210 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



the stream. The Imperialists, encouraged by our 

 success, evidently thought to take advantage of it by 

 closing in on the city. We had nothing to do with 

 them and their siege of Troy, and left them busily 

 burning powder, with little damage apparently to 

 either side. 



As Nankin sank on the horizon astern, we could 

 not but think how sad had been its fate since we last 

 saw it. It was then full of interesting relics of 

 ancient greatness, as the capital of the Ming dynasty. 

 There was an air of respectable decay which then 

 recommended itself to our sympathies ; and there 

 were such wonders as its Porcelain Tower, and the 

 iron pagoda at Ping-shan, to astonish us with the in- 

 genuity and grotesqueness of Chinese taste. Now, 

 beyond the walls, whose solidity mocked even our 

 cannon-balls, it looked merely what it was, the 

 stronghold of banditti. Every house and temple of 

 the suburbs had been swept away, and the wonderful 

 pagoda, as high as St Paul's, faced from crown to base- 

 ment with bricks of fine porcelain, and adorned with 

 rich ornaments of the same valuable material, was 

 utterly uprooted ; indeed, if we mistake not, the forts 

 were composed of much of the ruins of that unique 

 work of art. 



However, there was one consolation in all this 

 desolation what man could undo, other men might 

 reconstruct ; and the records of Chinese history told 

 us that they had often been subjected to such visita- 



