General Grant, Mrs. Grant, and party, arrived at Tientsin at 6.30 p.m. on the 27th May, on board the Ashuelot, after having been detained two hours or more in the tortuous Peiho, through getting on a mudbank.
The General's reception was a striking one, and did the Northern Settlement great credit, notwithstanding a slight hitch in the first part of the programme, caused, it asserted, by the unexpected interference of an official who certainly ought to have kept himself within the limita of his own duties. However, he shall be nameless, because of the undoubted success of the well as the officers'of the forts and gunboats, might know exactly when to commence the ceremonial, which was of course to begin with salutes of 21 guns from the ships. Further more, the Ashuelot was to have hoisted the Chinese national flag and salute with 21 guns, With this was to have ended this part of the reception, and then the Viceroy's representatives were to have gone on board the Ashuelot to present His Excellency's letter of welcome, and extend the band, or "chin-chin," of friendship to the General on his arrival in this part of Asia, Next, on arriving at the forts, with the Viceroy's gunboats leading the way, the forts were to salute the General with 21 guns, the soldiers forming up and presenting arms as the vessels passed by. The same ceremony was to have been observed at Hsti Ching, and more salutes were to be fired at Tientsin by the Chinese gunboats.
All this was fully and finally arranged as per programme, and the Viceroy had decided to come down himself in his steam yacht, go on hoard the Asluelot, and welcome the General in person be. fore he landed. But much of this arrangement was dislocated, partly because of unavoidable accidents, as will be soon below.
At Tientsin itself, much preparation was made to give the General a suitable and joyous reception. The Municipal Council erected a fine shed on the Bund and dressed it gaily with flags and bunting, while chairs and seats were placed on one side for the accommodation of the Chinese officials, similar provision being made on the other side for the Consuls, the Indies, and the members of the foreign community generally. It will thus be seen that nothing was left undone, as far as the resources of the Settlement would go, to make the General's welcome hearty and unanimous, At the U.S. Consulate there was erected a spacious matshed in the form of a T, extonding from the front gate of the compound to the front door of the Consulate itself, being parallel with the front of the house and crossing the whole width of the compound, This shed was constructed in Chinese style, and along both sides were placed stages, four tiers high, covered with mats and turkey red cloth, besides being decorated with upwards of 1,000 pots of the finest flowers that could be obtained in Tientsin, affording one of the largest floral exhibitions ever seen in the Far East—the neighbouring gentry and native flower-men lending all their public and private stocks to make up the show. The shed was also finely adorned with flags and coloured cloth and festooned with bunting, with wreaths of evergreonsandstarsformed with evergreens, the initials "U.S.G." being conspicuous} placed, meeting the eye both outside and side the shed. The flags of all the nations having Consul at Tientsin or representative in China waved from the roof, the whole place, together with the wall surrounding the compound being hung with Chinese ornamental lanterns of coloured horn and after arrangements.
The original arrangements were that the Ashuelot was to arrive at the bar dressed in colours, 20 that the Viceroy LiHung-chang's officials sent to welcome General Grant, as glass. In the evening the Consulate was illuminated.
Such was the preparation made by our little community to receive the foremost man of the age, but now comes the chapter
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.