LATER FROM CHINA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XII, Issue 732, 12 November 1859, Page 4

LATER FROM CHINA.

:FOBTHEE DEVELOPMENTS OF BTJSSIAN INFLUENCE (From the • Overland China Mail/ July 22) * The following letter, from a Nav-al Officer of di s , tiuction, has; been Ben t to us for-publication I 1 contains a graphic and moving .description of thj engagement at Tal^cu; and of the heroic valour di»!l played by our .officers arid men :~I feel (says the writer,) scarcely equal to the painful task of d£ scribing the occurrenceH of the 25$h June in mil."1 ciently striking and vivid colon*,, andyet on these Iknow depends the honour of all thV'braveW with whom I am serving-nay more, of Old TW lands stainless flag itsdf. A» I did not keen's journal of the previous day's proceeding, T shJ confine myself to those of the ill-marred 25th' Afc daylight the gunboats weighed, ar,a proceeied tomake a last attempt to remove the barriers that! ; the Chinese had placed across the entrance of tha river;; and were evidently determined not to r e i move of their own accord.' These, however, resisted1 all the efforts made for their removal, up to twelve o'clock, when the order was," given that the me 2 should; have their dinners, after which, it was cc nerally understood, we should' dpen fire on the forts' Strange, to, say, during /theI;!six^or/'eight hours! during which these preliminary 'measures wer|being effected, neither was a single gui^fired fiW the forts,'nor was there a symptom evident thati their occupants were prepared to defend them I Every embrasure was screened ; with matting, and\ not a head was visible over the ramparts; and this! although the gunboats were only from' 500 to 700 \ yards distant, and were all at sixes and sevens, ftoni h some getting aground, while; others Had to haul \ them off, and the space'in which they had to move' I being too confined to ailovy of their,,Wano3uvrin"\ \ yDiihier having been finished;about'half-pa3t°on9 o'clock the signal was run up to prepare-for action, and the Opossum (Lieutenant-Commander Balfour)' with Captain Willes,' E.2T., arid the Plover, with our brave old Admiral, pushed in' close up to the first barrier. No .sooner did they arrive, than suddenly, and as if by magic, the: mats that screened the guns in. all the curtain batteries* were triced up. and the whole of thegun» opened/fire! Our vessels being all well prepared, however," the fire was immediately returned.and the action became general. It was at once evident, though, that we had no ordinary Chinese artillery to. con tend against, their fire, both in weight and precision, was such as fe men and, I feel certain, no Chinese campaigner* ever before experienced. In a very few minutes the* Opossum had several of her crew killed or wounded, In the Plover the admiral waß .severely^ hit; her gallant commander, Kaspn, and Captain M'Kenna of the Ist Royals (doing duty on the Admiral's staff,) were killed, and almost every, man of the crew disabled. While the Haughty, (Lieutenant-commander Broad,) Lee (Lieutenant-commander Jones,) Kestrel (Lieutenant-commanderfieyan,) and Cormorant (Commander,Wodehouse,) we're"so severely crippled,, that they were in a sinking state: The Lee; indeed, would have gone down at once^but for Lieutenant Broadin the Haughty-dashing in-to her ressue, an* towing her out under a heavy fire. Nevertheless, the bombardment was kept-up-with unbated vigour* and in about: two houra the enemy* fire began sensibly to slacken, and (although they had got out; range, so exactly that almost every shot told, while ours, though admirably directed, dii.jcomparatively little damage to their, mud walls) shortly after four o'clock it became almost silenced. .'.-."".' ; At about .five o'clock, the; anxiously expected signal was accordingly made for the troops to' land and assault, which was oriskly answered by them ; every, boat; containing themitriving to. be. the first to reach:the shore.- ;Not.a sou) inithe "squadron at that moment douhtedpur obtaining a speedy victory. Just as the first boat touched'the shore, however* •_ bang ! went a gun again from the fort, immediately followed by a perfect hurricane of shot* shell, giugatt balls, and rockets;, frorhall the southern batteries,, jiaejii by tens a$ soonas they laoded; Nevertheless, but^of/the'boats^hey all leaped with unabated; ardour • (many of them in, water so deep that they had to swim to the shore) and dashed forward through the mud, while the ships threw in as heavy a covering fire as they possibly could. . , „ ' ■•■'..' * :The,ene]ny/s'fire^ however, continued to. be sa deadly, and the niud proved so deep (in most placea reaching up to the men's, knees, at least-ofteh no to their wiiists) that .out of the 101)0 men who landed! barely IQO reached the first of the three deep anawide ditches, which, after some 500 yards of wading through the mud, presented 'themselves before the gallant few who got so far; and out of that Ismail number scarcely twenty had been able to keep theic rifles or their ammunition dry. Nevertheless, they boldly faced those new difficulties, and some fifty, of tliem,with ,a crowd of officers (among whom wer& conspicuous the commanding officer of the French Oontingent,. Commanders Commerell .an.d Heath. tUS.i Major Parke and Lieutenant Hawkey of tha Marines,_ Major Eishef arid Lieutenant Maitland of c,r r e,, EnP" eei:s).j ?«cc eeded in. getting as far as the furthest, bank of the third, ditch, from which they would certainly have made a good attempt to scale the walls, had ladders been forthcoming: but, out,of the number that were landed, all but one had either been broken by shbf or Ma stuck in the mud. With the remaining one, however, ten devoted" men .sprang lorward, three of whom were immediately shot dead, and five wounded severely. • ■ A vertical fire of amnys,.as well as constant fusillade, was kept.up on'the select band-who now crouched in the ditch, waiting, but in vain, for reinforcements; and that any of them afterwards escaped I alive is miraculons. Seeing what insurmountable- I difficulties presented themselves, the order was at I lastgiven toretife; the lion-hearted commander of I the troops, Colonel Lemon of the-Koyal Marines, I (who was one of the first into the furthest ditch)! I Captain Vansittart of the Magicienhe, and Captain I woS'i Of^ eft ghflj'er ' all severely I SS, T*S?^^M tadly shot through the- I foot shortly after land ng, but nevertheless managed I ttt^pff-^ I! 7,^^ to the advanced; I trench. Poor Captain-Vansittart had his leg shot I cfutttSa^ ran° 8 °f the Ass«tan C c, Lieute.mnt I tleSv k? the;? o. roman(Jel, young Herbert of ' I oLJSnb i •nneSt Vere &lhm^ While gallantly I the S mZ n! and at least three-fourths of I St Officeil w! olanded were more or less severely I losV'iirh^ «g - c rei reat even more Uves wer& I Stfi iS P S|w f n m advancing. as the Chinese, by ■ exa,f ng o »- 6 hgJltS'- ere cabled to discover the 1 eSFf J '°" °f OUI then reeH»K and thoroughly I Url v me "' au^ t0 shoot them: down like I StUf. 1? n afrivin& at the water's edge, mat- 1 &.S fj ""Proved, as so many of the boats had 1 IZ n T d X v pieces b-v' round-shot, that them I jere nat eiiough remaining to take off the surviving ] men. Several were drowned in attemptinj; to get ■ off, while many had to remain for more than an. I S« «f tO- tieirL necks in water be?orQ Uiey could I get a place in a boat. And even then therr dangers I heavy that several boats full of wounded were struck. II Oorn BJ aa] Rf^ vhilei lul|, in»Qtrto the sWps. The i t^romnndel >v a3 made the temporary hospital ship; I It it SU-? e. °n he, r »PJ>«. tU;ck was truly horrible, I It wag nearly one o'clock before the' hvst boat-load 1 lTr°S ed W"S brr if ht. off t0 l>er,-arid long ere S 1 flSno. V M Cr °W(le. d *i th the mutilate And* the I dvmg. JJvery exertion, rhowever, was matJebv the H 1 «^^SSS:: I W 'ffl ttl;L^ Mariaes'-gre.at. C redl.ti S tlu e ), aß d ( - ,• 1 long ere d^ybr.eak, every sufferer iiatf had- hia' •• if >that eS'"" ani.^rsal ' | m with vI - n F ey wats a»d dose cropped hair I the lit// -USSI?? lt>atl^9' w "6 distinctly visible iv I Sly K IIU- the *! IQ! c'-of tlie f°rti<ication S wer? I ad to, w i'uroH ean ('es'ff»Uig. Some of those wh© 11 Urn? he f" r ° the Wal'P^« SO so for as to declare I S? kff &n« thlf • mwnij^ it \s. reported that two H WQ^ea,lju.tbaYUig|9C9ntesUblyEyropeßafiic<?s. Th? ||

damaged forts have already been repair,ed* and have never ceased to lire upon the boats that are still encaged under Captain Willes, and commanders Comxnerell Heath, and Wynniatt, in struggling to rescue the stranded vessels. I should haVo stated that 'the Plover Lee, ancl Kestrel all sank in the .course of the' evening of 5 the 25th, and the. Haughty and Cormorant (despatch vessels), early ae<t morning. Thanks to the untiring efforts of our gallant tars, however, the Haughty ''and Kestrel have, under a heavy fire from the forts, been floated again, and arc in comparative safety, while all the valuable content's of the CorniorSntLceantlHover have been either saved or effectual ly destroy ed- All w ho have witnessed the operations are loud iv their praises of the gunboat officers, who have all done their duty like heroes. It has undoubtedly been a most unfortunate affair j but whatever befel, no one can deny that the men did all that mortal men could do. The point selected for landing certainly appears to have been ill-chosen j but yet, as we could not get past the first barrier, it seems that, after all, it was as good as any that was accessible; ana as to the expediency of the attack being at all, I would only, ask—What would they have said in England, what would the world have. »aid, had we declined the attack; when, as far as we knew, we had only rascally, Chinese to contend with? Time, I am confident, will prove' that Europeans were our principaropponents, and that to have succeeded In our attempt we should1 have had at least five times, if not Jen times the force we;had. •_ Lieutenant Peard, of the Cormorant, is particularly .worthy of mention" for .his- conduct. Besides being in action all day with his vessel, he landed,■was first in the ditches, took back a message to the boats, and returned again,to the advanced trench. Lieutenant Peard had;served in the trenches during the whole of the siege of Sebastopol. ■ The-great -majority of the men hit, are either dangerously- or severely wounded, but I am happy to say they are almost all doing well. The weather is very favourable for them, being: cool, with fresh breezes from the north and north-east, , Shanouae, 25tii Jone.-—The Russians still continue to engage the attention of the Chinese. Not long ago they'were said "to have made overtures to the Imperial-Government for sending assistance in putting down-the-rebellion,- Now, it is said,-they are oppressing the Chinese, not the; Government only, but. the .people. .;;Such are the1' conflicting recounts that reach us from the north. It is. really,. much to be regretted that w s e ; have no means, here in this part of China, of ascertaining the true state and policy of the..Russians in this country.. While they - have • carefully watched the' proceedings of others, their own doings have ; been and are still in a great measure concealed. At the present moment, too, they are in .possession of the most ample information regarding W that other' foreigners are about, while we know very little df what they are doiug and designing/ The little we do know leads us to expect that they have great plans in relation to the north and north-west,' as well as in relation to the north-east of .this empire. The Chinese, who have any interest in the preservation of the integrity of their empire, begin to see that they have neighbours on the north, and not less difficult to be controlled than -the jFrehch and English. They find themselves between twojfires; the Russians are advancing upon them from5 the north,' and; the French and English from seaward. Betweenthesetwo strong powers, the twoalliedpn. the ones side and the Czar's oh the other, the capital of this empire becomes ah object ©£ unusual .interest; 'and 'the scenes about to be enacted there-may well attract 'universal attention. July 12th.—So far I had penned, when:! was interrupted. ■' What was;,th*en conjecture now becomes well nigh moral;certainty. "It is-a high game, humanly speaking,' and it may be woefully disastrous. This mail vrill.'carry you, I-presume, pretty full accounts of,the. blopdy conflict'at Taku,raging i at' the momenttl wa"s:writing; the first part-of this note. The whole subject; .of Rjissian ■ influence will aud must be investig;ated,"anid the truth developed.''