Ness from the capital reports Boxers and marauders disturbing the country, rabbi-g travellers, "'holling up country houses," burning chapels and murdering Ciristiaus wherever they em find them. On- informant tells me ti" Boxers are only attacking the Tiencha Chico or Roman Cath-Jies; on the other hand, T hear the Friends' Mission, situated at Tungchuan, east of Chengtu, an importa st town at the head of the lug: junk navigation on the Kialing or "Little" River. has been burnt down bur nob dv hat. There is an imant Roman Catholic mission in this place "ud rioters ar: ut careful to distinguish. The es pital itself was not. far off being captured the other day; the fight outside the north gate was a drawn lottie, bout three hundred being killer on both sides; Europeans in Chengtu say that had the Box-rs po-sosoed lo-ders they wou'd have hid the city with its Viceroy. The Lieu!
the French arrive! in the capital fort and place of refuge in the Roman Catholic Bishop's palace thers, and he is the converts so as to defend the place and them-elves. This may be " wise and necessary step, but it is a sd expose of the parlous state that the missionary ysrowanda, irresponsible and une-ntrolie?, brought China to. I drew your rearers' attention, a year azo, to the fact that bad y trouble brewing here owing t" the competition fro. which the o'd-fashioned Roman Catholic missions in this province are suffering from the aggressive Protest ants; and it vow looks as if we were have another Ugenda in Jong; all which doubtless tends to the greater glory of God, but is bad for bus-mess.
11th September.
The Boxer Movement this province still spreads, and the officials are hard put to cope with it. The latest news is that, under a leader numad Liu, 600 men, armed with gingals, are encamped in a fortified "Chai" at Anjo, a town situated west of H"chow and Suining. about fifty miles to the north-west of Chungking and near the high road hence to Chengtu. Our city of Chungking is to be attacked, without and within, on the day of the mid-autumn Festival, the 16th instant, but these threatened irruptions seldom eventuate, as your realers will learn by telegram, negatively. 80 to ik, before this letter is real by them. The officials here are on the alert and making the best show they can with their scanty resources The garrison of this place, nominally 1,000 but actually about 20) men, has gone in Part to attack the rebels. The question is How far can the troops be relied upon? In the recent encounter outside the gates of Chengtu they certainly made a very oer exhibition, considering that these, the Viceroy's. men, are foreiga-drilled' and armed with magazine riffes, while the wretched Boxers carry only knives and here and there a gingal. Altogether in this vast province, there are probably not more than 5,000 or 6,000 regularly-d-illed troops, and these are scattered in small contingents. Every threatened place calls out for troops, and Boxers, or bandits, which is much the same thing. appear to be ubiquitous. For-ign travellers are 2 caus of much anxiety to the military; the French Consul, who left for Chéogtu last month, had a guard given him of 07 men, and two missionaries, who left for the capital about the same time, forced the} Taolai, in his anxiety lest he should have to answer for a European soldiers. 'The object of the laters' journey was to distribute tracts to the students upon their issue from the Exami tion Hall in Chengtu at the termination of the triennial examination now in progress there, the very time when distur ince is probable, On the other hand the British Consul is doing all in his power to dissuade British subjects from travelling with the view, apart from the risk they run, of lessening the embarrassment: of the hard-driven officers. The trouble has no doubt come to a head through th" feeble character of the old Viceroy Manchu who is entirely in the hands of a parcel of the most reactionary, anti-foreign mandarins in the province. The new Viceroy, Tstn, who is now htening downed from Shan si by forced marches, is reporte' to bea strong man: he is 44 years of og. and the son of the late Viceroy of Yunnan
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.