ically useless. It has
been tried everywhere and found to be defective. When it rattles at
full speed, it has been seen that its sighting is illusory--that it
throws erratically high in the air, and that ammunition is simply
wasted. It cannot help us in the slightest. The value of machine-guns
has been always overrated.

Then there is a Nordenfeldt belonging to the British marines, and a
very small Colt, which was brought up by the Americans. The
Nordenfeldt is absolutely useless and now refuses to work; the Colt is
so small, being single-barrelled, that it can only do boy's work. Yet
this Colt is the most satisfactory of all, and when we have dragged it
out with us and played it on the enemy, it has shot true and straight.
They say it has killed more men than all the rest put together....

There should be a Russian gun, too--a good Russian gun of respectable
calibre. But although the shells were brought, a thousand of them,
too, the gun was forgotten at the Tientsin Station! Such a thing could
only happen to Russians, everybody says. But some people say it was
forgotten on purpose, because De G---- had received absolute assurance
from the Chinese Government that the Russian Legation would not be
attacked under any circumstances, and that sailors were only brought
up to keep faith with the other Powers....

This miserable list, as you will see, means that we have nothing with
which to reply to the enemy's fire. We are not so proud and foolish as
to wish to silence the guns ranged against us, but, at least, we
should be able to make some reply. In desperation, the sailor-gunners
tried to manufacture a crude piece of ordnance by lashing iron and
steel together, and encasing it in wood. Fortunately it was never
fired, for in the nick of time an old rusty muzzle-loader has been
discovered in a blacksmith's shop within our lines, and has been made
to fire the Russian ammunition by the exercise of much ingenuity. It
belches forth mainly flames, and smokes and makes a terrific report.
Some say this is as useful as a modern twelve-pounder....

About the Chinese guns we can find out very little, excepting that
none, or very few, of the modern weapons which are in stock at Peking
have been used against us. There are at most only nine or ten in
constant use; perhaps the others have been dragged away down the long
Tientsin road. But even these nine or ten, if they were worked
together, would nearly wreck us. Our sorties have pu