Five months on the Yang-Tsze : with a narrative of the exploration of its upper waters and notices of the present rebellions in China / by Thomas W. Blakiston.

  • Thomas Blakiston
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Five months on the Yang-Tsze : with a narrative of the exploration of its upper waters and notices of the present rebellions in China / by Thomas W. Blakiston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    did not bring to, several war-vessels started in chace. How- ever, the two junks were a good way ahead; and when the steamer was seen coming down the cruisers desisted, and con- tented themselves with firing two or three blank rounds as we passed, which we took no notice of, although the captain had got the carronades ready in case of their firing shot. The rebel garrison appeared in much the same state as when we passed up iu the beginning of March, and the Imperialist lines did not seem to have closed in at all nearer the beleaguered city. Unable to take it by storm, they had determined to starve the garrison out, which end they succeeded in effecting during the summer, and then they had butchery enough to satiate even Chinamen. We passed the rebel town of Wu-hoo on the 4th, which was also the first day we observed the great comet. Three or four “ lorchas,” as the half-European half-Chinese craft used on the coast are called, were lying off the place; they be- longed to foreign Shanghai houses, agents beiug sent up in them for the purchase of tea, which is procured from the southern part of An-hoei, by the way of the river that empties itself at Wu-hoo. We did not bring up, but, seeing a small boat put off from one of the lorchas, the captain stopped the engines. A rough-looking customer pulled alongside, and handed a letter for Shanghai on board; and while he towed astern he was very anxious to learn anything concerning the movements of the Imperialists, for he said that at Wu-hoo the rebels were in expectation of an attack, and, as he expressed it, “ Every night they do be firing off guns and beating gongs horrid.” The same evening after dark we anchored off Nan- king, where we found H.M.S. ‘ Centaur,’ a small steamer tho ‘ Bo-peep,’ an American schooner, and one or two more lorchas; and to give our junks time to get along, we lay there all the day following. My friend Mr. Forrest, who had travelled hither, via Soo-