The French, having determined to make an attack on our camp, began to march on 27th day of the dth moon (June 20th). They reached the Ch'ing Hua #76 river on the 20th (June 22nd) and the next aay, being the lat of the intercalary 5th moon, General Wan despatched the deputy Hu with a communication to the French camp. By the time Hu reached the French lines, he found them already marshalled in battloarray. Hu walked straight up to the French commander, presented the communication, and demanded the reason of his coming. The commander replied that he was going to Langson and Kao-pain; that the Kaangtung soldiers were in h way; and that wu less the Chinese troops retreated within the gates he would be obliged to commence hostilities. Hu then charged him with breaking faith, and the Frei soldiers put Hu's three followers to death, maltreating Hu and driving him back to our camp. It was fortunate that our left wing of eight camps of tung troops, commanded by Huang Yii-hsien, were preed. When the French made a rush forward, and fired three rounds, Huang arched out to the river bank and resisted the enemy from seven in the morni tivo in the afternoon, Our troops wai Treaty of Peace havin; signed, they were not well supplic cartridges. Just then the rain came down in torrents, and both sides had to cease firing. Soon our supplies of ammunition arrived, and the battle re-commenced. At dusk the French beat " precipitate retreat, carrying with them all their dead and wounded. Of the Kuangtung soldiers only twenty odd received any injury. Our army did not give pursuit, as there were two large camps of the enemy close by the Ching Hua river. That night our troops bivouacked in the open air. Then Governor an Ting-hsin hurried toLangeon, and held a.councilof war with Fang Tao-t'
Fan-t'ai, at which it was decided thatthe camp under Wang Tzu-chun and two camps under the T'ao-t*ai Fang should be ordered to in Chino [Bridge of the Goddess of Merey] to give assistance to the left wing under General"Wan, At sunrise on. 25th, about 3000 French troops, with native Catholics and Saigonese, 10,000 in all, cause on us like the ushing tide. The left wing of- our army was composed. of eight battalions, Huang, Wei, and Tien, each commanded one battalion, and they held the Bridge, assisted by the battalion wider the command of Wang Taii-chin, [Then follows an account of the i resulted in the Fren with their hands in the air).
There were over fifty heads brought with camp; twenty- were those of Fronchmen, the rest having belonged to native Catholics. -Six converts wore captured and made to carry the French heads to Langson, where they were themeolves <lecapitated. It was reported that while the French were on the point of retreating, a quarrel arose betiroen an officer with five stripes and one with three, "It seemed that the former was in favour of giving battle, while the latter wanted peace. There were also captured gold and silver ornaments, treasure, curios, clothing, mine, meat, eral boxes of ammunition, and over hundred repeating rifles. A reward of 4 was given for every thousand cartridges. The repeaters wore very much prized by our soldiers, who concealed a good many for themselves without claiming the ree ward, Many good horses wore also taken, which the soldiers kept for their own riding. For days after the engagement they kept on bringing bloodstained clothes to head: quarters for reward. ho enemy lost several hundred men, as over a hundred rpses wore dug up along the Ch'ing Hua river minus their heads; decapitation having been resorted to lest our soldiers might be able to find out the exact loss sustained by the Frouch, Our loss am-aunted to a little over a hundred killed, and over three hundred wounded.—Trans: lated from a Hongkong newspaper.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.