66

58

First to respond were the American marines. Capt. McCalla, with a hundred of them, wished to start at once, confident of their ability to cut a swath through Chinamen all the way to Pekin if necessary. But the others did not seem to realize the gravity of the situation and the importance of promptitude.

On June 10th Admiral Seymour started, with fifteen hundred men, but only succeeded in getting a little farther than Tien-Tsin, to which city he was compelled to return on June 24th. The "Boxers" had torn up the railway, "sniped" his men incessantly and harassed them day and night, appearing in such numbers that it was very evident his force was too small to fight its way through. He took refuge in the foreign concession, outside the walled native city of Tien-Tsin and sent for reinforcements, which could reach him from Taku, by the Pei-Ho river.

The native city is said to contain one million inhabitants, and is surrounded by a stupendous wall, on which at that time were thousands of Imperial soldiers who had been trained by foreign officers. The "Boxers" besieged the concession, threatening to cut off communication with the river, and the Imperial soliders during a fortnight almost continually threw shells at the allied forces. Admiral Seymour was reluctant to shell the native city, out of consideration for the great number of non-combatants it contained, but at length found himself compelled to do so, and quickly put a stop to the pernicious activity with which the Chinese had been amusing themselves. Then he directed a sortie against the "Boxers," who were scattered, and life in the concession was a little more endurable.

July 13th the allied forces having been augmented to nine hundred Americans, three thousand Japanese, eight hundred French and eight hundred Russians, an attack on the native city was attempted. The attempt was a failure, owing to lack of knowledge concerning the ground over which the attack would have to be made. A deep and wide canal--the only bridge over which had been destroyed--halted the advancing Japanese and American troops, in the marsh, within easy range of the gunners on the walls, who, safe behind stone ramparts, shot them down like game. To retreat across the marsh, under fire, would have cost many lives. It was less dangerous to drop into such scanty cover as the marsh afforded, trust to the khaki uniforms being hard to see from a little distance and wait for nightfall. So the allies lay still all day, now and then accurately potting a solider on the wall, doing no great harm but getting painfully onto the Chinese nerve be their steady pertinacity.

When darkness fell, a desire for change of scene overcame the warriors of the Yellow Dragon. Considering, with Hudibras, that

"He who fights and runs away,
May live to fight another day."

they "flow the coop," from the side of the city opposite to that attacked. At 2 o'clock A. M., the active little Japs, who were tireless scouts, foudn that Tien-Tsin had been evacuted and by dawn the allies were in possession.

Not until August 5th was another start made for Pekin. Some of the allies wished to wait ten days longer for more reinforcements, and the Russians did not want to move until they could get a train of siege guns, even if they had to wait months for them. But General Chaffee (American), General Gaselee (British), and General Fukushima (Japanese), were determined to push on while there was still a prospect of saving the legations, and the others, reluctantly, but fearing to lose some advantage it left behind, fell into line.

The rescuing force included two thousand eight hundred Americans (9th and 14th U. S. Infantry, Reilly's Battery and a battalion of Marines), three thousand British, twelve thousand Japanese, three thousand Russians and one thousand French. Transportation facilities were grossly inadequate, the heat was intense, the water supply insufficient and vile, and seasonable torrential rains threatened, but it was by this time understood that a general massacre of all the foreigners in Pekin might take place any day if relief did not arrive quickly, and the march was a forced one from start to finish.

The first resistance was offered by the Chinese at Peit-Sang, on the first day of the march. They were strongly entrenched, and the Japanese, who bore the brunt of the attack, suffered severely but the tempestuous rush of the little brown men was more than the yellow-hearted Chinese could withstand, and the affair was quickly over. The Japanese loss was heavy, but that of the Chinese twice as great, so the man of Nippon were content.

The second day (August 6th) the Chinese made another stand at Yang-Tsun, where they had established themselves in a triple line of intrenchments backed by the formidable wall of the town, a position that if manned by good fighters, would have been well-nigh impregnable That day's