ey got back to their friends. The English flag
was hoisted on the fort, and some of the guns turned down on the fleet
of junks below, with whom not very injurious shots were exchanged. The
marines occupied it, while the greater part of the bluejackets descended
to their boats, the three midshipmen being among the number.

On screwed the steamers, and on dashed the boats. They were soon up
with the seventy junks, which began firing away, most furiously, round
shot and grape and langrage; the latter, scraps of old iron, they were
fond of using, and terrible are the wounds caused by it. The steamers
and the boats returned the compliment. Faster and more furious grew the
fire from the twelve guns on board each of those seventy big junks; but
one, larger than the rest, lay across the channel: the midshipmen dashed
at her; a terrific fire of grape saluted them, but they were already
close under the guns when they went off, and the shower of missiles
passed over their heads. As the Chinamen were looking out, expecting to
see their mangled limbs and the fragments of their boats scattered far
and wide, the jolly tars, unharmed, were climbing up the side of the
junk, and a few pokes with their cutlasses soon sent every mandarin and
seaman leaping overboard. Scarcely had the victors time to look about
them, than the prize was found to be on fire, fore and aft. "To the
boats! to the boats!" was the cry. The seamen had barely time to obey
the order and to shove off than up went the junk into the air with a
loud roar, and very soon afterwards down came her fragments rattling
around the boats, very nearly swamping them, and wounding several poor
fellows among their crews. As the boats emerged from the smoke, the
rest of the junks were seen in full flight in different directions, but
a great number were overtaken, and as the British got alongside the
crews deserted them. In many of them the flames immediately burst
forth, and one after the other as they drifted on the shore, they blew
up. Some were deserted by their crews before they had time to set them
on fire. Several, however, escaped, and vanished up some of the unknown
creeks to the left. Meantime, the steamers grounded, and at length the
boats alone, with the gallant commodore leading, dashed away up the
river in hot chase of the fugitives.

Numbers of junks were passed, deserted or stranded. For four miles they
pulled on till they reached a fort on an island in t