The following private letter has been Kindly handed to us for publication. It is dated Tengku, the 18th of June:
My pear——, Wars and rumours of wars. Night before last at 12.49 a.m., the Taku forts opened fire on the gunboats in the river and kept up 2 rapid fire unfit 6 o'clock a.m., when they were all taken by storm and the firing stopped. Wo as usual in such things were ordered to do nothing but resist if we were directly attacked. About nine o'clock p.m., preceding the firing a tug came from Taku and brought us the women and children, about thirty in number, as their homes were in the line of fire. They did not get off without risk however for the shell came over and around us thick enough for our discomfort. One eight-inch shell struck one of our boats and then went out through our forecastle. Why it did not Kill some one is a wonder. Splinters and debris were thrown in all directions and this part of the ship was full of people. We dropped our moorings and scuttled up the river and the dear Chinese fired at us with good aim but only struck us with a few fragments. As soon as the firing ceased we came back and then my work began, My first patient was a Chinaman whose arm was taken partially off by a shell, I finished the job for him and he still lives. By the way none of our people were hit. I was busy with wounded aut day and you may be sure I slept last night. On the evening of the 16th, all of the Admirals in the fleet here except ours joined in an ultimatum to the commanders of the Taku forts to surrender them by two o'clock or else we would begin firing. They got no answer but shell at 12.45 a.m. There wore only small gunboats in the river, but they did good work. The Chinese did much better than I thought they could and they stuck to it well. At about five in the morning their main magazine blew up and it was a wonderful sight. That took the heart out of them and their fire fell off right away and the combined force took the north fort by storm. The landing party was 800 strong and everybody was in it except Americans. All we have done has been to feed women and children and look out for the wounded. It is hard to get correct information about anything but I will tell you all I can as I weed it out. The most of the casualties are with the Russians. Their ship, the Gilyak, had part of her shell magazine exploded by a Chinese shell and that nearly wrecked her and killed and wounded 17 men. They lost in Killed and wounded over 80, the British 12, the Japs 26, the French 11, the Germans 18. Of the Germans Captain Lanz of the Iltis was seriously wounded by the explosion of one of her boilers that was pierced by a shell. He was struck in the head and foot. Will probably lose the foot, but there is a chance to save him. His loss to the work here will be much felt for he is by far the most energetic and efficient man down here. The Captain of one of the Tapanese men-of-war was killed in the assault. One British officer slightly wounded. The Alacrity is hit near the water line but is keeping afloat. The situation now is this. We have 700 men inside of Peking besieged by the Chinese troops. We have 2,500 men trying to get through the Chinese to Peking, but we have not heard from them for five days. There are about three thousand men in and about Tientsin of ours, all of them actively fighting the Chinese troops and the Boxers, the latter and the former working together. The Monocacy marines and twenty sailors from this ship are in Tientsin in command of Irwin. We have of our own people at Peking 57 men in command of a captain of marines. We have 150 men with the relief column outside of Peking in command of Captain McCalla. The whole column is in charge of Admiral Seymour. To-day the Russians want to land 2,000 Cossacks, the Japanese 3,000, the British 800, and the Germans about 200. That will do for a start, but I think 40,000 men will be needed before the business is finished.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.