Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 3.djvu/50

tentialities, confirmed by that of another missionary who equally defied the laws three years later, directed foreign attention to the place. When the British arrived there on the 19th of June, 1842, they found a city with walls measuring three and a half miles in circuit and mounting three hundred and eighty-eight guns, but one broadside from the squadron which had sailed up the river silenced the only show of resistance, and the town escaped all injury, the government granaries alone being destroyed by the invaders, who distributed among the people the rice stored there.

The last and most painful episode of this war was the storming and destruction of Chinkiang. This city lies about one hundred and fifty miles from the mouth of the Yangtse on the southern bank. Its walls at the time of the British attack had a circuit of some four miles, and the city itself was garrisoned by a mixed body of Manchus, Mongols, and Chinese, numbering about three thousand, while in the extramural suburbs an equal force of Chinese was posted. The defenders within and without the city did not attempt to work in concert, but whereas the Chinese offered a comparatively feeble resistance, the Tartars and Mongols stood to their posts bravely, and, when all was lost, followed the example of their comrades at Chapu, destroying their wives and children and afterwards committing suicide.