From His Yamen In The Interior Of
The City, When He Found That The English Hesitated To Advance Beyond The
Walls, he incited the populace to fresh efforts of hostility, and, in
order to check their increasing audacity, it was
Resolved to send a force
into the city to effect the capture of Yeh. On January 5, 1858, three
detachments were sent into the native city, and they advanced at once upon
the official residences of Yeh and Pihkwei, the governor. The Chinese were
quite unprepared for this move, and being taken unawares they offered
scarcely any resistance. The yamen was occupied and the treasury captured,
while Pihkwei was made prisoner in his own house. The French at the same
time attacked and occupied the Tartar city - a vast stone-built suburb
which had been long allowed to fall into decay, and which, instead of
being occupied, as was believed, by 7,000 Manchu warriors, was the
residence of bats and nauseous creatures. But the great object of the
attack was unattained, for Yeh still remained at large, and no one seemed
to know where he ought to be sought, for all the official buildings had
been searched in vain. But Mr. Parkes, by indefatigable inquiry, at last
gained a clew from a poor scholar whom he found poring over an ancient
classic at the library, undisturbed in the midst of the turmoil. From him
he learned that Yeh would probably be found in a yamen situated in the
southwest quarter of the city. Mr. Parkes hastened thither with Captain
(afterward Admiral) Cooper Key and a party of sailors. They arrived just
in time, for all the preparations for flight had been made, and Captain
Key caught Yeh with his own hand as he was escaping over the wall. One of
his assistants came forward with praiseworthy devotion and declared
himself to be Yeh, in the hope of saving his superior; but the deception
was at once detected by Mr. Parkes, who assured Yeh that no harm would be
done him. The capture of Yeh completed the effect of the occupation of
Canton, and the disappearance of the most fanatical opponent of the
foreigners insured the tranquillity of the Canton region, which had been
the main seat of disorder, during the remainder of the war. The government
of Canton was then intrusted to Pihkwei and a commission of one Frenchman
and two Englishmen, and the Chinese admitted it had never been better
governed. Yeh himself was sent to Calcutta, where he died two years later,
and, considering the abundant evidence of his cruel treatment of
defenseless prisoners, he had every reason to consider his punishment
lenient.
Having thus settled the difficulty at Canton, it remained for Lord Elgin
to carry out the other part of his task, and place diplomatic relations
between England and China on a satisfactory basis by obtaining the right
of direct communication with Pekin. A letter dated February 11, 1858, was
sent to the senior Secretary of State at Pekin describing what had
occurred in the south, and summarizing what would be required from the
Chinese government.
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Words from 125279 to 125799
of 191255
