Before 10 a.m. all was over, but meanwhile 460 houses had been burnt, among them 300 odd business hongs and large shops, with most of their merchandise and contents which they had no time to remove. Foreigners did not suffer, although Messrs. Llewellyn & Co.'s new handsome shop had a narrow escape, the kitchen behind the back courtyard having caught fire and being only saved by being quickly pulled down, The subscription list is headed by the Taotai, Tls. 1,000, other officials Tls. 300, and business hongs Tis, 200 each, but to ask these same people to contribute to a reasonable preventive aystem on a foreign mode! would be useless.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.