ng the forts
along the river as it advanced. In the end, when an attack had become
imminent, the authorities ransomed their city for the sum of six million
dollars.

But the emperor did not know yet the strength of the power with which he
had to deal, and still continued silent and defiant. The fleet now
sailed northward, capturing in succession Amoy, Chin-hai, and Ning-po.
Cha-pu was the next to fall, and here the Manchu Tartars for the first
time came into conflict with the English. When defeated, great numbers
of them killed themselves, first destroying their wives and children.
The forts at the mouth of the Yang-tse-Kiang were next taken. Here the
governor-general took care to post himself out of danger, but in a
grandiloquent despatch declared that he had been in the hottest of the
fight, "where cannon-balls innumerable, flying in awful confusion
through the expanse of heaven, fell before, behind, and on every side,
while in the distance were visible the ships of the rebels standing
erect, lofty as mountains. The fierce daring of the rebels was
inconceivable; officers and men fell at their posts. Every effort to
resist the onset was in vain, and a retreat became inevitable."

The result was the capture of Shanghai. The British now determined on a
siege of the important city of Nanking, the ancient capital of China.
The movement began with an attack on Chin-Kiang-fu, the "Mart-river
city." Here a fierce assault was made, the Manchu garrison resisting
with obstinate courage. In the end, of the garrison of four thousand
only five hundred remained, most of the others having killed themselves.
This victory rendered the capture of Nanking certain, its food-supply
was already endangered by the English control of the river, and the
authorities gave way. The emperor was now convinced that further
resistance was hopeless, and the truce ended in a treaty of peace, the
Chinese government agreeing to pay twenty-one million dollars indemnity,
to open to British trade and residence the ports of Canton, Amoy,
Foo-Chow, Ning-po, and Shanghai, and to cede to the English the island
of Hong-Kong, with various minor stipulations.

This war, which was fought with the discreditable purpose of forcing
upon China an injurious drug against her will, had nevertheless several
very useful results. Other European nations hastened to claim the same
privileges of trade that were given the English, and in 1844 a
commercial treaty was signed bet