CHINA. 



97 



force of Chinese troops marched into the district 

 and dispersed the Boxers after killing 98 of their 

 number in a fight. On Dec. 31, 1899, the Rev. 

 Mi. Brooks, an Englishman, was cruelly murdered 

 in Shantung. Sir Claude MacDonald addressed 

 a grave remonstrance and warning to the Tsung- 

 i-Yamen. The German Government objected to 

 u-Hsien, who was removed, but only to be ap- 

 inted Governor of Shansi, the Tsung-li-Yamen, 

 with Prince Tuan at its head, receiving with mer- 

 riment the charge of the German representative, 

 backed up by his British and American colleagues, 

 that he was responsible for the disturbances in 

 Shantung. Yuan-Shih-Kai was appointed Gov- 

 ernor of Shantung, and he began to put down the 

 Boxers, giving his brother charge of his troops, 

 which are the best disciplined soldiery in China. 

 The brother was immediately recalled, and the 

 governor was made to understand that he 

 ould be held answerable for any popular dis- 

 :urbance resulting from his action against the 

 Boxers. 



The burning of a Christian congregation in its 

 chapel and the cruel murder of two native preach- 

 ers occurred in January, 1900. The pillage of 

 converts and the exaction of fines for the support 

 of the Boxers were matters of daily occurrence. 

 Two of the murderers of Mr. Brooks were be- 

 headed and some of the officials were punished, 

 but the British Government declared the settle- 

 ment unsatisfactory in that no punishment was 

 inflicted on Yu-Hsien. The British minister, on 

 Jan. 11, warned the Tsung-li-Yamen that whether 

 the negotiations took a friendly course or the 

 reverse would depend on the manner in which 

 the local authorities carried out the imperial 

 edict enjoining strong measures. On the same 

 day another edict was issued which seemed to 

 encourage the Boxers, and in view of its equivocal 

 language identical notes were addressed to the 

 Tsung-li-Yamen on Jan. 27 by the American, 

 British, French, German, and Italian ministers 

 pressing for the promulgation of an imperial de- 

 cree condemning by name and abolishing the 

 I-Ho-Chuan and Ta-Tao-Hwei societies. The 

 answer received on Feb. 25 was so unsatisfactory 

 that the ministers demanded a joint audience of 

 the Tsung-li-Yamen. A decree denouncing the 

 I-Ho-Chuan was issued, but its failure to produce 

 the desired effect was attributed to the honors 

 and promotion bestowed on the late Governor of 

 Shantung, whom the foreign representatives re- 

 garded as the chief instigator of the anti-Christian 

 movement. At every new outbreak of lawlessness 

 fresh proclamations were issued, some of them ex- 

 cusing or encouraging the Boxers and their patri- 

 otic spirit while condemning their excesses. Sol- 

 diers were posted at various points, many of them 

 being members of the Boxer society and all except 

 troops brought from Tientsin sympathizing with 

 its objects. These foreign-drilled troops dispersed 

 various bands and killed numbers of their mem- 

 bers, but the scattered bands reassembled in a safer 

 place. Proclamations that were issued threat- 

 ening punishment if the Boxers did not disband 

 within a certain time were neutralized by secret 

 edicts representing them as Chinese patriots who 

 wished to organize a local militia to help their 

 untry in its difficulties. The society, which 

 s originally founded by Taoist priests, practiced 

 uliar rites and incantations, and its members 

 aimed to be invulnerable to bullet or sword, 

 ey made no effort to procure rifles, but were 

 med only with swords, pikes, and three-pronged 

 >rks. Their claim to invulnerability against all 

 inds of weapons was believed implicitly by them- 

 ilves even when they saw men in their ranks 

 VOL. XL. 7 A 



falling in numbers. The chiefs of the Manchu 

 party believed it also, or affected to believe it; 

 and when one of the Chinese ministers told the 

 Kmpress that he had seen heaps of slain Boxers, 

 she said that they must have been robbers who 

 had joined the bands under false pretenses. Tung- 

 Fuhsiang, honored as the only victorious Chinese 

 general, ever since he arrived with his fierce, 

 undisciplined Mohammedan troops from Kansu 

 two years before after suppressing the rebellion 

 in Mongolia, had been eager to engage in a war 

 with all Europe. Prince Tuan also, who had 

 passed much of his life at Mukden, was persuaded 

 that the regular Chinese army, aided by the in- 

 vincible Boxers as irregulars, would prove strong 

 enough to drive out any force that the outer bar- 

 barians were likely to send to China. 



The Boxer movement had spread from Shantung 

 into .Pechili and Manchuria and invaded Tientsin 

 and Pekin before the Boxers began openly to drill 

 and to threaten the Christian communities. They 

 established their headquarters at Paotung-Fu, 80 

 miles south of Pekin. Before the end of May this 

 district was filled with Boxer camps, and the 

 movement spread toward Pekin. In Chochau 

 were many thousands of Boxers, who ate up all 

 the food in the district, and compelled the Taotai 

 to stamp with his official seal their orders and 

 proclamations. Attacks were made on the small 

 scattered communities, especially upon native 

 Christians. These began to flock to the missions 

 for protection. Some of the American missionaries 

 made formal charges against the society and ac- 

 cused several of the provincial officials of uphold- 

 ing it. Yu-Hsien, Governor of Shantung, in a 

 secret memorial advocated the society as a useful 

 agent in driving out foreigners and preserving 

 Shantung for the Chinese. The Empress Dowager, 

 in a number of edicts, while condemning secret soci- 

 eties in general, made an exception of this patriotic 

 organization, whose watchword was to uphold the 

 dynasty and exterminate or expel the foreigners. 

 Its members were declared to be peacefully prac- 

 ticing athletics and learning gymnastics for self- 

 defense and to protect their villages and homes. 



On May 28 some bands which set out from 

 Tungchau destroyed the railroad station at Y T eng- 

 Tai, close to the capital, where the Tientsin and 

 Pekin and the Lu-Han Railroads have their junc- 

 tion. The track was torn up for many miles, and 

 the machine shops and locomotives were de- 

 stroyed. After the attacks on Catholic missions 

 near Paotung-Fu, on May 17, Bishop Favier, in 

 Pekin, warned the French minister that Pekin 

 was surrounded by Boxers, who were planning to 

 attack the legations; that they were numerous 

 within the city, and were compelling Catholic 

 converts to take refuge in the mission compounds ; 

 that the Boxers were approaching from the east 

 as well as . the south, and only delayed their 

 progress in order to exterminate all Christians on 

 the way. The bishop fortified the Peitang cathe- 

 dral, bought supplies, rifles, and ammunition, and 

 in the end obtained guards for which he petitioned 

 32 French and 10 Italian marines. The Belgian 

 and other engineers at Chang-Hsin-Tien, on the 

 Lu-Han Railroad, were rescued with their families 

 by a party of civilians from Pekin. A large num- 

 ber of engineers, mostly Belgians, endeavored to 

 escape from Pao-Ting-Fu by boat to Tientsin 

 with a Chinese escort, which betrayed them to 

 the Boxers. The party, after losing the boat, 

 divided into two companies. One company tried 

 to return, but went astray, and the survivors 

 finally reached Cheng-Ting-Fu, where they helped 

 the bishop, priests, and nuns to defend the mission 

 station against repeated attacks. The other com- 



