266


FOREIGN RELATIONS.


spared from the Ashuelot and Yantic, for the general protection, the result
being that
about 9.30 p. m. some seventy-eight men and a Gatling gun were landed at
the French
consulate-general. At the request of M. Godeaux eighteen of these and the
Gatling
gun were left to protect the consulate-general, the rest were marched up
to the muni-
cipal hall to await events. After they had been there for about half an hour,
news
arrived from the little east gate that the French police-station there had
been attacked
by a mob, and Mr. Bradford was directed to conduct twenty of the American
marines
to its defense, which was successfully accomplished, and the post occupied
by them
till they were relieved by a company of Chinese foreign-drilled soldiers,
detached for
the purpose from the one hundred and fifty sent by the Taotai in answer to
the
consul-general's application. Thus, at the point at which we have arrived,
if we in-
clude thirty armed police, twenty Couleuvre's men, seventy-eight of the United
States
Navy, and one hundred and thirty or so of native troops, there was a force
of about
two hundred and sixty men massed at or near the municipal hall about 10.30
p. m.
At this hour they were joined by about two hundred of the Shanghai volunteer
com-
pany, instructed by the meetings of consuls and council, as already related,
to act in
co-operation with those they found there. To the thousands of undisciplined
Chinese
there was opposed a well-equipped and disciplined force of nearly five hundred
men.
  Resuming our narative of the riot, we find the troops of the Taotai, the
naval par-
ties from the United States Navy and from the Couleuvre, the Shanghai volunteers,
the armed French police, (with the Hongkew hook and ladder company and Deluge
No. 4 engine company, to do fire-duty under protection of the Shanghai volunteer
company, in case it should be wanted,) to the aggregate number of about five
hundred
men, at the municipal hall about 10.30 on Sunday night. After consultation,
the
troops of the Taotai were picketed throughbut the disturbed quarter, with
the instruc-
tions to seize all suspicious characters; the police'and the Couleuvre men
guarded the
municipal hall, and the volunteers marched in column through the scene of
the dis-
turbances. All was still, and the streets deserted by the people; the ddbris
of the
buildings destroyed were smouldering into blackness, and occasionally flaring
up into
fierce flame. Here and there dead bodies of Chinese were seen lying. While
the vol-
unteers were making this patrol, the consular body, escorted by the United
States
naval party, and the chehsien, guarded by a squad of native troops, went
to the
Ningpo Joss-house, the so urce or central point of all the trouble; and as
it was re-
ported that: the ring-leaders of the riot had taken their quarters there,
it was proposed
to enter and search. Several of the doors were knocked at, but there was
no response;
upon which Mr. Seward, the senior consul, suggested to the chehsien that
an entrance
should be forced. The naval party was directed to guard the east side of
the building
to prevent any inmate from escaping, while the rest of the circuit was intrusted
to the
volunteers, who had now completed their patrol. The attendants of the chehsien
at-
tempted to burst open or unhinge the massive door&s, but they were found
too strong
and too closely fitted into the massive stone door-,posts and lintels to
be practicable.
The chehsien reported himself unable to effect an entrance. On this the Hongkew
hook and ladder company was sent for by Mr. Seward, and, the chehsien's sanction
having been obtained, they set themselves to the task. But against the repeated
and
energetic blows of their ram the door was proof. It was then resolved to
cut a hole
through the door large enough to admit a man, which being done, one of the
number
got through, and found a perfect mass of the thick wooden slabs of which
the Chinese
make their coffins jammed at the back of the door at the strongest angle
of resist-
ance. These were removed piecemeal and an entrance effected. The chehsien
requested
that none should enter the building except the consuls, himself, and some
of his escort.
Careful search was made all through the extensive premises, but no living
person was
to be seen; it was pure and simple a habitation of the dead. The absence
of watch-
man, servant, or attendant of any kind was, indeed, suspicious, and some
sharp eyes
there were that saw a ladder so placed as to suggest the idea that the occupants
of the
place had taken refuge on the roof; but the awkwardness that would result
if the idea
proved erroneous prevented a.proposal to search from being made.
  Arrangements were then made for keeping guard over the concession during
the
night, which duty was shared between the French police and the Taotai's troops,
while
the detachment of the Ashuelot's men left at the French consulate-general
remained
there during the night. The Shanghai volunteers, having again fallen in at
the Joss-
house, rharched back to the bund in the reverse order in which they came,
and near the
customs-house, having been formed in column, Captain Hart (to borrow the
language
of the Daily News) "addressed a few words of thanks to the men for the
steadiness
with which they had obeyed orders, and announced that in case of a fresh
alarm four
guns would be fired from the United States corvette Ashuelot, when they were
at once
to muster at the main-guard. Mr. Fearon, as civil commandant of the corps,
also
complimented the men upon the readiness with which they had turned out, and
on
their steady and soldierly bearing. Fortunately, their active services had
not been
needed, but their conduct gave a proof of their efficiency, which would increase
the
confidence of the community in their capacity to maintain order if required.
He