Nov. 22, 1858.] AND THE PEIHO RIVER. 73 



Astonishment, wonder, and curiosity had mastered all their fears. 

 Presently we saw a bridge of boats extending across ahead, and 

 beyond it the river evidently made a sharp bend to the right, whilst 

 on the left, the mouth of the Great Canal was distinctly visible. We 

 all cheered with delight ; we felt Tientsin was ours, and that in it 

 we held, to use the figurative language of Shanghai, the throat of 

 China! Although the mob officiously opened the bridge and ap- 

 peared anxious to cheer us onward, I felt it was my duty to take up 

 a position for sweeping the southern face of the city walls, and as 

 they were now only a few hundred yards oif, I anchored at the 

 bridge. Two conspicuous public buildings were visible from the 

 Bustard; one ahead looked down the reach, which from its importance 

 we supposed to be the Temple at which, in 1793, Lord Macartney 

 was met by the Emperor's Legate. This building subsequently 

 became the abode of the allied Ambassadors. The other was only 

 seen from the masthead : it was a handsome isolated building on the 

 plain, about 1200 yards distance from the river ; its gorgeous paint- 

 ing attracted our attention, and it strangely enough was the place 

 in which the treaty of Tientsin was eventually signed. It was 

 named by the Chinese " the Temple of the Glory of the Ocean." 



Hardly had our anchor reached the bottom before Chinamen and 

 boys began to swim ofl* with fowls, eggs, fruit, and vegetables for 

 sale ; and as our seamen were revelling in a degree of wealth which 

 was particularly irksome to them, consisting of copper coin captured 

 in the batteries of Taku, the good folk of Tientsin were not a little 

 astonished at the wonderful amount of wealth thus strangely pouring 

 in upon them, and evinced every anxiety to take all possible advan- 

 tage of it. In the height of the excitement, which our men increased 

 to fever heat by showering handfuls of cash among the crowd for 

 a scramble, a midshipman stationed aloft reported that a large body 

 of Chinese troops were quitting the Temple of the Glory of the 

 Ocean and marching into the city. The pivot-gun was rapidly 

 cleared away and pointed over the crowd : the buyers and sellers 

 became sadly agitated between fear and cupidity. We made signs 

 that all we required was room enough to fire at their countrymen ; 

 they appreciated the joke amazingly, cleared a space 50 yards wide 

 in front of the gun's muzzle, and then sat down to see the fun. 

 Happily for the retreating soldiery, as well as for the Temple of the 

 Glory of the Ocean, the Bustard's gun could not be sufficiently ele- 

 vated to clear the adjacent housetops, and I was unwilling to fire 

 through them at the mandarins without some provocation, otherwise 

 it is possible that His Excellency Lord Elgin would not have found 

 that said temple sufficiently wind and water-tight for those con- 



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