LATEST NEWS FROM CHINA.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 4, 2 April 1842, Page 16

LATEST NEWS FROM CHINA.

We find jn the columns of the New Zealand Gazette a copy of a circular issued by Sir Heury Pottinger after the taking of Amoy ; also an extract from a letter published in the Canton Press. Our readers will observe that this news> must have been received through some other channel than the English press, but our contemporary does not state the way in which the intelligence reached him. The following particulars are gathered, we presume, from the same source : — The Chinese seem long to have expected an attack on Amoy, and' had consequently prepared themselves for it as much as their science in fortification would admit. That this has,; been effective is more attributable to the very defective state of that science among them, and to their want of courage, than to any deficiency of means, since money and labour seem to have been most profusely lavished, during the last twelve months, upon the fortifications of Amoy. Last year, when the Blonde visited that port, it was guarded by one small battery only ; when afterwards the Alligator went there, the fortifications were still in the same state, although a considerable breastwork bristling with cannon was then thrown up in the course of one night. Since that time all the fortifications described in the letter below have been built, and a very large number of cannon cast, of which no less than 802 were destroyed, partly in the arsenals. The mandarins on this occasion have again given proof of their cowardice, they having been the first to fly, with the Goverenor of the Province at their head. Such was the unwillingness of the soldiers to stand to their guns, that in some instances they are said to have been chained to them. If this be the case, it is only a repetition of the same expedient hit upon by General Yangfang in his wars with the Cochin-Chinese. No later arrivals from the coast, and we have therefore not heard of the departure of the fleet from Amoy.