Read Ebook: The Land of the Boxers; or China under the Allies by Casserly Gordon

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Ebook has 784 lines and 79202 words, and 16 pages

FROM WEI-HAI-WEI TO TIENTSIN

TIENTSIN

THE ALLIED ARMIES IN CHINA

PEKIN

RAMBLES IN PEKIN

THE SUMMER PALACE

A TRIP TO SHANHAIKWAN

OUR STRONGHOLD IN THE FAR EAST

HONG KONG AND THE KOWLOON HINTERLAND

ON COLUMN IN SOUTHERN CHINA

IN THE PORTUGUESE COLONY OF MACAO

A GLIMPSE OF CANTON

CHINA--PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

INDEX

PAGE

PLAN OF PEKIN xvi

EUROPEAN CONCESSIONS, TIENTSIN, AND THE PEIHO RIVER 17

EXECUTION OF A BOXER BY THE FRENCH 28

PUBLIC GARDENS AND GORDON HALL IN THE VICTORIA ROAD, ENGLISH CONCESSION 28

FRENCH COLONIAL INFANTRY MARCHING THROUGH THE FRENCH CONCESSION, TIENTSIN 38

GERMAN OFFICERS WELCOMING FIELD-MARSHAL COUNT VON WALDERSEE AT THE RAILWAY STATION, TIENTSIN 38

UNITED STATES CAVALRYMAN 51

GERMAN AND INDIAN SOLDIERS 56

FIELD-MARSHAL COUNT VON WALDERSEE REVIEWING THE ALLIED TROOPS IN PEKIN 68

A STREET IN THE CHINESE CITY, PEKIN 72

FRONT FACE OF THE DEFENCES OF THE LEGATIONS 78

GROUNDS OF THE BRITISH LEGATION, PEKIN 107

A STREET IN THE TARTAR CITY, PEKIN, AFTER HEAVY RAIN 127

THE MARBLE JUNK 127

THE CANGUE 269

THE LAND OF THE BOXERS

FROM WEI-HAI-WEI TO TIENTSIN

Our transport steamed over a glassy sea along the bold and rugged coast of Shan-tung in Northern China. Ahead of us, a confused jumble of hills dark against the setting sun, lay Wei-hai-wei. A German steamer homeward bound from Chifu dipped her flag to the blue ensign with crossed swords flying at our peak. Close inshore an occasional junk, with weird outlines and quaint sail, lay becalmed. On our deck, lying in easy-chairs, were a dozen officers of various branches of the Service, all bound for Pekin. Some were fresh from South African battlefields, others were there whose soldiering had been done in India or in Burma.

The sun went down slowly behind a chain of rugged hills. But soon before us, set in a silver sea, the island of Wei-hai-wei rose dark and sombre under a glorious moon. In the glistening water lay the dim shapes of several warships, their black hulls pierced with gleaming portholes. On their decks, bright with electric lamps, bands were playing, their strains swelling louder and louder as we drew near. Far off the hills of the mainland stood out sharply against the sky, with here and there below a twinkling light from the villages or the barracks of the Chinese Regiment.

As our steamer rounded a long, low point, on which lay a deserted fort, every line distinct in the brilliant moonlight, the town came into view. The houses nestled down close to the water's edge, while above them the island rose in gentle slope to a conical peak. Our anchor plunged sullenly into the sea, and we lay at rest in England's most Eastern harbour. Considerations of quarantine prevented us from going ashore, and we were forced to wait for daylight to see what the place was like.

Early on deck next morning we watched the mists fade away until Wei-hai-wei stood revealed in the strong light of the sun. Our latest possession in the East consists of a small island, called Liu-Kung-tao, on which stands the town. It lies about four miles from the mainland, of which a few hundred square miles has been leased to England. The harbour is sheltered to the south by the hills on the coast, to the north by the island. It affords ample anchorage for a large fleet, but could not be adequately defended without a large expenditure. During the China-Japan War the Chinese fleet sheltered in it until routed out by the Japanese torpedo boats; while the Japanese army marched along the heights of the mainland, seized the forts on them, and, turning their guns on the island, forced its surrender.

At the end of the island, round which our transport had passed, was a small peninsula, on which stood the fort we had seen. Dismantled now, it was unused by the present garrison. Close by, on reclaimed land, lay the recreation ground; and even at the early hour at which we saw it, tennis and cricket were in full swing. Just above it, in that close proximity of life and death found ever in the East, was the cemetery, where many crosses and tombstones showed already the price we pay for empire. Near at hand was the magazine, over which a Royal Marine sentry watched. Below, to the right, lay the Naval Dockyard with a pier running out into the harbour, one destroyer alongside it, another moored a short distance out. Along the sea-front and rising in tier after tier stood well-built stone Chinese houses, which now, large-windowed and improved, serve as residences, shops, and offices for Europeans. A staring whitewashed wall bore the inscription in big, black letters, "Ah Ting. Naval Dairy Farm." A picturesque, open-work wall with Chinese summer-houses at either end enclosed the Club. Farther on, a little above the harbour, stone steps through walled terraces led up to the Headquarter Office, once the Yamen--a long row of single-storied houses with a quaint gateway, on either side of which were painted grim Chinese figures of heroic size. On the terrace in front stood some large Krupp guns with shields, taken in the present campaign. The Queen's House, as these buildings are called, divides the naval from the military quarter of the town, the latter lying to the right. A few good European bungalows sheltered the General, the Commanding Royal Engineer, and the local representative of the famous firm of Jardine, Mathieson, and Company. In the lines of Chinese houses close by were the residences of the military officers and the hotel. To the right stacks of fodder proclaimed the presence of the Indian Commissariat. Past open ground lay a small camp and a few more houses.

Above the town the island rises in terraced slopes to the summit, four to six hundred feet high, the regular outline of which was broken by mounds of upturned earth that marked the beginning of a new fort. On the hillside are long stone walls with gates at intervals, which date from the Chinese occupation, built by them, not to keep the enemy out in time of war, but to keep their own soldiers in. Well-laid roads lead to the summit or round the island. The slopes are green with small shrubs and grass, but nothing worthy of the name of tree is apparent. Towards the eastern end were the rifle-ranges, near which a fort was being constructed.

In the harbour was a powerful squadron of British battleships and cruisers; for Wei-hai-wei is the summer rendezvous of our fleet in Chinese waters.

To the south the mainland lay in a semicircle. Rugged, barren hills rise abruptly--in many places almost from the water's edge. Where the ground slopes more gently back from the sea lines of substantial stone barracks have been erected for the Chinese Regiment, with excellent officers' quarters and a good mess. Nestling among trees--almost the only ones to be seen on the iron-bound coast--lies a large village. East of it a long triangle of embrasured stone wall--the base on the shore, the apex half-way up the hill behind--guards the original town of Wei-hai-wei, which still owns Chinese sovereignty, though all the country round is British territory. A few good bungalows and a large and well-built hotel mark where the future Brighton of North China has already begun to claim a recognition; for in the summer months the European residents of Tientsin, Pekin, even of Shanghai are commencing to congregate there in search of cool breezes and a healthy climate. High up above all towers the chain of rugged hills from whose summits the victorious Japanese gazed down on the wrecked Chinese fleet and the battered forts of the island. Behind it, forty miles away, lies the little-known treaty port of Chifu with its prosperous foreign settlement.

The day advanced. From the warships in the harbour the bugle-calls rang out merrily in the morning air, answered by the brazen clangour of the trumpets of the Royal Artillery ashore. The rattle of musketry came from the rifle-ranges, where squads of marines were firing. Along the sea-front tramped a guard of the Chinese Regiment. Clad in khaki with blue putties and straw hats, they marched with a soldierly swing to the Queen's House, climbed the steps, and disappeared in the gateway. Coolies laboured at the new fortifications. Boats shot out from the pier and headed for the warships. Volumes of dense black smoke poured from the chimneys of the condensing works--for no water fit for drinking is found on the island. A cruiser steamed out from her moorings to gun-practice in the bay. And hour after hour we waited for the coming of the Health Officer, who alone could allow us to land. But, instead, the Transport Officer arrived, bearing orders for the ship to start at once for Taku. And so, with never a chance for us to go ashore, the anchor rumbled up and out we headed by the eastern passage. As we steamed out to sea we passed the tiny Sun Island, merely a deserted fort, still showing how cruelly battered and torn it had been by the Japanese shells. Round the steep north side of the island we swung and shaped our course for Taku in the track of the Allied Fleets that had swept in vengeful haste over those same waters to the merited punishment of China. All that day we passed along a rocky and mountainous coast and in among islands of strange and fantastic shape. Here an elephant, there a lion, carved in stone lay in slumber on the placid sea. Yonder a camel reposed in Nirvana-like abstraction. On one islet, the only sign of life or human habitation we saw, stood a lighthouse, like unto lighthouses all the world over.

The bar at the mouth of the Peiho River, which flows into the sea at Taku, can only be crossed at high tide; so we were forced to remain on board until the afternoon. Then, embarking on a launch that had come out to meet us, we steamed in to the land through a rough and tumbling sea. As we drew near, the low-lying shore rose into view. On each side of the entrance to the Peiho ran long lines of solid earthworks--the famous Taku Forts. Taken in reverse and bombarded by the gunboats lying in the river, gallantly assaulted by landing parties from the Allied Fleets, which, owing to the shallowness of the water, could lend no other assistance, they fell after a desperate struggle, and now from their ramparts flew the flags of the conquering nations. Here paced an Italian sentry, there a Russian soldier leaned on a quick-firing Krupp gun; for the forts were armed with the most modern ordnance. The red coat of a British marine or the white clothing of a group of Japanese artillerymen lent a few specks of bright colour to the dingy earthworks.

Our luggage was speedily disembarked. Most of our fellow-passengers, learning that a train for Tientsin was due to leave almost at once, hurried off to the railway station, about a mile away. Three of us of the same regiment were met by a brother officer who was in charge of a detachment at Hsin-ho. He offered us the hospitality of the station mess, composed of those employed on various duties at the place; and, desirous of seeing how the work of the disembarkation of a large force was carried out, we determined to remain for the night.

We visited Tong-ku that afternoon, and found a marked difference in the methods prevailing there and at Hsin-ho. The presence of so many different nationalities naturally entailed great confusion. At the railway station a very babel of languages resounded on every side.

One truck with German stores had to be detached from a goods train and sent down one siding; the next, with French cavalry horses, sent down another; a Russian and an Italian officer disputed the ownership of a third. Lost baggage-guards stood disconsolate or wandered round aimlessly until rescued by their transport officers. Detachments of Continental troops stood helplessly waiting for someone to conduct them to their proper trains. Disorder reigned supreme.

At Hsin-ho everything proceeded without confusion. It might have been an up-country station in the heart of India. Comfortable huts had been built for the detachment responsible for the guard duties; and the various details were equally well accommodated. The military officers had established themselves in a stone house that had formerly been the quarters of a railway engineer. The Royal Indian Marine officers in charge of the naval transport had settled down with the readiness with which sailors adapt themselves to shore life. A line of felt-roofed, mud huts had been turned by them into an excellent mess and quarters. A raised terrace looked down on a tennis-court, on the far side of which a pond in the mud flats, stretching away to the horizon, boasted a couple of canoes. From a tall flagstaff that stood on the terrace floated the blue ensign and Star of India of their Service.

The railway siding ran past large and well-built storehouses. On the river bank long lines of mules were picketed, looking in excellent condition despite the hard work they had gone through. In a little cutting in the bank was an old and tiny steam tug, which had been turned into a condenser for drinking-water. Everything was trim and tidy. The work of disembarking the stores from the lighters in the river and putting them into the railway trucks almost alongside went on in perfect order, all in marked contrast to the confusion that prevailed at Tong-ku.

The train from the Tong-ku terminus soon appeared, and as it steamed in presented a--to us--novel appearance. Leaning out of the windows was a motley crowd of many nationalities. Out of one appeared the heads of a boyish Cossack and a bearded Sikh. The next displayed the chubby face of a German soldier beside the dark features of an Italian sailor. When the train stopped, a smart Australian bluejacket stepped out of the brake-van. He was the guard. In the corridor cars were Yagers, Austrian sailors, brawny American soldiers, baggy-trousered Zouave and red-breeched Chasseur d'Afrique. Sturdy little Japanese infantrymen sat beside tall Bengal Lancers. A small Frenchman chatted volubly with a German trooper from the Lost Provinces. Smart Tommy Atkins gazed in wondering disdain at the smaller Continental soldiers, or listened with an amused smile to the vitriolic comments of a Yankee friend on the manners and appearance of "those darned Dagoes." And among them, perfectly at his ease, sat the imperturbable Chinaman, apparently a little bored but otherwise quite uninterested in the "foreign devils."

The first-class carriages were filled with the officers of every nation whose flag now waved on Chinese soil. Russians in white coats with flat caps and gold shoulder-straps sat side by side with khaki-clad Britishers; Italian officers in yellow; Frenchmen in every shade of supposed-to-be khaki; Germans with silver belts and sashes; Japanese with many medals and enamelled decorations on their breasts. As we entered our carriage we touched our helmets to the previous occupants--a salute which was punctiliously returned by everyone present. Settling ourselves in our seats, our interest was at first fully absorbed by the various uniforms around us; and it was some time before we could devote our attention to the scenery through which we were passing.

The train ran first over wide-stretching mud flats, then through a level, monotonous country, flooded or covered with high crops; and, barely seen above the tall vegetation, here and there roofless houses and ruined villages showed the track of war. At every bridge and culvert stood a tent with a guard of an Indian regiment, the sentry presenting arms as the train passed. The stations along the line were numerous. Over their stone buildings floated the Union Jack, for the railway was now in British hands. On each platform the same scene presented itself. The English Staff Officer in khaki and red-banded forage cap; the stalwart Indian sentry; a varied mob of French and German soldiers, Sikhs, Mussulmans, Chinese.

The fields of luxuriant, waving grain stretched away to the rim of the distant horizon. A trail of smoke, the tall masts of junks showed where the river wound in frequent bends. At length we passed the extensive buildings and high chimneys of the Chinese Arsenal, captured by our marines and held by the Russians; and above the trees towers and domes told that we were nearing Tientsin. Then through a gap in a big earthen wall that is twenty miles in circumference, past many sidings and long lines of iron trucks and waggons with bullet-marked sides, eloquent of fierce fighting, we ran into the station.

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