I, another important factor in the Boxer rising, was reported to have died in southern Shansi. Since there was no foreign witness of these deaths or executions the evidence of their reality has been regarded by many as inadequate, but there seems little reason to suppose that any of these officials will ever again figure in Chinese affairs. There is a long list of those who might well have been included, but if all were named who are guilty it would be hard to make a beginning and still harder to know where to stop.

The experiences of the Chinese Court in the second enforced flight of the Empress Dowager within forty years, have a peculiar interest for one who pursues this strange story to its conclusion. The following notes of

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some of its incidents are quoted from an interesting article by Miss Luella Miner, in the “ Century Magazine,” the collator being a progressive Chinese who, together with his relatives, suffered much bitterness from his friendship for foreigners, and regard for Western learn-ing. It is morally certain that the Empress Dowager had been deceived into a belief that foreign troops were either not near Peking, or would be unable to enter it, otherwise her delay in effecting her flight is utterly in-explicable.

“On the 14th of August the sound of rifles and cannon was heard incessantly throughout the day, and it was rumoured that foreigners and native Christians were sneaking up from T'ung Chou and attacking one of the eastern gates. Toward evening it was noised abroad that a great company of Mohammedans, in most peculiar costume, had entered the city and encamped in the Temple of Heaven. Not till the next day was it generally known in the city that Peking had been captured by the ‘ for-eign devils’ and that the so-called Mohammedans were Indian troops under British officers. That Tuesday after-noon, soon after the Rajputs and Sikhs had entered the British Legation, General Ma was summoned to the Palace, and commanded to await the Imperial chariot at the northern gate of the Forbidden City. Toward evening the American troops captured the Ch’ien Gate, and sent shot and shell against the southern gate of the Imperial City. The Empress Dowager wept, and to-gether with the Emperor, the Empress, and the heir ap-parent, burned incense in the palace and prayed to Heaven. Kang I entered the palace and with great earnestness urged them to seek a refuge from the blast of the enemy. An edict was issued ordering all the princes and ministers to follow in the Imperial retinue.

“Early on the morning of August 15th, the allies at-

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tacked both the southern and eastern gates of the Im-perial City, whereupon the high Ministers hastened to the Ning Shou Palace to see the Empress Dowager ; but before they entered the palace a eunuch met them with the intelligence that the Empress Dowager and the Em-peror had already fled, having heard a false rumour of a revolution.

“From the 14th of June, when the Empress Dowager returned to the city palaces, she had simply twisted her hair in a knot and worn the common dress of the people. The morning when she took her flight it was in this guise. The Empress Dowager, the Emperor, the Em-press, and the heir apparent, each rode in a separate cart, the Empress Dowager having Duke Lan’s private cart, from which she had the red side-awnings removed. They left the city by the Тё Sheng Gate on the north side, General Ma escorting them. The Chinese report that the favourite concubine, “ Pearl,” was strangled and thrown in a well. Of the Princes, nobles and high Ministers, about thirty were in their retinue; Prince Tuan, Prince Chuang, Duke Lan, and Kang I being of the number.

“The first night the royal fugitives lodged at Kuan Shih, a little village containing a Mohammedan inn, about thirty miles north of Peking. At this point they obtained mule litters, —palanquins borne by poles on the backs of mules, one in front and one behind. The Empress Dow-ager lay down in her litter all day, eating very little. The next night they lodged at Ch’a Tao, a place just outside the inner arm of the Great Wall, about fifty miles northwest of Peking. The District Magistrate did not know of the arrival of the chariot, and had made no preparation for their entertainment, so there was nothing for the Imperial table but a few grains of corn, while the retinue all had a hungry look. The District Magis-

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trate had only one sedan-chair, in which the Empress Dowager rode from this point, while the Emperor and the Empress still rode in the mule-litters.

“On the 17th of August they arrived at Huai Lai. When they left the capital in haste and confusion, they were simply clad in summer raiment. After going through the Pass, the weather became suddenly cold, so they stayed in the Pure-True Temple of Huai Lai for two ` days to make their winter clothing.

“On the 20th of August they arrived at Hsüan Hua (twenty miles from Kalgan). From this point three Ver-milion Pencil edicts were dispatched, one giving the causes which led to the flight of the Imperial family, the Emperor blaming himself for lack of intelligence in his use of men as officials, and blaming his Ministers for not using to the utmost the talents with which they were endued by Heaven. А second edict commanded the Min-isters to follow the court to T’ai Yuan Fu, while another remitted the taxes of the region through which they had passed. They stayed five days at Hsúan Hua.

“From Hsüan Hua they went to Ta T’ung (near the northeastern boundary of Shansi), where they stayed two days. In going from there to T’ai Yuan Fu they passed through Tien Chen. This place had already been looted by rebels, so that shops and markets were all empty. Just as the District Magistrate was in great confusion and dismay, having nothing to lay his hand to, it was an-nounced that the holy chariot had suddenly arrived. Crazy with grief and fear he drank poison and died. So, when the Imperial party arrived they found only an empty city, and that night supped on a few drops of soup. They then sent the Imperial butler, a éunuch, back to Peking to purchase provisions and other necessities.

“When the chariot, the retinue, and the Eight Banner

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((Manchu) soldiers arrived at T’ai Yuan Fu, over three hundred soldiers were sent back to Peking, under the com-mand of General Té, with only four taels apiece for pay, and later over three hundred men were sent back under Prince Su, each man receiving five taels. Of the high Ministers, only Kang I, Wang Wén Shao, and Chao Shu Chiao were left in the Imperial retinue, though there were several lesser Ministers.

“ Toward the end of September the earnest plea of the Emperor for a return to Peking seemed likely to win the day. The provincial Treasurer of Pao Ting Fu tele-graphed that the allies were about to make an attack on Pao Ting Fu, followed by an invasion of Shansi, so again the wish of the Empress Dowager prevailed, and the course of empire took its way westward. It is almost as far from T’ai Yuan Fu to Hsi An Fu as from Peking to Tai Yuan Fu, so now it seems as if the Empress Dowager had burned her bridges behind her. In this ancient capi-tal of the Empire she means to stand at bay.”

It seems likely to be the strange fate of this woman, after directly authorizing the commission of perhaps the greatest crime against the intercourse of nations in the whole history of the human race, to be restored to her usurped throne, and to undisputed power, with no criti-cism upon her conduct in the past, and no guarantee as to her behaviour in the future.

Whatever her fate or that of the Empire which she did so much to ruin, one of the most picturesque scenes of modern times will continue to be the Punishment of Peking. The city has been turned inside out, like the fingers of a glove, but whose hand shall ultimately fill it remains still to be settled.

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CHAPTER 30. The Ruin of Tung Chou

THE RUIN ОЕ TUNG CHOU

HE city of T’ung Chou, twelves miles east of Peking, is situated at the head of navigation of

the Peiho, or North River. The plain upon which Peking is built, while thickly populated, does not afford sufficient supplies for the use of a large city, and every year enormous quantities of tribute rice from the central provinces pass through this river port on their way to the capital.

The very name of the city denotes that it is the town by which traffic penetrates to Peking (“ tung ” signifying “to pass through”). From T’ung Chou to Peking a broad stone road on а high level was constructed cen-turies ago, but this has fallen into complete disrepair, so as to furnish at once a monument of the capacity and the incapacity of the rulers of the Empire. Parallel with this great stone road, of which countless foreign travellers have had heart-breaking (and back-breaking) experi-ences, a canal leads to the Tung Pien Gate of Peking, at the junction of the northern or Tartar City with the southern or Chinese City. Five blocks interrupt the pas-sage of boats, the cargoes requiring as many reshiftings, but to the patient Chinese this is an altogether minor matter.

Contrary to the erroneous impression prevailing in Western lands, Chinese cities may be said to be built with

555

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an invariable irregularity for geomantic purposes, but few city walls even in China have such a devious out-line as that of T’ung Chou. This is because it consists of two cities, an old and a new, the latter added many hundred years ago on the western side of the former one, apparently for the purpose of including within its spa-cious and devious circuit an Imperial Granary, long since fallen into ruin.

Owing to the composite structure of the city, T’ung Chou enjoys the unusual (perhaps the unique) distinction of having two south gates, but the principal suburbs are outside of the east and the west gates, although that on the north, in the vicinity of the handsome and striking old pagoda, is also of considerable size.

What the population of T’ung Chou may have been no one can say with certainty, but there is good reason to suppose that since foreigners have known it there have been perhaps between fifty and seventy thousand persons in and about the city. The arrival of the grain-boats from Tientsin, as well as those bringing the tribute direct from Shantung, was an annual event of capital im-portance to the whole population, for a large part of the people got their living directly from this nourishing stream of rice. This rice which had formerly been brought in junks by sea, and within recent years in steamers from the south, was trans-shipped at Tientsin to special boats which ultimately discharged their cargo on mats spread upon the bank of the canal leading to Peiho, a short distance below. After being measured and sacked, it was carried to the granaries, thence pass-ing through the intricate and tortuous channels estab-lished by Chinese precedent before reaching its final des-tination. Armies of huge brawny coolies were to be seen shouldering the clumsy sacks weighing perhaps consider-

THE RUIN OF TUNG CHOU 557

ably over 200 pounds avoirdupois, and in this manner thousands of laborers found employment.

Next to the excitement caused by the annual arrival of the tribute grain, was that occasioned by the various Literary Examinations in Peking, especially that for the second degree of “ Selected Меп” (Chü Jen). For a pe-riod of several weeks, when the river was alive with boats and boatmen, innkeepers, carters, wheelbarrowmen, mer-chants, and coolies, as well as many others in T’ung Chou, reaped a rich harvest. At such times the prices of boats and carts would mount to extravagant figures, for the traveller from a distance was completely at the mercy of the local sharks, each one of whom took care to get a liberal bite. Aside from these special causes of prosperity the steady stream of official and unofficial travellers, merchants, and traders, and the handling of the merchandise passing through for Peking, particularly the large and important item of foreign freight, upon which it was easy to collect the most exorbitant charges, made the carrying of goods and passengers a lucrative specialty of this gateway of the Capital.

For about a third of a century, or since 1866, T’ung Chou has been a station of the American Board Mission, beginning with small premises in the center of the city, and later extending to others further west. Within the past ten years they have embraced also an extensive area some distance beyond the south-west corner of the city. Within the city walls were located a dispensary and hos-pitals, for both men and women, a theological seminary, schools for boys and girls, as well as four dwelling-houses and numerous other buildings. Outside the city was the North China College of the American Board, together with four dwelling-houses occupied by the faculty of that institution; there were also adjacent

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premises, where were the beginnings of an industrial plant.

It is important to observe that, from the first, the rela-tions of the people of T’ung Chou with the foreigners living among them had been one of ideal friendliness. There had not only never been a riot, but no disturbance of any sort had broken the uniform harmony. The in-fluence of the long years of work in the hospital and dispensary had been wide-spread. The College was recognized by the people and by the local scholars as an honour to the city. Intercourse with the officials had al-ways been friendly, and sometimes cordial. That the foreigners were well known and trusted, the following instance will show.

When the Allied Forces attacked Peking, in October, 1860, the city of T’ung Chou took occasion to capitulate on its own account, offering to furnish the foreign troops whatever was required in the line of supplies, on the condition that the city itself should not be harmed,—an arrangement which was carried into effect.

During the progress of the war between China and Japan, when it was feared that Peking must fall a prey to the invader, Dr. Sheffield, the President of the College, was approached, with a view to ascertaining whether in the event of the arrival of the Japanese he would under-take to go out and meet them, and make such terms as would secure the integrity of the city. When it was learned that he was willing to assume the undertaking, upon a set day a guard of five hundred soldiers was sent to their residences to escort Dr. Sheffield and Dr. Good-rich to the military headquarters. There they were re-ceived with the salute of cannon, reserved for officers of the rank of Governors-General, and were introduced to an audience with several high officials, all of whom

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THE RUIN OF TUNG CHOU 559

treated the foreigners with the highest respect, and were greatly relieved at the prospect of intervention at a crisis of peculiar difficulty. While the later movements of the Japanese did not call for the execution of this service, the fact that it was asked and promised, and especially the gaudy concomitants of the explosion of so much powder and the marching of so large a force of soldiers in honour of two foreigners, tended to surround them with a blaze of glory, the effects of which were not evanescent.

For more than ten years previous to the building of the railway between Tientsin and Peking, such a work had been not only projected, but approved by Imperial Edict. Upon one occasion, when it seemed about to materialize, Dr. Sheffield was visited by one of the gen-try of the city, whose first movement was to perform the kotow. Subsequently he arose to explain that he was praying to be saved from the terrors of an invasion of his ancestral grave-yard by the iron road of the fire-wheel-carts, which would disturb the slumbers of his fore-fathers, and bring swift and irreparable ruin upon the whole family. It was no doubt difficult for him to com-prehend, and still more to believe, Dr. Sheffield’s statement that this entire business from first to last was in the hands of the Government, and that private Americans living in T'ung Chou had absolutely no connection with it.

After many false starts and countless set-backs, the building of the line from Tientsin actually began to take shape after the close of the war with Japan. At a pre-vious period, when it was regarded as certain to material-ize, Chinese speculators took pains to lay hold of large tracts of land in the vicinity of the city, where the rail-way station was likely to be. The people of T’ung Chou were in an agony of apprehension lest the geomantic for-

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tunes of their city be overwhelmed with disaster, and the trade ruined by the new and dreaded innovations now not merely threatened, but certain to come upon them. They had left no means untried, no stone unturned to avert this calamity, but in vain.

At their very extremity one more device was thought of, which was their last hope. The difficulty with the innumerable protests which had been made was, that some yet more influential counter-memorial always took the wind out of T’ung Chou sails, and left them in a worse position than before. It was by bribing the Cen-sors in Peking that an influential memorial against the proposed line was secured, pointing out its dangers for T’ung Chou, and the undesirability of antagonizing the people of that city. There was a popular impression that one of the Princes was also induced to interest himself in the matter, and that it was owing to his influence that the course of the railway was turned toward the west, around the great Hunting Park, known as the “ Nan Hai Tzu,” where it passed through a region destitute of any towns of importance. While it would receive по local traffic, there would at least be no opposition. At all events, although the evil could not be altogether pre-vented, it was at least driven to so great a distance that it would no more disturb the peace of the denizens of the City of Penetration.

There was a brief period during which these hopes seemed to have been completely accomplished. Every-thing went on as it had always done, and fear was banished. But in the spring of 1897 it began to be no-ticed that the usual number of travellers did not visit the city, en route to Peking, and that the boat traffic fell off in an unexampled manner. This happened to be the year for the triennial examinations in Peking, when, as

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mentioned, T’ung Chou expects a plenteous harvest. But only a fraction of the students came by the river as they had hitherto invariably done, for the fire-wheel cart had just begun its regular trips, and the curiosity of the travel-ling public to see it and to experience the sensation of “ rapid transit,” brought such a multitude of passengers that the means of transportation were much more than exhausted. The vans were all filled, and so were the freight cars; even the platform cars used for hauling gravel had to be pressed into service.

The railway was a triumphant success from the start, but poor T’ung Chou wept in secret (and in public) places over the loss of its passenger traffic. Business was no longer done as before. The inns were largely unoccupied, the stores sold but little, building and re-pairing stopped at once; the carters and donkey-boys, con-stituting a by no means insignificant portion of the active life oí the city, had nothing to do. Venders of food on the street found a small and a diminishing market. The barbers would tell their customers, as they gossiped over the dressing of their queues, that from the largest firm in the place down to the peripatetic seller of ankle-ties not a soul but was suffering from the locomotor ataxia which had attacked every form of business. In short the place was beginning to die, and the people were likely to die with it.

This was bad, but worse was in prospect. The numer-ous important families who farmed the tribute grain business of T’ung Chou had good reason to fear that their innumerable perquisites, derived from the trans-portation, the storing, and the handling of the rice, would soon be cut off. It had been discovered that galvanized iron box-cars had proved a complete protection to the great quantities of tea formerly shipped from Tientsin

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via T’ung Chou for Russia, much of which used to be stolen en route by broaching the packages on the river. A memorial to the Emperor already quoted had long since suggested the sending of the Imperial supplies by the same route, on the ground that “it would put a stop to stealing by the crews of the boats.” It would also put a period to the subsistence of a large part of the T’ung Chou people, as they clearly foresaw.

But as their earnest prayer had been granted and as the peril had not invaded their grave-yards, and as the new road was built for the Emperor himself, it did not appear that there was anything to be done about the matter, unless it might be to repent in dust and ashes, which the whole city appeared to do. From the merchant in his large and unfrequented shop to the manure-gatherer and the beggar, all alike would tell you of the decay of business and the fact that it was no longer possible to make a living. A score or more of large firms were said to have removed bodily from the eastern suburbs of the city to Peking, to regain their trade which had left them, and in some of the streets grass was literally growing where it had never been before noticed.

The northern part of China is the land of dust-storms. On some sunshiny day it is noticed that the rays of the sun appear to be less powerful than usual. Presently they are obscured. No cloud is to be seen, but a dull haze of a dark brown hue becomes more and more per-vasive, until the dust settles down quietly from above, or, if the wind has arisen, arrives in swirls speedily envelop-ing everything, so that on the worst occasions it may be necessary to light the lamps in the middle of the day. No one knows whence the dust comes, why it comes at some times and not at others, or why it comes at all. It is simply an indisputable and an influential fact.

THE RUIN OF TUNG CHOU 563

Not unlike the dust-storm of the quiet type, was the arrival of the Boxer movement at T’ung Chou. “ Like a spirit it came in the van of the storm.”

The writer reached that city on the 17th of May by boat from Shantung, with a guard of three soldiers, who were regarded with surprise by all foreigners and most Chinese, as an unwonted and a superfluous luxury of travel. The river route was quiet, and so was that by land. T'ung Chou was quiet also, although there were rumours that trouble was brewing in the east suburb. It was afterward known that the Boxer virus had been brought by men who came in boats from Tientsin, or perhaps Tu Liu, a noted Boxer head-quarters on the Grand Canal eighteen miles south by water, and after-wards nearly destroyed by foreign troops. The training was recommended as useful for protection of one's per-son, one's home and family, and one's village. It had no elements of hostility to foreigners, and was so simple that even children could learn it, as was soon demonstrated.

Occasionally some of the ladies going about as usual in their sedan-chairs or otherwise noticed demonstrations which attracted their attention. Once a man capered in front of the chair and made motions as if to cut off his head, and the by-standers laughed. In about ten days the rumours grew more alarming, but were vague, inde-finable, and could not be verified.

The movement had no sooner begun to make headway than a beggar was seized who had been to the foreign hospital for treatment of the itch, where he had been given a sulphur ointment. This was held to be a deadly drug designed for use in the poisoning of wells. An elaborate examination was held by the Chou Magistrate, at which the charge was solemnly declared to be not proven, but it had the effect of inflaming the minds of

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the people, already wrought upon by the rumours of what had been done, or was to be done elsewhere, in the way of driving out all the foreign devils.

"Тһе culmination of this movement has already been de-scribed in connection with the account of the flight of the party of Americans from T’ung Chou to Peking, on the 8th of June. А notification was sent to the officials that the premises were turned over to their care, and on the following day the college was burned and looted by the troops themselves, as well as the dwelling houses and every building connected with the place. On the day following, the same ruin fell on the property in the city, where a large street chapel was approaching completion. So complete was the wreck that it was not only possible to ride a horse over the site of two-story buildings but it was difficult even to identify the sites themselves.

The telegraph office and the Imperial post-office were likewise destroyed. The post-master (a Christian) had a series of the most dramatic adventures in the escape to Peking, where he turned over his accounts in full, and then barely made his escape to the south, arriving eventu-ally in safety at Shanghai. Shen Taotai was imprisoned in his own yamen, the sport of the Boxers, and was at length enabled to fly, being plundered en route of all his possessions, his yamen being one of the first places looted. Such was the terrorism of the Boxer movement that it may be said that the whole population of the city went into it, willingly or otherwise, with a heartiness wonderful and instructive to behold. Tf there were any who pro-tested, their voices must have been drowned in the gen-eral madness. Their only tangible grievance was the rail-way which had destroyed their traffic, and to right this wrong T'ung Chou committed suicide!

The Chou Magistrate was especially hateful and hypo-

THE RUIN OF TUNG CHOU 565

critical, endeavouring to get evidence against the foreign-ers through the incriminating testimony of the beggar arrested with his colored itch-ointment; failing in this he had the yamen-runner who made the arrest beaten eight hundred blows, for the real reason that the proof was in-complete. When the hospital was pulled down he had the skeleton found in Dr. Ingram's laboratory ostenta-tiously hung up in the front hall of the yamen, where it was exhibited to every one as a positive and visible dem-onstration of the truth of all the charges previously in-sinuated against the Westerners. When the College was pillaged the Taotai ordered the Chou Magistrate to take the articles of value and put them into the treasury, but the latter purposely did nothing, and allowed every-thing to be either looted or destroyed.

The Intendant of the Grain Yamen, named Ch’ang Ts'ui, was really the head of the Tung Chou Boxers, and the most incriminating documents were found in his prem-ises when they were occupied by United States soldiers. A few months later large bundles of these papers with complete lists of the Boxer leaders, the memoranda of their camps, rations, and followers, and much other like information, were captured by the British, and sent to Mr. Tewksbury to be overhauled and annotated.

A few paragraphs from the graphic account of a Chinese “Refugee” on his flight south, may serve to give an insight into the condition of this city after the foreigners had escaped. He arrived on the 21st of June and saw a boisterous crowd entering the city gates, while others fired off three volleys from their guns as a sign that some Christian had been killed, after being dragged to the bank of the canal, where the bodies of the slain were thrown to prevent the infection of the country with an

epidemic.

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These volleys were heard many times a day, and indi-cated the terrible slaughter in progress, for about one hun-dred and fifty of the Protestant Christians of that station in city and country lost their lives in this reign of terror.

When the Boxers had gathered sufficient headway, they demanded an interview with the Taotai, intending to kill him. Не, however, resolutely refused to see them. The Boxer mob began threatening to break down the yamen doors, when the other subordinate offi-cials, although out of sympathy with him, came to his rescue and saved his life, the Boxers being persuaded to accept ten “shoes” of sycee (taels 500) in lieu of the Taotai’s head. It was also agreed that he was not to appear outside his yamen upon any pretext, else he would be killed. They further compelled him to give them a written Commission empowering the Boxers to keep order in T'ung Chou and its dependencies, to punish all traitors found by them, to demand money and food whenever necessary, and to decapitate all who threatened the city.

On the 22nd of June, the Imperial Decree having ar-rived authorizing the destruction of the Legations, the Boxer banners had prefixed to the characters “ Support the Dynasty; Exterminate Foreigners,” the additional words: “Ву Imperial Command.” The result of this was to make the Boxer desperadoes absolutely supreme, and from the 26th of June onwards the city was under their sole control.

It is worth noting that after the arrival of Li Hung Chang, the Chou Magistrate, under whom all this took place, was restored to his office (without protest from the Ministers), and it was with him that the T’ung Chou missionaries were obliged to negotiate for indemnities for the native Christians who had been pillaged through

“

THE RUIN OF TUNG CHOU 567

the connivance of this very man, now ostentatiously friendly and complaisant.

The embarrassments attending a readjustment of the old relations was aptly expressed by the prefect who was appointed to confer with the missionaries as to the in-demnities for the Christians, and the punishments which should be thought sufficient to atone for so many cruel and unprovoked murders. “If you are to take those really responsible,” he observed, “ you must begin with the Empress Dowager and go right down, for we were all in it,’—an accurate and a compendious summary of the general situation. |

Within a few days after the Japanese had taken the city, several tons of powder stored in a small building on a section of the northern wall were blown up, by Indian troops as is supposed by some, but with the result of а terrific explosion which not only destroyed its authors, but the city itself for more than a quarter of a mile in either direction. The ruin and desolation within this area was more complete than in any other region in northern China. The whole tract seemed to have been tossed in a blanket, so great was the force of the con-cussion. The temple to the god of war, a prominent land-mark in T’ung Chou, was left in fragments, its skeleton standing, but the remaining timbers lying or leaning at every angle. The roof also was gone, but amid the debris three figures of the late divinities might be seen standing erect, as if striving to appear unconcerned at what had befallen their abode. The city was parcelled out among the various detachments, and while the Japanese, had they been in sole control, might have carried out their promises, as it was, not many hours had elapsed before T’ung Chou was looted and burned. From the centre of the city eastward to the east gate, scarcely a shop re-

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mained on what was once the great thoroughfare, and on the main street connecting this with the north gate not a single shop or dwelling remained standing. Nearly all the large places of business were destroyed, and the devastation in the eastern suburb, which is long and popu-lous, was only less complete. The western suburb escaped being burned, and to a large extent the northern also, but the latter was occupied by the French and the Russians, from whom the people suffered unspeakably.

A correspondent entering the city tried to find a house which had not been looted in which to spend the night, and where he hoped to secure a bedquilt. Не did indeed find three in succession in the same building, but each one contained a dead Chinese woman, who had evidently been first outraged and then cut open, and covered with her own bedding! The miseries of the people for leagues about T’ung Chou and for all the following month, from the brutalities of the foreign soldiers, will never be known.

A month after the capture of the city the apparent population, aside from the attendants upon the foreign troops, amounted to but a few hundreds of persons. One might walk for miles even in the western part of thecity, where the buildings had not been extensively burned, and see no sign of life in any court-yard other than those oc-cupied by the Japanese, —with the exception of the troops of starving dogs. Carts and rikshas were to be seen tumbled into a pond, and covered with green slime. Some of the largest shops had been looted but not burned, and within was still a large quantity of furniture which there was no one to use. Only the account-books left scattered in the street indicated what firm had gone to wreck, while on the dead-wall opposite smiled the felici-tous saying: “ Great Joy on Issuing from the Door.”

On the north back street where the foreigners had lived,

THE RUIN OF TUNG CHOU 569

and where some of their neighbours had joyfully ha-stened to plunder their goods, might now be seen in Japa-nese, French, and English the announcement: “ This peo-ple is belonged to. Japanese entirely 5th regiment.” “No admittance to enter this house,” was common, and in some districts every door had “ Japan ” over it, with the motto overhead in Chinese (left over from the last New Year’s posting) “ Imperial Grace; Family Happiness.”

In the destruction of the dwellings of the foreigners, all the adjacent houses had been destroyed also. Not a shop was open, not a vender to be seen, not a cup of hot water nor an egg to be bought, but throughout nineteen-twentieths of the long city desolation reigned supreme, while the Japanese flag waved over the granaries holding what was left of the tribute rice, which had been the life-blood both of T’ung Chou and of Peking. On the river-bank, where in the autumn of the year trade was wont to be brisk, there was indeed a busy scene, but it was not the grain-fleet from Tientsin, nor the cargo-boats with tea for Russia, but the Japanese, British, French, Russian, and American transports crowding the otherwise un-vexed waters of the canal leading to the Peiho. Not a boat arrived or departed but under military orders, and every boatman was impressed under inexorable—but mildly despotic—martial law.

In a particularly impassable mud-hole (probably dating from the Yuan Dynasty) one might come on the strange spectacle of a party of Sikhs engaged in making out of the roof-timbers of a Chinese house a species of bridge, covered with doors, shutters, and other wood-work, on a foundation of huge bundles of ripe sorghum cut from the fields with the grain attached. The military road, of which this bridge formed a minute section, passed directly over deep trenches where the walls of the grounds of

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the Nortlı China College had lately stood. When it was destroyed the Boxers or the joyful neighbours hastened to plant its land with Indian corn, and by the time the troops arrived in the autumn this was just ripe enough to feed the animals of the members of the mission who halted there to inspect the ruins.

Over the whole twelve miles between T’ung Chou and Peking one might pass and repass, and never see a hu-man being, nor find at any of the countless tea-houses and inns along the route a single opportunity to pur-chase a mouthful of food, or even to water the animals. Unusually luxuriant crops were standing absolutely un-touched, or if, as happened later, the heads of the grain were cut off, it was done swiftly and furtively, and with scouts looking both ways to detect the presence of for-eign troops on that much travelled military road. Many of the soldiers took a keen delight in shooting every hu-man being in sight who looked like a “ heathen Chinese,” and the result was a broad belt of practically depopulated territory, where any one could pillage the empty houses with comparative impunity, except for the all pervading fear of the sudden appearance of the dreaded polyglot foreign troops. Each of them represented a hasty and a bitter nation, marching through the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling-places that were not theirs, whose horses were swifter than the leopards, and more fierce than the evening wolves, their horsemen spreading them-selves and coming from far.

Many weary months was this heavy burden to be borne, with many nameless horrors upon which we do not ven-ture to touch. And all this—and more—was a part of The Punishment of T'ung Chou.

XXXI

CHAPTER 31. Tientsin after the Siege

T: city of Tientsin is the natural gateway for

the provinces of Chihli and Shansi, аз well аз

for parts of Shantung and Honan, and of Man-churia and Mongolia. In its relations with foreigners there is much which is instructive, and which in view of the history of the past year throws light upon the action and interaction of causes in a manner well adapted to rivet attention.

The Tientsin men have a reputation for violence, espe-cially in speech, and all over China are dreaded as quarrel-some and obstreperous. In some places in the central provinces the inns have a standing notice: “ No Tientsin men admitted.” When the Taku forts were captured in 1860 Tientsin capitulated оп its own account, and fur-nished the foreign troops with all the provisions and other supplies needed, at remunerative rates, soon learning how to make out of a military occupation a mine of wealth. But the people of Tientsin from the first moment of their acquaintance with foreigners down to the present time have had no love for them. At the very beginning of their knowledge of the barbarians a new nickname was employed to designate them, by allusion to their hair, and they were called “ Maotzu.” There has never been a time when any foreigner passing through the streets or sub-urbs of this inhospitable city might not at any moment hear himself saluted by infants scarcely able to walk alone, reinforced by children of both sexes and all ages, with a

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taunting chorus of “Mao! mao! mao! mao!” as long as he was within hearing.

The Tientsin massacre of 1870 has already been men-tioned among the instances in which the mob element was encouraged by the literati and not discouraged by the officials, and its result was the loss of twenty foreign lives. The French were the principal sufferers in this outbreak, but by an unfortunate coincidence their over-whelming defeat by Germany in that year made the tardy settlement with China in every way unsatisfactory. Had the Tientsin riot been properly punished, it is morally cer-tain that many important events in the subsequent rela-tions between China and the West would have been dif-ferent.

But though France failed to secure adequate repara-tion for the wrong done to all foreigners, according to the belief of the Chinese themselves the city and region could not escape the vengeance of Heaven. The surrounding country is low and flat, and for many successive years it was inundated in a way to cause terrible misery to an enormous number of people. Refugees by the thou-sand, and even by the ten thousand in years of heavy floods or wide-spread famine, flocked to this metropolis, where they were huddled together in great mat-sheds, or allowed to crowd into huts plastered with mud, so low that an adult could not sit upright; there, with no other furniture than a broken iron kettle and a rice-bowl or two, the occupants lay piled together like the puppies of a litter, kept from freezing in the terrible blasts of winter only by a few handfuls of straw on the bare ground, their ragged clothes, and fragments of gunny-bags.

The population of Tientsin has been estimated at a million, or in that vicinity, but this is almost certainly

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too high a figure. The city itself is small, and the suburbs while crowded are narrow and straggling. But within the past two decades the increase has been marked. The water traffic centreing here is enormous, and there are miles upon miles of boats, laid up in winter, but intensely active during all other seasons.

The great growth in the commercial prosperity of Tien-tsin is wholly due to the advent of foreign trade, which had advanced with giant strides. Lord Charles Beresford found that the amount of duty collected in 1897 amounted to about £139,000, a gain in nine years of nearly 65 per cent; while the total value of all the exports and imports in the same year was about £9,232,030, being an increase in ten years of 99 per cent.

No shrewder people than the Chinese are to be found upon this planet—or perhaps any other. They have never had the smallest difficulty in perceiving that the phe-nomenal prosperity of the “Open Ports” springs from foreign trade, and they are ready enough in every one of them, as well in British possessions like Hongkong, Singapore, and Penang, to put themselves under the rule of the outer Barbarian. But this is not to say that they love him, or even like him, because they do not. Of the innate antipathy between the Chinese and foreigners Tien-tsin is an excellent, because an indisputable example. What harm had ever come to the people of Tientsin from the Settlements, where the Occidentals lived, and in which they have expended annually a sum equal to the revenues of a kingdom, all of which fell into the hands of the Chinese? There was, indeed, in the details of the intercourse much to be regretted, and something might be said to show that the Chinese had a grievance, but on the whole their treatment we believe to have been con-spicuously fair and just.

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The rise of the Boxer movement was far to the south of Tientsin, and appeared to wake little responsive echo in that turbulent metropolis—a fact which excited the surprise of many old “ China hands.” Even in the early months of 1900 very little if any unusual excitement was visible, and absolutely no sign of a great popular rising. A few anticipatory Boxer enthusiasts who paraded the streets to beguile the people were promptly arrested, severely punished, and put in the wooden collar; when the ferment apparently disappeared.

Yü Lu, the Governor General of Chihli, like most other high officers everywhere in China at that time, was a Manchu. There is always much difficulty in ascertaining what a Chinese (or a Manchu) official means by what he says, or by the proclamations which he issues, but there certainly appeared to be strong circumstantial evidence that His Excellency was not then friendly to the Boxer enterprise. Gen. Mei, the commander of the provincial troops, was actively fighting and destroying them in large companies, which could not have been the case had Yü Lu desired to stop him, as the Governor of Shantung (Yü Hsien) did with his military officers. At all events there was an apparent effort to put the Boxers down, and some of the proclamations had a ring of severe ear-nestness and firm purpose. A little later all this was changed by the undoubted approval of the Boxers by the Court, and definite orders from Peking to patronize and to utilize them.

It was noted as a singular and on the whole an un-accountable fact that this city, which one would have expected to be the head-centre and distributing point of all maleficent anti-foreign virus, was not actually cap-tured by the Boxers until long after they had been operat-ing in Pao Ting Fu, Cho Chou, and T’ung Chou. In

TIENTSIN AFTER THE SIEGE 575

the country districts within an hundred miles they were already violent by the middle of May, and Christian refu-gees were pouring into the missionary compounds at the foreign settlement in anticipation of a storm which they well knew would be unprecedented.

The correspondence afterward discovered in the ya-men of the Governor General showed conclusively the complicity of that official with his subordinates in Pao Ting Fu (under instructions from Peking), in feeding and patronizing the Boxers. The events which took place along the line of the Lu-Han railway, and especially the destruction of the machine shops and engines on the 28th of May at Feng T’ai, and later the stations on the Peking line, made a profound impression at Tientsin, which was already throbbing with excitement.

The escape of a large party of Belgian engineers from Pao Ting Fu has already been mentioned, and added to the tension of feeling. They had left that city on twelve boats for Tientsin with an escort and an interpreter. They were abandoned and betrayed on the river, lost their way, became separated, and several of them dis-appeared. Twenty-six of them formed a square with the women inside and made direct for Tientsin, travelling as well as they could, being ill clad, Ш shod, and without food, and obliged to drink from pools and streams as they could. Five of this party, almost delirious with suf-fering and excitement, became separated from the others, two of them arriving in Tientsin by themselves. A rescue party of twenty-five mounted volunteers and ten men on foot bravely went out to bring in the refugees; the former missed them by going around the city, but the others brought them into the settlement much more dead than alive, and for a time they were totally unable to give any account of themselves. One man was shot in

556 CHINA IN CONVULSION

the leg, and had besides seven wounds in the shoulder and head; one of the ladies was shot through the shoulder, and others had wounds of various descriptions.

The Chinese in the city, as well as the settlement, with few exceptions were convinced that the Boxers could do all that they claimed—and more. They could resist swords, were impervious to bullets, could emit fire at will, and could fly. The foreigners, on the other hand, were much too self-confident. The very same correspondent who reported the adventures and sufferings of the engi-neers, remarked on the 3rd of June that “there is no reason whatever for anxiety about Tientsin.” The people of the native city were almost crazed with excitement. Many houses were found smeared with blood, and this was laid to the door of the Christians, while incendiaries and robbers saw in the general disorder a rich harvest time.

On the evening of June 14th (one day later than the similar outbreak in Peking) the Boxers began operations, and from the second story of high buildings their pro-ceedings could be watched. Three chapels inside the city were set on fire, and many of the adjacent buildings were involved in the conflagration.

It was probably not anticipated by those who exerted themselves to destroy foreigners by shooting at them from buildings on the land adjacent to the French settle-ment, that within a few weeks their property would be confiscated and in some cases sold to the very ones whom the late owners had diligently endeavoured to kill; nor did the short-sighted Chinese who surreptitiously at-tacked their employers foresee that it would not be long before it would not be safe for them to go about the streets of their own city, and that after nine o'clock at night no Chinese would be allowed abroad on the foreign

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‚ TIENTSIN, AFTER TH

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CAN BOARD

AMERI

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TIENTSIN AFTER THE SIEGE 577

concessions, except jinrikisha men actually drawing a foreign passenger. |

There is по doubt that the Chinese armies under com-mand of General Nieh and others fought with a des-peration for which nothing in the war with Japan afforded any parallel. The official report of Yü Lu published in the “ Peking Gazette ” of June 25th and subsequent dates, is an interesting document. He mentions that the troops and the Boxers are in coöperation, and that the latter were willing to offer their services freely and had fully demonstrated their patriotism. Their numbers actually present at Tientsin, can not, he says, be less than 30,000, and “they regard the burning of churches and the killing of foreigners as their profession.” So did His Excellency, for іп the papers captured at his yamen there 15 an entry of one hundred taels as having been paid as a reward for the heads of two foreigners!

The net result of all this Boxerism and of the sacrifice of so many Chinese soldiers in numerous engagements was that the Chinese troops were utterly routed (even where they might have made a formidable stand outside and beyond the walls), and the city left a prey to its foes.

Military government at once began, and so likewise did destruction and pillage. When the whole field had been > surveyed the destruction of life and of property was found to have been enormous. Of the former it is im-possible to speak with definiteness,but of the latter there were everywhere visible proofs. The south gate which the Japanese blew open, and at which they entered, had its tower totally destroyed, and a temple within the south-eastern quarter, used as an arsenal, was the scene of a great explosion. Between the south gate and the cen-tral drum-tower many of the houses and shops were burned, and between this tower and the north gate noth-

578 CHINA IN CONVULSION

ing was left standing on either side of the street. From the drum-tower to the west gate the ruin was not quite so universal, while east of the drum-tower except in the vicinity of a mission church there was not much devasta-tion.

Outside the north gate, the narrow street extending to the iron bridge leading to the yamen of the Governor General for display of its wares and for the extent of its trade, was perhaps one of the finest in all China. Ве-tween the Boxers, the Chinese soldiers, and the local ruffans whose habit was first to loot and then to burn, this long row of business houses was almost entirely ob-literated, involving losses amounting doubtless to tens of millions of taels. For many days the principal occupa-tion of many soldiers, and civilians also, was the garner-ing of the rich crop of looted silver from the innumerable places where it was to be found, and whence it was car-ried off by the wheel-barrow load and the cart load. It was a standard story that when the attention of a soldier was called ta the fact that he had dropped one or two “shoes ” (each worth about $70 Mexican), he would re-ply; “ Never mind, you pick them up—I have all I want!” The treasure found in the various yamens must have been enough to furnish a mint.

The fate of these yamens was interesting as a part of the general retribution. That of the Governor General which for twenty-two years had been occupied by Li Hung Chang (a large part of it accidentally destroyed by fire during the winter), became the headquarters of a “ Tientsin Provisional Government,” established by the military authorities, when it was found that there were insuperable objections to conceding the request of the Russians thatTientsin should be turned over to that Power alone. This Provisional Government was constituted by

TIENTSIN AFTER THE SIEGE 579

the appointment of a British, a Russian, a Japanese, and later a German, Colonel to act as Commissioners, the number being subsequently increased to six, assisted by the necessary staff for the execution of the functions of policing and controlling so large a city and so important a centre.

As soon as Tientsin was taken every Chinese official, civil as well as military, promptly disappeared, and most of them suffered extreme “bitterness” on the flight southward, being systematically pillaged by the Chinese at all points of their long journey, so that they were in many cases reduced to absolute penury. The yamen of the Customs Taotai (one of the most important in the city) was occupied by the Japanese; that of the Prefect by the French; while those of the District Magistrate, of the Salt Commissioner, and of the Brigadier General, were reduced to complete ruin. Thus an incidental outcome of the plan of the officials to combine the Boxers and the Chinese troops to drive the foreigners into the sea, was that within sixty days of the beginning of serious operations officials, Boxers, and Chinese soldiers had ab-solutely disappeared from the scene, leaving the hated foreigner in undisputed charge of everything everywhere.

The fort near the Governor General's yamen from which the settlement had been viciously attacked, was soon taken by the Japanese, who posted a small guard over it, other troops occupying the numerous forts in the immediate vicinity. Numbers of new and unused Krupp guns were captured in the neighbourhood of the city, showing the utter demoralization which seized the Chinese soldiers when once it had set in.

The city had no sooner been occupied than the British and other officers pressed on to the river outside the north gate to seize the junks, cargo-boats, and house-boats for

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military transports, in consequence of which thereafter not a boat could stir nor a boatman peep except with military consent. Every craft of every sort either had the label of some “ outside country ” painted upon it— British 87, U. S. Transport 63, etc.,—or flew a flag with the mystic symbol “Т.Р. G.,” showing that it was reg-istered and licensed by the Tientsin Provisional Govern-ment, as were the carts, barrows, rikshas, “and also much cattle.”

The rice tribute came to an abrupt period, and all the extensive supplies on hand were soon looked after by some of the military, who were at once omnipresent and omnipotent. The long mountain ranges of salt stocked up on the left bank of the Peiho, had over them a Russian flag at one end, and a French flag at the other, and for the next year or so no salt-boats left for the interior, where the people got on as they could.

At the New Year season, when the Chinese most de-light in the promiscuous and unrestrained explosion of innumerable bunches of fire-crackers, proclamations were issued in Tientsin (as well as in the other cities under foreign military rule) positively forbidding anything of the kind on pain of arrest and punishment. Few of the hitherto universally posted ornamental and flowery in-scriptions over doorways, and on the door-posts, were to be seen, and such was the terror inspired by the foreign soldiers that even formal bows on the streets (said to be forbidden by the Japanese police) had to be wholly pretermitted. It was not considered altogether safe to perform these indispensable ceremonies even in the pri-vacy of one's own court-yard, where even women were said to be sometimes arrested for indulging in the in-evitable gambling appropriate to the period of national relaxation. Under these strange and bitter conditions

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many Chinese were heard plaintively to exclaim that it would have been better not to have any New Year at all!

A year ago the word “yang” (foreign) was еуегу-where so odious that even the innocent Mohammedans who sold “ yang jou” (sheep-meat, a word with the same sound but different meaning), were attacked on that ac-count. Everything foreign was taboo, or if indispensable was dubbed with a new name. Foreign drilling must be called “fine cloth” or “wide cloth,” foreign rifles “ knobbed-guns,” foreign matches “ quick-fire,” and the like. But now Chinese were everywhere to be met, dressed in foreign hats, coats, trousers, and boots (and in winter even in hitherto unprecedented mittens and gloves), the cast-off property of soldiers and civilians. АП classes learned the military salute with more or less inaccuracy, the smallest children ostentatiously perform-ing 1t before every passer by, and old beggar women care-fully shaded one eye under the impression that they were thus punctiliously observing the foreign proprieties while soliciting a “foreign cash.”

The fate of the materials which were especially de-pended upon for the destruction of the hated foreigner is an apt illustration of the miscarriage of plans which seem to their promoters the best laid in the world. The Arsenal in the southeastern corner of the city was found stocked with weapons of the most miscellaneous nature, all of which were taken over by the Provisional Government and issued to whatever foreigner presented a request for them as a defence to his life апа property. Lead from this Arsenal and elsewhere was collected by the Provi-sional Government, melted into 200 pound bars, and shipped to Shanghai in large quantities, the proceeds going to swell the handsome revenues which were pres-ently pouring into the coffers of that energetic corpora-

ГА

582 CHINA IN CONVULSION

tion, which with conspicuous success undertook many branches of administration hitherto distributed among a score or more of yamens, or left altogether undone.

The right to excavate and remove the remains of the Arsenal at Hsiku partly destroyed by Admiral Seymour’s party was sold at auction, the purchaser unearthing vast lava-flows of lead and other metal melted in the general combustion, to the enrichment of the foreigner and the impoverishment of the Chinese Government.

For two months after the siege the people of Tientsin, many of whom had fled to villages at a distance, were afraid to return, but by degrees the city began to look less deserted, and the Taku road which passes through the foreign settlement began to assume something of its wonted activity. Numerically considered, the destruction of dwellings in the city itself was a small matter when compared with that in the environs. The densely crowded main street running through the French concession, upon which were most of the Chinese shops dealing in foreign goods, was totally destroyed, not a single building left standing. Some of them were burned by the foreigners during the siege to prevent them from being used as forts to attack the foreign houses, and then the shops were looted by whomever could get there first. Large tracts of the French concession were burned in the same way, for since so much was being destroyed it would be con-venient to have the whole area laid out anew, and no questions asked.

On the east of the river around the railway station, where the fighting was most furious, not a Chinese dwell-ing was left, nor for a long distance in any direction. The villages along the river between Tientsin and Taku have likewise been destroyed, and the same was true on every side of the city, but іп varying degrees. This ex-

TIENTSIN AFTER THE SIEGE 583

tensive diminution in the number of houses, resulted in great inconvenience and discomfort, and, when the cold weather came on, in unspeakable misery. Extravagant rents were demanded for the meanest huts; even more serious than the lack of an abode was the difficulty of buying food and the scarcity of fuel, for the rains had been deficient, and the crops, such as they were, had been neglected.

Prices were at a preposterous figure, while wages, ow-ing to the irrational standard set by the military, seemed to promise sudden riches, forty cents being paid for the labor of a short day, instead of twenty as heretofore. Cash ceased to be the topic of conversation, as it had been since the creation of all things, and all the talk was of “mao” (dimes), and “ yiian” (dollars). But this fictitious prosperity had its outcome in the fact that in-stead of one’s buying for cash—a tenth of a cent—as a unit, almost nothing was to be had for less than ten cents, so that in terms of food and clothes no one was much better off than before.

To these evils due to a violation of the laws of political economy, were added others arising primarily from a contempt for the laws of nations. China had defied the world, and the world was upon her. With such a poly-glot force of troops it was next to impossible to keep them in order, and as a matter of fact it was not done. Some of the Russian, the French, the Indian, and the German troops distinguished themselves as high-way robbers, plundering the Chinese of their money, their goods, and their clothing, and this in broad daylight and in public places. |

Military raids into the regions about Tientsin were made in all directions, and although it is impossible to get at the facts it is certain that the three shortest of

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the Ten Commandments were constantly violated on an extensive scale, and with no redress for “the heathen Chinese.” Every individual coolie must have a label sewed to his coat, or he might be commandeered by an urgent military officer for his particular job, perhaps being paid good wages, and perhans at the end being dismissed with a kick. Lest their badges be stolen from them for the protection of others, some of the Chinese had brass plates clamped to their arms, and many poor fellows after working hard all day on their way to their hovels had the results of their toil snatched from them by a French trooper from Algiers, or a German from Kiao-chou.

The native scoundrels who had lately been drawing ra-tions from the Governor General as “ patriotic Boxers,” had thrown away their red girdles, and while the looting season lasted gave themselves to that industry with a single eye and with both hands earnestly. If however, one continued poor, he mingled with the crowd and of-fered his services as a policeman of the Provisional Gov-ernment, where he might levy black-mail indiscriminately, since there was no one to testify to his past record. Now and then, as a result of too great temerity one such lost his head, but this was regarded as a mere incident in the ordinary line of risks, and had no deterring effect upon others.

The professional rowdies and blacklegs of Tientsin, as the fruit of their prudent exertions at the moment of destiny, are now rich and prosperous, while those who were formerly well-to-do are either in exile or in poverty. As one outcome of this inversion of the social order, the poor being suddenly rich and the rich becoming poor, the numerous and important charities of Tientsin were largely dried up at the fountain-head. The soup-kitchens which

TIENTSIN AFTER THE SIEGE 585

usually flourish were sought in vain, and although there are still a few benevolent gentry who would gladly do something for those in distress, their inadequate resources are, in classical language, but “a cup of water to put out a fire in a cart-load of fuel.”

Whatever the excellences of the Tientsin Provisional Government, which within a certain radius were many, it entirely failed in the first principle of good administra-tion, that the work should be done through the Chinese themselves. Li Hung Chang indeed appointed a District Magistrate, a Prefect, and a territorial Taotai, not one of whom was allowed by the six military “kings ” who held the actual authority to open an office in the city, even if he could set foot in it with safety. The last named official, who is a man of weight and dignity in the Chinese scale of rank, ought to ride in a chair, and appear in his robes of office, but he was ordered out of Tientsin as Ш his arrival were an impertinence, and was not even allowed to have a place of business anywhere within the county limits. When he called upon the “kings” he dared not appear in his proper costume, but only in undress clothing, being rightly assured that they would never know the difference.

The whole Chinese system of government is one of graded and interrelated responsibility. By their wanton acts of violence the Chinese at Tientsin put an end to their own rule, and that which took its place was at best limited, inadequate, and irresponsible. The inces-sant raids of the military drove away the officials in wide tracts of country, over which there was no government of any kind. Bands of pirates who usually rob water-craft and hide up the inaccessible creeks and bays, now ranged the country as mounted thieves. Their only and inappeasable cry was for “silver.” ‘If that were not

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forthcoming, the poor wretch who was attacked might be tied by the queue to a beam in his own house and slowly roasted over a fire of fuel. This is termed “ sitting on the lotus flower.” Or he might be forced into a frame-work of telegraph-wire heated red-hot, which is called “riding on the fire-wheel cart,” until he should pay the sum demanded. When complaint was made to the Pro-visional Government, the very natural reply was received that they had at present (although later it was other-wise) no jurisdiction beyond the outer rampart of Tien-tsin—all the rest was a No-man’s land dedicated to mis-rule and to primeval chaos!

The great eastern arsenal, from which the attacks upon the settlement were so fierce and persistent, was captured by the Russians on the 27th of June, and although largely destroyed as a work-shop for weapons, became an excel-lent Russian hospital. The western arsenal, in the “Treaty Temple,’ was a complete wreck, and all its ma-chinery was sold to private speculators by the Provisional Government, and was stacked up in a melancholy row next to the foreign cemetery on the British Concession. The huge bell presented by the Krupp Company to the Chinese Government long years ago, was in turn pre-sented by the Provisional Government to the Tientsin British Municipal Council, where it hangs in the Pub-lic Gardens, and is expected to give the settlement its much-needed standard of time. Could the military humiliation of Tientsin go deeper than this?

The land lying between Tientsin city and the settle-ments had gradually increased in value to the extent of many hundred per cent, and as much of it was dotted with graves it was not to be had at any price. Not many months after\the capture of the city the French Consul General issued a circular notifying the public that that

NISLNGIL "IVSdAHLVD DITOHLVO МУЛОМ AO SNING NISLNALL “IVNASAV

TIENTSIN AFTER THE SIEGE 587

office “did not recognize” the validity of any Chinese deeds drawn before the 17th of June (the date of the capture of the Taku forts), and that within specified and expansive limits all land had now by this fiat become the property of the French Municipal Council, any previous deeds requiring to be registered at the Consulate. In pursuance of this act of annexation the ruins of Chinese houses were leveled, broad boulevards laid out in de-sirable directions, and all plaints of Chinese owners for compensation answered with a shrug of the shoulders. As much of this land had swarmed with dwellings, the hardship to innocent owners was great and remediless, and presently these unfortunate individuals found them-selves required to pay a tax of several dollars a month for the right to continue in temporary occupation of their own houses! These additions to the French territory extended from the settlement, north to the river, and thence west to the rampart enclosing the city. Upon a large part of this it is announced that in future no Chinese will be allowed to live.

Immediately adjoining this is the Japanese quarter, em-bracing the whole battlefield of July 13th, and extending to the south wall of the city, and east and west from the Peiho to the mud rampart. The densely crowded houses had almost all been destroyed, and over the ruins of every door was posted a sign in Japanese and Chinese: “ This house reserved for Japanese troops.”

Along the whole frontage of their extensive addition they demolished all buildings, dwellings, shops, yamens and temples with the rest, and opened a wide street along the water front, which the Provisional Government con-tinued the whole distance to the Grand Canal, and to the Iron Bridge opposite the yamen of the Governor General, Innumerable Chinese shops and dens thus disappeared.

588 CHINA. IN CONVULSION

The boulevard which replaces the narrow and tortuous alleys is macadamized and wholesome—but it is by no means certain that the late Chinese occupants are entirely happy.

In continuation of this new avenue it was decided by the Provisional Government to make a roadway en-tirely around the city, but this could only be accomplished by the removal of the city wall. A contract for this work was given out to a Chinese, who, during the winter

months hired armies of the poor, thus having the melan-

choly satisfaction of assisting in destroying the defences of the city which had so recently felt the need of them. Multitudes of “ squatters ” along the city wall were thereby dislodged and had no place to go, and such was the number of homeless wretches in the bitter months of the winter, that every temple was choked with them, and they filled even the jail of the yamen of the District Magis-trate, an official for whom there was now no yamen and no use. The whole city wall was levelled, the city moat filled up, and adjacent dwellings demolished, all to make a long esplanade, sixty or more feet wide, encircling Tien-tsin, looking to the probable introduction of an electric road to accommodate the steadily growing and hitherto unmanageable traffic.

A proceeding so revolutionary could not take place without exciting the most bitter opposition from the gen-try and the people, who sent repeated and urgent memo-rials to Li Hung Chang against it, pleading piteously in the figurative language of the Orient that a Chinese city without walls is like a woman without her nether gar-ments! Li quashed their petitions with the curt remark that the wall was old and of no protective value, and the work went on apace to its completion. In the meantime the official surveyor of the Provisional Government was

TIENTSIN AFTER THE SIEGE 589

set at work to map out the whole region, and to mark out a street of uniform width from the north to the south gate, remorselessly cutting off several feet from each shop-front for the advantage of that hitherto disregarded en-tity, the Public. The extensive ponds and holes in dif-ferent corners of the city are all to be filled up, and the land offered for sale, and as every situation is in-comparably more accessible than before, the ultimate convenience will be great, while the actual owners. may perhaps be heavy losers.

The mountains of bricks from the facing of the city wall were exposed for sale, and now form the enclosing walls and the pavements of foreign premises on the settlements, whose owners a few months since were shot at and bombarded by soldiers posted on that same city wall and perhaps treading on these very bricks. Through-out all the streets and alleys of Tientsin, and the other cities similarly governed, the houses are all numbered with Arabic figures, and many of the streets have been renamed, especially by the Japanese, who appear to re-gard their settlement as merely an addition to the Islands of Nippon.

Below the mud rampart so often mentioned, the Ger-mans, by the same simple formula now exclusively em-ployed, have annexed a large tract which has become an integral part of the German Empire. Across the Peiho on the east, the same facile plan has been followed by Belgium, by Russia (whose miles of addition included the railway station. and brought two Empires to the very verge of war), and by Italy and Austria. Each of these nations has now broad areas dignified by the satirical designations of “ Concessions,” but which might rather be styled “ Aggressions.”

All the “ Powers ” (except China) are now accommo-

590 CHINA IN CONVULSION

dated with a commodious* water-front, nearly the whole distance from the junction of the Grand Canal and the Peiho being appropriated in this way, with the prospect of larger demands for the “ hinterlands ” of each section in the future.

The foreign settlements of Tientsin have been turned into a camp, and its principal buildings occupied for mili-tary purposes. The Gordon Municipal Hall was a British, and the Union Church an Italian hospital. The Japanese took the building of the Y. M. C. A.; the Temperance Hall was filled with Sikhs, the Tientsin University with Germans, the Chinese Military and Medical School with French. АП nations, all races, were on perpetual exhibi-tion. One might see everywhere the sturdy little Japa-nese; the coarse-featured, stocky Russian; the somewhat undersized Frenchman (perhaps a company of Zouaves from Algiers in flaming scarlet trousers of astonishing size and shape) ; the burly young German; the stout Brit-isher of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers; the lithe American; together with a motley flow of tall and swart Sikhs, Pa-thans, Beluchis, and Rajputs, as well as the Chinese or-ganized into the British First Regiment of Wei Hai Wei; here and there an Austrian, Italians decorated with huge tufts of feathers on their hats, and occasionally the shrewd white-turbaned Parsee.

To deal with the problem of the commissariat for all this mixed multitude was a mighty task.

In the dead of night one might detect the deep tones ` of the bells hung to the neck of long strings of camels loaded with stores for Peking, a mode of transportation not seen in Tientsin for decades, and only employed while the railway was undergoing its slow repairs. The streets were choked with interminable processions of British pack animals, lines of the capacious Studebaker American

RUSSIAN TROOPS EN ROUTE TO PEKING

TIENTSIN AFTER THE SIEGE 591

army wagon, the clumsy forage carts of the Russians, German vehicles bought from the Dutch and made in Java, and the trig little trucks of the Japanese. The big humped Indian buffalo drew a light framework support-ing a water-barrel for the Mohammedan troops, and long lines of all descriptions of wheeled drays or carts struggled at the hydrants, or at the hose-pipes furnishing distilled water.

The enterprising Cantonese, who owned most of the Chinese stores dealing in foreign goods, being regarded by the Tientsinese as practically foreigners, were either driven away or killed, and their possessions impartially looted. The “ Tientsin Road ” on the French settlement, formerly filled with these shops from end to end, was totally destroyed, and their places taken by French bar-racks. The Temple of the “ Purple Bamboo Grove” (Tzu Chu Lin) which gave its name to the settlement, was wholly demolished and burned, its site being heaped with the timbers of wrecked buildings. The once stylish Victoria Road was lined with patient Chinese squatting in attendance upon stands (if that can be called a “ stand ” which is merely a cloth spread upon the ground), dis-playing a stock of pears, eggs, turnips, and the odds and ends saved or plundered from the wreck of the numerous stores dealing in foreign goods—candles, lamps, chimneys, towels, socks, mirrors, pictures, and all the miscellaneous wares found in Chinese shops, each “ stand ” a small de-partment store in itself.

New places of business burst forth in unexpected spots. A gate-house suddenly developed a glass-window on the side to the street with the legend: “ Exchange to Money,” for the coin was most confusing. Counterfeit dollars and fractional currency abounded, so that one was afraid to take any change at all. The city which hated foreigners

592 CHINA IN CONVULSION

and their speech began to be full of signs in English, Japanese, French, and German, perhaps informing the passer-by that “ Japan Wishky are sold here,” or that the proprietor was prepared, for a consideration, to “ Makee tattoo in the skin.”

It is a melancholy fact that it was the worst phase of Occidental civilization which was displayed most widely and conspicuously to the Chinese, and that they were given the very best reason to suppose that the principal object of every “ ocean man” was to find a place in which to drink.

The entire lower end of the Taku Road was filled with saloons and disreputable resorts of every variety, where roistering crowds of foreign soldiers from all the great countries of the world nightly met, and drank, and fought. Privates and officers, the latter too in considerable num-bers, were shot and killed during the winter in quarrels between different contingents of the “ China Expedition-ary Force,” and more than once the French and the ‚ Americans, the British and the French, or the Russians and the British, seemed to be on the point of open hostili-ties, with no greater cause than some private bar room dispute or a national feud growing out of hotly recipro-cated taunts and flings.

All this, however, belongs to an exceptional and a tran-sitional state. Tientsin is undergoing a great transforma-tion. It is sure to be in the future far more than hitherto a vast commercial distributing depot, its river deepened and straightened, the navigation improved, and the in-tractable Taku bar brought under effective control. It will be a great manufacturing, railway, and educational centre, and before the twentieth century is well under way will enjoy a prosperity unthought of in the past,

TIENTSIN AFTER THE SIEGE 593

which will make the year of the Boxer rising seem in retrospect like a troubled dream.

And all this it will owe to the far-sightedness, energy, persistence, and skill of the foreigners for whom in the closing year of the nineteenth century the Chinese Gov-ernment and the Chinese people had no other wish than to kill them all.

XXXII

CHAPTER 32. Foreigners in the Interior

7 | ЧО describe in detail the experiences of the great

number of foreigners who were scattered all

over the interior of an Empire far larger than the whole of Europe, would of itself require a volume. All that can here be attempted is such a rapid survey as to make clear that the Boxer movement was in no sense a “rebellion,” which it soon became the interest of the Government itself and especially of its Ministers abroad to represent it to be, but a deliberately planned and comprehensive attempt to exterminate foreigners wher-ever found.

That there were edicts issued from the Central Gov-ernment in Peking to different and distant parts of the Empire ordering the immediate massacre of all foreign-ers, is certain. The evidence is of a varied and convincing nature. Intelligence of such a Decree was brought to missionaries and others by friends in the yamens, by friendly telegraph operators, and by officials—some of them of high rank—in at least three provinces and in numerous places hundreds of miles apart, almost simultaneously. Twice at least the original dispatch was seen by foreigners, and its phraseology is indelibly en-graved on the memories of those who were stunned by the appalling and unexampled words: “Feng Yang-jen pi sha, yang-jen Ри hui chi sha,” “Whenever you meet

594

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foreigners you must kill them, and if they attempt to escape they must still immediately be killed.”

It has been generally believed that the two Ministers of the Tsung Li Yamen who were executed during the progress of the siege in Peking, Hsú Ching Ch’éng, and Yüan Ch’ang, admitted that they had altered the char-acter for “ kill,” into another meaning “ protect” (рао), and this is said to have been affırmed by the son of one of them, and assigned as a reason for their decapitation. This point remains in some obscurity, for several different reasons. As a matter of fact the dispatch was not altered within the numerous regions where it most seri-ously affected foreigners, and in the case of Imperial Edicts it is thought incredible that any one should dare to take such a step at once fatal and futile. It was of course convenient both for the Governors General and Governors who refused to obey this Decree and later for the Chinese Government itself to assume that it was “ spurious,” a legal fiction which has been consistently maintained, and will doubtless remain as the standard explanation among the Chinese, and among many for-eigners. The theory in that case is that Prince Tuan was “a usurper,” and that his clique gained possession of the seals of State, and for a time put the real “ Government ” under duress.

It is a Chinese maxim that “an officer depends upon his seal,”-—losing that he loses his office too, and having the seal he ex officio is the person to whom the seal be-longs. Prince Tuan was put in power by the deliberate act of the Empress Dowager herself for a definite pur-pose, and there seems to be no evidence that his acts were either disavowed by her, or in any way objection-able to her until their consequences became so. After that, the adoption of the theory of “ spurious Decrees ”

596 CHINA IN CONVULSION

was inevitable, and has been definitely fixed by an Edict, as from the Emperor, ordering the collection of all the Decrees issued after the siege of the Legations began, that their genuineness might be officially denied, so as to put an end to their citation as acts of “the Government of China.” But it should be distinctly recognized that such disavowal has no real bearing upon historic facts, and can in no way undo the irreparable past.

In this connection peculiar interest attaches to the ac-companying note from Sir Robert Hart, Inspector-Gen-eral of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs:

“ PEKING 18th June, 1901. “ DEAR Dr. ӛмітн:

“ТЕ would be interesting to get a really reliable Chinese account of Palace doings—and Peking doings—during 1900: As it is, we are all guessing and inferring and putting this and that together, but we have not got at the facts yet! It’s all a question with no finality in it— you may put down your pen, but every new touch will bring a new picture to the eye that looks through the kaleido-scope of history—and the Aurora Borealis of circum-stance will change unceasingly.

“ Truly yours, “ROBERT HART?

While the Empress Dowager may not have had per-sonal knowledge of every Decree put forth in her name, it is morally certain that without her general sanction none of them could have been issued. That she was kept mis-informed of the actual conditions is altogether likely, and nothing is more probable, if not indeed certain, than that the decisive and irrevocable step was taken in one of those paroxysms of fury to which all Chinese and Man-

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598 CHINA IN CONVULSION

chus, high and low, the latter quite as much as the former, are perpetually liable.

That this act was itself caused by a piece of intelli-gence received just before the decision was taken, which exerted a powerful influence on the mind of the Empress Dowager, has been often and confidently affirmed, and is in itself so natural an explanation of her sudden anger that, while it is impossible at present to prove it, there is yet sufficient evidence to adopt it as an hypothesis. It must be premised that it had long been the habit of the Court to have translations made from the foreign jour-nals in China for palace perusal, many of which must have been particularly unpleasant reading.

The story is that on the 1gth of June an unknown offi-cial in Shanghai sent to the Grand Council in Peking a telegram embodying the substance of something which had there appeared. What that article was is not known, but that there were editorials printed at that time which would have been likely to produce such effects is indis-putable. Of that type is the following paragraph, which appeared in the leading journal of the Far East, the “ North China Daily News,” on the morning of June ıgth, 1900.

“ The Empress Dowager is reaping the whirlwind with a vengeance, and it is very doubtful whether she will stay in Peking to gather the harvest. . . . Instead of having one or two Powers to pacify, China is at war with all the Great Powers at once, and she is at war by the choice of the Empress Dowager and her gang. . Whatever happens, this gang, if it does not go of its own accord, must be driven out of Peking. It is to be hoped that it will be possible to get out the Emperor Kuang Hsú and replace him on the throne. Meantime, it should be made perfectly clear that it is the Empress Dowager

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who has undertaken the present war, and that we are not fighting China, but the usurping Government at Peking.”

This newspaper, which has for a sub-title “Тһе Su-preme Court and Consular Gazette,” might very naturally pass among the Chinese for what is remote enough from its real character, the organ of the British Government and its official spokesman, although the smallest acquaint-ance with the facts would show any reader that it was the almost incessant critic of the acts of that Government.

The Relief Expedition under Admiral Seymour had been already ten days on its way from Tientsin to Peking. Should it succeed in entering the city this was to be its program, and no faltering for sentimental reasons was to be allowed: “The Empress Dowager was to be de-posed,” —the mere suggestion of which had brought about the coup d’etat of 1898. “ Hell has no fury like a woman scorned ”—ап4 the rest we know.

Attention has been repeatedly called in these pages to the fact that the greatest hostility to foreigners in China arose among the Manchus, rather than the Chinese. In the Grand Council the former were represented as being practically unanimous in favour of defying the world, while the latter offered strenuous albeit unavailing ob-jections. The leading officials at the bottom of the move-ment, with a few prominent exceptions, were Manchus. Among the singular phenomena of this strange time was the frankness with which Chinese Ministers abroad ex-pressed themselves in regard to the policy of the Gov-ernment at home, in marked contrast to the usual cau-tion of all Chinese officials in refusing to commit them-selves. Press reports of utterances of this sort on the part of the Minister to Great Britain (Lo Feng Lu), the Minister to France, and the Minister to the United States (Wu Ting Fang), agreed in thus fixing the responsi-

боо CHINA IN CONVULSION

bility for the invasion of the laws of nations on a Manchu clique.

The substance of a few sentences from an interview with the first named, as published in the October (1900) number of “ Crampton’s Magazine” (English), clearly illustrates this point. “ The enlightened part of the popu-lation,” he says, “ including all the Chinese Viceroys and Governors, condemn the Boxer movement, and have no sympathy with it. But with the Manchu Governors and Viceroys the case is different. They get their posts with-out rigorous examination tests, and are on this account less educated. No educated Chinese would believe, for in-stance, that foreign rifles would prove harmless in battle. I should never have supposed that a Manchu mandarin could believe such a statement. It has been a revelation to me, I confess. If there is to be a free competition of talents, there can no longer be a class monopoly of the high offices of the Empire. The Manchus are all con-servative, while the Chinese are more liberal.”

After explaining how Confucius can be interpreted as in favour of some check upon unlimited authority, he expresses the opinion that there would be no justice in the demand for implicit obedience if the man at the helm of State would go madly in support of a Boxer movement so as to endanger the destiny of four hundred millions of people who are quite innocent. He closes with these significant words: “ I hope that financial, edu-cational, and judicial reforms will be introduced after this crisis is over, and I would even say—as a representative of my country as well as of my Government—that I hope the Powers will insist upon reforms.”

The Chinese Ship-of-State under its Manchu Pilots was thus launched upon its dangerous course down un-known rapids, and the shock was distinctly felt in every

FOREIGNERS IN THE INTERIOR бо

part ої the huge craft, from the southern top of the province of Kuangtung to the banks of the Amur River in the distant north, and from the sea-board to the con-fines of Turkestan. No such evidence of the unity of the Chinese Empire has ever been witnessed.

It was of the greatest importance to the Government that there should be practical unanimity of action through-out the Empire, as well as in the Peking Grand Council, and to make sure of it a Decree was issued on the 26th of June, addressed to twenty-four Governors General, Governors, Military and Naval officials, in the following terms:

“ We yesterday announced to Li Hung Chang, Li Ping Héng, Liu K’un Yi, and Chang Chih Tung, the facts that it is equally difficult to repress or to soothe the feud of the society men against the converts, and that hos-tilities were first resorted to by the Powers. `

“ The reluctance of you Viceroys and Governors, after considering the position and estimating your strength, to provoke foreign enmity lightly, may well be the policy of tried Ministers consulting the interests of their State. But unfortunately, in the present case, the Boxer bands have spread over the whole capital, and their numbers are not less than several hundred thousand. From soldiers and people up to princely and ducal palaces, alike comes one cry of hatred of the foreign religion : the two can not exist together. Repression meant intestine trouble and the utter ruin of the people. The only course, therefore, was to turn the movement to account, while slowly de-vising reformation. The warning in your memorial not to endanger the State by believing their heretical talk, leaves out of account the helpless position in which the Court is placed.

“Did you Viceroys and Governors realize how great is

602 CHINA IN CONVULSION

the crisis in the capital you would surely be unable to eat and sleep in peace, and would be so anxious to do your duty that you could never think of making one-sided representations. The present state of things is one in which the incitement and pressure of providential op-portunity and human affairs have combined to make war inevitable. Do not any of you longer hesitate and look on, but with all speed provide troops and supplies, and vigourously protect the territories; for any remissness you shall be called to account.”

That any Chinese officials, after a warning such as this, should have hesitated to obey the express and re-peated commands of the Court, would seem to have been in itself virtual rebellion, especially as it was not the cue of those in authority to claim or to admit that the Em-press Dowager was in any sense а “ usurper.”

The outcome of this unexampled situation was that Chang Chih Tung, Governor General of the prov-inces of Hupei and Hunan, Liu K’un Yi, Governor Gen-eral of the “ River Provinces,” and Yuan Shih K'ai, Gov-ernor of Shantung, entered into an agreement with one another and with the representatives of foreign Powers that order should be maintained within their territories upon certain specified conditions, of which the absence as far as possible of foreign gun-boats formed a part. While refusing to relinquish her treaty rights, Great Britain was anxious to do everything in her power to strengthen the hands of these Chinese officials who were “loyal,” if not to the reckless Manchu rulers, at least to the best interests of China itself.

It was most fortunate that the welfare of Great Britain was represented at Shanghai by Mr. Pelham L. Warren, as Acting Consul General, and later as Acting British

FOREIGNERS IN THE INTERIOR боз

Minister, and at Hankow by Mn E. Н. Frazer, whose activity and energy were constantly exercised for the general behoof. At the suggestion of Mr. Warren, an arrangement was made by which the British Government took the unusual step of loaning Chang Chih Tung the sum of £75,000 for ten years at 41% per cent, оп the security of the unpledged likin revenue of his provinces. Mr. Warren pointed out (Aug. gth) to Lord Salisbury that it was “ most important to strengthen the Viceroys in their present position, for if they were overthrown the result would be a rising, the suppression of which would involve the expenditure of much time and the employ-ment. of large forces, and this would inevitably be followed by the partition of China. The firm position of the Viceroys,” he adds, “has for the time checked the plans of the Peking Government for a general uprising against foreigners, which but for this would certainly have been carried out.”

The policy of Yuan Shih К’а1 in Shantung, where the Boxer movement had its origin, was very unpopular, and it is said that his cwn life was in constant danger, a special guard of a thousand of his men—the best drilled soldiers in China—being stationed at his yamen gates with machine-guns to prevent any demonstrations. Many months later, when it was perceived that it was only the foresight and firmness of Governor Yuan which had pre-vented Shantung from being over-run by foreign troops as the adjacent province of Chihli had been, the popular feeling changed materially; but in the summer of 1900 the outlook was a dark one. |

Another official to whom perhaps the most credit of all is due—considering that he is a Manchu—was Tuan Fang, then Acting Governor of Shensi. His firmness

604 CHINA IN CONVULSION

prevented the development of the Boxer bacillus in the province, and in the face of the decree of extermination already quoted he used the utmost diligence in pro-tecting all foreigners, not only within his jurisdiction but also in sections contiguous to it, without that punctilious reverence for boundary lines which generally characterizes Chinese officials. He specially dispatched strong escorts for all foreigners leaving Shensi, and gave express orders that the soldiers should not return until their charges had been actually turned over to the troops of Chang Chih Tung sent to meet them, wherever that might happen to be. On the long routes thus traversed from Hsi An Fu to the comparative quiet of Hupei, there were times when but for such protection the travellers would have been attacked by large armed bands, and might easily have been destroyed. As it was, all the foreigners both in Shensi and in Kansu escaped across the mountains of Hankow, with no loss of life.

In the adjoining province of Honan, while there was no actual massacre, there were terrible hardships, and marvellous escapes. Тһе officials and the people were more hostile than in Shensi, yet there were some notable exceptions.

In Shantung, thanks to the protection of Governor Yuan Shih K'ai, there was not only no foreigner killed during the troubled season of anxiety and flight, but comparatively little of the suffering elsewhere so com-mon. The American Consul at Chefoo, Mr. John Fowler, (assisted by the Rev. George Cornwell and others), dis-played the greatest energy and resourcefulness in this time of emergency, at his own risk chartering, by the kind aid of the Japanese Consul, a small Japanese steamer at several hundred dollars a day. This made repeated

AATMOA INSNOI АЧ GANOSAA ячям SIANDIIAOA HIIHM WOU ‘AOVId ONINALVM ОН IVL IHd

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trips to Yang Chia K'ou, at the mouth of an artificial canal terminating near Chi Nan Fu, by which and other means more than two hundred and sixty foreigners were brought safely out of the province.

The firm stand taken by the triumvirate of high Chinese officials previously mentioned, saved the central and the southern provinces from becoming inoculated with the virus so fatal farther north, but it did not and could not prevent isolated manifestations of hostile feeling in the intensely anti-foreign coast provinces, as well as in the interior. Early in the summer there was serious danger in Yünnan, where the French had been active, but from whence they were compelled to retire. There were hostile demonstrations in Kuangtung, resulting in much loss of mission property, and these continued at inter-vals for a year or more. Fukien was excited, though not to the danger point; and it became necessary to remove all foreigners from the isolated port of Wên Chou farther up the coast.

On the 22nd of July a ghastly tragedy occurred in K’ü Chou Fu in western Chékiang, by which Mr. апа Mrs. Thompson, and two sons, Miss Desmond, Miss Sherwood, and Miss Manchester, of that city, and Mr. and Mrs. Ward and infant, with Miss Thirgood, sta-tioned at Ch’ang Shan, were all killed with the utmost cruelty. The movement among the people by which these missionaries of the China Inland Mission lost their lives, is believed to have had no direct connection with the Boxer rising, but was a local rebellion, in which the Dis-trict Magistrate was himself killed while endeavouring to quell it.

Although there was no actual outbreak in the remote province of Szechuan in south-western China, it was con-

боб CHINA IN CONVULSION

sidered advisable to remove all the foreign residents from that province, and from the other interior stations of all inland provinces, to the ports.

There is no reasonable doubt that the Boxer rising had been planned to come to a crisis in the eighth moon, for occult reasons connected with the intercalary eighth month of that year, already mentioned in a previous chap-ter; but, like a time-fuse which could not be regulated, it exploded prematurely in the month of May, at least twelve weeks in advance of schedule time.

Some of the phenomena connected with this sudden development were entirely new in the long experience of foreigners in China. In Mukden, the capital of Man-churia, for example, the relations between the Protestant missionaries and the officials had been of the most friendly character. The Military Governor had assured the Presbyterian missionaries, who were holding their annual sessions during {һе early part of June, that no safer place could be found than where they were. Yet within the space of less than a week the whole atmos-phere had changed, and the extreme of friendliness on the part of officials and people was replaced by suspi-cion and hostility. The Governor would return no answer to communications of urgent importance, and it was evi-dent that the temperature had been artificially altered from Peking. The Protestants escaped just in time to Newchwang, their property being destroyed by a mob on the 30th of June, and the Roman Catholic Cathedral being burned and sacked (July 2nd) and all its inmates roasted or butchered.

Places in which heretofore there had never been any open hostility to Occidentals were suddenly turned into hot-beds of fanatical fury against everything foreign, the people stopping at no atrocities until their purposes were

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accomplished. The passions of the Chinese appeared to be kindled, as fires are lighted by stray sparks falling in dry prairie grass, automatically and with no previous preparation of any sort. This occurred not in cities only, but in the most remote and inaccessible mountain hamlets, as well as on the crowded plains and on the Mongolian steppes. After all reasonable explanations of this fact have been offered, it must be admitted that there is a residuum of mystery in these terrible explosions, resembling those of contact mines, without perceptible antecedent causes.

The foreigners north of Mukden scattered through Manchuria were able to escape by the friendly help of the Russians to Harpin, or other places of relative se-curity.

There had long been serious friction between the Chinese and Manchu population of Manchuria and the numerous Russian troops sent to guard the new railways. To what extent this had gone it was difficult to judge, owing to the constitutional reticence of the Russian press. The Russian Empire was suddenly electrified by the an-nouncement that, оп the 14th of July, the steamers оп the Amur River had been fired upon at the Chinese town of Aigun by Chinese officers who affırmed that they were acting under orders, one Russian officer being killed and six men wounded. The next day unexpectedly and with no warning the Russian town of Blagovestchensk across the river was bombarded by a Chinese battery, three Russians being killed and six wounded.

The reprisals on the part of the Russians for this breach of faith, under the misconstrued orders from St. Petersburg, were of a terrible nature, involving the massacre of many thousand Chinese. men, women and children, whose bodies filled the Amur, as certified by

бо8 CHINA IN CONVULSION

the testimony of several independent and unprejudiced travellers, themselves eye-witnesses of the devastation. In the following September the British Legation in St. Petersburg called the attention of Lord Salisbury to the report in a Russian paper of a formal thanksgiving serv-ice held on the ashes of the Chinese town of Sakalin, now renamed Ilinsky, in the presence of the authorities, the army, an English officer, and a large crowd of people. The priest said: “Now is the cross raised on the bank of the Amur which yesterday was Chinese. Mouravieff foretold that sooner or later this bank would be ours.” It was added that “in a beautiful speech Gen. Grisbsky congratulated the victorious troops!” In reply to the remonstrance of the British Minister to Russia, Sir Charles Scott, Count Lamsdorf explained that the Government had only just heard of this incident, and that it was an unauthorized act of the military at too great a distance from the central Government to be in touch with its views.

Meantime Russian troops were pouring into Manchuria in immense numbers, and the Russian Government was able to give the most satisfactory assurances to all the Powers in regard to her intentions to turn over Man-churia to the Chinese, as Sancho Panza definitely prom-ised Don Quixote that he would perform the necessary self-flagellations on behalf of the Lady Dulcinea del To-boso “ just as soon as ever I have a mind to do so.”

Next to ordering the attack by the regular Chinese armies on the Legations, the most fatuous act of the Chinese Government in the summer of 1000 was its assault upon Russia, to the threatened dismemberment of the Chinese Empire, and the exposure of “the open door ” to unknown perils in the future.

In the province of Chihli there were many Protestant

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and far more numerous Roman Catholic stations, from which if the foreigners escaped at all, it was with diffi-culty. The sea-side resort of Pei Tai Ho, one hundred and fifty miles from Tientsin, near the Shan Hai Kuan railway, was soon isolated, and its residents were re-moved to a British vessel, the various establishments being promptly looted by the local villagers without the aid of Boxers or soldiers.

From T’ang Shan to Shan Hai Kuan the railway was defended by the Cantonese and others employed in the mines, and there might be seen the singular spectacle of an Imperial railway operated by the workmen for their own convenience and safety, the coal mines being like-wise kept from injury, until the advent of the Russians, who impartially plundered all property public and private.

From Pao Ting Fu to Ting Chou the Lu-Han rail-way was kept in operation for the transport of Chinese troops.

The London Mission station of Ts’ang Chou on the Grand Canal was destroyed, but thanks to a friendly official its occupants escaped overland to a small sea-port, and thence to Taku. Those living at Hsiao Chang, farther to the southwest, another station of the same mission, fled to the village of P’ang Chuang in Shantung and thence to the coast.

It was the strange fortune of the last named mission station, after having been threatened for more than a year, to escape at last absolutely untouched and even un-entered, being, with the exception of defended treaty-ports and one or two minor instances, perhaps the only case of this sort in all the vast stretch from the Yellow River to the Amur. The temper of most of the people was friendly, the reputation and influence of the hospital and dispensary wide-spread, but the rancourous fury of

610 CHINA IN CONVULSION

the Boxers thirsting for loot was held in check only by a timely agreement between one of the native pastors and a Boxer leader, by which, in consideration of a “feast” and a horse to boot, the place was not to be attacked.

The residents of Kalgan, American and Russian, escaped across the interminable deserts of Urga and Kiakhta, with great hardships and many wonderful de-liverances from seemingly insurmountable perils.

The China Inland missionaries in Shun Тё Fu were for a time in great danger. They were driven out of their city, but after wandering in the mountains were escorted a part of the way to Shansi, whence they were turned back by an official just in time to save their lives, and at last found refuge in the great Cathedral at Cheng Ting Fu. Owing to the prudent and inflexible determin-ation of the civil and military authorities not to open the city gates, this was not attacked at all. Here the Roman Catholic Bishop, three priests, five nuns, and a party of refugee Belgian railway engineers were protected until rescued by Chinese and later by the French troops about the middle of October.

The adventures of the Greens and Miss Gregg, who were at Huai Lu Hsien at the entrance to the Ku Kuan pass, were of the most terribly dramatic character, and furnish material for a small volume. They endured everything, hunger, nakedness, peril and sword, and their escape at all is a standing miracle. The fate of Dr. Tay-lor, Dr. and Mrs. Hodge, Mr. and Mrs. Simcox, and three children, of the American Presbyterian Mission; of Mr. Pitkin, Miss Morrill and Miss Gould, of the Amer-ican Board, and of Mr. and Mrs. Bagnall and daughter, and Mr. William Cooper, of the China Inland Mission, at Pao Ting Fu was still more tragic.

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FOREIGNERS IN THE INTERIOR 611

By the connivance of the officials, civil and military, -they were all killed. The former party were burned alive in their dwelling by a mob on the last day of June, and the two latter parties were shot, stabbed, or beheaded, on the first day of July.

In penalty for this great crime a mixed Military Com-mission sitting in that city in the following October, after full investigation recommended that the Provincial Treasurer Ting Yuan be beheaded, together with Kuei Heng, the Tartar official of the city, and Lieut. Colonel of the cavalry camp, near the China Inland Mission, to which;Mr. Bagnall and his family with Mr. Cooper fled, only to be betrayed to the Boxers and slain. This sen-tence was approved by Gen. Gaselee and Count von Wal-dersee, and was carried into execution. Several of the temples principally used by the Boxers as their head-quarters were also blown up, the most important being that of the city-god, and the Ch’i Shéng An, in the south-eastern part of the city, where the prisoners had been examined at the Boxer altar. All the towers of the city gates were destroyed, and the corner of the city wall was also blown away for a distance of several yards, to leave a brand upon the provincial capital which had witnessed such official crimes.

But it was in the province of Shansi and the adjacent regions of Mongolia that the most terrible fruits of the Boxer rising against foreigners were produced. This was mainly due to the presence there of the founder and patron of the Great Sword Society, Yu Hsien, so often previously referred to, who had taken his seat as Gov-ernor when the nets for extermination began to be spread.

It has already been mentioned that so rapid was the spread of the anti-foreign rising that, by the time danger had become certain, it was sometimes too late to escape.

612 CHINA IN CONVULSION

Many of the missionaries, especially in the northern part of Shansi, were Swedes, with but an imperfect acquaint-ance with China, and with only infrequent communica-tion with the coast. Others, both British and Americans, who had been long in the country, had become accustomed to being rioted, and regarded this as but one of the ex-tended series of outbreaks of which they had had abun-dant experience in the past. Many of them could not make up their minds to desert their native Christians, and nobly preferred to die with them, rather than to con-sult their own safety only.

Friends at the ports exhausted every effort to convey information of the apparent conditions to those known to be in danger, but events moved so rapidly that it was impossible alike for those at a distance and those nearest the storm-centre to determine with certainty what it was best to do.

The danger of the missionaries, great as it was, was less than that of other foreigners unable to speak the lan-guage, and in regard to whom nothing was known by the Chinese who saw them pass. Capt. Watts Jones, a brave officer of the British Royal Engineers, was barbarously murdered west of Kalgan. Mr. Saunders, one of the members of the China Inland Mission whose party en-dured the most terrible sufferings before they escaped from Shansi through hostile Honan to Hankow, at one place saved his life only by proving that he was not the railway prospector who had been through the country some time previously, disturbing the repose of the Earth Dragon, spoiling the feng-shui, and preventing rain, thus bringing on the terrible drought which was destroying the whole land.

It will be seen from an appended table that the total number of Protestant workers murdered during the whole

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Boxer disturbances was one hundred and thirty-six adults, and fifty-three children, of whom more than eighty-four per cent were killed either in Shansi or the adjacent re-gions of Mongolia. The story of a few of these terrible experiences can be recapitulated only in the merest out-line.*

On the 20th of June, the Swedish Union in association with the Christian Missionary Alliance, experienced a fearful tragedy at So P’ing Fu, in northern Shansi, when ten of its members were killed at one time. Six members of the China Inland Mission were slain at Ta T’ung Fu at about the same date. At T’ai Ku Hsien, on the 31st of July, Rev. D. H. Clapp and wife, Rev. Geo. L. Wil-liams, Rev. Е. W. Davis, Miss Rowena Bird, and Miss Mary Partridge, all of the American Board Mission, were killed, and their heads are supposed to have been sent to T’ai Yuan Fu.

There were numerous other atrocities in other cities, but nowhere anything equal to the terrible spectacle at T’ai Yuan Fu on the gth of July, the account of which we have from an unwilling witness,—a Baptist convert whose story has been confirmed from other sources. He saw the foreign pastors and their wives and children, the Roman Catholic priests and nuns, and several Chinese Christians, taken to the Governor’s yamen. Hearing that they were to be killed, he vainly endeavoured to get out of the crowd, but was borne along by it, and witnessed the massacre.

* Partial accounts of some ofthe experiences of the members of the largest of the Protestant Missions in China, may be found in ““Martyred Missionaries of the China Inland Mission, With a Record of the Perils and Sufferings of Some who Escaped.” It isa volume of more than three hundred pages, filled with tales of touching pathos, a story of which any branch of the Christian Church in any country and in any age might well be proud.

614 CHINA IN CONVULSION

“ The first to be led forth was Mr. Farthing (English Baptist). His wife clung to him, but he gently put her aside, and going in front of the soldiers knelt down without saying a word, and his head was struck off by one blow of the executioner's knife, He was quickly followed by Mr. Hoddle, and Mr. Beynon, Drs. Lovitt and Wilson, each of whom was beheaded by one blow of the executioner. Then the Governor, Yú Hsien, grew im-patient and told his body-guard, all of whom carried heavy swords with long handles, to help kill the others. Mr. Stokes, Mr. Simpson, and Mr. Whitehouse were next killed, the last by one blow only, the other two by several.

“When the men were finished the ladies were taken. Mrs. Farthing had hold of the hands of her children who clung to her, but the soldiers parted them, and with one blow beheaded their mother. The executioner be-headed all the children and did it skillfully, needing only one blow, but the soldiers were clumsy, and some of the ladies suffered several cuts before death. Mrs. Lovitt was wearing her spectacles and held the hand of her little boy, even when she was killed. She spoke to the people, saying ‘We all came to China to bring you the good news of the salvation by Jesus Christ; we have done you no harm, only good, why do you treat us so?’ A soldier took off her spectacles before beheading her, which needed two blows.

“When the Protestants had been killed, the Roman Catholics were led forward. The Bishop, an old man with a long white beard, asked the Governor why he was doing this wicked deed. Т did not hear the Governor give him any answer, but he drew his sword and cut the Bishop across the face one heavy stroke; blood poured down his white beard, and he was beheaded.

“ The priests and nuns quickly followed him in death.

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Then Mr. Pigott and his party were led from the dis-trict jail which is close by. He was still hand-cuffed, and so was Mr. Robinson. He preached to the people till the very last, when he was beheaded with one blow. Mr. Robinson suffered death very calmly. Mrs. Pigott held the hand of her son, even when she was beheaded, and he was killed immediately after her. The ladies and two girls were also quickly killed.

“ On that day forty-five foreigners were beheaded in all, thirty-three Protestants and twelve Roman Catholics. А number of native Christians were killed also. The bodies of all were left where they fell till the next morning, as it was evening before the work was finished. During the night they had been stripped of their clothing, rings, and watches. The next day they were removed to a place inside the great south gate, except some of the heads, which were placed in cages on the gates of the city wall. АП were surprised at the firmness and quietness of the foreigners, none of whom except two or three of the chil-dren cried, or made any noise.”

Үй Hsien was Governor of Shansi for but a few months, yet such was the fatal spell thrown over the peo-ple of that hitherto friendly province by the known ap-probation of the Imperial Court, that when he left the city he was escorted by thousands of the people, who had prepared wine and refreshments along the road-side for miles, his “ boots of honour ” were taken off and hung in the city gate to commemorate his virtues, and as if this were insufficient, a stone tablet was erected in the south suburb to glorify his achievements in clearing the province of the hated foreigners.

It was almost universally recognized at the entry of the foreign forces into northern China that the honour of the five countries represented among those officially

616 CHINA IN CONVULSION

butchered at this time (Great Britain, the United States, France, Italy, and Holland) as well as the safety of all future residents of Shansi, required that an indelible brand should be affixed to T'ai Yuan Fu, as was done at Pao Ting Fu, and that the yamen of the Governor ought to be destroyed. But in the pressure of other military expeditions all over northern Chihli, this one was omitted, to the extreme surprise of the Chinese, and later to the unalterable conviction on the part of the population of Shansi that their province was totally inaccessible to for-eign troops.

Four different parties from the southern portion of Shansi succeeded after terrible sufferings in making their way to Hankow, but some of them died of ill treat-ment or exhaustion. So far as known it appears that in this part of the province, while nineteen escaped, thirty-five adults and ten children were killed, or died.

One of the most pathetic instances of all was that of a company of ten, composed of Mr. and Mrs. Atwater and two children, Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Price, and daughter, of the American Board Mission, with Mr. and Mrs. Lund-gren and Miss Eldred of the China Inland Mission, who were betrayed by the officials of Fén Chou Fu, taken on a pretended journey to the coast, and then killed at the junction of two counties, their bodies being tumbled into a pit near by at the request of the villagers.

While this tragedy was being enacted in this distant province, American cannon were already shelling the For-bidden City in Peking, but it was too late to save the lives of this and other beleaguered bands, some of the members of which were killed more than a month after that event.

The stories of the tragedies connected with those who at last escaped from their tormentors, yet so as by fire, are

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among the most touching memorials of the Christian Church in any age. Men, women and children were be-sieged in their own dwellings, and when these had been fired, were speared or stabbed as they endeavoured to es-саре, or were thrust back into the flames. They were driven forth from their homes as outcasts unfit to live, robbed of their scanty possessions at every turn, until in the blistering heats of June, July and August, they were barcheaded, bare-footed, and in many cases possessed of only the clothing upon their bodies. In repeated in-stances ladies were left but a single garment, and on more than one occasion a missionary was deprived of every stitch of clothing, standing naked upon the streets of the inhospitable villages of Shansi. One Catholic priest escaped only by being carried a long distance in а coffin.

They were continually not only under that observation without sympathy which Mrs. Browning called torture, but were everywhere, for days and weeks in succession, confronted by mobs, chased from village to village, into mountains, and swamps, obliged to take refuge in aban-doned huts, in grave-yards, and often in caves of the earth. They were hunted by armed bands like wild beasts, and when caught were beaten, dragged on the ground, —one of the ladies being purposely run over by a cart to kill her—were tied hand and foot, and carried to Boxer altars that it might be decided by the spirits when, where, and how they should be murdered. Sometimes they were saved because the villagers were afraid to have them killed in their village, sometimes by a timely fall of rain, and again by the instinctive pity of Chinese for the poor suffering children and the agony of their mothers.

Repeated efforts were made to poison them, they were often almost starved, and compelled to subsist on roots and leaves. Some of them were delirious from uncared

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for wounds, and all were subjected to the continued nerv-ous strain of incessant alarms by day and by night. They were the victims of repeated and deliberate treachery on the part of officials, soldiers, and professed guides. Yet amid the almost all pervading gloom some act of human kindness would lighten their sky. Some officials were most friendly, and would have been still more so had they dared. One such was degraded by the Empress Dowager when she traversed Shansi, for no other reason than his kindness to the destitute foreigners passing through his jurisdiction. In some cases members of the same family were not allowed to see or to care for each other, although almost at the point of death. Is it any wonder that one who escaped remarked that the text most frequently re-curring was that which declared that “ the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel?”

Who were these that were thus entreated? They were earnest God-fearing men and women who had left all to obey the command of their Master to make known the glad tidings of the Kingdom of Heaven; men and women of irreproachable character and blameless lives; some of them graduates of the best colleges and universities, to whom attractive careers had been opened in the home lands, but upon which they had turned their backs. Many of them had given long years of toil to the relieving of Chinese suffering in dispensary and hospital work.

Many months later the last letters of some who were killed were brought out of their concealment by faithful Christian friends. There is in these missives no note of despair, only the solemnity of those face to face with a terrible death. One father leaves as a legacy to his son the hope that when he shall be twenty-five years of age he may return to China and take up the work which the father could not do.

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As long as the Church of God survives upon the earth, the record of the lives and of the deaths of these mar-tyrs will be a precious heritage.

That so many parties, travelling under the conditions which have been imperfectly hinted at, should have passed through hundreds of miles of hostile territory, been seen by hundreds of thousands, and in the aggregate by millions of enemies, many of whom were eager for their death, and yet have escaped to tell their story, is a moral miracle to be accounted for only by the recognition of the re-straining hand of God.

The great disproportion between the number of the Roman Catholics killed and that of the Protestants, ap-pears to be due to the greater size of the Roman Catholic flocks, and to the circumstances that in numberless cases they had extensive establishments which they defended with earth ramparts, deep ditches, and rifles or even for-eign machine guns. The number of such places success-fully defended is at present unknown, but is certainly not a small one, and thus far we happen to have heard of but two instances where these defences failed.

No more illustrious examples of martyrdom can be found than some of those of the Roman Catholic faith. Bishop Hamer of the West Mongolian Mission, nearly thirty-five years in China, was seized while celebrating mass, bound, and marched through the city to be mocked by all that saw him. His hands were cut off while he was counting his beads, and three days later his garments were torn off, he was wrapped in cotton upon which petroleum was poured, and was burned alive. Five thou-sand Christians were killed, and every church and build-ing in his diocese was destroyed.

In the Jeho district, Father Segers was tied by his hands and feet and carried by a pole, not allowed to speak

` 620 CHINA IN CONVULSION

to his converts, but thrown into a ditch, where he was buried alive. Once he contrived to stand up and his head became visible, when he was struck on the head with a mattock.

Surely if anything is to be learned from the teachings of history, if the saying of Tertullian that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church is a law of unwast-ing and perennial energy, and if the promises of God are still secure, a religion which has done so much for China, and the heralds of which have suffered so much from the Chinese, has a great work yet to do in the regeneration of that Empire.

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CHAPTER 33. Notable Experiences

NOTABLE EXPERIENCES Canadian Presbyterian Mission, North Honan.*

The trouble which began in Honan during the spring seemed to be local in character, originating in the severe drought from which we had been suffering. Three crops in succession had failed. As early as March there were riots in different places. Some of these were of a serious nature, in which there were conflicts between the people and soldiers, lives being lost on both sides. By the month of June matters became very serious indeed, every day bringing fresh reports of granaries searched and wealthy farmers looted by bands of starving men. The Magis-trates stationed small posts of militia at all the market towns, but were unable to preserve peace. They acknowl-edged their helplessness by refusing to punish any who were accused of stealing grain, saying it was useless to punish starving men, and that those who had lost grain might look upon it as having afforded help to their dis-tressed neighbours.

On June 15th we were startled to receive a telegram from Tientsin saying “ Escape south.” We also got the news of the murder of two Belgians at Pao Ting Fu. Not having had any reliable news from Tientsin for sev-eral weeks, we were ignorant of what was happening there and did not feel like deserting our station without

* Prepared at the author's request by the Rev. James A. Slim-

mon, one of the party. 621

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knowing the reason why we had been advised to do so. We waited on anxiously looking for letters but none came.

Meanwhile we communicated with Mr. Jameson and party of the Peking Syndicate, who had passed through our town on the way to Huai Ch’ing Fu. In reply there came a letter from Mr. С. D. Jameson, saying that he saw no reason for escaping, as he had not had any word from his agent at Tientsin or Peking; and he could rely on their sending word if matters were very serious. But for our comfort he added that if we thought it necessary to go he would place everything he had at our disposal,— arms, money, etc., and the personal services of himself and Messrs. Reid and Fisher.

On June ıgth we received word that our friends at Ch’u Wang were besieged by a mob of over a thousand people. This trouble was brought on by a woman who declared she had seen Mrs. MacKenzie at an upper win-dow performing mysterious rites and sweeping the clouds from the sky. Mrs. MacKenzie had been cleaning a win-dow in her new house, and this seen from the outside looked like making passes and motions towards the clouds. The mob gathered round for two or three days, but seemed to be in need of a leader. The official on being appealed to for help promised to send it, but first of all tried to disarm our friends by asking for a loan of any rifles or other arms in their possession. This ingenuous request was politely refused as was also one for a few thousand taels of silver “to purchase arms for the soldiers.”

From this time on till the 24th, things began to look more and more threatening. Our bankers refused to pay us any more money, although they had a considera-ble balance in our favour. We heard of Boxer societies

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springing up in different towns and gradually coming nearer us, until on the 24th a few Boxer teachers arrived and founded a Boxer school. The motto of this branch was “First kill the foreigners, then annihilate the Manchus.”

On June 25th we received word that our friends at Chang Тё Fu and Ch’u Wang had decided to make their escape, and that they were arranging to travel together to Chi Nan Fu, which seemed the best route. Later on they had to abandon this plan, as they found it impossible to hire carts for the trip, could get no escort across the strip of Chihli Province which lies between Honan and Shantung, and had no means of speedy communication with the Governor of Shantung. Our friends had de-cided on this step because of another telegram which had arrived, saying that the Taku Forts had been taken by the Allied Forces. We knew then that trouble was certain. We sent off messengers, опе to ask Mr. Jameson and party to meet us at the Yellow River, another to the Prefect at Wei Hui Fu, and another to the Magistrate at Hsú Hsien. We were afraid of delay in being referred from one Yamen to the other. |

We got no help from the Prefect. An escort however was promised by the District Magistrate, and friendly messages were returned. But he refused to take charge of our house, saying that in the present state he could not possibly guarantee protection of our property.

Things were at their very darkest on the 27th. We had got together the few things that we had decided to take with us, but it looked as if we should require to make our escape in the dark, taking no more with us than we might be able to carry ourselves. Тһе carters who had agreed to take us had backed out of their bargains and would not come near us, though we offered four or

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five times the usual rates. Our servants were panic-stricken, as we heard of one band of desperate characters planning to attack us before we left our premises; and of another band at the other end of the town, formed for the purpose of attacking us after we left.

There was no sleep for us that night; indeed there had not been much for several nights; but this particular one was passed in trying to put courage into our servants, and in spurring on the few friends we had in the town to take active measures on our behalf. We induced one man—our teacher (a literary graduate),—to interview the leaders of one band, and by reasoning, expostulating and threatening, to persuade them to let us go in peace. Another friend performed the same office with the other band. But the argument that weighed most with both was that we had failed to secure carts, and could carry nothing away with us.

Daybreak of the 28th arrived and while we welcomed it as a relief from the terror of the night, we dreaded it as the day on which we should have to set out on our journey without having been able to make proper arrangements for transport. We had sent a messenger to a neighbouring town to secure carts there at any cost, and as he һай not yet returned we feared he had failed in his mission. To our great relief, he turned up with four carts while we were pretending to take breakfast. It did not take us long to get our boxes and bedding on board.

And here one of those incidents occurred that force us to believe in a special providence. Just as we were almost ready to mount our carts and face the mob that had gathered around our door, the officer in command of the Militia in our town returned from an expedition against some robbers, bringing prisoners with him. At

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our request he called on us and we persuaded him to send some of his men to escort us a few miles on our way. This nonplussed the mob who got the impression that the о сег had come by arrangement for our special protection. And the fact that he had prisoners with him proved to the rowdies that he did not hold his office in vain.

The whole town was gathered together to see us off, and lined the streets three and four deep on both sides all the way from our house to the town gates; but all passed off quietly and a few miles out our special escort left us to the care of four men who had been provided by our Magistrate. We made our first halt at Wei Hai Fu, and at once sent our cards to both civil and military off-cials, also to Father Gerrard, who called on us in the course of the evening. We explained the situation to the priest and invited him to join our party. He replied that he had not power to do so without permission from his bishop, and if the bishop concluded that it was not safe for the priests to remain at their posts, they would all retire to a place already prepared among the hills, where all their converts were armed and could hold out against an army.

The military official arrived just in time to disperse the mob that had gathered round the door of the inn, and was getting beyond the control of our escort. The local soldiers dispersed them and we had peace for the rest of the night. Next day we halted at Hsin Hsiang Hsien for our mid-‘day meal. I was well known at this place, and put up at the inn of a man who had been friendly for some years. We had been there about an hour when this inn-keeper told us that some Boxers had arrived in the town a day or two before and that some of them had just come to him making inquiries about us, our destination, etc.

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We at once sent our card to the official to inform him and ask for protection. The only result was that we were told that the official was not at home, and that our informant was at once sent for by the Yamen people and told to get rid of us at once. We started off fully expecting to be pursued by the Boxers, but reached our inn at night without having heard anything more of them, and from there on “Boxers” seemed to be an unknown term.

Next day, 30th, we reached Yuan Wu Hsien, quite close to the ferry on the Yellow River, where we were to meet Mr. Jameson and party. The official here at once put a strong guard at the door of our inn and thus secured perfect quietness for us inside.

In the evening we were much relieved by the arrival of a mounted messenger from Mr. Jameson, bringing word that he and his party were coming with a large escort, plenty of silver and a few fire-arms.

Next day, Sunday, ıst July, we got to the bank of the Yellow River first and waited two hours for Mr. Jame-son. When they arrived we found them dressed in Chinese costume. They had found the people at Wu Chih Hsien—their last halting place—very rude. The Magistrate not only declared he could not protect them unless they put on Chinese clothing, but made them give up much of their luggage. The clothing not only failed as a disguise but seemed to emphasize the fact that they were refugees, and must have been meant by the officials to humiliate them or else as a practical joke, for they cer-tainly looked awkward and clumsy.

Just as we got to the south bank of the river, we saw the Chang Te Fu and Ch'u Wang party arrive on the north bank, so we waited till they came across. We were now a large company—made up as follows: Ch'u Wang party,

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Mr. and Mrs. MacKenzie and one child, Dr. and Mrs. Leslie, Misses McIntosh and Dow; Chang Te Fu party, Mr. and Mrs. Goforth and three children, Miss Pyke and Miss Dr. Wallace, Messrs. Griffith and Hood; Hsin Chen party, Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell, Mr. and Mrs. Slimmon and one child; Peking Syndicate party, Messrs. Jameson, Reid and Fisher. The missionaries had only a small escort, but Mr. Jameson’s party had a fine escort of mounted men, and a petty court officer who was very useful in mak-ing arrangements with officials by the way, about local escorts, inns, etc. Having now the Yellow River between us and the Boxers, we got off bright and early next morn-ing, all in good spirits, with the exception of Mrs. Slim-mon, who was beginning to be anxious about her baby, who showed signs of breaking down under the strain of the journey.

Mr. Jameson was inspired with a happy thought this morning and sent a man off on horseback to dispatch a telegram from K’ai Féng Fu to the British and Ameri-can Consuls at Hankow, informing them of our where-` abouts and asking that help be sent. The messenger had seventy miles to go, seventy miles back, and then to catch up with a party travelling thirty-five milesa day. It was a great undertaking, but Mr. Jameson was not a man to be daunted by difficulties and the feat was accomplished at the expense of the plucky little pony, that died after reaching Fan Ch’eng. The sending of the telegram proved to have been a wise proceeding, as it conveyed to our friends the first intimation that we were alive, and also enabled our Consuls to get Chang Chih Tung to send us much needed help.

The next two days we suffered much from heat, as we were travelling through the loess region. The sun blaz-ing down into the deep roads made them like ovens, and

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the roads being thirty or forty feet below the level of the country there was no possibility of getting any breeze. On reaching Hsiang Hsien we found Mr. and Mrs. Gracie living in seeming peace and quietness. They were sur-prised to learn that we were fleeing for our lives and invited Mrs. Slimmon and myself to stay with them for a while, and give our little one a chance to recover. She was by this time very ill indeed and we were sorely tempted to run the risks and accept the invitation. But at midnight Mr. Gracie came to our inn and told us that the converts and friends had strongly advised them to join our party, which they decided to do and would have done, but found it impossible to secure carts. They expected to be able to do so in the course of the day and try to overtake us. Subsequently we learned that they made their escape by way of Chou Chia К’ои to the province of Anhui, having most harrowing experiences by the way.

We were now approaching the Nan Yang Fu district, the only place where we really anticipated any trouble, and our fears proved to be only too well grounded. On the 7th July we arrived at Hsin Tien, thirty li north of Nan Yang city. We had intended halting there for the night, but on our arrival we found it impossible to get accom-modations for the whole party. Мг. Jameson, with his usual thoughtfulness for the ladies and children, decided to push on to Nan Yang city, well knowing that it was a most dangerous place at which to halt.

And just here Т would like to say that Mr. Jameson and his party nobly fulfilled the promise that they per-sonally, and all they had, would be at our disposal. They not only gave us the best rooms at the inns when there was any choice, but shared their stores with us, giving up their last tins of milk when they learned that our friends

NOTABLE EXPERIENCES 629

had exhausted their own supply. They let us have all the silver we needed, and without this help it would have been impossible for us to get along. Mr. Jameson also proved himself to be a born leader. It was a great relief to leave everything in his hands, knowing that there was no detail of arrangements, such as interviewing Man-darins, getting the daily local escort, securing inns, and the hundred and one little things incidental to such a journey, but were in most capable hands. He never seemed worried or anxious, but had a cheery word of encouragement for each one as he went his daily rounds.

On leaving Yu Chou at daybreak Mr. Goforth's serv-ant took the wrong road and later the other parties got separated from us and went by а different way. This took the large company of ladies and children safely past a procession of rain dancers that we ran into in one of the towns en route. Мг. Jameson and his friends were on horseback five hundred yards ahead of our carts, and suddenly found themselves surrounded by an armed body of men two hundred strong, followed by a huge rabble. The rain dancers wore green wreaths on their heads, and were armed with huge swords, being on a pilgrimage to a famous temple to pray for rain. Catching sight of the foreigners they at once surrounded them, crying out “Here are the foreign devils that have chased away the rain.” One of the leaders suggested killing them at once, and our friends had a bad ten minutes persuading the crowd that it would be a dangerous thing to try. Mean-while we came to the fringe of the crowd, and learning that it was a rain procession, we did not stay to make fur-ther inquiries but turned hastily up the first lane, which proved to be a cul de'sac, and our carts stood there with their backs toward the main street effectually screening us from the mob, who passed by quite unaware of the fact

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that there were foreign women in their midst. Upon get-ting through the town we found Mr. Jameson and friends filled with the gravest apprehensions for our safety.

We arrived at Nan Yang Fu after dark, and searching the city for quarters had finally to separate and put up in miserably poor inns, but this turned out to our advan-tage. We approached our inns from the south, thus throwing those off the scent who were expecting us from the north. On trying to see the official we were told he would see us at eight o’clock next morning. This looked ominous. At midnight a messenger arrived from the party at Hsin Tien, saying they were besieged in their inn, and asking for help. We tried to see the Mandarin to get help for our friends, but only succeeded in getting a promise that some runners would be dispatched to put down the disturbance. Mr. Jameson, seeing that it was useless to expect help from the Mandarins, sent back half of his mounted escort.

Some of our servants told us that the Roman Catholics had been besieged in their fortified place four miles away, and that a soldier had been beheaded by the officials, be-cause he had carried out their orders too literally, and in trying to disperse the besiegers had injured one of them; we also learned that plans had been made to kill the whole of our party, and it was for this reason that we had been told to wait till eight o’clock next morning.

Realizing our danger, we at once got our tired animals hitched up again, and got off at three o'clock and travelled to Hsin Yeh Hsien; here some of the mounted men who had been sent back to Hsin Tien to help our friends turned up, and told us what had been taking place. Our friends had been in negotiation with their besiegers, who were demanding a large sum of money. They waited on in their inn till eight o’clock, hoping that assist-

NOTABLE EXPERIENCES 631

ance would come from us, then despairing of that hope they left their inn, and were surprised to find the town so quiet.

The sigh of relief they gave on reaching the town gate was turned into a gasp of dismay as they passed through and found a mob of several thousand people waiting for them outside. A band of two hundred men lining the road waited till the last cart had passed out of the town and then made a sudden attack on our friends, who jumped off the carts and tried to frighten them off by firing a few revolver shots over their heads. Mrs. Leslie, who was completely prostrated by the fatigue of the journey, was unable to get off her cart, and it was in trying to shield her that Dr. Leslie was seriously injured. Besides a large number of flesh wounds he had his right wrist and right leg cut through to the bone, the large sinews in each case being severed. Mr. Goforth also received bad sword cuts on the head, and two of Mr. Jameson's men who fought bravely received severe wounds, which later proved to be fatal. When our friends got clear of the carts, the mob began at once to break open the boxes and the sight of the loot turned the armed band from their design, thus enabling our friends to make good their escape.

In the course of the day they all found their way back to the main road, managed to get the empty carts, and proceeded on their journey, having lost everything, but thankful to have escaped alive. At daybreak next morn-ing the servant who had lost his way rejoined us. He belonged to Mr. Goforth, so we gave him a shoe of silver and sent him back to meet his party.

We pushed on towards Fan Ch'éng and about midday reached the border of Hupei province to find a fine body of soldiers sent out to meet us from Hsiang Yang Fu, by order of Chang Chih Tung. Our hearts went up in

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thanksgiving as we realized that here was real and ade-quate help, and that consequently our dangers were over. Arriving at Fan Ch'éng we found that every provision had been made for our safety and comfort. We waited here for our friends, who arrived on the night of the ıoth, in a sad plight indeed, poor Dr. Leslie especially being in a bad case, having had to lie in the bottom of his cart for three days without having his wounds attended to since they had received the first rough dressing by Dr. Jennie Dow, who tore up one of her remaining gar-ments to make bandages for him.

We spent all of the next day providing them with an outfit. Mr. Jameson and his friends were able to supply the gentlemen with underclothing, etc., while the ladies had to be content with a Chinese wardrobe. Our sweet little Eleanore died on the 11th, just nine months old, and while our hearts felt too sore for words, we were so thankful that she had lived until reaching Fan Ch'éng, as we were able to take the body on from there and have it buried in the English cemetery at Hankow. |

We travelled down the Han River to that port, and two days out from there were met by a steam-launch sent out by the American Consul to bring us in.

Arriving at Hankow on the 21st we went directly on board a steamer for Shanghai, having been twenty-four days on our journey.

English Baptist Mission, Shansi.

Upon the entrance of Үй Hsien into Shansı as Gov-ernor, the Boxers spread rapidly throughout the province. Communication with the coast was cut off in May, so that money supplies were not received. About June 21st Mr. Farthing wrote from T’ai Yuan Fu to Mr. Dixon,

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at Hsin Chou, that it was known that a telegram had come from the Empress Dowager to destroy all foreigners, and added “ If true, І am ready and do not fear; if such be God's will I can even rejoice to die.” On reading this, Mr. Dixon said to Mr. Chao, his evangelist, “I feel just the same!”

In the city of Hsin Chou, from June 23-25th, near the mission premises, theatrical performances were given to the god of wealth. A great crowd were present and a clamouring mob formed at the mission gate. Ap-peal was made to the Magistrate who at first promised a guard, but it failed to appear.

By this time the Edict telegraphed from Peking had become known, as when another request was made, with threat of reporting to the Governor if not granted, the Magistrate replied, “ Tell the foreigner he can report to the Emperor if he likes and Т shall not fear! ”

Reports from country stations of violence of Boxers towards native Christians led to sending a messenger to T’ai Yuan with a letter of consultation to Mr. Farthing. On reaching T’ai Yuan the messenger found some of the - missions already destroyed and all abandoned. He ha-stened back and reported the circumstances. Mr. Dixon comprehended the growing danger, called the mission to-gether and after consultation decided upon flight. There were eight in their party.

Taking food, clothing, and bedding, with some money, they set out in the early morning and travelled thirty li where they rested for a time. While at this point they learned that two hours after they left their homes a proclamation from the Governor had come for the local officials to destroy the foreigners’ houses and kill the foreigners. On hearing this they decided to move on at once to the place of hiding which they had chosen.

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After leaving the village Mr. Dixon dismissed the faithful evangelist Mr. Chao, who was only persuaded to leave them on the consideration that he might get word to foreign friends and perhaps secure help. It was a sorrowful parting, but in it shone forth the brave spirit of those who were soon to lay down their lives. Mr. Dixon said “ If we are all killed and not one escapes there are many more to take our place.” Mrs. Dixon spoke of her four children who were to lose a mother’s care, but said, “ God will surely raise up friends for them.”

This same evangelist returned to Shansi in October and learned the rest of the story of this company.

On the evening of that day they reached the village of Liu Chia Shan where the one Christian of the place had his home in a cave, and where they expected to pre-pare a cave for themselves as a place of refuge and defence.

They lived in this place for twenty days unmolested, when their place of hiding became known to the Boxers who sent a company to arrest them. The villagers fled and the band could not effect their arrest. A few days later a deputy with soldiers went to them and with prom-ises of a safe escort to the coast induced them to return to Hsin Chou. By this time their food supply was exhausted, and they had been five days without food.

On arriving at Hsin Chou they were taken to the ya-men. The Magistrate asked how much money they had in the bank, and when told drew it all out and kept it himself.

The missionaries were placed in the common jail where they were kept for sixteen days, receiving only the poorest prison fare. On Aug. 7th, a deputy from Yú Hsien came to see that the Governor's will was carried out.

Two days later they were taken from prison, placed in

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four carts and told they were to be taken to the coast. Arriving at the east gate of the city the missionaries were dragged from their carts and stripped of all their clothes. Then both Boxers and soldiers set upon them and literally hacked their heads to pieces. Their bodies were dragged outside the city and left on the banks of a river where they were shamefully treated by villagers near by. Later the head of the literary graduates of the city, who had been friendly to Mr. Dixon, bought mats in which to wrap the bodies and hired men to bury them at the foot of the city wall.

After the massacre the highest military official went to the mission houses, chose the articles which he wanted for himself, and then turned the houses over to the soldiers and the people to loot.

China Inland Mission, Honan.*

The long continued drought in Honan had produced a restless feeling among the people and made them ripe for mobs and riots. Warning had been sent by mission-aries fleeing from the north that it would be better for us at She Ch’i Tien to escape at once.

Sunday, July 8th, a large crowd gathered at the close of the service, watching the Christians as they scattered, and although it was dispersed without an outbreak it became evident that we must hasten our preparations for leaving.

The next morning at an early hour the streets were again packed with a mob, evidently intent on mischief. We could not go into the streets, but our boxes were taken over a wall into a neighbour’s yard, and we all followed by means of a ladder. Soon after this the mob

* Dr. С. W. Guinness and party.

636 CHINA IN CONVULSION

were battering on our front door. Our teacher, who was pale with apprehension, said “I fear worse than death may happen to you!” The landlord of that house led us to his guest-hall in one corner of which was a ladder leading to a loft. He bade us “ go up quickly and keep still!”

There we lay hid, listening to the shouts of the mob and soon to the crash of falling timbers and masonry. The rioting had begun in earnest. The heat was intense and in a little time we heard the crackling of flames, and saw the smoke of our burning homes. Suddenly there were arush! The mob had traced us over the wall and into the room beneath, where every sound was heard by us. “ Kill the foreigners! They must be here! Let us go up the ladder!”

After brisk altercation they were dissuaded from doing so and went away only to return again and again. They got on the roof and stared in through the five windows but we stood between the windows, flat against the wall. Once two boys caught sight of us and spread the news. Back came the crowd but again were bluffed off by the landlord.

So passed the day from 7 a. м. till 8 р. m. when dark-ness brought relief. One of the ladies had been seriously ill and was very weak. Her month old babe might cry and reveal our whereabouts, when all would be lost. We prayed in silence and the Lord heard and kept the child quiet from dawn till dark. A pot of tea was passed up and then the wearied mother could quench her thirst.

Then the landlord came and said “ Don’t delay! Fol-low me!” We descended the ladder, crossed the court and entered a room where grain was stored. А stool was placed on a great basket of grain, from this we

\ NOTABLE EXPERIENCES 637

clambered through a trap-door to a loft above. The stool was removed, the door shut and all trace of our where-abouts was gone. The room was full of dust and rub-bish, but it gave us a safe refuge for four long days.

That first night we left the loft to go to another house where carts were to take us away when the police again appeared at the front gate to search the house. Back we hastened up the ladder and their search was again futile. The next morning rioters came and finished the work of demolishing our house. All day their yells and blows on the house sounded in our ears. Towards night I heard two men piling timbers near our hiding place to burn us out, but they did not fire the house.

Every night new plans for escape were discussed. Every day fresh bands of searchers came to hunt for us. At midday of Thursday our landlord suddenly appeared and said “ Fly! they have come with swords to kill уоп!” In two minutes all had dropped through the trap-door and scaled the wall into the garden of our ruined home and were standing in the blazing sun. Soon a man fol-lowed us over the wall, failed to see us, and called back “ They аге not here!” We were soon safely back in our loft again.

That night came rain and with it a chance to escape to a large business firm, where we were hidden in the strong room in the top of the house. The room was small and dark with one window eighteen inches high. Here we stayed twelve days, guarded by a member of the firm who was armed with gun and sword and sharp, heavy iron pins for throwing.

In the early morning of our last day carts were brought, in which we made our way out of the city and eight li down the river where a small boat was in waiting with

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four men for escort. The boat was searched by customs officials at different barriers twelve times or more, but we were not discovered.

We and our escort lived in the one small cabin thirteen days until we reached Hankow in safety. We paid our escort their well-earned reward and dismissed them. We were ragged and dirty, and in clothing that we had lived in for a month, but we were thankful to have been brought safely through our perils by One who “ never forsakes those who trust in Him.”

China Inland Mission, Shansi.*

Mr. and Mrs. Ogren had been stationed at Yung Ning in the western part of Shansi only a year. The officials were very friendly, one of them having asked Mr. Ogren privately the right way to pray for rain, as his own prayer had been unavailing. The people had become rest-less and threatening because of the long drought.

In the middle of June the Boxers came to the city. They rapidly made recruits and soon a guard was sent to protect the mission from them. The official advised Mr. Ogren to take his family away. Their servants began to forsake them.

One day a man went through the streets beating a gong and warning the people away from the wells which the foreigners had poisoned. That day the main spring of the city turned red. The official dared not let Mr. Ogren longer visit him but sent his Secretary by night to consult with them. They at last asked the official to furnish them with funds for their journey, their own supply from the coast being cut off. This he was ready to do; also to take charge of their house.

* Story of Mr. and Mrs. Ogren.

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That night while packing, a spy was discovered in a tree of the court watching them. Before daylight the morning of July ızth Mr. and Mrs. Ogren and their little child started in a litter for the Yellow River eighty li away, to go to Hankow. They were provided with a guard, and also with an order from the Magistrate to the official at the river bank to hire a boat for them. On ar-riving at the river there was a hostile demonstration by the crowd but the official saw them safely off in person. Two soldiers went with them on the boat.

The current was very swift and their frail craft was in constant danger of being wrecked. They went five hun-dred li, half-way to Tung Kuan, the corner of the prov-ince where Shansi, Shensi and Hanan join. At this half-way place they were told that a party of foreigners had been murdered and their bodies thrown into the river only a few days before, and it was probable that this would be their fate if they continued down the river.

They decided to get across the river into Shensi, and soon came to a place where there was an official eighty years old who knew the Yung Ning official and showed them great kindness. Не had а farm across the river in Shansi and offered to send them there and let them have food, while they could hide in caves nearby till peace came. While with this old official, a party of soldiers came saying they were sent to drive the for-eigners out of the province. Their host gave the soldiers a feast and persuaded them to go away. He soon sent the refugees on their way, with servants to escort them across the river.

It was only ten li distant, but before going half that distance they were set upon by robbers who took all their money, except one hundred cash, and most of their cloth-ing. Reaching the ferry they crossed in the early morning

640 CHINA IN CONVULSION

but waited four days to send back to the old official for money. This came and they walked on towards the farm, going slowly, carrying their child. The next day they reached the farm but were not kindly received by the tenants. At first they refused them food but later gave a scanty supply. They were twice visited by rob-bers, and at last were threatened by the farmer's son, who coveted the hundred taels offered by Yú Hsien for every foreigner’s head.

This led them to leave their hiding-place and make their way northward again to return to Yung Ning. The road was very rough, the country sparsely inhabited, but many people were kind, so they could at least get one meal a day and places to sleep.

After several days they came to a branch of the Yellow River which they must ford on foot. An old man led the way through the swift current. and also let them rest at his place that night and the next day. The day after, when nearing a customs barrier, they were set upon by a crowd and later followed by a customs guard who had been ordered to get them out of Shensi. This guard several times seemed on the point of killing them, but finally went with them across the river and then handed them over to the Boxers.

The next morning Mr. Ogren was taken to the Boxer General. Mrs. Ogren could hear his voice for a time pleading for his life, then the sound of the incantations inquiring if their lives were to be spared, then followed a great uproar which she thought to be his death.

Later a man came to take her on, telling her she and her husband were to be sent on to Yung Ning, but she did not believe that the latter was still living. She spent that night in a cave. In the morning while going on they met a Boxer band and her guide disappeared.

МОТАВГЕ EXPERIENCES 641

The Boxers rushed at her as if about to kill her, but only ordered her to get away, which she did rapidly.

In the afternoon she stopped under the shade of a tree where many women gathered around her. They were very kind and pitiful and gave food for herself and babe. At night she learned that there were Christians across the river. She forded it, being nearly swept away, and then found no friends, only enemies who would only give her water and left her and the child to sleep under the open sky. In the night two Christians stole to her side and led her to a cave, but could do no more for her because of the Boxers.

In the morning she re-crossed the river but was soon seen by Boxers who with drawn swords drove her to a temple. The head-man of the village came out and rescued her, giving her food and some stockings; the next day he sent her on to Ta Ning under guard. The Boxers followed full of fury and were with difficulty restrained from falling upon her. Arriving at Ta Ning she was taken to the common prison. Food and fruit and some money were passed to her through a hole in the door. The keepers were quite kind.

The next morning she was taken to the Magistrate, and made to kneel while she told her story. He became kindly in manner and said her husband was still living and would rejoin her later. She was then led to an inner court where the official's wife wanted to see her. The lady came out on a balcony and threw one hundred cash to her. That night in the midst of the night she heard her husband’s voice calling her. She found him speak-ing through a hole in the door. The next morning they were taken to a comfortable room in the yamen where she was able to dress his wounds, cook some food for him and hear the story of his escape.

642 CHINA IN CONVULSION

When taken to the Boxer General he had first been upbraided for destroying the people with his doctrine and was then given up to the crowd of Boxers. They kicked and beat him cruelly, taunting him with “ Pray to your Jesus now!”

They led him to the bank of the river to kill him and there fell on him with spears and swords. Being clumsy with their weapons they inflicted no fatal wounds. He finally jumped into the river and although his hands were bound he struggled across and escaped in the dark-ness. The next day a Christian farmer helped him with food and money. Learning that his wife was at Ta Ning he worked his way on to that city avoiding notice and evading Boxers until just as he entered the city, when he was chased to the yamen where the official sheltered him. His wounds were severe, on head and neck and shoulders, from sword and spear.

By this time it was the last of August. After two days two donkeys with wooden pack-saddles were fur-nished them and they were sent on to Р’и Hsien. They were attacked by Boxers, but their guard fought them off. From that place they were to have gone on to P'ing Yang, but orders came to send them back to Ta Ning.

This journey was made in great pain and discomfort, no food being given them. Her husband fell into the water when fording a stream, but they at last reached the city. They were again put in prison and given food. At this time the little one grew very ill, but a man brought a cow and they got milk. The vermin in the filthy prison were terrible, and Mr. Ogren grew ill with fever. Their only comfort was prayer.

Here they lived on till early in October, when deliver-ance came. Orders arrived to suppress the Boxers and send the foreigners to P'ing Yang to be forwarded to the

| | |

NOTABLE EXPERIENCES 643

coast. They went part of the way in chairs and part way in mule litters, being forwarded from stage to stage by the officials.

Arriving at P'ing Yang they were most politely re-ceived by the officials and sent to a former mission house. It was nearly all in ruins but there were two rooms that could be used. After a few days Mr. Ogren grew worse and died October 15th. The Chinese were kind and as-sisted in giving burial. Not a few surviving Christians came to sympathize with his widow.

Soon after, the baby boy grew very ill, but again the mother got a cow, and with proper food the child re-covered. The latter part of October she was joined by Mr. McKie, Miss Chapman and Miss Way, who with herself were probably the only foreigners who had re-mained їп the province and survived the storm. Early in December a little daughter was born to her and a month later the party were sent under escort south through Shansi, Honan, and Hupei to Hankow, which they reached after about six weeks of travel.

Kalgan to Kiakhta.*

On June 6th, 1900, the Rev. Mark Williams and the Rev. J. H. Roberts left Peking for Kalgan, returning to that station in haste, to help the Rev. W. P. Sprague and other members of the mission of the American Board against the Boxers. With us went Miss Dr. V. C. Mur-dock, to do medical work in Kalgan; and Mr. Carl G. Sóderborn, whose family were there. Passing through Hsüan Hua Fu, we persuaded Mr. Lundquist and family to go with us, for there were many Boxers in that city.

* Prepared at the request of the author by the Rev. James Н, Roberts.

644 CHINA IN CONVULSION

On June 10th we reached Kalgan, and found a howling mob at our gate,—hundreds of men and boys having come to see our houses burned. After a long time, an official sent the mob away, but they returned in the evening, and the danger became so imminent that a shot-gun had to be pointed at the crowd. Most providentially, they yielded to that argument.

In the night we sent away all the Chinese who were with us, and at daybreak we fled to the Yamen of the Manchu General. There were six in our party, includ-ing Mrs. Sprague and Miss Engh. We asked to be pro-tected one day, and sent into Mongolia with a guard. In the afternoon a mob gathered in front of the Yamen. The General tried to send us to another part of the city, but we refused to go. At sunset we and our baggage were removed to a little musty house in one corner of the yard, and were locked up— whether for life or death, we did not know—but after midnight we were sent with a guard of many soldiers through the Great Wall into Mongolia.

We found that the Mongols also were Boxers, and there was no place where we could remain. At Hara Oso, fifty miles northwest of Kalgan, we joined Messrs. Larson, Söderborn and Lundquist, with their families, who were living in tents, and preparing to go to Urga. Mr. Sprague went back to Kalgan, and got our money, which was on deposit in a Chinese bank. He brought with him Mr. A. L. Fagerholm, who was vainly trying to reach the coast. Mr. Roberts also went to Kalgan, to get warm clothing for the whole party. We all rejoiced that, when we had to flee for our lives, we found ten camels and nine horses ready for our use.

On June 23rd, under a glorious sunset sky, we started

NOTABLE EXPERIENCES 645

on our long journey. The third day we lost a camel, and the search for it delayed us two days. Meantime mes-sengers came from four Swedish missionaries, who had been attacked by a mob in Féng Chén and were hurry-ing to overtake us. Their magistrate, most wonderful to relate, had given them an indemnity of eight hundred taels ($600), and they came to us with large supplies of money and food. The latter was as necessary to us as our camels and horses were to them, and we saw that the loss of the camel was most providential, as without it they could not have overtaken us.

Our party consisted of ten men, seven ladies, six little children, and seven Mongols to care for the animals. At the most we had twenty camels and nineteen horses. At one place we were forbidden to draw water from the well. The King of the Sunit Mongols forbade his people to sell animals to us, and sent soldiers to watch the wells, lest we put poison in them. i

Mr. Larson was a splendid leader, a good marksman and horseman, a fluent speaker of Mongolian, and a man of great courage. He had traversed the desert of Gobi twice before. We called him “ Moses.” We had an armament of one rifle, one shot-gun, and two revolvers, which, under the divine Providence, saved us from at-tack.

Two ladies and two gentlemen each day formed a Cooking Committee. The other men were a Fuel Com-mittee, the fuel consisting of the dung of animals, dried in the sun and wind. Two’ large buckets with covers, carried on a camel, contained our precious supply of water. The wells were far apart, and often the water was undrinkable. Once in a few days we killed a sheep and ate mutton, but the meat was little for so many

646 CHINA IN CONVULSION

hungry people. Our chief food was thin rice or millet gruel, with gravel in it that cracked our teeth. Once in five or ten days, one would feel satisfied with his dinner.

In the desert, ten days of great heat intensified our thirst. The shade of the six carts, in which the ladies and children rode and slept, was our only relief from the burning sun; and the lack of sleep, due to constant travelling in the night, made existence almost unen-durable.

When within one hundred and twenty miles of Urga, we telegraphed to the Russian Consul-General: “Six Americans, seventeen Swedes, going to Urga request protection.” His answer, telling us to come right to the Consulate, gave us a new lease of life. Arriving there July 30th, after thirty-eight days (660 miles) from Hara Oso, we had four days of rest.

However, Urga was full of Boxers, and we must move on. Russian passports were given us, to enable us to travel to St. Petersburg; food was bought for our jour-ney; and we started for Kiakhta, the nearest town in Siberia. Mr. О. 5. Nástegard, ]г., a Norwegian mis-sionary, who could speak Russian, went with us, and became our “ Joshua.”

Shortly after leaving Urga, we met three hundred and fifty Cossacks, who had been sent to protect us. In thirteen days we travelled two hundred and ten miles to the border of the two Empires. There the Mongol Mandarin tried to stop us, but the Russian Gov-ernor of Kiakhta saved us from his clutches. We rested there two weeks. Many Russians were very kind to us. The infant child of Mr. Söderborn died, and was buried in a Russian cemetery, and even the Priest attended our

ЛРУРРЧРРРЕМГРОР‏ ا

NOTABLE EXPERIENCES 647

Protestant funeral. Money was sent by cable from America for our use, but the robbers, who dogged our steps fourteen days, could not get it, because we took it in letters of credit, to be paid in Irkutsk.

We hired a number of tarantasses—carriages with wooden springs, drawn by three horses driven furiously — ап after going five days over prairie and mountains, and through a magnificent forest, we reached Lake Baikal, which we crossed on a small steamer September ist. The waves on the lake were tremendous. Re-covering from sea-sickness, we spent the night sleeping on a railroad station platform. The next morning we reached Irkutsk. Then ten days on the Siberian railway brought us to Moscow. A Government permit granted us a special car, new, clean and commodious. We left our Swedish companions in St. Petersburg, and came via Berlin and London to New York, where we arrived No-vember 8th, after travelling more than four months.

It-was a special providence that we were driven out of China in the summer, for, exposed as we were to the weather day and night, on the table-land of Mongolia, and in the high latitudes of Siberia, we should have suf-fered terribly from the cold at any other season. A Rus-sian friend, on hearing about our journey, said: “ Your guardian angels have come with you all the way.” Not only during our flight, but also afterward, as we have learned of the many deaths of missionaries in China, we have realized that God himself was leading us and fulfill-ing his gracious promise: “ My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.”

The Rev. J. W. Stevenson, Director of the China Inland Mission, compiled the following list of the Protes-

648 CHINA IN CONVULSION

tant Missionaries who were killed, or who died from injuries received during the Boxer uprising of 1899 and 1900; the societies with which they were connected; the provinces in which they were located; and their nationality:

SOCIETY. Adults. [Children.| Total.

China Inland Missioni cesor eean iaa 58 2I 79 Christian and Missionary Alliance....... 21 15 36 American Board 22222... O ДЕ 13 5 18 English Baptist Міѕѕіоп............... ; 13 3 16 SER Е Косово ЕЕЕ ІІ 2 13 American Presbyterian, North........... 5 3 8 Scandinavian Alliance Mongolian Mission 5 25 5 Swedish Mongolian Mission ............ 3 I 4 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel 3 Se 3 British and Foreign Bible Society.. .... 2 5 Unconnected, Mr. A. Hoddle....... db т I

PROVINCE. Shansi and over the Mongolian Border... 113 46 159 CHIR КЕККЕ es 4%%..4.....-... 4.... 13 4 17 Chekiang...... ЖОС ке к Late кс а ы ааа 8 3 II Shaptung ОК een I SS ort EYE 135 53 188 NATIONALITY.

РЗА КО ао зоос асо І 2 100 Swedish .. TS OOOO noah SOS ds б 56 United States....... 55225: ES 24 8 32 135 188

1901. Rev. ]. Stonehouse, London Mission I 5 I

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List of Roman Catholic Bishops, priests, and nuns killed in Igoo:

PROVINCE, Men. Women, Моатенаналн 22222222. ee Се ҚЫН O Io 2 SETS een en ee er 5 7 Mongolia RE siete sas Selle 7 ride (A Лу е ж ca wwe overs 45244 e E E 4 SEAS Ve hobe teal 572222 оона OOO 2 Я EEL O а ИО ОЗС ВВА СА 7 А

N. В. — This list is probably not entirely complete.

XXXIV

CHAPTER 34. Catastrophe to the Native Church

the beginning of the Boxer movement, by which is meant actual members of churches, was esti-mated to be somewhat more than one hundred thou-sand. To this should be added three or four times as many more who came under the general name of adher-ents, denoting those who, while not yet baptized, were either members of families where the leading elements were Christian, or were themselves favorably disposed to the new faith. It is from this class that converts are perpetually recruited. The membership of the Roman Catholics, usually reckoned by families, was several times as numerous, that faith having been in China for many centuries. In each case these Christians were distributed over a large part of the Empire, the number of Prot-estants in Manchuria being much larger than elsewhere. While there are among these communities some who are wealthy, or rather in a small way well-to-do, by far the larger number of them come from the farming and the working classes. In China, as in the land of its birth, it has always been true that “to the poor the gos-pel is preached,” and considering the hopes which this faith enkindles, and the barrenness of the average Chinese life, this is not singular. It is a capital error to suppose that there are in the Chinese churches any considerable number of those who 650

y | Y НЕ number of Protestant Christians in China at

CATASTROPHE ТО NATIVE СНОВСН 651

join them from unworthy motives, for what they сап get. Of the Protestant churches at least we can speak upon this point from full knowledge. The Chinese are excellent judges of character, and in such a condensed society it is impossible that the main facts with regard to every applicant should not be well and accurately known. Numerous mistakes of judgment must of course be made, but missionaries and natives alike have learned by long experience that eternal vigilance is the price of a church which will not fall apart of its own weight, and the tendency accordingly is continually toward a raising of the standard.

It should be remembered that there are always and everywhere serious risks attending the identification of any one with a body like that of the Christian church in China, and in the face of the inevitable ostracism the advantages are too precarious to be attractive. Those who had joined the Christians from unworthy motives hastened in this last year to cut loose as soon as the dangers of their connection became apparent.

It is important also to bear in mind the fact that in a society like that of China it is inevitable that every Christian should have many enemies. It is a classical saying that on entering a village one should inquire its customs. In China the first and greatest command-ment is not to do what others do not do also, for thus only will the whole of the Chinese law and the prophets be fulfilled. But the Chinese Christian is ex officio a non-conformist. He objects to ancestral worship, which is the real religion of the Chinese race. He refuses to subscribe to the erection of temples, to the performance of Taoist and Buddhist ceremonies, and to the village theatricals held in honor of some god or goddess.

He is at variance with his family and with his clan

652 CHINA IN CONVULSION

on occasion of every wedding and every funeral, and weddings and funerals constitute a large part of the earthly joys of the barren life of the Chinese. In the incessant and intricate relations with innumerable indi-viduals he will have differences on a great variety of sub-jects with a great variety of people, and whether he is himself at fault or not, he will have earned the ill-will of many persons. And the Chinese have long memories for grudges and spites, which are not infrequently carried on from generation to generation, each one patiently waiting until his turn shall have come for that revenge so dear to the Chinese, and so strongly inculcated in the Classics.

АП persecutions of Christians in China have within them these inevitable elements, but this special one dif-fered from all that had gone before. Those were local and sporadic, often secretly stimulated by the literati, and not infrequently by officials. This one was an emana-tion direct from the Throne itself. Never had there been such an opportunity as was now afforded to pay oft old scores with compound interest.

The social solidarity of China is such that all the parts are more distinctly and exactly representative of the whole than perhaps in any other society in the world. When it is remembered that the Chinese are deeply imbued with a profound respect for all the forms of authority, one gains a faint notion of what an official and especially an Imperial persecution must be in China, far exceeding in its inherent momentum those of ancient Rome. The Chinese mind does not readily entertain the conception of actual resistance to regularly appointed magistrates. Every Chinese is unconsciously something of a fatalist, and when he is commanded by the highest power of which he knows anything to do or to forbear

CATASTROPHE ТО МАТУЕ CHURCH 653

doing certain acts, he naturally regards it as “the Will of Heaven,” and bends to the storm. That all Chinese did not behave thus in this universal persecution is itself a phenomenon to be accounted for, and one which shows that some force absolutely new in Chinese history had taken possession of many of the Chinese race.

The officials, some through motives of the deepest hos-tility to Christianity, and some with a desire to save the lives of their subjects, issued orders to the Christians to recant, sometimes furnishing tickets which should be pasted over their doors, certifying that they were no longer members of “the foreign religion ” and were thus entitled to protection. This plan was in accordance with an Imperial Edict, and it is not to be wondered at that many Christians fell into the cunning trap laid for them, especially when, as in Shantung, it was accompanied by the alluring words “temporarily recant.” In Man-churia some of the magistrates hit upon the happy plan of requiring the converts merely to step over the figure of a cross drawn upon the ground, which many of them hastened to do, glad to have escaped with no worse test, by no means realizing the significance of what they had done.

In one marked instance in Shantung, two native pas-tors under great pressure took upon themselves the responsibility and the sin of vicariously recanting on be-half of their whole flock, in order to save their lives. They had not the smallest intention of denying the faith, but nothing else was to be done, they thought, and it was better that two men should incur guilt than that the whole church should do so.

The innumerable varieties of recantation, actual and merely nominal, make the problem of the rehabilitation of the church in the regions where it prevailed a delicate

654 CHINA IN CONVULSION

and a serious one. But it should be distinctly recognized that in all but a fraction of cases it was regarded as only a form, an error no doubt due in many cases to inad-equate instruction on the part of their leaders. Innu-merable instances of absolute refusal to deny the faith under any circumstances, especially among the large Roman Catholic communities, are everywhere reported, but the case is not fully set forth without the distinct avowal that this was by no means the universal rule.

In some regions the threats of the Boxers had been heard for many, many weary months, or perhaps for more than a year. The poor Christian communities had been living the lives of isolated sheep with a day per-petually threatened for the advent of the wolves in force. Is it any wonder that at the last many of them fainted with terror at the actuality so long menacing them, and did whatever seemed to be required to prevent their aged parents from being turned adrift with no home and no food?

Some groups of Christians were pillaged over and over again, while elsewhere there was nothing but rapine and sudden death, the whole storm having passed over in an afternoon, leaving scarcely a living representative of the hated faith. “ Destroy Christians root and branch,” was often the war-cry, which the Boxers sought to carry into literal effect by killing not only all human beings, but every cat, dog, and chicken belonging to the homes of Christians, cutting down every tree, uprooting flowers, and laying waste the courts and gardens of the ruined houses. In a room occupied by a refugee Christian fam-ily, a forlorn little kitten was pointed out to a lady vis-itor, with the remark: “ A whole village was out all night hunting for that cat. They said that it must be found and destroyed or it would bring calamity to the town.

CATASTROPHE TO NATIVE CHURCH 655

It was picked up and sent to relatives at a distance and so escaped.”

Never was the prophecy that the foes of a man shall be they of his own house more exactly fulfilled. They were themselves the spies and informants, whose precise knowledge nothing could escape. All human affection, all social sympathies seemed to be dried up at the roots. Daughters drove away their own mothers from their doors, saying “Don't you come in here, or we shall be implicated too—go to your foreign friends, let them look after you.” Even the storage of books, or clothing, or any article of furniture was absolutely forbidden under penalty of having the house pulled down or burned. The nearest neighbors were often the ones who invited the Boxers to come, leading them through the village and pointing out every door to Christian courts. Then when the goods were dragged upon the streets and sold for next to nothing, these were the ones who bought them for a trifle, subsequently reviling and taunting the owners, when they crept back to their desolated yards, with the observation that there was no more place for them—their goods were distributed to new owners, and their land had reverted to the village temples!

The cruelties of the persecutors found expression in the most hideous forms. All the barbarities practiced upon foreigners were shared likewise by their followers. Men, women, and children were chopped into pieces and their bodies thrown into running streams to be dispersed be-yond power of doing injury. Great numbers were burned alive, and children were flung back into the flames after they had once broken forth. Yet in one case known to the writer a lad who had twice been bound and thrown into the Grand Canal, and had each time succeeded in getting free, was allowed to escape, because it must be “the Will

656 CHINA IN CONVULSION

of Heaven.” Unusually attractive Christian children were sometimes adopted by the Boxers, or by others, val-uable lives being thus saved. Many Christian maidens were sold to a life of odious slavery to be the “ wives ” of the Boxers who had killed all the other members of their families.

The mutilation of Christians may be said in some regions to have been the rule, not the exception, gen-erally followed by a slow and terrible death. In other cases the joints of the victims were dislocated, and they were left in this maimed condition.

The writer was personally acquainted with a Roman Catholic school teacher who was persecuted by the Box-ers, middlemen finally arranging that his life should be spared on payment of a fine of about thirty (Mexican) dollars. His father, however, begrudged the waste of so much money, and together with another son and a nephew tied up the son and his wife in the middle of the night, and killed them with a sword, their little girl being thrown on the ground and stamped to death. Two small boys, however, made their escape. The people of the vil-lage, who had no sympathy whatever with Christianity, were so incensed at this inhumanity that they refused to assist in any way at the funeral.

It is worthy of notice that in many places the bitterest animosity extended even to those who had been treated in mission dispensaries, or whose connection with foreigners had been only temporary and casual. In cases where the number of those killed was large, sometimes amount-ing to quite half of the total membership, there was an additional percentage of those who thus suffered vica-riously. There were, on the other hand, some who while not members of the church, nor even probationers, yet refused to renounce its teachings, thus forming an

CATASTROPHE ТО NATIVE CHURCH 657

exoteric band of martyrs whose number will never be known.

Attention was early called to the important fact that in many places where the Chinese Church was about to be tested as never before, special strength was afforded them for the coming conflict. In Peking, T’ung Chou, and Tientsin, earnest meetings had recently been held, at which large numbers of the leading members of many churches had been brought near to God, and a similar experience was that of many mission stations in Shansi and Chihli which had been visited by Mr. William Cooper. Numbers of Christians afterwards testified that they had been thus unconsciously fortified for the terri-ble trials which proved to be so near.

The natural timidity and the clannishness of the Chi-nese is well known to those who have had intimate rela-tions with them. It has been previously mentioned that both in Tientsin and in Peking the greater part of the servants in every foreign establishment disappeared in a body upon the prospect of danger. It is important to recognize that the reverse was the case with the Chris-tians, not merely where their safety was bound up with that of foreigners, but where they might, but for their fidelity, have easily escaped.

The most impressive instances of this are to be found where the peril to Chinese Christians was greatest, in the province of Shansi, where the Governor had given formal authority to Boxers to kill all Christians, and where any one found writing letters to foreigners was slain with-out mercy. The foreign letters from those who were martyred in that province, continued in some cases to within a few hours before death and concealed at great risk by their converts, furnish the most ample evidence of the beautiful loyalty of the Christians, and of their

658 CHINA IN CONVULSION

fearful trials. In every mission headquarters the first quest was for the mission records, that the names of all the followers of the “ foreign religion ” might be cer-tainly known. When these were discovered it went ill with the flock.

In repeated instances servants who had been sent away for their own safety returned on the eve of a riot, saying simply: “I heard that you were to be attacked to-night, and I thought that I ought to be here to help you.” Many of them voluntarily served as couriers at the immi-nent risk of their lives, not once or twice, but constantly, and in this way it is known that many were killed. When the missionaries had been robbed of everything, the poor Christians sometimes offered to them their own scanty hordes of silver or cash, saying that it was but right to do something for those to whom they owed so much, “ As long аз 1 have anything,” said one such, “of course Т will share it with you.” Many Christians offered to find hiding-places for the foreign pastors and the ladies, at the greatest risk to themselves, and others undertook the yet more difficult office of acting as their travelling stewards during their long and dangerous flight through hostile regions.

Some of the prominent preachers were intrusted by the missionaries with large sums of money, to be sent to whomsoever appeared to be in the greatest need. One of them thus became the steward of about two hundred pounds sterling, which at no little risk to himself he dis-bursed with great discretion, in such a way as to assist materially many missionaries who had lost everything, and who had no resources. An instance of this sort is ОЁ great weight as an aid in estimating the real char-acter of the men who have embraced Christianity, and who are at once its apostles and its proof.

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It is to be noted that the reports brought to the coast of the experiences of the foreigners in the interior, while greatly doubted at the time by some, afterwards proved to be exact even in details, and at the same time there was no apparent disposition on the part of those who had helped foreigners under these circumstances to pose as heroes. In a letter brought to light many months after the massacre of the English Baptist missionaries at Hsin Chou, Shansi, was known, it appeared that the Boxers had captured one of the leading Christians and had taken him to the hiding-place of the missionaries that he might witness their death. With the certainty of imme-diate retribution this Christian uttered a loud cry of warn-ing to his “ Pastor,” and was immediately himself struck with a spear or sword as a reward.

An evangelist and his family were all dragged from their carts in a Honan village, and their baggage being thought insufficient for loot, they were. all, men and women, stripped of all their clothing and left naked in the street. ;

The manner in which the Christians met these terrible sufferings was a perpetual astonishment to their tor-mentors. They could not understand what inspired the calm courage of the tall and stalwart Teacher Liu of Fên Chou Fu, who sat calmly in his room fanning him-self and awaiting the advent of the Boxers, who killed him instantly ; nor that of the Peking deacon who put on his best clothes and went out to meet them joyously, facing death with a smile. Was it any wonder that the Boxers in their superstition cut out the hearts of such people to endeavour by an inspection to ascertain the source of their more than human courage ?

The belief that Christians were able to poison wells, and to turn paper images into real foreign soldiers, was

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practically universal, and accounted for much of the insensate fury of the Chinese against them. The notion also widely prevailed that within three days they would rise from the dead, unless energetic steps were taken to prevent it. It was for this reason that so many were cut in pieces, and burned, in exceptional cases the ashes being passed under stone rollers and dispersed to the winds. The same superstition also accounted for the entirely un-Chinese refusal to allow the bodies of Christians to receive any kind of burial. A convert in Peking several times passed the corpse of his own mother lying in the street where she was struck down, but he dared not touch it.

The question has been often raised as to what the mis-sionaries in China are doing, and what are the results of their work. They have been criticized as “idle and mischievous,” but now that the Boxer rising has burst we are told that “they have turned the world upside down.” The statement is most literally true. The nature of the totally new energy widely diffused through-out the Chinese Empire may now be clearly perceived. It is one with the life manifested in the Roman Empire in the days briefly described in the Acts of the Apostles, and it is the only force adequate to cope with the gigantic ills of China. This proposition, to those who read the story of the sufferings of the native church in China dis-criminatingly, will be self-evident, while to others it will remain an idle claim.

The interest of the appended instances of the expe-riences Of Christian Chinese is found not only in the occurrences themselves, but in the fact that these are such cases as have first come to hand, and that it would be possible to duplicate them by the thousand, until the aggregate product would be a series of volumes exceeding

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in bulk the Encyclopedia Britannica. These narratives need no other comment than a few explanations of techni-cal terms, and bear within themselves the evidences of their fidelity to truth.

Attention has already been called to the fact that the spread of the Boxer movement was largely through young boys who were put under the influence of some-thing like hypnotism, or mesmerism. The proportion of genuine subjects may have been small as compared with the spurious, but the influence of a single genuine case in a superstitious country like China would be great, where education, despite the claim of many influential Chinese, is no bar to the wildest credulity.

In many places, the baneful effects of the movement became manifest to everyone, and often brought the whole Boxer propaganda into discredit. In one instance a lad of fifteen was so filled with the frenzy for murder that he attacked his own parents, an event which filled the villagers with horror, and led to the disbandment of the Boxer camp. Sometimes susceptible children would be so strongly affected with the impulse to perform the Boxer drill that they would go through with it irre-spective of time or place. These occurrences made many reflective Chinese dread the unknown influence which they had evoked. When all the phenomena attending the Boxer development are attentively considered, there is reason to believe that many will come to the conclusion that if there is any such phenomenon in this world as “ Demon Possession,” this was an instance of it.

The frequent expression “ Boxer altar,” it should be explained, does not refer to a place of worship, a pile of stone, nor even a table, but denotes the organization itself, the band as a whole, with its “ Great Elder Brother” as leader, as well as the drill headquarters, and the idol

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shrines before which tests were made by burning incense or paper. If the latter flamed high the accused was in-nocent, but if the flame was feeble and deflected he was guilty and must be beheaded at once. The opportunity for fraud in all these ceremonies is obvious.

Among the many singular phenomena connected with the rise and spread of the Boxer sect, nothing seems stranger or more in defiance of Chinese customs and the ideals of long generations than the accompanying organ-ization of the “Hung Teng Chou” or “Red Lantern Light” society. This was composed of young girls be-tween the ages of ten and twenty, just the age when Chinese maidens are most carefully hidden in the seclu-sion of their homes,—when to go about іп the streets would be in defiance of the proprieties, and to be exposed to public gaze would be for rich and poor alike disrepu-table.

These girls in large companies were taken to the tem-ples, put under the low and vicious men who were the Boxer leaders, and after a certain amount of drill accom-panied Boxer bands in their public parades. Their uni-form was entirely of red, red cloth about their heads, red shoes on their feet, red banners in their hands. Their training was similar to that given Boxer boys, the repeti-tion of charms by the leader, who was sometimes a man, sometimes a woman, —following this the hypnotic trance, then a frenzy of desire to fight with sword or spear or gun.

The special power said to belong to these girls was to ride upon the clouds and to point out the houses of for-eigners or their friends, Christians or others. From the clouds they could kindle a fire that would harm none but those proscribed. From the clouds, too, they could cause the iron battle-ships of the enemy to burn like tinder.

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During the weeks when riots and fighting were most violent, towards evening hundreds of ignorant, credulous people would gather outside their villages and watch the sun hastening to the west. The impression upon the retina caused by gazing at its disc, causing a round red spot to appear whenever the eye should turn, was pro-nounced the magic light of the “Red Lantern,” and excited cries of “ There are two!” “I see three!” “ There are a great many in the north!” would fill the air. Then when the evening clouds gave back the sun-set glow, this common sight took on the aspect of the supernatural, and the people would whisper to each other “Truly the power of the Red Lantern is very great! With it we must conquer the foreigners!”

These stories of Chinese persecution may fitly con-clude with the citation of a significant testimony in regard to the relative qualities of the Chinese Christians, from a paper read at the Newcastle Church Con-gress, by the most accomplished lady traveller of the day, Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop, who began her ex-tended journeying with little or no interest in mis-sions, and who has ended with a sincere devotion to mis-sion activity, after having enjoyed unequalled advantages for learning at first hand what is accomplished by the effort to elevate the men and the women of the East.

“Everywhere small, oft-times very small commu-nities of persons had been formed, who by their aban-donment of ancestral worship and idolatrous social cus-toms were subjected to a social ostracism, and who partly in consequence clung together as brethren, with a tenac-ity similar to that which finds its secular expression in the powerful Chinese organizations known as * guilds.’ These converts live pure and honest lives, they are teach-

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able, greedy of Bible knowledge, generous апа self-denying for Christian purposes, and so anxious to pre-serve the purity of their brotherhood that it would be impossible for such abuses as disfigured the Church at Corinth to find a place in the infant churches of China. Above all, every true convert becomes a missionary, and it is in this spirit of propagandism that the hope of the future lies. After eight and a half years of journeyings among Asiatic peoples, I say unhesitatingly that the raw material out of which the Holy Ghost fashions the Chinese convert, and oft-times the Chinese martyr, is the best stuff in Asia.”

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CHAPTER 35. Personal Narratives

Kao Hsin

and has been in charge of the preparatory sta-

tion school at T’ung Chou. This was closed at mission meeting time and after the meeting he went to his home fifteen li away. In a few days he came back to learn of the condition of things. He found only one man, Mr. Lin, in the city compound, who told him that the missionaries had gone to Peking, and the church members had scattered, and advised him to get his family and follow to Peking.

While they were speaking, а man came from Yung Ге Tien and told them of the murder of the preacher Li Те Kuei while making his escape with his wife and three of his children. His three older children were pupils in T’ung Chou and Peking schools. Mrs. Li was Kao’s own sister. She had pleaded for her baby as it was such a fine boy. The Boxers looked at it and said: “ Yes! un-commonly fine! It might-be an Emperor some day, it must be killed first.” So they dispatched the children, hacking them with swords and burning them. They killed at the same time several church members who were escaping with the helper.

As Mr. Kao was starting back for his home he met a messenger from P’ing Ku Hsien, where Deacon Li Wen

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| ‘ AO HSIN is a graduate of College and Seminary,

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Jung was stationed, forty miles from T’ung Chou. He had come to bring word to the deacon’s mother that her son was ill with fever and the invalid wife unable to care for him, and to beg for help. After directing the man to the deacon’s mother's home, Mr. Kao went back to Fu Нё, his home.

About dark, the P’ing Ku messenger reappeared say-ing there was no one to go to the deacon’s help. Mr. Kao had told his family about the fate of the Christians at Yung Lé Tien and other places and consulted with them about plans for escape. His mother, an efficient energetic woman, said: “We are all natives of this vil-lage and our neighbours will not want to harm us women. You and your nephew go to P’ing Ku where there are no Boxers, and you will be safe yourselves and able to help the sick deacon and his family. We will scatter among our relatives in the village and I will stay and care for the house.”

Mr. Kao begged that they all go to Peking, but she thought her plan the safer one. His feelings overcame him and she said: “Don't cry my son! Can we not bear this for Christ? If Jesus saves us we will be re-united. If we are taken we die for Him. Can we not trust Him? Go quickly!”

She prepared them a meal, and at eleven o’clock at night Mr. Kao and his nephew, the eldest son of the murdered helper Li Те Kuei, set out, а neighbour going with them to bring back word to the mother.

They reached P'ing Ku the next day at noon, and found the deacon’s wife in distress at the situation, —her husband ill, and no cart or animals to be hired to take them back to T’ung Chou. She had been praying that God would open the way before them. Mr. Kao advised them to remain as it was quiet there, and if it grew

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dangerous the mountains were near where they could hide.

The next day was Sunday and the little company of Christians gathered for service. One from a hamlet not far away in the hills consented to let Mrs. Li and the children go to his home, though they had only millet and salt and water to give her. They stole out in the early morning, Mrs. Li walking some distance to meet the don-key sent for her. After seeing her safe in the new hid-ing place Mr. Kao and the sick husband returned to P'ing Ku where they remained another week.

Conditions grew worse all the time. The evil reports about Christians as poisoning wells and smearing blood on the doors were started in the city. They were threat-ened with being bound ready for delivery to the Boxers when these should reach the city. A friendly yamen-runner told them these things and advised them to leave, giving the name of friends, one forty and one eighty li away. Mr. Kao and his nephew decided to go. Deacon Li at first remained behind but soon joined his wife and started on his own long wanderings. They were sepa-rated from that time on.

The first man mentioned would only give them one meal and sent them on. After going a short distance they were in the mountain gorges with no plain road. Bewil-dered and knowing not where to go, they stopped and prayed to God to guide, where there was no man to ask. Two crows flew overhead and they asked that they might fly in the direction they ought to take. They flew north-east. This took them back to their unwilling host, whom they begged to escort them a few li. He was afraid and refused, but a caller came in who lived on that very road, and he offered to direct them.

It was cloudy and threatened rain and they begged this

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guide to take them to his home for the night. He did so and they had hardly entered the house when the rain fell in torrents. For ten days they remained there work-ing hard for their board. They had said that they were Christians, so that when, soon after, a Boxer altar was started there, the wife of the man was frightened and wanted them to go, giving them money to help them on their way.

The nephew was homesick and begged to return to their home. They started back, but in a few li met Yang Erh, a chair-bearer for a member of the T’ung Chou Mission. He had been to P'ing Ku twice as messenger, but was now fleeing for his own life. He told how he had been pursued by Boxers and had seen them cut down others on the road, and said that neither T’ung Chou nor Tientsin were safe for any Christians.

Mr. Kao and his nephew with Yang Erh turned back to the north-east and went on outside the pass. The wild rumours about Christians were everywhere, and believed by everyone. The rumours said that the Christians smeared blood on the doors, which would make some one in the household go crazy, and kill all the family; that they poisoned wells so that the water would destroy those who drank it; that foreigners were selling sheep-skins and goat-skins and would later turn them all into live sheep and dogs and men. The sheep would hunt people and destroy the crops, the dogs would bite people and make them go mad, but the men were worst of all as they could not be conquered. If these sheep or dogs or men were struck they turned back into sheep-skins or goat-skins. The great trade of foreigners in black pig’s bris-tles was said to be for the purpose of performing incan-tations over them, by which they would turn into evil in-sects that would fly about and bite like a mosquito, the bite

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proving fatal. The Boxers claimed that they alone could avert all these evils.

No one was allowed to stay at an inn, as it was said that foreigners hired beggars, fortune-tellers, travelling priests and peddlers to scatter blood and medicine. Every suspicious stranger was searched. If any bottle was found on his person they were sure it was medicine and the man was at once cut to pieces.

It was necessary to appear unconcerned and walk boldly to the crowds or inns as any attempt to avoid notice at once awoke suspicion. They must have a reasonable explanation for their journeying, so they gave as a reason that they were going north in search of a debtor who had owed his uncle a debt to get payment for the same. As they several times got work for a few days in the fields, they could say that they were searching for work on account of drought on the plain. The poppy harvest was ready for the first slashing of the seed-pods, and many came every year to do this work.

At one stage they joined a traveller who proved most kind to them, took them to his village, found work for them with a rich man of the place, cared for Mr. Kao during several days’ illness and adopted him and Yang Erh as “sworn brothers” and the nephew as a “dry son.” His kindness was the bright spot in the long, sorrowful summer.

While at this man’s village, word came of the destruc-tion of everything foreign in Peking except the British Legation and the Cathedral, and with a heavy heart Mr. Kao thought of all his fellow Christians as gone. At last the news of the victories of the Allies in Peking reached them in the mountains and they started back for the plains.

Not far from his old home Kao Hsin met an acquain-

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tance who exclaimed on seeing him, “ Why are you here!” “I want to see my home and my family!” “Alas! You have no home to see and your fam-Пу are all dead, killed by the Boxers.” Then the dreadful details were told of how his mother was cut to pieces, all his children but one little deaf girl killed with his wife, all the Christians of the village, with nearly all of their relatives, more than thirty in all, killed in most cruel ways. The aged grandmother, over eighty-four years old, was a mid-wife and nearly all the villagers up to forty years of age had been brought into the world by her—so many begged for her and she was spared. “One old woman and one little girl can do nothing to avenge those killed!” they said contempt-uously. They had searched everywhere for Kao Hsin, but said he was a wizard of such power he could bur-row in the earth and escape. They feared he would come with an earthquake to destroy them.

Mr. Kao had travelled thirty miles that day and had six more to go. He staggered on almost sleeping as he walked. At last he crawled under a mat shed in which were dead bodies and tried to sleep a little, but was awakened every little while by firing guns and barking dogs. At daylight some Russian soldiers impressing workmen found them and drove them to some boats to unload supplies. There was а motley crowd of coolies, merchants, teachers, rich men, poor men—all kinds in the line. Their burdens were heavy and if they did not handle them just right they were beaten. Kao Hsin felt the lash because he dropped a box too quickly. After a supper he slept on the wet ground with no bedding.

The next day he was harnessed in with some men to drag cannon over the stone road outside the city near

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to the ruins of the college. One man fell, the wheel ran over his leg and broke it. Another, who thought such a life too bitter to endure, jumped into the moat as they went over the bridge and was drowned. That night they were well fed and given dry clothes. After a little they were better treated, were given three meals a day and paid ten cents besides.

Не remained a month in all, thinking the Christians all dead and himself the sole survivor and that the mission-aries would all have been sent home. So he made no effort to get away. One day he met a T’ung Chou church member оп the streets and learned the good news that many were saved. His presence in T’ung Chou was re-ported to the Mission in Peking and he was soon passed over to the Americans and sent up to the Capital.

Deacon Li

To find a Christian in a Chinese yamen reminds one of the “saints in Nero's household.” Yet it was in such a place that Li Yün Sheng was converted, and it was in pursuing the duties of that place that he led for twelve years a consistent Christian life. He was known as a man faithful to duty, one who took no bribes and shared no “ spoils of office.” He had the respect of the official in T’ung Chou and of his associates in the yamen. Such a man was a shining mark for the malig-nity of the Boxers. Не had seen the burning of the Mis-sion buildings and boldly denounced the deed. “Your punishment will come,” he said, “and these buildings will be restored.” When the massacres began, the official at the head of the yamen took Mr. Li under his own pro-tection and found a small, retired room where he was

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hidden. When the Boxers came to the yamen and de-manded the Christian in hiding, they refused to give him up.

At last the Boxers, who had no respect for dignitaries, broke into the yamen and began a search. Mr. Li was taken by the official’s command into the apartments of the women. But the Boxers penetrated to that court and soon found their victim. He was dragged out and taken to an altar near by, where they put him to death. His wife was a very timid woman and when she heard of her husband's death she went to a pit of water not far away, leading her little daughter, and the two plunged into the water together.

Deacon Li was buried but the word went around among the Boxers that so zealous a Christian would rise from the dead in a short time, so his body was exhumed and burned to ashes.

The Unknown Martyrs

Among those who died for their faith in this field were many whose names are unknown, but whose steadfastness in the face of death produced so much wonder among the heathen that their stories are being told by those who “ were consenting ” by looking on silently when they were condemned.

At P'ing Ku Hsien two men were taken to the “ Great Elder Brother” of the Boxers for his decision as to which was guilty of following the foreign religion. After repeating his incantations he turned and pointed to one and said “ This is one of them!” The man was led away and killed, the other one was released. He turned away and went off a little distance, then came back to the Boxers. “What are you coming back for? You can

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go,” they said. He replied “ Kill me too! I too am one of them!” And they led him to where his friend had died and there killed him.

At the T'ung Chou north gate two boys of thirteen and fourteen years of age were making their escape into the country when the Boxers seized them to question them. These nameless young confessors said boldly “We are of the Jesus Church.” When about to be bound they said, “ You need not bind us. We will not try to get away. Every step we take to your altar is one step nearer heaven.” And they soon joined the victors above.

Deacon Heng (As told by himself)

“On returning to Peking from Annual Meeting we found the danger and excitement in the city had greatly increased. A council was held and, soon after, the mis-sionaries and the girls of Bridgman school were removed to the Methodist Mission, while many of the men of the church remained to guard the Mission. On the evening of June 13th, a man came rushing to the chapel say-ing ‘ The Boxers have entered the city and are setting fire to the Missions.’ I went into the street and could see the smoke of the Methodist street chapel and of the London Mission rising to the south of us. The streets were full of excited people saying ‘They will come here next! These will be the next to die!” After a short consulta-tion we decided we could not defend the buildings and could only try to save our lives by flight.

“ There were many who saw me and knew me, but I made my way to the north part of the city where I was least known, and as it was dark I hid in a temple near the

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northwest gate. From there I saw the burning of the two Presbyterian Missions and further south the smoke and flames of our own Mission.

“T rested part of the night but rose at 3 А. м. and went to the Presbyterian Mission, which was still burning, and saw the bodies of those killed during the night, some of them in the burning buildings, some outside in the courts. I went to the An Ting gate, but it was closed not to be opened till noon. After wandering around I came back to the north-east gate. І met several Christians of our own and other Missions, but no one showed signs of rec-ognition. Later we went out through the gate together, each making for his own place of refuge.

“I went to a village eight li away to warn a Christian family living there. They gave me food and I rested for a time, after which I went back to the city by the An Ting gate, which was now open. There were many bodies of the Christians lying along the road, of which I recognized опе as а colporteur who had been killed while carrying his books on his back. There were men and women, young and old among them. I then went from one to another of my relatives but none would let me remain. I went to the yamen where I have duties but was told there was no place for me.

“For a day or two I wandered about getting food and shelter as best I could. At last I went to my uncle and he said he would try to get me out of the city safely but could not keep me, as it would surely bring ruin to them all.

“ They advised me to shave my head and put on the garments of a Buddhist priest, but I was not willing to wear that garb. Finally they brought me the outfit of a fortune-teller, the mystic character of the ‘Book of Changes,’ and wrote out for me enough couplets for

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twenty fortunes. Then my uncle put on his Manchu robes for ceremonial service, gave а suit to me and we rode out of the city as official and attendant. No one challenged me. He went a few miles with me, gave me money for my journey and we separated.

“T went to the village at the north where there were Christians, but found them scattered; went on to another place and found the Boxers were everywhere. І still went north and after a few days reached a valley among the mountains where a large branch of our family lived.

“ After waiting two days at an inn and no one appear-ing, whom Т knew, Г decided to turn back to the city to learn the fate of our church. I went to a few fairs on the way, spread out my table, told a few fortunes, always watching for familiar faces. At last Т met three Chris-tians who told me of the siege of foreigners and Chris-tians at the Legation and North Cathedral. They said we could not go to the city yet, —it was not certain that any one would survive the fierce attack.

“So again I turned north, this time in company with these three. We travelled by twos and stopped at differ-ent inns. One of them soon hired out to a farmer and the others found other work, but 1 was not strong enough to be of any use, so I went to fairs and told fortunes, working my way back to the north to my relatives. Sometimes I was tempted to end my days in a river or to jump from a precipice, but I held back from that sin, feeling that God would care for me or take me to Himself.

“At last I reached again the home of my relatives. There were some sixteen families in the hamlet, all of our clan. I went to the head man, who was the only one of an older generation—an uncle. There were four of my own generation whom I could call ‘brothers.’ I

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could not tell them of my being a Christian but did tell them of how Peking was in a state of chaos and ruin, with fighting in the streets and robbers and Boxers every-where. I had fled for safety and must ask them to give me refuge until the country should become quiet. They consulted together and agreed to share in keeping me. There I remained until after the New Year. They were poor people but they gave me food such as they had and money enough for me to buy a sheep-skin garment and other clothes for winter. I was kept in the house for more than a month by sickness.

“As the weather grew warmer I could wait no longer but turned back to the plain to see if any of our church survived. The roads and inns were full of dispersed sol-diers. Several times I told their fortunes and gave them the truth. I told them they could not succeed in fighting foreigners but had been deceived by the Boxers and had better give up being soldiers and go to their homes! They were not angry at this but paid my food and lodg-ing and treated me kindly. Т made my way to the city gate where the Japanese were in charge. Т could not make myself understood but found my way back to our old street.

“ There I saw a notice in foreign letters on the gate, and came inside and found myself in the presence of those whom I had thought dead. The Lord has brought me back. I am far from perfect. The Lord has not done teaching me so He has let me live on to finish His work in me.”

Mrs. Li Pen Yuan (Dorcas)

Li Pen Yuan is one of the younger preachers of the American Board Mission, and Dorcas, his wife, is a wor-

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thy helpmeet. She was educated in the Bridgman school and is a woman attractive in person and of a lovely Chris-tian character.

On the night when the Missions were burned in Peking Mr. and Mrs. Li were visiting the brother of the former in a distant part of the city. The brother was a preacher of the Presbyterian Mission. As the mob drew near that place they all fled together but after go-ing a little distance the two families separated so as to attract the less attention. Mr. Li found a retired corner in the angle of some house where he left his wife and child while he went on to the great street to look about. She could see him standing at the corner not many rods away when a crowd of Boxers come along. He knew it would not do to run, so followed along as one of the crowd till he could turn aside unnoticed and make his way back to his wife. She had seen him apparently swept along by the crowd, and as a long time elapsed and he did not return she gave him up as lost.

She finally came out from hiding and worked her way slowly back across the city to the American Board Mis-sion, which was burning when she reached it. Wander-ing about from one place to another she finally sat down in front of a large gate of a strange family and rested till the morning broke. Soon after light a band of Boxers came along and seeing the lonely woman and child marked them with blood-hound instinct as refugee Christians. Just as they stopped in front of Dorcas the gentleman of the place, an entire stranger to her, came out, took in the situation at a glance, and said to the Boxers, “ You are mistaken. This is a neighbour of mine!” His word was taken and the mob went on leav-ing her there.

She told her story to this “good Samaritan” and he

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went with her to a village near the eastern city gate where she had relatives living. They found the house de-stroyed and the people fled. The man who was trying to save her then said they were expecting a visit from a rel-ative named Li, and she must represent that relative to their family and go to his home till some other plan could be made. The women at first received her cordially but after a little, suspicions arose and then she told her story to them. They would not let her remain. The man begged them to keep the little one but they refused that too. As Dorcas left the house he said to his wife, “ The one good act of my life you will not let me do!”

She went back near the Mission from one old neighbour to another, none of whom would receive her. She appealed to a police-station, to a man who knew her husband, but he drove her roughly away. Towards night she sat down on some logs near a lumber-yard but was soon told to “move on” and when she said she had no place to go the man pointed down a blind alley and said “ You can wait there.” There was nothing to wait for but death.

Just then a carter of the Mission came along, saw her and called her by name. She went to his cart and got inside; he quickly dropped the curtain and drove up and down the streets for hours trying to find some place of refuge. At midnight he drove into a cart-stand yard and received permission to keep his cart and mule there for the night. Dorcas spent that night in the cart. The lit-tle child of only two years, a bright winsome little one, seemed to know she must keep quiet and did not cry once in the night.

The next morning at earliest dawn they drove away and went to a village where some Christians were known to have taken refuge, and there she remained until word was taken to her husband who came and took her to the

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Methodist Mission. They had been separated from Wednesday night till Saturday morning and he had searched all over the city for her.

The T’sai Family

This family is one of the oldest Protestant Christian families in North China, the present head of it, Mr. T’sai Fu Yuan, being of the second generation of Christians. He has been a preacher for nearly twenty years, and their home has been a centre for the church of the Yü Chou region.

By the latter part of June the whole city and region were aflame with the Boxers. Mr. T’sai was in the city with his family. His aged mother, who shared the uni-versal Chinese dread of extinction of the family, saw the approaching crisis and told her son and grandson that they must flee while it was yet possible. After vainly protesting they at last yielded and left the city about the middle of July. They first went to Hsi H& Ying, where there were other Christians, but found that place still worse than Yü Chou, as the large Catholic Church drew the Boxers to its attack from the whole region around. He then went on to Pai Lu, where-he had friends, but soon left them and took refuge in the watch tower of a melon patch, where a Catholic old lady was also in hid-ing. He remained in this place until he learned of the destruction of his home and the death of all his family except the son who was with him.

The crisis in Үй Chou culminated about the last of July, when a large body of Boxers passed through on their way to attack the Catholic Church of Hsi Не Ying. At that time a mob surrounded the Mission place and led out the women to a temple near by, locking them within. Then

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the chapel and homes were looted and burned, after which the crowd scattered, leaving the women in the temple without even a guard. Toward night they were able to escape and went back to their ruined home. They found two small side rooms which had not been destroyed and went into these to prepare some food for themselves.

In a little time some rowdies of the city came to pick up anything that might remain in the ruins and found the women there. They raised the cry and gathered the Boxers again. Some demanded that they all be killed, and some of the baser of the crowd suggested that the young women might be sold to the public houses for a good sum. At this the blind old grandmother raised her voice and said, “ We are not that kind! Kill us if you want! We can die!”

The Boxers being on their way to battle did not wish to defile their swords with the blood of women, so led them to the well in the court and threw them in, one after another, burying each with stones and earth as she was castin. In this way it is thought six perished, though there are rumours that two were carried away and given to a military official.

Pastor Meng Chi Hsien

Pastor Meng Chi Hsien was the oldest of the younger body of preachers in the Mission of the American Board, who had been trained from youth in the Mission schools. For eleven years he had been ап ordained pastor at Pao Ting Fu. He was a man of strong con-victions, of great energy, was a natural leader, beloved and trusted by all.

Не and his younger brother, Pastor Meng Chi Tseng, attended the Annual Meeting of the Mission at Tung

PASTOR MENG, А MARTYR ОЕ РАО TING ЕС

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Chou, both taking prominent part in the meetings. While these were in progress, tidings came that the railroad was destroyed and communication with Pao Ting Fu cut off. Mr. Meng decided to return at once to stand by Mr. Pitkin’s side in the perils and perplexities of the hour. He went overland, most of the way on foot. The three devoted missionaries at Pao Ting Fu, Mr. Pitkin, Miss Morrell, and Miss Gould, who were cut off from all hope of escape, were quietly going on with their work for the church.

During the month of June, Mr. Meng, with other preachers, and returned college students, opened the street chapel daily. They saw the gathering storm and advised , the church members to leave the city, helping them to choose places of escape, but these preachers and the Bible-readers deliberately decided to remain at their posts.

They said: “Our missionaries have remained with us, — we will stand by them and live or die together.” They could have escaped had they fled. All who went away did escape. They chose to stay, although they saw more clearly than their foreign friends the inevitable results.

One man, a life long friend of Mr. Meng, said to him, “We have lived together, now we will die together.” “No!” said the pastor, “My place is here with our missionaries. I shall stay, but you must take my oldest son and get away. If you escape and he is spared, he will represent me and carry on my work.” So the friend took the son, a fine boy of fifteen, and went away. After many dangerous experiences during the summer he brought him safely to Tientsin after the arrival of the Allies.

Friday afternoon of June 27th, Pastor Méng was at the street-chapel packing books and furniture, preparing

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to remove from the rented building, as notice to do so had been given by the owner.

Suddenly a company of Boxers came into the chapel, seized him, bound him, and carried him to their altar in a temple in the south-east corner of the city. The first blow had fallen upon the mainstay of the native church. He was beheaded at the altar, his head exposed as that of a criminal, while the body was buried like a pauper’s near the city wall. |

Nine months later to a day, а great memorial service for the martyred missionaries and Christians was held at Pao Ting Fu, attended by the chief officials of the city and witnessed by thousands of silent spectators. In the stately funeral procession were banners and flags, em-broidered catafalques, native musicians, a long line of carts filled with mourning friends, and ahead of all, above thirty memorial banners, more than half of which were to the memory of this noble man. They were no empty show, but gave the last, true estimate of the best men of the city, officials and merchants, guilds and citizens, of the life and character that had been lived in their midst.

Chang Ch’ing Hsiang

Chang Ch’ing Hsiang was a member of the senior class of the North China College, and had returned to Pao Ting Fu at the close of the college year, taking part in the work of the station up to the time when the storm broke upon the Mission.

The night that the elder Pastor Meng was seized by the Boxers was a sleepless one in the Mission. All felt that they were doomed to death, and it was only a ques-tion of time. Towards morning, Ch'ing Hsiang’s mother, who was one of the Bible-women, came to him and said:

STUID TOOHDS ANV NA Эм, OVA AO ATNOD SSIN

ONG

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“ There is no need for all to die. You are young and may have many years of work for the Lord. I shall stay and die with Miss Morrell. You must try to escape.”

Starting out in the early dawn, he first went to their home to get money and an extra garment, then turned south to a place twenty-five miles away, where there were Christians. Arriving at the town towards night he found the streets alive with Boxers coming in from the coun-try, and knew it was no place of refuge, so turned back to retrace his steps. He was pursued a few li by some villagers who noticed his being a stranger and alone. As night came on it rained heavily, and in the darkness and storm he made his way on the railroad back to his home. His sister met him with the warning to flee at once, as search had been made for him. He had had no sleep for two nights, his limbs were swollen and every step was painful, but his friends led him out a few li and he set his face towards the hills.

He fixed on a town a hundred miles away as his destination, and knowing that single travellers were viewed with suspieion, soon joined some merchants going to that place. After reaching there he decided to go into Shansi, not knowing that it would be entering the tiger’s den. He soon joined an official train whose followers were friendly, and with them made the journey all the way to T’ai Yuan Fu. Arriving there he learned that already a large number of missionaries had been killed, and he himself saw a Boxer mob chase down some Catholic Christians.

His money was almost gone, and he turned his face back to Pao Ting Fu, hoping the worst would be over when he should have again made the long journey. After going thirty miles he found that he had taken a branch road to Tai Ku, and was only ten miles from the city.

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His classmate, K’ung Hsiang Hsi lived there, and al-though not knowing whether he were yet alive, he de-cided to try to find him. Entering the city he found the missionaries were still living and made his way to the gate. It was very closely guarded as spies had visited them, and his ragged, travel-worn appearance excited suspicion, so that the door was shut in his face.

He finally met his friend and they found a hiding place in a village not far away. After the Mission was destroyed he was again in great peril, and after a hasty visit to his friends, he started to return to Chihli. He soon joined other travellers of his own province and in their company made the long journey out of Shansi safely.

He then turned south to a village where there were Christians, and a good deacon took him in and treated him as a brother. He had journeyed over a thousand miles on foot, had an ulcer on one leg, and his feet were covered with blisters. His clothes were in tatters, and his shoes almost gone. He received the kindest care, his needs were supplied, and he was soon able to join them in the harvest fields and work with them till news came that foreign troops had entered Pao Ting Fu. Then the deacon went with him to keep him company. The friends at Pao Ting Fu received him as one from the dead, having heard repeatedly that he had been killed in Shansi.

His experiences illustrate those of hundreds who wan-dered from one place of hiding to another, suspected, hunted, in danger every moment of being recognized, not knowing each morning but the new day might be their last. The marvel is that so many were able to escape the constant perils, and survive as witnesses to the providen-tial care of their God.

PERSONAL NARRATIVES © 685 Mrs. Huo’s Story

“When we saw the danger increasing around us, I said to my husband. ‘We must not all die. You must go away and hide. They are not so likely to kill me and the children as to kill you. If I am spared you can hunt me up afterwards. If not it will be God’s will.’ So I baked him some cakes, rolled up his quilt and some clothes, and then had to fairly push him out of the door.

“After the Mission houses were burned the Boxers came and took me and the children to their altar for trial. As we started I begged them to let me say a few words. “You want to talk now do you?’ ‘If you will let me,— if not 1 will keep silent.’ “Well, talk ahead!’ So I told them how we had lived there many years, how our neigh-bours all knew we had quarrelled with no one, had of-

fended no one, how my husband was gone and I was alone with my little children. Would they not be merci-ful to me and the little ones? Some of the by-standers said: “What a pity to destroy the children!’

“They put chains on my hands and feet as I sat on the ground and then ordered me to get up. I tried sev-eral times in vain, then told them it was impossible, and finally said my body was ‘inconvenient,’ and I could not rise without help. They then called two women who belonged to the. jail to attend to women prisoners, and they led me to the prison, where I spent seventy-two days. They gave me coarse food and drink. After twenty days my baby was born. The official had ordered clothing for the child, and extra food for me, but these things did not reach me, being kept by the guards. The little one lived only three weeks. I did not know the fate of my poor children, from whom I had been separated, but I

1 Pao Ting Fu.

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prayed God every day to spare their lives and restore them to me.

“After a time two other Christians, a mother and a daughter who had given themselves up to the Boxers voluntarily, were put in with me, and we comforted each other. They were alone and knew they could not escape, so they went to the Boxer leaders and told them plainly that they were Christians, and would not give up Christ, and they could kill them at once. Тһе Boxers did them no harm, but shut them up in the prison, and they came through safely with me.

“ There was another woman prisoner there, one who had been very wicked, and who was awaiting her sen-tence at the law, expecting death. She was friendly and anxious to know about us, so we talked freely together. One day I asked her, ‘If you must die have you any one to help you in the next world?’ “Хо, no one,’ she said. I said, “We have some one. We аге not afraid to die” So I told her about Jesus who died for us, and who takes away the fear of death. She was a very bright woman and learned quickly. We taught her to pray, and she learned to trust in Christ to forgive her many sins. I told her at last. ‘If they come to deliver us, you may tell them you are a Christian too now, only you must never go back to your old life of sin.’

“ Sure enough, when the foreign soldiers let us out she too was released. The interpreter for the troops was a missionary, and he asked her many questions to test her knowledge of the truth, and she answered them well. She has gone back to her father’s home in a distant vil-lage, and I am going there to see her as soon as it is safe for me to walk there. The Lord saved me, body and soul, why shouldn’t I try to save some one else, body and soul?

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“ After a time, before the soldiers came, we heard that some foreigners had been brought to the prison. ‘Could it be Pastor Ewing, come to try and save us? Were they to be killed?’ we asked. ‘No,’ the guard said, and then added, ‘You need not worry, no one will kill them or you now,’ I did not then know that they meant that the foreign armies were in Peking, and every one was afraid of their vengeance, but I felt sure we were safe and would in some way be delivered. In time I learned that the foreigners were Mr. and Mrs. Green and their party.

“ At last the time came when they brought us out of prison and restored my four children to me. They had been taken to the city orphanage and cared for during my long stay in prison. They were sick and wasted from poor fare and lack of mother’s care, but they had not been unkindly treated. After a time my husband came back, so we are all spared to each other. God has been very good to us. My children are His to do with just what He wants.”

Dr. Сш

Dr. Ch’iu was a former student with Dr. Atterbury at Peking, who was carrying on an independent practice, and had a medicine shop of his own.

As the Boxer altars multiplied in the city and danger to Christians increased, Dr. Ch’iu became alarmed for his own safety. He is very lame and this made it harder for him, rendering him conspicuous, and making it difficult for him to flee. This led him to go out of the city to relatives in a village a few li away, before the attack on the missions began. His relatives refused to allow him to remain, so after vainly trying to find a hiding-place, he returned to the city. Not long after that the great out-

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break occurred. His shop of foreign medicines was looted, and his home also. He was seized by the Boxers and taken to their altar. In his fright he yielded to their demands and burned incense to their idols.

They were still bent on killing him, when some one suggested that he be kept alive to dress the wounds of those who had been wounded during the attack on the Legations. With this in view they took him to a temple, where were over thirty suffering from wounds, lying on the steps or in the court, or one of the rooms, while in another large room lay more than twenty bodies of those already killed. These bodies were to be kept, as the Boxer leaders promised that after a few days all would rise from the dead and again join them in exterminating Christians and foreigners.

For more than ten days Dr. Ch’iu was kept a close prisoner in this court, the. decaying bodies of the dead, and the groans of the living, all about him, his own life depending on his success in healing those under his care. His guards never left him day or night. He knew it would be impossible for some of the wounded to recover, having no medicines or appliances to use for them, and he quietly waited the end, praying for forgiveness for yielding in the matter of burning incense.

Then came a sudden turn in affairs. A wealthy village had been pillaged by Boxers, although not related to the proscribed classes, foreigners or Christians. Their lead-ing men came into the city and entered complaint, and the company at the temple where Dr. Ch’in was confined were summoned to appear. Some went to the official and the rest fled, leaving no guard. This was the opportunity for flight, but to flee into the streets was vain, as others would seize him. He succeeded in sending a message to his older brother, who came with a cart and took him

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to his home. This brother was a heathen, and not in danger for himself, and although during the days of at-tack he had refused shelter to his brother, he now took him in and hid him away, and for two months succeeded in keeping him from the Вохегз. When the troops came in he was taken by the missionaries to a place of safety.

Wen Li

One of Miss Newton’s school girls, Wen Li, was be-trothed to a young doctor, Mr. Ma, of one of the leading families of the Presbyterian Mission." Wen Li’s own mother was not a Christian, and was out at service in a wealthy Chinese household. As Wen Li had по home when the school was disbanded, she was sent to her future mother-in-law.

The family desired to have a wedding in the usual man-пег, —to send the bride to a friend's house, and have her brought in a red bridal chair; but the streets were so disorderly, and the mobs so rude that they feared a wed-ding among Christians would attract notice and lead to trouble, so the matter was delayed from day to day. One day Mr. Ma received notice that they must give up their rented house to their landlord. They went to the Mis-sion, where a few empty rooms were found, and there they made a temporary home. It then seemed best to have a quiet wedding which should place the young bride in better position to receive the protection of her husband.

That very night the mission houses were burned. A company of native Christians hid away in a court where there were trees and shrubs, but the light of the burning buildings betrayed their presence and they were pursued and struck with knives and axes. They made their es-саре but were soon separated. Wen Li, with her hus-

1 Peking.

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band’s sister, hid in a ruined temple, the front of which was burning, so that the smoke of the fire gave them a veil as they crouched against the brick wall in the rear. By morning this hiding-place was searched, and those in hiding were taken to the Boxer altar to be tested. Wen Li was released, but the sister-in-law was killed.

The same day the young husband was also taken again and was put to death. Wen Li, the bride of a few hours was left alone, a widow. She carried two severe wounds on her neck from the Boxer knife, and in pain and terror made her way to her mother. But her mother could not keep her, and after going from place to place, she was taken into the home of a sister of Wen Yen a school-mate, where she remained two months. The husband of the family was a Boxer, but he gave these girls his protection. They had to suffer from his reproaches, and constant efforts to make them recant.

One day he said to them, “1 am bearing a bad name on your account. I аш accused of making you my lower wives. I must give you up to the Boxers unless you recant.” His wife then said, “We have protected them so long they must not die now.” Wen Li was Ш from her unhealed wounds and was discouraged, so when he lit a stick of incense and said, “ You’ve only to kneel while this is burning and then you will be safe,” she could hold out no longer. The wife took pity on her distress of mind and body and broke off the incense stick to only an inch or two, to make the time the shorter. As the poor girl told her story she broke down weeping, and asked me to pray for her forgiveness for yielding in the time of trial.

At the close of the siege she was taken to the place where the mission had established itself, and with care and kindness soon recovered. She was later again mar-

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ried to a young man whose fiancée had been killed during the Boxer reign of terror.

Mr. Chang and Mr. Wen

After the allied troops reached Peking, Mr. Tewksbury, with a company of helpers, went to T'ung Chou to learn the fate of the Christians who had not gone with them to Peking. They also went to the deserted yamens, gathering up documents which should give evidence as to Boxer leaders and their victories.

Among the papers of the city magistrate was one stat-ing the trial of a Mr. Chang of the London mission. His home was in a village near T’ung Chou, but his business was in Peking. When the city became full of Boxers all business was broken up, and Mr. Chang went to his home and took his family and fled. Being recognized, he was seized by the Boxers, stripped of clothing, bound with ropes upon a cart and carried to T’ung Chou to the offi-cial yamen. The cords had worn off the flesh so that he was already covered with bleeding wounds when taken to his trial.

On being questioned he plainly stated his faith. He said that he had been several years in business when he was attracted to the street chapel of the London mission. The more he heard of the Jesus doctrine the more he considered it a good doctrine, and after attending church for a year he was baptized. He said, “ This is my faith. Т am ready to invite death. Т am not afraid to die, and shall not give up my religion.” The writer wrote out his statement and he affıxed his mark, the impress of his second finger. He then knelt down and began to pray, when the official left the court and the Boxers fell upon him and hacked him in pieces.

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Later his son gave a statement of his death, fully agree-ing with the official record. Still later the magistrate when discussing with the missionary the terms of indem-nity, also told of this man’s trial, and then added, “ How could I save his life when he said right out where all could hear him that he was a Christian?” That a man could die for his faith was beyond the heathen official’s power to comprehend.

A Mr. Wên, with his wife and child, of the same mis-sion, were taken to Prince Chuang’s place by the Boxers, but through the influence of a friend were released. As they were leaving, Mr. Wén was again seized, his head was shaved, he was loaded with chains and taken to the country from village to village, the Boxers claiming that they were taking him to Peking for punishment but lacked funds. After levying money in one village they moved to another; in every place Mr. Wén was subjected to insult and indignity from the crowds. While being led about in this way the news reached his captors that the Allies had arrived, upon which they all took to their heels. Mr. Wen hastened to the capital which he reached safely, and later learned that his wife and child had found refuge in the country, so that they were soon reunited.

Mr. Chiang

Mr. Chiang, of the London Mission, was sixty-seven years old, a very saintly Christian, and a great Bible student. He was taken safely to the Methodist Mission, but was anxious about his youngest daughter who was still in the country, and wanted to leave his shelter to find her, At the first opportunity he slipped away and was not seen again.

On his way to the country home he was pointed out to

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the Вохегз. They seized him and told him they should kill him. He asked for a little time to pray, and falling оп his knees he began—“ Father forgive them— ” but his prayer was not completed. The knives fell on him as he knelt and he was hacked to pieces.

One of the married school girls of this same Mission was saved by her husband in this way. In an uníre-quented spot he built a stone hut leaning against a blank wall. It was about four feet square on the ground and six feet high with neither doors nor windows. When the wife and child were inside he bricked up the entrance, leaving only an opening for passing in food. Here the mother and child remained for six weeks, the husband going back and forth at the risk of his life to take them food. Sometimes he was unable to get to them for twenty-four hours together. The poor little child lived only a short time after they were able to leave the hiding place, being reduced about to starvation by the scanty supply of food.

Mr. and Mrs. Chong

One of the young preachers of the London Mission, Mr. Chang, whose wife was a former bright school girl, took his family to the Methodist Mission when the Chris-tians were flocking there from all parts of the city. Later, not thinking that a safe place, he took them back to his adopted father’s and left them for a short time. While he was gone the wife, little babe and blind old mother were turned upon the streets by the landlords.

As Mrs. Chang moved slowly along, guiding the steps of the blind mother—not knowing where to go, a Boxer came along, seized her by the sleeve and said “ Follow me!” While they went along he had a Boxer trance.

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Throwing himself on the ground, he foamed and raved a short time then rose and pointing a stiff finger at her, said “ You ersh mao tzu! I will kill you!” Не soon led her near a city gate where there was a soldier guard of about fifty men and not far away several bodies of those who had been killed.

Mrs. Chang thought she was to be killed and began praying for strength to bear witness for the Lord to the end. They began to question her. “Are you а Chris-Нап?” “Tam.” “Of what church?” “Таш а Prot-estant.” He then offered her a stick of incense and said “Burn this and your life will be spared.” She replied firmly “ Never!” The crowd which had gathered began to shout “Kill! Kill her and see if her body rises again and goes to Jesus Christ.” She turned to them and said “My body cut into pieces will remain scattered on the ground like those others, but my spirit will escape you and rise to the Lord.” The Boxer started off to get his knife. One of the soldiers called out “You hateful Christian! You ought to die, but what would become of your child? Quick! Кип for your life!”

She trembled so she could scarcely step, but ran as fast as was in her power and with the soldiers helping her she escaped before the Boxer returned. Hidden away in a filthy corner she passed the night. Towards morning a man came along with a lantern as if looking for some one. As he drew near she saw it was her husband! He had been looking for her since noon of the day before. They got a cart and escaped to a village, where a friend bought safety by bribing the villagers not to report them. Later Mr. Chang went to the city to try to find his old mother, was arrested by the Boxers and murdered, and his head cut off and offered to the idol.

PERSONAL NARRATIVES 695 Christian Students

Wang Chih Shen was a student of the Methodist Uni-versity, a senior. At the close of the school year he re-turned to his home at the east. He was well known as a Christian and was soon seized by the Boxers. They urged him to recant. He not only refused to do so but bore testimony before his persecutors to his faith. They tried to make him stop but he persisted in exhort-ing them and the crowd about him. They finally cut off his lips, then his tongue, and then cut him up limb from limb till he expired. Perhaps no case of greater bravery and greater suffering is known.

Another student when seized and asked “ Are you a Christian?” first replied “ What would you do with me if I were?” then said “ Yes, I am a Christian.” They killed him on the spot.

Wu Hsi K’ou was a member of the junior class. He was taken near Shan Hai Kuan where a heathen adopted him as a servant. He kept him safely through the stormy times and when the troops came, gave him clothing and money and sent him away.

At Tsun Hua the keeper of a tea-shop rescued one of the school boys, took him home as a son, cared for him through the time of danger and later when his uncle came searching for him gave him up safely.

Wen Lan was a former pupil of the girl's school and was employed as teacher at Tsun Hua. When the church and school were scattered, she with her grandmother and a few others fled to the hills. For two days they had no food. At last they thought they might as well run the risk of being found by Boxers as of starving to death, so they gathered sticks and lighted a fire. The smoke be-

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trayed their hiding place. The Boxers came and seized them.

In their company was a former student of the Univer-sity who had been employed on the railroad, and had grown cold in his faith. On the road Wen Lan began exhorting him in English to repent and make ready to die. He tried to stop her as the Boxers would recognize them as Christians, but she said, “We shall tell them plainly we are Christians.” She encouraged the little band to be faithful to death. When they were about to be executed she asked to be allowed to speak to the people. It was permitted and she gave an earnest testimony of her faith, then said to her companions, “We shall soon be in heaven,” then covered her head with a handkerchief and said “ Kill me now.” She died after two blows of the knife.

Wang Ching Lin had studied medicine, then entered the regular University course. He was put to death in the city, and it was reported that his body was cut in six pieces.

One student helper was seized and urged to recant. He refused repeatedly. At last they prepared a vessel to receive his blood, made him kneel over it, and began carving on his neck slowly. His courage failed him and he consented to burn the one stick of incense which saved his life.

Young Р’и was a Christian servant who was with the missionaries, away from his family. His wife was seized by the Boxers and wounded with a knife. She was a fine appearing woman and they evidently wanted to spare her life. They tried to persuade her to become the wife of one of the Boxers. She refused to do so. They then shaved her head and put on the garments of a Buddhist

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nun, but she refused to act in this character. At last after vainly trying to make her recant, they decided that nothing was left to do but to kill her. She had two little children. As she was bound, the older child ran by her side carrying the younger, begging the Boxers to spare their mother. They killed the mother and the two chil-dren on the same spot.

Mrs. Ma

During the early days of the outbreak a native catechist of the Anglican Church was killed, leaving a wife and two children. Mrs. Ma disguised herself, took her two children and hid away іп a temple. She was seen by a friend of her husband, a Mr. Wei, who was very sorry for her helpless condition. Although he was not a church member he was in danger from the Boxers because of friendly relations to foreigners. Не had taken the pre-caution to obtain the good-will of one of the Boxer leaders as a measure of self-protection. He went to this man and told of the death of Mr. Ma, begging that if the wife and children were brought to him he would save their lives, as only Mr. Ma himself was a Christian.

In a short time Mrs. Ma and her children were taken to the altar and she was questioned. “ Are you a Chris-Нап?” “ Уез—Т am!” The Boxer leader was per-plexed, and finally had her put into a prison. He wrote a letter ю Mr. Wei asking what it meant that he should have said she was not a Christian while she said she was. We do not know what further passed between them, but though Mrs. Ma remained true to her faith she was re-leased in a few days and allowed to go unharmed.

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Roman Catholic Christians

The refugee Christians of the Protestant Church bear witness to the faithful manner in which Catholics met death in many places.

Deacon Héng said “ In one place I saw the death of a Catholic family. A mother and two children were bound and led away. A neighbour begged for the younger child and took it to keep, but the mother and older child were led away and cut to death. I heard her cry “О Lord! O Lord! receive my soul!’ That soul truly went to heaven.”

Wen Ts’ui, the young girl saved in Shansi, said that the Catholics were very brave. The children when led to death said “ You are bringing us great honour! This is our day of great joy!”

Deacon Li of T’ung Chou told of a Catholic hiding in disguise who when brought out and questioned coniessed to being a Christian and died for his faith.

Notes of Persecutions of Christians т K’ai P’ing Circuit English Methodist Mission *

Li Fu, preacher at Ying Кё Chuang. Seized by Boxers in Lan Chou district; burned on the back and shoulders in several places; stabbed in the stomach, fortunately not deep enough to cause death; the back of both heels cut with knives so that he will be lame as long as he lives; then bound with ropes so tightly that the marks remain upon his breast to-day, and conveyed to the Yamen at Lan Chou. There his persecutors appealed to the magis-trate to execute him, but whether from fear or kindness, he refused to do so, throwing Li Fu into prison, faint and

* Contributed at the request of the author by the Rev. John Нешеу.

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bleeding from his wounds. There he lay for about three months, cared for only by a fellow prisoner, who washed his wounds and shared his food with him. Li Fu was only released from prison when Мг. Hinds returned to Tientsin in September and wrote to the Lan Chou magis-trate. The poor fellow suffered so much in the hands of his tormentors that he pleaded with them to put him out of his misery at once, or even to bury him alive. His wife and children were also very badly treated. Mrs. Li had her clothes torn off her back, and with her husband was bound with ropes on a cart. One child, four years old, was caught by the feet, and hurled across the court-yard like a log of wood. Another child received a bullet in her back, yet not a mortal wound. Li has since received a large sum of money as compensation for all his suffer-ings, but proposes to devote part of it to the building of a chapel, or the support of a preacher in the district where he suffered.

Li Shu Chih. Member at Yung P’ing Fu city chapel. He was caught by the rabble, headed by a wealthy Manchu, bound and carried to our own chapel where a mock trial was held. Here he boldly avowed his Christianity, and, although appealed to several times, absolutely refused to recant. He was beaten with 500 stripes, then thrown into city prison, where after about two months of awful suffer-ings, he passed away in the faith and hope of the Gospel.

Chang Shou Chen. Preacher at Hsiao Chi. With his wife and seven other members of his family, burned alive in their home.

Chang Yu Wen. A lad seventeen years old. Very earnest member. Resisted so bravely all temptation to recant that his body was chopped in pieces, nailed to wall, and offered for sale at 500 taels per piece—an only child.

At Hé Chuang, thirty li from Yung P’ing Fu, twenty-

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three members and probationers were killed, most of whom had opportunity to recant. Prominent among those who died were :—

Нё Ming Chang, one of the elders. His wife and little son also perished. Mr. Нё, with his wife and child, had escaped to the hills, but was pursued and recaptured. To all their offers he refused to listen and was burned alive. His wife and child were thrown from the precipice by the brother of Mrs. Нё, who afterward descended and kicked mother and infant to death.

Yang Lin and wife: Yang Yi Ch’ing, wife and daugh-ter: Yang Shou: Yang Chung, one family of seven. Cap-tured together and carried to a temple. Kept there for some hours, but unanimously refusing to recant they were murdered at midnight, their bodies being cut in pieces and flung apart.

Hsú Yang Hsi and daughter. Sister and niece of above Yang Yi Ch’ing. Neither of these had been baptised. Mrs. Hsú was a widow, thirty-two years of age. Ап uncle of her husband's had а grudge against her because she would not marry again, and himself led the Boxers to her home, where they wounded mother and daughter, and then drowned them in the River Lan. The uncle took posses-sion of the property, but after the first visit of missiona-ries to Yung P'ing Fu, sent deeds, etc., to the preacher. The magistrate is dealing with this case, and making dis-position of the land.

Chén Hsi Kung. Teacher at Pai Chia Tien Tze and a literary graduate. This man's courage and bearing so as-tonished his persecutors that after killing him they cut out his heart to see what had given him such fortitude. The heart was left for some days on a stone in the village. - Chén Jên Yi. This little fellow, only ten years old, had been baptised as an infant. The child was caught and

ЧЯОПЯЯЯ NVILSINHO HATLVN SNYILSINHD WAHL AO ANOS ‘ATINVA ПНОМУИ

a

PERSONAL NARRATIVES 701

asked if he were a Christian, to which he replied that he was. Asked again if he would forsake Jesus, he re-fused most boldly and was cut down there and then. Two brothers and two nephews, although not baptised, died at the same time.

XXXVI

CHAPTER 36.

FIRE AND SWORD AMONG THE SHANSI CHRISTIANS

N the ıgth of September a native Chinese helper named Wang Lan P'u arrived in Peking, with

a non-Christian acquaintance who had kindly come many hundred miles to see him safely through the disturbed districts. His story is of great interest, not only in itself, but for the incidental light which it sheds upon the modus in which the almost incredible fanaticism of the Boxers was introduced, took root, and bore its terrible fruits all within the space of a few days, and before any one could have supposed such results possible. Mr. Wang's story is very similar to another brought but two days before by Mr. Fei Ch' Hao, a graduate in 1898 of the North China College of the American Board at T'ung Chou, who related with extreme circumstantiality the murder of most of the missionaries in the Tai Yuan Fu valley.

With this introduction we will let Mr. Wang tell his own story, which was heard in detail by the writer three different times, on the last occasion full notes being taken, and many details supplied. There was not only no attempt at embellishment, but his own sufferings and those of his family were dismissed in a very few sen-tences, as being too unimportant to be mentioned, or too terrible to be dwelt upon.

“Та the fourth moon (in May) there is held here a large fair which lasts fifteen days, where many horses and

702

FIRE AND SWORD IN SHANSI оз

mules are sold, and excellent theatrical exhibitions are given, thus attracting enormous crowds. At this fair . the Boxer excitement was propagated, and an attack was planned upon the chapel of the China Inland Mission, which was only just completed.

“The local Magistrate, knowing what was going on, went out himself and drove away the crowds threaten-ing the attack, using a whip on them till they were dis-persed. This happened twice, but the third time the mob was uncontrollable and the Magistrate was himself beaten, his spectacles knocked off, and his sedan-chair broken in pieces. This was on Sunday, and the mission-aries were at the chapel for a service. They escaped to the roof and then took refuge in the house of a church member named Chou, who was a carpenter. The rioters followed and pulled the shop down, the Magistrate los-ing his official hat in the scuffle. There was a military official there also, and between them they put the mis-sionary (whose name was Larsson) and his companion (who had recently arrived and whose name I do not know) on a cart, the two Magistrates having whips in their hands, and riding outside the cart one on each side to protect the foreigners. The mob followed throwing clumps of dirt and the like, and the curtains of the cart were torn in pieces.

“Tt was now noon, and when the missionaries arrived their clothes had all been torn to bits, but the Magistrate gave them other clothes and took them into his yamen, saying that he would repay them for their losses. This official’s surname was Juan (Rwan) from somewhere in the south of China. He had a kindness to Christianity because when he was a child he had been at a Mission school, and he used often to come into our chapel and

look about.

704 CHINA IN CONVULSION

“ The missionaries remained in the yamen two or three days. At first nobody cared for the foreigners, they were so occupied in looting the chapel, which was torn down to the foundations, everything being carried away. Else-where the chapels were all burned. The Magistrate sent the missionaries on to Ying Chou in the night, as the mob kept coming to the yamen to try to get them. He lent them his own cart, with a Military Official for an escort, and two soldiers, or runners. For the church-members he hired a long cart, so that at Hun Yüan none were killed. At a later period, when they had returned, they were chased about the city and abused, being daubed with filth if they would not recant—but not one of them did so.

“Mr. Karlberg, with whom I worked, and myself remained at Ying Chou. On the 26th and 27th of the moon the people began to pray for rain, but the Mag-istrate thought there would be no trouble in consequence. He required those that were going through the rain-praying ceremonies to register their names—that is, the leaders—so as to know whom to hold responsible. He sent for the literati and enjoined them to prevent any trouble. Soon the leaders of the Boxers arrived at Ying Chou, inviting coóperation in killing foreigners. Even the children began to learn and practise the drill, and the whole thing was brought to a head within about three days. The Magistrate invited Mr. Karlberg and myself into the yamen, where we remained some days, but as we went in the night not many knew that we were there, and there was no external disturbance. Mr. Karlberg rode on horseback, and reached So P’ing in less than two days, escorted by men sent from the yamen, and there was no trouble anywhere.

“On the first day of the 6th moon things became so

FIRE AND SWORD IN SHANSI 705

bad that the Magistrate wanted me also to get away. He told me to put on the dress of a yamen courier, gave me one of the yamen horses, and wrote a dispatch to the prefect at So P’ing telling the conditions of things. As bearer of an official letter I should be much safer, though I was well known all along the road. I also took dis-patches to the Magistrate at Tso Wei Hsien, the first county town, where I arrived at dark. I went at once to the yamen, just in time to see the chapel there set on fire by a mob. The church members saw me in the yamen, and none of them had then been injured. І only spent a part of the night there, as it was unsafe, and started very early the next morning getting twenty li before day-light, escorted by yamen men.

“Ву the middle of the forenoon I was in So P’ing Fu, where I went direct to the yamen with the horse and to deliver the dispatches, and then to the mission head-quarters to tell the news. Everything was still quiet there. Four of us went to see the Magistrate. The Magistrate went over to see the Prefect when we applied to him, and the latter said, “ По whatever you like about it, meaning that һе did not care. Не is one of the Man-chus, who all violently hated Christians, not for any par-ticular reason, only they had a devil inside which made them do so. After this the Magistrate had no plan of his own. He was asked for an escort to Kalgan, and promised to furnish one to the boundaries of his own country. Не ordered five or six carts, for which the price was agreed, and he paid it through the yamen men.

“We returned to the chapel much pleased that there appeared to be a way of escape, and were busy getting ready when a mob gathered. In a trice the door was forced, and looting began. We saw that things were hopeless, and again fled to the yamen, the Magistrate

706 CHINA IN CONVULSION

giving us one small room for all the missionaries, and another for the Christians, and they were outside not inside rooms. His treatment was very perfunctory, and boded us no good. At this time the crowd had not become savage; they were fully occupied in looting the ргетівев. Ву пооп we had reached the yamen, and the house was soon after burned.

“It was ingeniously proposed to represent to the people that I had come to the city with Imperial Orders just in from Peking, requiring all foreigners to be sent there in manacles. In this way the lives of the prisoners could be saved from the mob, and when we were clear of the city and of danger it would be easy to remove the fet-ters. To this the missionaries agreed as a shrewd device. A blacksmith was called who made six pairs of hand-cuffs, one for each of the men. As I had the yamen horse to take back, and my own family to look after, it was thought best that I should return to Ying Chou. I remained in the stable court of the yamen. During this whole day the missionaries were too excited to eat, and when they reached the yamen no one offered them any-thing, not even a drink. After I had been asleep some time, being very much exhausted, I was loudly called out by name, and everyone saw that mischief was meant. I could not escape, so I went out and found a great crowd of Boxers and Manchus, who began to beat me terribly and dragged me off to the still burning chapel to throw me into the fire.

“ It was not long before I lost consciousness entirely, being half dead and supposed to be entirely so. I learned afterwards that the Boxers felt me to see if I was really dead and thinking that 1 was, they did not care to drag me the rest of the way simply for the trouble of throw-ing me into the fire. Besides, two men were standing by

FIRE AND SWORD IN SHANSI 707

who befriended me by using a great deal of conciliatory language to the Boxers, begging them to let me die where I was. One of them was from a village near by, the other a sort of local bully in the city who had often seen me in the street chapel. He was fond of the doctrine, only he could never make up his mind to repent. They felt my heart and pulse, saw that I had no mortal wound, and waited by for me to revive, which the night-chill helped me do. The mob, meantime, had left me, to go back to the yamen and try to drag the missionaries out to kill them. There were ten or more Christians there, whom they beat severely; some of them probably were killed, but they did not get at the missionaries.

“Му benefactors helped me up and took me back to the yamen, and wanted to lay me inside where I had been before, but the yamen men would not admit me on any terms. ‘Suppose he should die here, who would be sup-posed to have killed him?’ “But they gave the two men my horse, clothes, bedding, cash-bag, and my dispatch, and while one of them led my horse the other one carried me on his back outside the city. Between them they helped me on the horse, though I was so weak and faint that unless supported by one while the other led the ani-mal I could not have sat on him. They went with me all the way to an inn, where we happened to meet the cook of the missionary family. We dared not stay there, so they soon all helped me on the horse again.

“ The cook returned to his home in Fen Chou Fu, and the man from the city went with me all the way to the end of the first day’s journey. On the way, at a town forty li from the city, I met travellers who told me that that morning thirteen foreigners had been killed near So P'ing Fu. I heard this at two different times, and am sure it is true. They were probably manacled, and

708 CHINA IN CONVULSION

could make no resistance. I gave the men who escorted me some clothes for their kindness, as I had no money. In my feeble condition I was three days in getting to Ying Chou.

“When at a town forty li away from there I was told that it was useless to go back, as the place had been destroyed on the third of the sixth moon (June 29th). I heard also that my mother and others had been sent by the Magistrate in a cart to So P’ing Fu, but that she had been overtaken by the Boxers half a day’s journey distant, brought back, and herself, with my brother, sister, my little child and an old lady named Wu (my wife had died in the second moon) buried alive. Not only this, but the head yamen-runner who had escorted them was also thrown into the fire, the cart burned, the mule killed and thrown into the flames, as well as the dog and chick-ens of the yard I lived in. People were not tied, but just thrown into the fire loose and driven back whenever they tried to get out. It was a slow and a bitter death, which I do not like to think of.

“ All the church members were captured at the same time, except my brother who used to do a little trade and sell Christian books on his own account, and was away from home at the time. The Magistrate was in-formed of these events, and did his best to save the life of his own yamen servants, but was told that if he pressed the matter he himself would be thrown into the fire too.

“ Notwithstanding these dreadful stories 1 could not give up the idea of returning to see for myself if this was true, —and there was the horse to be taken to the yamen. So I went on by myself. About ten li from the city a band of forty or more Boxers set on me, and rec-ognizing me with glee, ordered me to get off the horse, tied me tightly and dragged me on to the city. They

FIRE AND SWORD IN SHANSI 709

called their Head-master of Boxers, who happened to be a tinker, whose occupation was mending iron kettles. He could not even read, but now he was a ‘ Head-master.’ The Magistrate soon had my arrival reported to him, and heard that the Head-master was trying the case. The Magistrate sent a polite invitation to the Head-master to come to him, which he did.

“ Then the Magistrate said that he had all along felt grave doubts whether these were true Boxers, and whether they could, as pretended, keep out arrows and bullets. He now proposed to test this. ‘Let your men go through their spells, make themselves invulnerable if they can, and I will attack them with guns. Tf you are not hurt, you may kill the courier Wang in any way you like; you are true Boxers and I will be one too; otherwise Г shall know that you are not the true Boxers, and your claim is a fraud.” The Head-master had the Boxers from one village or region only with him, but he thought it over, and as it seemed a fair proposition he assented, but wished himself not to be in the ranks but to one side, so that he could tell when the Spirits had really arrived. He also insisted that the test should not begin until he announced that the Spirits had arrived. To this the Magistrate agreed.

“ By this time it was late at night—nearly midnight— but, the story having got out, the whole city was there with torches and lanterns to see the spectacle. There was a Chen Wu Temple on the city wall, and in front of that the Boxers were drawn up making their passes in the air and otherwise practising for the trial.

“ Most of the many onlookers were below the wall in a good position to see. The four yamen men that the Mag-istrate had appointed to guard me wanted to see and loosed me, so that we could all look on together. The

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Magistrate had given careful directions and looked after the loading of the guns himself with balls as well as powder. Foreseeing that there was to be trouble he had engaged two hundred experts who could fight, wrestle and shoot, to be his guards, and it was these men that he set against the Boxers. They waited until the Head-mas-ter cried ‘Shen lai la’ (The spirits have come), when the Magistrate, who had a gun himself, gave the order ‘ K’at cWiang’ (Open fire). Four or five of the Boxers were killed outright, six or seven were hurt so that they fell over the city wall, and not a single man among them was without a wound. Then they all scattered.

“Тре Magistrate now summoned me and told me how he had been unable to protect his own yamen headman, and that it was not safe for me to remain. He gave me twenty ounces of silver and some brass cash, together with an official letter which I was to take to T’ai Yuan Fu (where Т expected to go), mainly as a protection to me in travelling. Although very unfit to ride a horse or even to move at all, Т went away that night. We then knew nothing about the attitude of the Governor toward the missionaries, or 1 should never have thought of going in that direction.

“ After about thirty li I got into serious trouble. There was a crowd at a large village who suspected me, and were sure that Т was a follower of foreigners. They accused me of having little figures of men cut out of yel-low paper, and foreign bewildering medicines about me, and searched me to see. In this way they found my silver, and also the official letter. It was nothing but the latter that saved my life. Then the crowd was divided, some crying: ‘ Kill him anyway and be done with him; while the rest said: *He is a courier, let him go on his official route; it is none of our business.” In this way

FIRE AND SWORD IN SHANSI 711

they wrangled for а whole half day, and some well-intentioned people spoke a good word for me. In almost every mob there are some of this kind; not all are the very worst.

“I learned afterwards, what I did not then suspect, that there was a little party who privately agreed that it was best to let me go, and then they would pursue me on their own account, rob and kill me, and divide the silver among them. I went on as far as I could, and had got seven or eight li when some men came running after me, crying out that I must leave the big road and take а byway, for there was a band of men just behind intend-ing to chase and kill me, who were armed with swords and guns. This perplexed me very much, and Т was not sure but this was a plot to kill me. They were very urgent, so 1 yielded, and left the road where there was a pass in front and a mountain near. It was not a cart road, but for pack-mules only. I came to a village and begged them to let me rest there for a time, but they would have nothing to do with me.

“But at another small village an old man was kind to me, and advised me against going to T’ai Yuan Fu, which was 800 or 900 li, while it was only 600 or so to Pao Ting Fu, the capital of Chihli. Here I stayed for three days until the pursuers would have all gone back, and then I made a detour around the mountain and regained the main road. After this I went to Wu T'ai Hsien, where the famous mountain is, escorted by a man who was sent by my village friends, with whom I had to share my silver, so that І had very little left. Beyond this, at a place called Tai Ving, I met the Boxers again, and was once more examined. Here Т told a different story from the former one, and said Т was a trader returning home. 1 had torn up the official document which would now have

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implicated me. Not to have told different stories at dif-ferent times would have been impossible ; there was really no help for it. Finding that Boxers were worse and worse the further on I went, I resolved to turn back into the mountains again, 120 li to a city named Fu P’ing. I did not then know the characters, but as * Ға” means hap-piness, and ‘ P’ing’ peace, I thought the Lord was open-ing a way to both, and though the first character was wrong, I did get relief. I told my story to the inn-keeper, and he advised me to do a little trading with what small funds I had left.

“There was a neighbour of his who knew how to make twisted dough-nuts fried in oil, and I got to know him, gave all my things to him as security, and did a small business in this way with him for more than two months. There were no Boxers at all in that place. When it came to the 8th moon, I thought I might go on. In that time I had cleared a string and a half of cash, and bought a good many things besides. I had no adven-tures on the way to Pao Ting Fu, and there I heard that all the foreign buildings had been burned, and many church members killed. 1 did not hear of the murder of any foreigners there. On the way to Peking the Sikh soldiers took away the money of myself and the man who came down with me. It is a great joy to me to see so many Christians together again, and to tell and to hear of the Lord’s mercies.”

Notre — The following are the names of the missionaries mur-dered at So P'ing Fu, so far as known —

Of the Swedish Union, Mr. and Mrs. S. A. Persson. Mr. N. Carleson, Mr. О. A. L. Larsson, Мг. С. E. Karlberg, Miss ], Lundell, Miss J. Engvall, Miss M. Hedlund, Miss A. Johannsson.

Of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, Mr.and Mrs. C. Piomberg and child.

XXXVII

CHAPTER 37.

A TWELVE-MONTH OF FOREIGN OCCUPATION

was divided among the armies of invasion for pur-

poses of patrol and as a base for possible operations elsewhere. The Russians and the Japanese appeared to have the largest number of troops, but as the coming and going was incessant, no accurate statements were pos-sible for more than a day at a time.

In about a month it was suddenly announced that the Russian forces were to be withdrawn, and, soon after, the Russian Legation actually departed for Tientsin, where it remained for а short time and then returned, its lead not being followed by any other Power. It was evident that the occupation of Manchuria was causing a great deal of trouble, and that if other armies could be per-suaded to leave Peking at the suggestion of Russia, the latter would gain the credit for doing China a good turn, while at the same time serving her own interests.

For the remaining months, until the end of the year, there was an increasing series of military expeditions in every direction from Tientsin and from Peking, some of which were on a large scale and fully reported, while others attracted little attention. The one which was of the chief interest was that to Pao Ting Fu, starting both from Tientsin and Peking, the intention being to arrive simultaneously. The result illustrated the inherent

713

1 =... after the siege was raised, Peking

714 CHINA IN CONVULSION

weakness of a campaign in which eight distinct sets of armies bore a hand. The French from Tientsin arrived just a week before the British, the German, and the Ital-jan contingent, and it was currently reported that they exacted a heavy “ransom” on their own account for sparing the city. Whether this is true it appears impos-sible to ascertain with certainty. Military operations anywhere are hard to follow and the facts difficult to verify. In this case they are at least eight times as ob-scure as usual, and some of them do not appear to be objects of knowledge at all.

It was soon perceived that if any one first-class Power had been dealing with China, progress would have been definite and steady. In the case of two Powers, the de-lays were twice as great and the progress twice as slow. With three Powers the friction was so much increased that the pace was diminished by a still larger percentage; and by the time that all eight armies had to be reckoned with, it becomes a complex and practically insoluble prob-lem whether the decrease of efficiency has been inversely as the square of the number of Powers involved, or as the cube of the number of Major-Generals.

At Pao Ting Fu an investigation was held into the behaviour of the Provincial Treasurer, Ting Jung, who had been the patron of the Boxer movement for the whole year. Аз a result of that trial, he was condemned to be beheaded, together with the Tartar General of the City and the Lieutenant-Colonel of the camp, who had refused protection to foreigners, and whose soldiers had stood idly by while the burning of the Mission premises and the slaughter of missionaries was in progress. Of all the acts of the military since the capture of Peking, this is the one most righteous in itself and most salutary in its result, yet it has been perversely criticised as a

FOREIGN OCCUPATION 715

bloodthirsty cry for “ vengeance,” unworthy of Western nations |

The German expedition to Kalgan, four days to the northwest of Peking, was widely known by reason of the accidental suffocation of one of the high military officers by the fumes of charcoal. What it amounted to it would be difficult to say with precision. There was a raid in the direction of the Imperial Tombs, for moral effect, with results hard to summarize beyond the exasperation of the Chinese and the demoralization of the troops. It is al-ways a delicate matter to keep soldiers under control when in an enemy’s country.

Тһе circumstances of the Boxer uprising appear to have convinced the commanders of the armies of in-vasion that the rules of international law had no appli-cation to China at that time. There is, moreover, a con-tagious demoralization of fighting men when they per-ceive others acting in a lawless manner. War is itself a repeal of law; and of the extent to which. it shall be abrogated the soldiers themselves must to a large ex-tent be judges. If this, or anything like it, was true of the larger expeditions sent out incessantly, it was far more so of those minor raids of which the public knows little or nothing.

It would be a gross misrepresentation to affirm that all the commanders or all the soldiers of any section of the allied armies have been lawless and violent, for in that case the results would have been such as took place along the banks of the Amur River, where helpless, in-offensive villagers by the thousand were slaughtered and their bodies thrown into the broad stream until it was positively choked with them. But armies, like individ-uals, will be judged, not by the best but by the worst which they have done; and in this case the worst must

716 CHINA IN CONVULSION

be admitted to have been very bad indeed. There have been times when it has seemed as if the foreign troops had come to northern China for the express purpose of committing within the shortest time as many violations as possible of the sixth, the seventh, and the eighth Com-mandments. The combined result has been such a state of chaos in many districts as is at once incredible and indescribable. Of the promiscuous murder of non-com-batants there is overwhelming evidence, which need not be cited. The only defence of this which is ordinarily made is to reply: “Oh yes, of course, war is always like that—what do you expect it to be?”

Of the looting and wholesale robbery with violence, both in expeditions and in districts which have been vis-ited by small military parties, much has been written, but it will be long before the whole terrible catalogue of crimes is known. Long lists of the exactions made on Chinese officials and cities could be (and have been) made out, showing that the total sums extorted for alleged “ protection ” and “ гапзот ” have been sufficient to im-poverish the country for a long period. In some instances the same cities and towns have been visited repeatedly with reduplicated demands; and the fact that the expedi-tionary “spheres of influence” have been vaguely de-fined and imperfectly regarded, so that the same city might be raided by different sets of soldiers, has made the condition of large regions more or less anarchic.

Two expeditions should be mentioned which stand out especially as examples of what has been already men-tioned, each under the conduct of the Germans. Of these the first was to Ts’ang Chou, a city about sixty miles south of Tientsin, on the Grand Canal. The Magistrate of the city had always been friendly to the foreigners, who had just removed the station of the London Mission

FOREIGN OCCUPATION 17

to the vicinity and put up extensive buildings. The Chi-nese military officer in charge of the Chihli troops was General Mei, who was not only on the best of terms with the various foreigners living in that part of the province, but had made it his principal business for the greater part of the previous twelve months to fight the Boxers whenever and wherever they could be found, and had probably done more to defeat, disperse, and discourage them than any other man in China.

The Germans made a raid upon Ts'ang Chou, plun-dered the yamens of the Magistrate and that of General Mei, who prudently retired to a distance upon their ap-proach. They released all the Boxer prisoners whom they found in the city jail, returning to Tientsin in triumph, whence a despatch was sent to Shanghai informing the world of “ А Successful Attack,” saying that “the Ger-mans have routed General Mei's forces at Ts'ang Chou, looted his baggage, and killed forty-three men.”

To those cognizant of the facts this inexcusable folly boded no good for the denizens of such territory as may hereafter come under German rule in Shantung or else-where. Is it any wonder that General Mei is said to have complained that “ on all eight sides I have no face [self-respect and respect of others] left? ”

In the district city of Yung Ch’ing Hsien, between Tientsin and Peking, where Messrs. Norman and Robin-son were killed early in June, the Germans made a visit and killed nearly a hundred and fifty persons, with no loss to themselves, under circumstances so indefensible that the British remitted the monetary fines which had been imposed on the city, and employed the money in re-lieving the acute distress caused by the barbarity of the Germans! When attention was called to these and numerous similar acts of the Germans, their military au-

718 CHINA IN CONVULSION

thorities were greatly stirred up against Dr. Morrison, the correspondent of the London “ Times,” who had first formulated the feelings of those acquainted with the facts. The result is supposed to have been, not the threatened “court martial” of Dr. Morrison, who had purposely understated the facts, but the imposition of a certain amount of restraint upon German military action.

As the result of all that gloomy winter one of the lessons which have been impressed upon the Chinese in varied but convincing forms is the moral inferiority of foreigners to Chinese. This the Chinese had always known and believed, but had never been able to demon-strate.

Many years ago a son of Li Hung Chang, while under a foreign instructor in Tientsin told him that his father had once said that formerly he himself had supposed Westerners as a whole to be more honest and more truth-ful than Chinese, but his long and intimate experience of their ways had taught him the opposite. And, indeed, in the item of struggles for contracts with the Chinese Gov-ernment, the Syndicates who had need to deal with the Viceroy, have not invariably illustrated the highest qual-ities of the civilization whence they sprung.

But with the occupation of China by foreign armies the veil—if there was one—has been torn away. The extent of the lawlessness committed by Western troops in China has probably been greatly exaggerated in the reports to the press, but the conditions at the beginning were hor-ribly bad, though they steadily improved, partly no doubt in consequence of the “bright sunlight of publicity ” which is nowhere without its deterrent force.

Making all abatements, however, the impression upon the Chinese, who only know or can know the facts through the repercussion of rumour and through distorted native

FOREIGN OCCUPATION 719

journalistic media, is distinctly to lower the not too high estimate which the Chinese had previously placed upon Western character and morals. For them there is a simple and easy explanation—foreigners have never en-joyed the blessing of a thorough mastering of the contents of the Four Confucian Books, and the Five Confucian Classics. While they recognize with clearness that the worst that has happened in China is but a fraction of what the Chinese would have themselves perpetrated in any foreign country which they might have overrun, the fact that Western nations have always assumed the moral inferiority of the Chinese, and have posed as their in-structors, not in abstract principles only but in their daily exemplification, has added to the sting of the disillusion.

The Chinese have also been enabled by these months of foreign occupation distinctly to perceive what all dis-cerning persons predicted, that foreigners have no ade-quate talents for dealing with the Chinese on a large scale. The ancient and compact civilization of China has been in operation for millenniums, and there is a way and a rule for everything. The Westerner comes in with calm confidence that he will show them a thing (or perhaps two), and he does. The Chinese adapt them-selves to the sinuosities of the Occidental temperament as the water fits the boat which rushes through it, or as the air closes about the flying projectile. But when the boat or the bullet has passed, the water and the air are in situ, ready for any number more of the same kind.

Despite the jaunty way in which even those of long experience in China and the Far East speak of the facil-ity of governing China through foreign hands, and al-ways cite “India” in evidence, it is plain to the dis-criminating observer that there is really no just analogy between the two. India is a museum of races and lan-

720 CHINA IN CONVULSION

guages, while China is essentially a unit in its ideas and its ideals, as well as in its history, language, and insti-tutions. It ought to be understood by this time that without the consent of the Chinese themselves no Power on earth can really rule them, though many Powers may overrun and endeavour to control them. If the Chinese, during this year of stress and strain have succeeded in finding out what “the Powers” want to do with the Chinese Empire when it is within their combined “ sphere of influence,” they have learned more than any one else knows or for some time to come is likely to know.

The inevitable division among foreign councils has been familiar to the Chinese ever since they have known for-eigners at all, and the Chinese and the Turkish Govern-ments have united (and competed) in their capacity and talent for making the most effective use of that fact against them all. But the phenomena of the past year, when all the Powers had the greatest possible motives for combination, which lasted until the Legations were relieved (and no longer), have taught the Chinese anew that in disunion is feebleness.

That China will escape from much that at first appeared inevitable as a punishment is as certain as that eleven different Nations have been worrying at her doors, await-ing the settlement of their claims and due “ guarantees ” for the future. The Chinese can and will give them all, for in that line they have seldom failed, and in this hour of their greatest distress are not likely to do so. An in-dividual Chinese will and does make the most abundant promises, when he is in trouble, as to what he will do if only he is allowed another day of grace. The Chinese Government, which has been in a tighter place than any of its subjects ever imagined it could be, can do no other than adopt this policy, while the “experts ” show in what

FOREIGN OCCUPATION 721

way this can be accomplished—as very possibly it can be. Whether it will be, is another matter, for the future, even in the fixed and immobile Orient, is full of pleasant sur-prises. Still, like the cheerful Chinese, we shall hope for the best, and will await the result with what patience we may.

The Empress Dowager has recently been issuing the most admirable Imperial Edicts on the subject of the protection of missionaries and of converts. “ The failure to do this last year was contrary to our wish often ex-pressed, and hence many heads have fallen. Hereafter there must be no failure in this direction.” How repent-ant this sounds, and how hollow as the supple bamboo, which yields to the strongest pressure in any given direc-tion, and upon removal of the same instantly resumes its former position!

At Washington it is the fashion to look at the Chinese situation through the colored glasses furnished by the clever Mr. Wu, whose presence abroad at this crisis is to China the greatest stroke of good fortune. It is easy for him to represent that the Chinese Government is more than ready to take over the functions of office everywhere, and that it is quite capable of keeping order. But it cannot possibly be comprehended in Western lands how utterly the Government of China is dependent upon the temper of the officials and of the people to get its orders executed. The great storm which has swept over the face of China was raised by complex and long-con-tinued causes, but it will not subside in a month nor in a year, and, unless all signs are deceptive, the tranquillity which will be everywhere reported after an interval will frequently be found to be only superficial.

During the period in January and February when the Court seemed to be hesitating to grant the irrevocable de-

922 CHINA IN CONVULSION

mands for the punishment of the more important guilty parties, the influence of that hesitation is known to have been felt immediately in the military camps in Shantung, under the command of Governor Yuan Shih K’ai. They were apparently ordered to be ready to march northward at an early day, and it was popularly supposed that a large body of southern troops had been somewhere gath-ered to support the advance, which was to be a death-struggle with the foreigner. Even if the army was beaten, it would at least make the whole country a waste, and so useless to the invader. While this was probably mere rumour, or at most a preparation for a possible con-tingency, and perhaps nothing but empty bluster, in either case it equally showed the determined bent of the Chinese mind.

The wild passions which have been raised are not to be spirited out of existence by a mere edict announcing that peace has been arranged for all within the Four Seas, for the facts which underlie the troubles have been at last ground into the Chinese national consciousness as never before. It is a significant circumstance that, si-multaneously with this military programme, the Shantung Boxers have again begun to assert themselves, holding a formal gun-drill (such as last year announced actual hos-tilities) at a village within twenty miles of the home of the writer of these lines. That fact was accompanied by the open proclamation of an intention to resume the operations of last year, under the directions of the “ Great Fairy,” who superintended them. This dignitary has of-ficially informed the Boxers that in the previous out-breaks they had squandered their opportunity by requir-ing ransom money, and by the spoliation of the houses of Christians, whereas this time all that was to be absolutely forbidden, and in the new attack every Christian was to

VICINITY OF LEGATION STREET, PEKING

FOREIGN OCCUPATION 723

be killed, аз well аз the chickens and the dogs, that there might be no root left alive when the grass should be cut up.

These renewed attempts, with the wide-spread brig-andage that attends them, may be purely local. But they are not the less worthy of notice as an indication of what many of the Chinese would like to do were it within their power. There is no reasonable doubt of the intentions of Governor Yuan and other officers like-minded, but here again we must reckon with the “ personal equation ” on an enormous scale. No Chinese and no Manchu, what-ever his rank, can conduct the work of his position against the united opposition of his subordinates. As the Chi-nese saying goes, “ One can manage with Pluto, but it is with the small devils that the trouble comes.” Yuan has issued the most stern proclamations, offering incentives and positive rewards for the total suppression of troubles with foreigners for a period of three years, but in many districts these proclamations remain unposted, and the people are left in ignorance of his utterances.

Another feature of the past twelve-month has been the manceuvring of China’s great antagonist, Russia, to play, as at other times, the röle of benevolent protector. The American public, especially, dislikes to entertain the small-est suspicion that it does not apprehend the basal facts of the Chinese situation to such an extent as to render the usual snap judgment safe. But it is not strange that the peculiar relations between the Chinese and the Rus-sian Empires should not have been forced upon the notice of the Americans. To an unprejudiced spectator it is clear that no foe ever so gravely threatened the exist-ence of the Chinese Government as Russia has done and is still doing, yet the Chinese, while shrewd observers and gifted with remarkable insight into motives and inten-

724 CHINA IN CONVULSION

tions, show little apparent perception of the real con-dition of their Empire as related to their colossal neigh-bour. Sometimes Chinese statesmen, when asked how it is that they have drifted into this condition, simply reply, “ What could we do to prevent it? ”—ап inquiry to which it is not easy to formulate a satisfactory answer.

All the world was aroused during the early spring to the gravity of the situation in regard to Russian domina-tion of Manchuria, although what the world proposes to do about it finally, other than to send Notes and to pro-pose inquiries, is not apparent. Yet the situation is not inherently different from what it has been for some years, except that the folly of the Chinese, in their wanton at-tacks on Russian cities and settlements, put the handle of the sword into the hands of Russia, to use a Chinese phrase—an advantage which, whatever other Powers may say or do, she is not likely to surrender.

Ever since the conclusion of the war with Japan in the spring of 1895 such a state of things was distinctly fore-shadowed, but nothing was then done about it. Lord Charles Beresford published in his literary weighty volume on “ The Break-up of China,” the protests handed to him by the representatives of the British Municipal Council of Tientsin, who informed him that at that time Man-churia was practically a Russian province. This was at least a brevet fact, if it had not then been promoted to the dignity of past history, but no attention seems to have been paid to it in our own country, except noting the statement.

Here is a door the closing of which will make a differ-ence of unknown millions of dollars in American trade, and that door shows signs of being forcibly slammed shut. The State Department at Washington then secures writ-ten affirmations, from a great variety of sources, that each

FOREIGN OCCUPATION 725

of the Powers approves in theory and will support in practice the plan of fastening the door open on equal terms to all. No one Power more cordially assents to this prop-osition than Russia. It is exactly in the line of her policy, her wishes, and her practice. We were all delighted to have American diplomacy score a decided and a unique triumph, impossible to other Powers with a less pro-nouncedly altruistic history; and essays on “ The Open Door in China” filled the journals for many months. Meantime Russia goes on with her preparations, and when the heaven-sent fatuity of the Boxers gives the golden opportunity, she knocks out the chocks, slams the door, puts the key in her military chest, posts a strong guard in the province, warns off all others, draws up an agreement of a stringent character with China in the face of all the Powers, smiles blandly at the Anglo-Ger-man agreement, with which she is in full harmony, and cordially sympathizes with the dictum of Daniel Web-ster that “the past, at least, is secure.”

The formal and merely nominal retirement of Russia from her claims for the signature of the Manchurian Con-vention may be laid to the partial agreement of some of the Powers most nearly concerned, as well as to the unex-pected expression of Chinese sentiment all over the Em-pire, which it is certainly not to the interest of Russia to antagonize. That the disavowal of hostile intentions on the part of the great Empire of the North means any-thing more than the usual temporizing, until the times are more favourable, no one probably believes, whatever for diplomatic purposes he may say to the contrary. It is an ancient and a significant Chinese adage that “ A mon-key’s hand drops no dates,” and the same generalization applies to bears—especially to the species which has learned to be fond of Chinese dates. Every friend of

726 CHINA IN CONVULSION

China and of Japan must sympathize with the difficult position of the latter (as well as the former), forced to choose a time for the inevitable conflict, the outcome of which no human intelligence can foresee.

The list of punishments demanded by the Powers upon guilty officials in consequence of their complicity in the atrocities of last year, is surprisingly small in the eyes of the Chinese themselves, the number of those to be ex-ecuted embracing less than fifteen persons, although about 240 defenceless and innocent men, women and children, of several nationalities, were deliberately massacred by official orders, largely in yamens or by soldiers detailed for the purpose. The ostentatious leniency of the Rus-sians is a strange exhibition from a nation which could tolerate the savage butchery of innocent Chinese on the banks of the Amur River.

When it is remembered what these men have done, and with what savage brutality many of them have plotted to exterminate every foreigner in their jurisdiction, it is evident to every one acquainted with the conditions that in the New China, that ought to ensue after peace negotiations have been completed, such officials ought not for a moment to be tolerated. The cry which appears to be so popular in the United States, that to demand the capital punishment of less than two score Chinese offi-cials as a partial expiation of the deliberate crime of the Chinese Government is an exhibition of “ bloodthirsti-ness,” betrays a hopeless incapacity to comprehend the real conditions in China, and, what is of more import-ance, to grasp the aspects in which the matter must pre-sent itself to the Chinese mind.

If Western Powers, whether moved by sentimentality or by a desire to trade upon the supposed good will of the Chinese, to be gained by minimizing the guilt of the

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guilty, are to slur over the past and deal weakly with those who are not only criminals in our eyes but in those of the Chinese themselves, the inevitable result must be to reawaken in all Chinese officials and people alike a thorough contempt for Westerners who are so easily hoodwinked. The Chinese will attribute the result to every motive but the real one, and will certainly think and feel that Powers who have held the sword in hand so long, and yet have failed to employ it as Chinese know that it ought to be employed, are not to be dreaded in the fu-ture; and it is a moral certainty that the Chinese will act in accordance with this view.

There was a special incongruity in this false sympathy for Chinese wrong-doers when the Powers were governing the cities of Tientsin, Pao Ting Fu, and Peking, and were inflicting punishments upon Chinese miscreants in accord-ance with Chinese law, without reference to Western codes. The Germans particularly are reported to have cut off the heads of many hundred Chinese within their jurisdiction, many of them for absolutely trivial offenses. This is regarded as simply a question of military admin-istration, and no notice whatever seems to be taken of it, while the settlement of the penalties for the great in-ternational crime of 1900 is hindered from sources the most opposite, through selfishness and sentimentality.

In this connection it is well to mention that renewed attention has just been called in the foreign press of China to the terrible nature of the sufferings to which the mar-tyred missionaries were in many cases subjected. The matter is a painful and a delicate one, especially in the case of the ladies, but the suspicion that there is an effort to suppress the facts, lest the knowledge of them should lead to restrictions upon missionary work in the interior, has only led to the publication of the most terribly shock-

728 CHINA IN CONVULSION

ing details, said to have been obtained from the lips of eye-witnesses. It is undoubtedly better that the whole truth should be known, for it must sooner or later come to the surface, and it is only by a calm contemplation of all the facts that a wise conclusion can be reached as to what ought to be done to prevent a recurrence of similar atrocities.

The prospect for such prevention is by no means as hopeful as it should be. For ten months this part of China has practically been embarked upon a foreign fleet, tossing about in a stormy sea. Now the time has arrived when the passengers and crew must be transferred back to the old unseaworthy Chinese junks in which they were before. The gangways are all down, the water is full of small sampans waiting to take men and cargo, but there is so much of a swell that the exchange is not an easy one to effect, and some will probably get drowned.

The very first step toward the safe transfer is the re-turn of the court to Peking. But that the Emperor should return alone, though much desired by foreigners and by the most patriotic Chinese, seems not to have been suggested. This means, the Occidental reader will do well to bear in mind, that the relation of the Empress Dowager to the Chinese Government—a relation of essen-tial identity—is exactly what it was when one year ago she gave the order to fire upon the Legations. It is not known that the question of her right to rule the Empire which she has brought to the verge of ruin and disrup-tion has been so much as seriously considered.

The most melancholy feature of a situation full of varying shades of colour, with a predominance of the darker ones, is that the Powers have taken no notice what-ever of the deposition of the rightful Emperor, of the fact that his present anomalous relations to the Govern-

FOREIGN OCCUPATION 729

ment of his Empire are unsatisfactory and fraught with peril, that the recognized Heir Apparent is a youth desti-tute of character, whose assumption of power would prob-ably complete the ruin of the country within a year, and that the Empress Dowager, who has brought this condi-tion of things upon China and the World, still holds the scepter undisputed and irresistible.

It is vain to cherish the fiction that these circumstances have no relation to anything which the Powers can do. It is these conditions which have brought the present crisis, and to ignore them is to invite future disaster, as is clearly foreseen and constantly predicted by the dis-cerning. Yet as a year ago at this time, nothing is done about the perils visibly imminent, and the hopeless dis-agreement of the Powers probably renders action of real unity impossible.

The Rev. Timothy Richard has visited Peking at the request of the Governor of Shansi and the Chinese Peace Commissioners, and has drawn up a scheme for the settle-ment of the Protestant cases in that province which is so conspicuously fair and just (and so utterly in contrast to the Roman Catholic demands) that the Chinese press comments upon it with uniform approbation. In consid-eration of the fact that the people were acting under orders in their riots of last year, he suggests that one Boxer leader in each district be punished as a warning; that the losses of converts be provided for and pro-vision made for widows and orphans; that the province raise half a million taels, one-tenth to be paid each year, for the establishment of schools to enlighten the people of Shansi, thus avoiding delusions in the future—one educated foreigner and one educated Chinese to manage the business; monumental stones to be erected wherever converts were killed; the officials, gentry, scholars, and

730 CHINA IN CONVULSION

people to receive courteously missionaries whenever again sent, and apologize for the past; equal treatment to be granted converts and non-converts in everything; and lists to be kept of the names of rioters, that they may be punished if they again offend. These principles have been agreed to by the representatives of the Protestant societies working in Shansi—the China Inland Mission, the American Board, the English Baptist, the Gospel Mission, and an independent organization.

These suggestions were submitted to Li Hung Chang, who is said to have been exceedingly pleased with the moderation of the demands, exclaiming that never yet had there been in China such an enlightened and moderate gentleman as Dr. Richard had shown himself to be, and that if these suggestions were put into effect there would be no more missionary troubles in the Empire. Dr. Rich-ard's long residence іп Shansi—from 1876 to 1886—his devotion and tact in distributing famine relief at the be-ginning of that period, his cordial relations with officials from the Governor down, and his wide reputation as the best known and most representative Protestant missionary in China, combine to give his recommendations great weight.

Representatives of nine of the important missionary societies in China have recently issued, both in English and in Chinese, a “ Statement ” in regard to the con-nection between missionaries and the present crisis. It is Of the nature of an explanation, and incidentally a de-fence, and has attracted favourable comment from the lead-ing foreign journals of Shanghai for its conspicuous fair-ness and moderation of language. A paragraph from an article in the “ North China Daily News” dealing with it should be quoted: “The charge that missionaries have manifested an improper desire to see vengeance done on

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FOREIGN OCCUPATION 731

the perpetrators of last year’s outrages is, except in pos-sible isolated cases, as unfounded as Mark Twain’s ig-norant charges against Dr. Ament and his colleagues in Peking and its vicinity. Men who have examined the whole question with an honest desire to arrive at the truth without prejudice or partiality allow that the behaviour of the missionaries as a body has not only been above reproach, but worthy of praise and gratitude. They have been anxious, as we have all been anxious, to see outrages such as those of last year made impossible in the «future, and as long as human nature is what it is, men must be deterred from crime by the conviction that it -will be followed by punishment ; and not to have punished, and punished severely, the culprits of last year, would have been to invite a repetition of their crimes.”

It is a hopeful circumstance that Minister Conger will soon be on his way out again. It is simply a fact that at the present time there is no other man who can take his place, or who ought to take it. Like all the other Minis-ters, he did not foresee the coming cyclone in China, but when it came he proved a tower of strength, not to Amer-icans only, but to the common defence—a service Ш requited by the theory prevalent at Washington that be-cause his insight was so much greater and more accurate than that of any one in Washington, his “mind was af-fected!” Аз President Lincoln desired more Generals who drank the “whisky ” to which General Grant was alleged to be addicted, so the United States Legations abroad would do well to lay in a stock of Ministers who have the common sense and the manliness of Mr. Conger.

It is incidentally a gratification to many whose sense of justice has been outraged by the captious criticisms of those with neither knowledge nor candour to compre-

732 CHINA IN CONVULSION

hend existing conditions, to see that Mr. Conger has not hesitated to take the responsibility for his own advice con-sistently given to American citizens acting in times of storm and stress. He has comprehensively replied to all the current criticism by the remark: “І am prepared to justify the conduct of the missionaries before the siege, during the siege, and after the siege.”

It is well for the friends of those moral reforms without which the regeneration of this Empire is utterly impossi-ble, to bear in mind that existing conditions do not alter our duty to China, but only modify present action. If anything is certain it is that there is to be in some form a new China. For that we should watch, and perhaps wait, but not idly nor as those without hope. All mission methods should be re-examined, as ships are overhauled in the dry-docks, but always with reference to a new and a longer voyage than the last.

XXXVIII

CHAPTER 38. The Outlook

4 | VHE questions arising in consequence of the Con-

vulsion in China are too numerous and too com-

prehensive to be recapitulated in a closing chap-ter, even if from a single point of view they could all be understood. In the preceding pages an effort has been made to point out some of the remoter underlying and predisposing causes of this great movement, which in the peculiar condition existing was an inevitable part of the evolution of the international relations of mankind. Other nations were driven toward intercourse with China by an impulse which they could no more resist than the waters of the ocean can withstand the pull of the moon, clearly recognizing that no nation has either the right or the power to refuse such intercourse. As a result China was forced into relations with the West, unwillingly ac-cepting treaties which she intended to keep only while they could not be evaded or broken.

Had the Occidental Powers invariably observed the far-reaching rule of Lord Elgin never to make an unjust demand and never to retreat from a just demand once made, China would have been peacefully coerced into right relations with the rest of the World, to her own unspeakable benefit and ours. As it was, the impact of Western Nations on China was met by unvarying evasion, duplicity, falsehood, arrogance, and an intolerable inso-

733

734 CHINA IN CONVULSION

lence which from time to time brought on conflicts, and always with the same ultimate results.

The occurrences of the year 1900 displayed upon a great scale the emptiness of those Chinese pretensions which have never been and are not yet abandoned. They have also exhibited, notwithstanding the universal prevalence of a lofty system of theoretical morality, a “ dauntless mendacity,” a barbaric cruelty, and a colossal pride, un-exampled in modern history. The result of the humil-iation of China before the Powers is to leave them con-fronted with the gravest problem which Occidental civili-zation has ever faced. Great issues hang upon the out-come, both for China and for the World. That the wishes and the supposed interests of the Powers are not only not identical but apparently hopelessly irreconcilable, has long been plain, from which arises the ominous and significant fact that the only progress possible has been by the composition of counteracting forces. |

The outline of the terms of settlement with China in-volved a mission of apology to Germany for the murder of her minister; monuments in desecrated cemeteries; а prohibition of the importation of arms and munitions of war; the destruction of the Taku and other forts; a Lega-tion area in Peking, defended by foreign guards, with provision for other forces elsewhere; a financial indem-nity of perhaps 450,000,000 taels of silver, the payment of which is to be distributed through the coming thirty or fifty years; the punishment of specified persons who were most guilty in the late uprising; the suspension for five years of examinations in cities where foreigners were murdered; the universal publication of the fact of these punishments, a strict prohibition under penalty of death of all anti-foreign societies, and an Imperial Edict dis-

THE OUTLOOK 735

tinctly recognizing the future responsibility of officials for outrages occurring within their districts.

There are undoubtedly some items in this list to which exception may be taken as injudicious, but those most familiar with the circumstances are most likely to agree that they are not in themselves unjust. Yet they are al-together inadequate, being mainly punitive, privitive, and destructive in character, and containing no seed of future promise. А unique opportunity for aiding in the rehabili-tation of the most populous and most ancient of Empires seems to have been lost. For this, the simple and ade-quate explanation is that the numerous Powers involved in the settlement do not desire for China the same things. A more impressive object-lesson of the failure of diplo-macy to achieve constructive results, when unhampered by external conditions and operating on a large scale, has seldom been seen. Unless China is in some way essen-tially changed, past conditions may gradually recur, but for these changes we shall look in vain to Prime Ministers of Western Powers, or to Ministers resident in China.

The long cherished and confident expectation that China was to be gradually regenerated by her contact with Western Civilization, by commerce, by steamships, railways, telegraphs, and mines, has been demonstrated to be utterly- insubstantial. It is these very appliances of “funded civilization” which more than anything else have helped to bring about the Convulsion in China. They are in themselves disturbing forces destitute of moral qualities, not only not remedying the evils which they inevitably occasion in an Empire like China, and among a people like the Chinese, but having no tendency to do so.

There remains the method of education, so earnestly

736 CHINA IN CONVULSION

advocated by Chang Chih Tung in his work already quoted. By this means light is to be gradually introduced into China, making in future such a crusade as that of 1000 impossible.

Education is indeed a valuable and an indispensable agency, which to some extent has already been employed, and which must be used upon a scale ten thousand fold greater before the darkness of the masses of China can be expelled and replaced by light. But there are many kinds of education. That which deals only with co-ordinated physical or mental facts, conducted with what-ever degree of thoroughness, has never yet proved ade-quate for the regulation of the conduct of mankind. It is intellectual only, leaving the highest parts of man’s nature unsatisfied and untouched. It is a two-edged sword certain to cut in both directions.

The Chinese themselves have already perceived that the rigid prohibition of the importation of arms and munitions of war. will eventually compel them to become the producers of implements of destruction, perhaps upon a scale never before seen in any land. The mere bulk of the Chinese people, unmilitary as they have always been, might conceivably make them, when once aroused, a menace to mankind. Will a knowledge of chemistry, and an ability to calculate the curves of falling bodies, and the velocity of projectiles in itself suffice to keep the Chinese under due restraint, with countless Lamps of Aladdin always in their hands, always waiting to be rubbed ?

It is true of China more than of any other non-Chris-tian people, that they have never been profoundly moved by other than moral forces. The rapid and irresistible progress destined to be made by Western science in the Chinese Empire will speedily and surely undermine

THE OUTLOOK 737

Chinese faith in the “ Book of Changes,” which under-lies the pyramid of Chinese philosophy. Whatever is permanently true will remain in imperishable blocks, but the structure as a whole will be left in ruins, with Chinese ideals pitilessly and irrevocably shattered. At this critical period of the disintegration of outworn forces, what new moral ideas are to replace the old?

Christianity has been in China a disturber, as it always is and always has been everywhere. It had the fortune (or misfortune) to be formally introduced to the Chinese in connection with treaties imposed by force for ends which the Chinese detested,—in this respect, however, standing on a level with the rights of trade. It has also had the additional disadvantage of being in one of its forms indissolubly associated in the minds of the Chinese with political agencies, which they dread with reason and instinctively antagonize. There has been much in the method of its propagation in China which is open to just criticism, and which at this crucial juncture ought to be fearlessly exposed, frankly admitted, and honestly abandoned, new and better methods replacing those which have proved faulty and unworthy.

But Christianity is itself an integral part of modern civilization, from which it can no more be dissociated than the rays of light and of heat can be untwisted from the sunbeam. The attempt on the part of the Chinese to expel from their Empire spiritual forces, is an uprising of the Middle Ages against the Twentieth Century. The effort on the part of some who have been cradled in Christian lands, in an unspiritual and a materialistic age, to pinion and hand-cuff the disintegrating yet construc-tive forces of Christianity in their operation in China, is a futile struggle to reverse the tide of human develop-ment, and to arrest the slow but irresistible progress of a

738 CHINA IN CONVULSION

law of man’s spiritual nature. Let it be distinctly recog-nized that the development of Christianity in China will be and must be marked by conflict, perhaps not more so than elsewhere, but surely not less. It will undermine idolatry as it did in the Roman Empire, and upon the wreck of the old will build a structure as much fairer than the Roman as the moral ideals of the Chinese race are higher and purer than those of that ancient state.

When adopted, and even imperfectly put in practice, it may be expected to alter the life of the court, as it has done in Western lands, inadequately Christianized though these be. It will make the dry bones of Chinese scholar-ship live by unifying, and for the first time completing, their knowledge of “ Heaven, Earth, and Man.” By the introduction of new standards and new sanctions it will begin to purify the Augean stable of Chinese officialdom, a task, under right conditions, by no means impossible of performance. For the mass of the Chinese people it would at least make life worth living, joining the present and the future by golden links in a manner at present wholly inconceivable, yet the inevitable outcome of spiritual enlightenment.

The wide diffusion of Christianity in its best form will not suddenly introduce into China the Millennium, for no goal can be reached without passing through all the inter-mediate stages. But it will, for the first time in Chinese history, realize the motto of the ancient T'ang, quoted at the opening of the Great Learning, “ Renovate, renovate the people.” Thus alone can the Empire be adapted to the altered conditions brought about by the impact of Western civilization, with its Pandora Box of evil and of good.

The immediate future of China will depend on the one hand upon her relations with the Powers, and on the

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other upon the temper of the court, the temper of the officials, the temper of the literati, and the temper of the people. There is no possible way of reaching these vari-ous classes so well and so directly as through the native Chinese Church, which has already suffered so much and borne such witness to its faith by its life, and by the heroic death of many of its number. This truth has found expression in the notable magazine article in which Sir Robert Hart frankly declares that if, in spite of official opposition and popular irritation, “ Christianity were to make a mighty advance,” it might “ so spread through the land as to convert China into the friendliest of friendly Powers, and the foremost patron of all that makes for peace and goodwill.” This, he thinks, “would prick the Boxer balloon and disperse the noxious gas which threatens to swell the race-hatred programme, and poison and imperil the world's future.”

It is well that the dilemma should be recognized and squarely faced. Unless China is essentially altered she will continue to “imperil the world's future.” Other forces have been to some extent experimented with, and have been shown to be hopelessly inadequate. Christian-ity has been tried upon a small scale only, and has already brought forth fruits after its kind. When it shall have been thoroughly tested, and have had opportunity to de-velop its potentialities, it will give to China intellectually, morally, and spiritually, the Elixir of a New Life.