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to claim the merit of having compelled them to retire.

On the 19th of July the Cornwallis, bearing the admiral's flag, was at anchor off Chinkeangfoo, a little below the celebrated Kinshan, or Golden Island. The Tartar general in charge of the important city of Chinkeang, the key to the Grand Canal, was Haeling, selected by the emperor on account of his high character for courage and ability. He was descended from a Manchow family which had been conspicuous in subduing China to the Tartar sway, and was said to have inherited the qualities of his ancestors. He had always professed a high contempt for the barbarous invaders, whom he regarded as mere pirates, that might easily be subdued by a display of the majesty of the empire. It may be supposed, however, that recent events had produced some change in his sentiments. On account of the hardships of service lately imposed on his Manchow troops he had applied for additional allowances, but the parsimonious Taoukwang, either from inability or avarice, refused his request, and fined him for making it. When the war approached near, he called on some other corps

to come to his assistance, but the difficulties and excuses were so various, that the army assembled within and under the walls of Chinkeang was not very numerous. The commandant of Nanking, whose duty it was to support him, instead of sending troops to his assistance, declared that he should stand in need of all he possessed. Haeling was therefore thrown entirely on his own resources. He had prepared some formidable rafts to send down upon our shipping, composed of bitumen, camphor, and other highly inflammable ingredients. These, however, were by some accident set on fire before they were clear of the creek which contained them, and burned furiously for a number of hours, leading to the belief that the city itself and its suburbs were consuming. Had the whole of them been floated down the stream, it might have proved more formidable to the crowded shipping than such experiments had generally done. When this undertaking failed, and the great expense attending it proved fruitless, similar attempts were made with burning junks, but utterly without effect.

Haeling then determined on defending the

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city to the last, when attacked, and calling his Tartars together, exhorted them not to let the English enter, except over their bodies. The military law was executed in all its severity on some individuals who flinched, as appeared from their lately executed and mangled bodies exposed on the ramparts. This place must always be of great importance, as guarding one of the mouths of the canal; but had the van of the expedition only reached it a few weeks earlier, a great portion of the money from the provinces might have been arrested. All had by this time passed up, as appeared from a report by the officer entrusted with the superintendence of the transit. The advantages of the position are so obvious, that the following remark respecting it was published some years before the enterprise was effected: "This place may at some future day become famous, by our war steamers or smaller vessels of war sailing up to it from the mouth of the great river to blockade the Imperial Canal." It proved that the largest ships might do the same.

Judging from the perfect quiet that reigned around after the explosion of the fire-rafts,

the readiness with which supplies came to the ships, and the apparently deserted ramparts of Chinkeangfoo, it was naturally expected that no farther resistance would be offered; instead of the most desperate that had ever yet been experienced, except from the Tartars at Chapoo. On the morning of the 21st of July, the troops disembarked in three brigades, one to escalade the walls at the north-east angle, and the other two, after dispersing the force assembled on some hills to the westward, to attack the city on that side. The excessive heat of the weather tended greatly to aggravate the toils of the day, and the deaths from the effects of the sun were about as numerous as those from the enemy. Whether from surprise, or some other unknown cause, the Tartars allowed our men to scale the wall almost without opposition, but when once there the carnage began. Two or three hours of hard fighting took place, before General Schoedde's column had made its way round the ramparts to the north-west angle, where, soon after their arrival, the gate was blown in by that under Sir Hugh Gough, and all farther opposition seemed to be over. But not yet. A party