BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER

Waikato Argus, Volume V, Issue 333, 27 August 1898, Page 6 (Supplement)

BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER

A correspondent of the London " Spectator" opportunely, describes in a recent issue of that journal an incident in which the Dhrase which is now .so often quoted in connection with the suggested AngloAmerican alliance was spoken and act3d upon. It occurred in 18-J9, in the Chinese river Peiho, during the war with China. It it hardly to the point to recount at length the circumstances which led to the presence in the river of an English squadron. It is sufficient to .say that it was there for the purpose of proceeding to Pekin, where the treaty of Teiutsin was to be ratified. The treaty had only been agreed to by the Chinese after much fighting, and there was a large party who strongly objected to it. The British Admiral arrived in the Pciho only six days before the period for the ratification of the treaty expired, and he found that the party who opposed it had done theit best to prevent him reaching the capital in time. The entrance of the river had boon blocked by three barriers, and forts which had boon" destroyed the year before had been rebuilt. However, the Admiral determined to get to Pekin if he could, and so he sent forward two vessels from his squadron of eleven, which seem to have been mostly small gunboats, to break down the first barrier, while covered by the guns of the other ships. A breach being made in the first barrier, which brought them within point black range of the Chinese forts. Up to that time not a shot had been fired but as soon as the leading gunboat touched the second barrier a single guu was fired, and in an instant the whole artillery power of the forts was brought into action. In twenty minutes the first two gunboats had so many killed and wounded that their guns wero silenced. It was then Captain Tattnall, Commodore of the American squadron in the China seas, who had been watching the affair from a small steamer, ra.ule the historic remark that " blood was thicker than water, aud he would bo d dif he was going to see white men butchered before his eyes." Ho sayin j, he ordered his boat and announced his iutontion of paying an official visit to the British Admiral. It was a dangerous trip, and just before he reached the British flagship his boat was sunk by the enemy's fire. However all the Americans scramblod on board aud found Admiral Hopo, desperately wounded, sitting in an armchair on deck directing the firing. In a few minutes the American captain sent his boat's crow forward to man the big 8-inch gun, which they did for an hour and a half until relieved by a crew from one of the other gunboats. Tattnall then re-turne-i to his steamer, and, knowing that the British reserves, who were in sailing junks, were badly wanted to the front, but could not get there, he boldly towed six hundred of them up the river to where the fiahting was going on. Lata- in the day, when the British landing party had been driven back to the beach, only to find that many of their boats had been destroyed by the encuy, Captain Tattnall again came to the rescue, running his light-draught steamer close to the bank and taking off all the men who could not find room in tho remaining boats. It was a disastrous day for the British. Out of 1100 men engaged, 430 wero killed or wounded, and six of the eleven gunboats were sunk or had to be abandoned. But it might casiiy have been worse but for the plucky American, whose action, as he waa informed by tho United States Navy Department, met with official approval.