Head-quarters at Lanfang--Entry of troops into Pekin to be opposed--Murder of the Chancellor of the Japanese Legation--Conciliatory visits and orders to slaughter--Customs buildings wrecked--European graveyard desecrated--A specified date--Danger of the relief force being cut off--The advisability of capturing the Taku forts--On June 13--A skirmish of Americans and Boxers--An attempt to destroy the armoured trains--An Italian picket cut off--Chinese vitality--Rushing quick-firing guns.

Head-quarters were made at Lanfang for the night, and on the 13th the railway was found to be so broken up that in the next twenty-four hours, although there was no fighting, an advance of only three miles was made by the relieving force. The Boxers were reported in great numbers two miles ahead of the Allies, and a courier arrived from the capital reporting that hostile preparations were being made by the population and Imperial troops, with General Tung-Fu-Hsiang at their head, to oppose the entry of the foreign troops into the city, and that Mr. Sogiyama, Chancellor of the Japanese Legation, had been barbarously murdered by the soldiers of General Tung’s cavalry when on his way to the station, while European Legation Students had had narrow escapes in several parts of the Tartar and Chinese city, being obliged to defend themselves with their revolvers.

[Sidenote: BODIES DISINTERRED]

There was no doubt that the lives of all foreigners in Pekin were in great danger, notwithstanding the assurances given by the Yamên that if no more than 1200 men were sent, the Chinese Government would not oppose their march to Pekin. When these conciliatory visits of the Yamên Ministers to Sir Claude MacDonald took place (on June 12), it was already well known by the Chinese all over the country that the Empress-Dowager had issued orders to the Boxers to destroy the Legations and murder all foreigners. The British Summer Legation on the hills some 12 miles from Pekin had already been burned (June 13), and on that same evening the old Custom-House buildings, the grand stand of the Race-Course, and various mission schools and residences had been entered by Boxers, looted, and burnt to the ground, many defenceless servants of Europeans, converts, and Chinese Christians being mercilessly massacred. Even the European graveyard was desecrated, the bodies disinterred, and the tombstones smashed. The date specified for the destruction of the Legations was June 16.

When this alarming news came from the capital, Sir Edward Seymour and his plucky force made superhuman efforts to restore rail communication with the Tartar city as speedily as possible, little knowing that behind them, in Tientsin itself, the situation was becoming serious. The force was in imminent danger of being cut off by the Chinese, who were concentrating their Imperial troops in such great numbers in the surrounding country of Tientsin and Taku, that the Admirals deemed it advisable to take immediate possession of the Taku and Tong-ku forts before a complete and formidable concentration was allowed to take place.

In America and Europe the Admirals were much blamed for coming to this conclusion; in fact, they have been even accused of unduly treating the Chinese without tact or respect. But few people seem to consider that had the Chinese been able to concentrate a great force of well-armed men, whom they had ready, at these forts--the key, as it were, of the Pei-ho river--not only the Legations in Pekin but the large settlement of Tientsin itself would have been at the absolute mercy of the Celestials.

On June 13 the relief party was still hard at work on the railroad beyond Lanfang, half-way to Pekin. A party of Americans had a skirmish with a hundred Boxers and killed a number of them, while some British marines of the advance were fiercely attacked six miles from headquarters by a horde of fanatics armed with knives and waving large banners. The marines duly repulsed them, killing over one hundred.

On June 14, the Boxers made a most determined attempt to seize and destroy the armoured trains. It was at about 10 +A.M.+ and some of the Allies were resting, or washing their clothes, while others were working on the line. The Boxers managed to conceal themselves until they were about two hundred yards from the trains, when they sprang out yelling their war cry, and rushed on the Allies. Our men emptied their magazines upon them, but still they rushed on with astounding bravery, fully exposed to the fire of the Allies, careless of their lives, and waving their swords and knives. A Maxim gun was turned on them when they were but sixty or seventy yards away and the execution it did was terrific as its thousands of shots rattled into the solid mass of human beings rushing on towards the Allies under this murderous fire. Notwithstanding this bravery--due, no doubt, to the more or less firm belief in their own invulnerability--when the rows of fanatics behind trod on the rows of dead and bleeding fallen in front, their courage failed them, and dropping pitchforks, swords, and matchlocks, they bolted for dear life.

[Sidenote: CHINESE VITALITY]

FROM THE “CALABRIA” AND “ELBA” WHO ACCOMPANIED THE SEYMOUR EXPEDITION]

Several chasing parties were sent out to pursue them in all directions, and to clear the nearest villages of the enemy. Unfortunately, a picket of Italians was cut off and surrounded by the Chinese, and one petty officer and four marines were killed. Their bodies were found fearfully mutilated.

The vitality of the Chinese when wounded by small-bore bullets was remarkable. Some struck by one or two projectiles would continue running towards the Maxims, and on examination several dead had no less than four or five wounds. The bodies of a few of their braver men were found only forty yards from the position of the Allies, and fully 150 of their men lay dead around the battlefield, victims of their foolhardy attempts to rush our quick-firing guns.