tly across the stream with their heavy
bow-guns pointing at him. These opened so tremendous a fire that in a
few moments every boat was hit. The commodore's coxswain was killed,
and scarcely a man in the boat escaped. While Lieutenant Prince Victor
of Hohenlohe was engaged in attending to a wounded man, a shot whizzed
between him and the commodore, and had he not been bending down, he
would have been killed. So full of water was the boat that Keppel had
to jump on the after-thwart to keep his legs out of it, when another
round-shot passed through both sides of the boat scarcely an inch below
him. At length, as the boat was on the point of sinking, he and his
companions, taking the wounded men, got into one of the _Calcutta's_
boats. The rest of the flotilla had suffered in the same way, and
numerous officers and men had been killed or wounded. The commodore,
seeing that there was little hope of success at that moment, ordered the
boats to retire, and the deck of the _Hong-Kong_ was soon covered with
the wounded men brought on board. The fire of the Chinese still
reaching her, several more men were killed on board. The admiral,
however, hearing the firing, had sent up reinforcements, and Commodore
Keppel, calling to the rest of the boats to follow, again dashed forward
in the _Raleigh's_ cutter, in a style which so daunted the Chinese that,
cutting their cables, they pulled away up the stream. The British
seamen cheered and, opening fire from their big guns, were soon up to
the sternmost junks. These were quickly captured, their crews in many
instances leaping overboard. The rest were pursued for seven miles,
till the British boats found themselves almost in the middle of the
large city of Fatshan. Here the commodore landing put a considerable
body of troops to flight, and would have captured and held the town had
not the admiral considered the enterprise useless. He contented
himself, therefore, with towing away five large junks, the only portion
of the Chinese fleet which had escaped destruction. This success was
purchased at the cost of 84 men killed and wounded. Chuenpee, further
down the river, was next captured without difficulty, for though
considerably strengthened, so disheartened were the Chinese that they
did not attempt to defend it.

Considerable reinforcements were now sent out from England, including
the _Shannon_, Captain W. Peel, the _Pearl, Sanspareil_, and numerous
gunboats; but news of