12 



THE TAOUTAI'S PKECAUTIONS. Chap. I. 



for the safety of the city. He purchased large 

 siippHes of gunpowder and guns from foreigners, 

 enlisted soldiers, and called out the militia. But 

 evidently being rather doubtful of the results, and 

 perhaps not having much confidence in the bravery 

 of his troops, he removed his treasure from the 

 Imperial treasury in the city, and placed it on 

 board of H.M. brig " Lily." 



Captain Fishbourne, in his ' Impressions of 

 China,' gives us an anecdote which shows plainly 

 that the old man was in a great state of alarm : — 

 " About this time I asked him how it was that, 

 with such large and well-appointed armies as the 

 Imperialists investing Nanking were said to be, 

 they did not recapture it? He answered, these 

 thieves were not men, they were devils; that 

 they had undermined all the ground inside the 

 walls ; that the Imperialists had effected a breach 

 in the walls, but, anticipating an ambuscade, they 

 had driven a large number of buffaloes in through 

 the breach, and that these had all disappeared 

 into a dreadful gulf which the insurgents had 

 made." 



Things were in this state when Mr. Meadows, 

 Interpreter to the Consulate, volunteered to try 

 and reach the insurgent camp, and obtain some 

 definite information with regard to their position, 

 their numbers, and particularly their views with 

 regard to Shanghae. He left Shanghae on the 

 9th of April in his own boat, with a picked crew, 

 and, having a fair southerly wind, reached Soo- 



