s met with no resistance at the second
fort, and the indefatigable Parkes having gone over to the unfortunate
Governor-General, extorted from him a surrender of the whole, which he
brought to the Commanders-in-Chief on the morning of the 22nd, having,
I believe, dictated its terms. Of course, Grant's triumph is complete,
and deservedly so. ... The system of our army involves such an
enormous transportation of provisions, &c., that we make, however, but
slow progress. I have, therefore, urged the Admiral, who has got
through the barriers at the mouth of the Peiho (and who is not
unwilling to go ahead), to proceed up the river with his gunboats: if
he meets with any obstructions which are serious, he can stop his
progress, and await the arrival of troops. If he meets none, he will
soon reach Tientsin.

_August 24th._--This morning, at about four, Grant awoke me with a
letter from the Admiral, saying that he had experienced in going up
the river exactly what we did in 1858--the poor people coming down in
crowds to offer submission and provisions, and no opposition of any
kind. He wrote from ten miles below Tientsin, which place he was going
to occupy with his small gunboat force. The General has agreed to
despatch a body of infantry in gunboats, and to make his cavalry march
by land; and I am only awaiting the return of the Admiral to move on.
So all is going on well. Grant has also agreed to send a regiment to
Shanghae in case there should be trouble there. ... It really looks
now as if my absence would not be protracted much beyond the time we
used to speak of before I started. ... At the same time, I do not like
to be too confident.

[Sidenote: The Peiho.]

_August 25th.--Noon._--High and dry at about fifteen miles below
Tientsin. This must remind you of some of my letters from the Yangtze,
two years ago. We started this morning at 6.30 in the 'Granada:' the
General and I, with both our staffs. We had gone on famously to this
point, scraping through the mud occasionally with success. In rounding
a corner, however, at which a French gunboat had already stuck before
us, we have run upon a bank. It is very strange to me to be going up
the Peiho river again. The fertility of the plain through which it
runs strikes me more than it did formerly. The harvest is at hand, and
the crops clo