It Was Also Stated That "It Is Not The Intention Of Her
Majesty's Government To Undertake Any Land Operations In The Interior Of
The Country."
An event of superior, and, indeed, supreme importance occurred to arrest
the movement of the expedition to Canton.
When Lord Elgin reached
Singapore, on June 3, 1857, he found a letter waiting for him from Lord
Canning, then Governor-general of India, informing him of the outbreak of
the Indian Mutiny, and imploring him to send all his troops to Calcutta in
order to avert the overthrow of our authority in the valley of the Ganges,
where, "for a length of 750 miles, there were barely 1,000 European
soldiers." To such an urgent appeal there could only be one answer, and
the men who were to have chastised Commissioner Yeh followed Havelock to
Cawnpore and Lucknow. But while Lord Elgin sent his main force to
Calcutta, he himself proceeded to Hongkong, where he arrived in the first
week of July, and found that hostilities had proceeded to a still more
advanced stage than when Sir Michael Seymour wrote for re-enforcements.
The Chinese had become so confident during the winter that that officer
felt bound to resume offensive measures against them, and having been
joined by a few more men-of-war, and having also armed some merchant ships
of light draught, he attacked a main portion of the Chinese fleet
occupying a very strong position in Escape Creek. The attack was intrusted
to Commodore Elliott, who, with five gunboats and the galleys of the
larger men-of-war, carried out with complete success and little loss the
orders of his superior officer. Twenty-seven armed junks were destroyed,
and the thirteen that escaped were burned the next day. It was then
determined to follow up this success by attacking the headquarters of
Yeh's army at Fatshan, the place already referred to as being some
distance from Canton. By road it is six and by water twelve miles from
that city. The remainder of the Chinese fleet was drawn up in Fatshan
Channel, and the Chinese had made such extensive preparations for its
defense, both on land and on the river, that they were convinced of the
impregnability of its position.
The Chinese position was unusually strong, and had been selected with
considerable judgment. An island named after the hyacinth lies in
midstream two miles from the entrance to the Fatshan Channel, which joins
the main course of the Sikiang a few miles above the town of that name.
The island is flat and presents no special advantages for defense, but it
enabled the Chinese to draw up a line of junks across the two channels of
the river, and to place on it a battery of six guns, thus connecting their
two squadrons. The seventy-two junks were drawn up with their sterns
facing down stream, and their largest gun bearing on any assailant
proceeding up it. On the left bank of the river an elevated and
precipitous hill had been occupied in force and crowned with a battery of
nineteen guns, and other batteries had been erected at different points
along the river.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 236 of 366
Words from 123174 to 123704
of 191255
