On the 16th, Mr. Kinder, C.M.G., the engineerin-chief of the Chinese Imperial Railway, with a party of his employés, and an escort of fifty men from H.M.S. 'Aurora,' under the command of Lieutenant Roper, R.N., who had been sent to join him a week or two before (at the time when the International Guards went up to the Legations in Peking), came down from Tong-shan, where the coal mines are, some little distance off. On the same day sixteen women and thirty-eight children were taken down by the Humber' to Taku; and on the 21st she returned again, with orders to take away all the remaining Europeans, which she accordingly did.

Mr. Hughes, the engineer engaged in the construction of the Chin-wan-tao dock, had a narrow escape. He did not go to Pei-ta-ho with the others, but proceeded alone to Tong-ku by the last train that left Shan-hai-Kwan, arriving at night, just as the bombardment of the Taku Forts was beginning; the train being full of Chinese soldiers, and run entirely by Chinese drivers and Chinese guards. The people scowled angrily at him, and he had to pull down the blinds of his carriage, and to keep as much out of sight as he could at the various stations, but he was not interfered with or molested in any way. Indeed, it is evident now that a great mistake was made in Tientsin in supposing that the whole of the Chinese were in arms against the foreigners, or were even actively in sympathy with the Boxers. It was by no means so. The great

majority, no doubt, were, but there was always a large leaven of men of progressive ideas, who were utterly opposed to the movement; only people at the time were, naturally enough, so incensed and alarmed that they could not reason things out calmly.

The following interesting letter, sent from the Chinese manager on the Tong-shan coal mine to one of his official superiors, an Englishman, in Tientsin, which I have been kindly permitted to use, demonstrates this more clearly than any unsupported assertions could do :

Tong-Shan: August 29, 1900.

We have a big stock of lump, but it is impossible to send coal to Tong-ku at present, as no boats can be procured, and the soldiers at Lutai and Peh-tang will surely stop their movement. Sending coal to you via Chin-Wan-Tao is out of the question, as the wharf there has been destroyed, and it is twelve li from there to the nearest railway station. The line from Tong-Fong to Kin-Chow is I still in workable condition. A train runs from here to Shan-hai-Kwan, and thence to Kin-Chow, daily. The Tartar general of Feng-Tien has appointed Kwong-KingWang and Yiu-Tien-Yiu temporary chief engineers of the line, and a prefect as temporary manager. Our co-director Yang has been acting manager of the line at this end. Everything here and at Len-si is in working order, except the water in the pits at Tong-Shan is not drained, owing to the late heavy rains and occasional breaking down of the minor pumps. The water in No. 6 level is still about forty feet deep. One month ago it was less than twenty feet. As there is not much demand for coal, and the transport is so difficult, we have kept down the output to two hundred tons per day. We have stopped working the north-west shaft, which formerly turned out three hundred

tons each day. As we are short of funds we are paying all our employés since the fifth moon 40 per cent. of their salaries and wages, and the contractors received only 50 per cent. of what is owing them. Little work, such as repairing pumps, &c., is still going on in the shops; only half of the mechanics attend work each day. At night we have two volunteer forces, composed of fitters and underground deputies, to watch the works. We have nearly two hundred volunteers to protect our works all around, armed with Mausers. At the old and new railway works they have got seventy workmen, all armed with Mausers, to protect their work. I believe with these forces we are able to keep off any Boxers or gangs of robbers that should attempt to destroy or loot the works. I do not think it is necessary to send any foreign troops at present, as it will only be an excuse to the outlaws and natives to destroy our works should they hear of foreign troops coming here. Since Peking has been taken I have no doubt peace will be restored soon. I do not see the necessity of the foreign armies taking Peh-tang and Lutai. Are you sure they are going to take these two places? If they are, it will be sure to create disturbances here, and many employés will leave the place.

It is an important letter, for it shows incidentally that the Chinese are not the mere unthinking tools they are so often deemed to be-useless except under European guidance; that they have it in them to utilise the knowledge they have acquired, and to organise and act on their own initiative; that they are proceeding, however slowly, upon the same road which the Japanese have traversed with such startling rapidity. For this is only one instance amongst many that might be given pointing to the gradual transformation that is taking place all over China.

As a matter of fact, no troops were sent to Tongshan until the end of September; and then they arrived in a manner which might, for the Chinese manager, have had a tragic ending. When it was finally decided that the Peh-tang Forts should be taken, and that the Russians should be given control of the railway from Tong-ku to Shan-hai-Kwan, instructions were sent to him from the company's office in Tientsin to send off without delay a train to bring the Russians up. He did so, and wired to that effect to the Russian officer. Unfortunately, the wire never reached its destination, or was not understood, and the train that was sent collided with the train in which the Russians had already started, and several men were killed. The officer was exceedingly incensed, thinking it had been done on purpose, and promptly put the manager under arrest, and told him he would be dealt with by martial law on the following morning; which was another way of saying that he would be shot. The manager spoke English fluently (having been educated in America), which the Russian officer could not understand, but could not speak French, which the officer did understand; so his days seemed numbered, when, by good chance, the French priest, who had remained in Tong-shan all through the troubles, arrived on the scene and explained matters. The officer, as soon as the real state of affairs was made clear to him, sent for the luckless Chinaman, whom he promptly released, thankful enough, for death had seemed very near to him.

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CHAPTER IV

SIEGE OF TIENTSIN SETTLEMENTS

BUT to return to the story of the rising.

On the night of Friday, June 15, the Boxers set fire in several places to the native city of Tientsin, and made a determined attack on the railway station. They were beaten off, and the line repaired, and late during the same night, about 2 A.M., a train was despatched to Tong-ku filled with women and children, as there was no foretelling what might happen next. Unfortunately there was no possibility of getting away more than a very small number; so the rest were ordered to take shelter in the Gordon Hall, the large municipal building in the British settlement-in all 120 women and 138 children. The next night the Boxers renewed the attack on the railway station, and on the following day (the 17th) they were joined by the Chinese troops, and from that time all communication with Taku was cut off. There is little doubt that, had it not been for the presence there of the large number of Russian soldiers under Colonel Anisimoff and Lieut.-Colonel Shirinsky, nothing could then have saved the settlements. But they