through the barriers at the mouth of the Peiho (and who is not unwilling to go ahead), to proceed up the river with his gunboats:  if he meets with any obstructions which are serious, he can stop his progress, and await the arrival of troops.  If he meets none, he will soon reach Tientsin.

August 24th.—­This morning, at about four, Grant awoke me with a letter from the Admiral, saying that he had experienced in going up the river exactly what we did in 1858—­the poor people coming down in crowds to offer submission and provisions, and no opposition of any kind.  He wrote from ten miles below Tientsin, which place he was going to occupy with his small gunboat force.  The General has agreed to despatch a body of infantry in gunboats, and to make his cavalry march by land; and I am only awaiting the return of the Admiral to move on.  So all is going on well.  Grant has also agreed to send a regiment to Shanghae in case there should be trouble there. ...  It really looks now as if my absence would not be protracted much beyond the time we used to speak of before I started. ...  At the same time, I do not like to be too confident.

[Sidenote:  The Peiho.]

August 25th.—­Noon.—­High and dry at about fifteen miles below Tientsin.  This must remind you of some of my letters from the Yangtze, two years ago.  We started this morning at 6.30 in the ‘Granada:’  the General and I, with both our staffs.  We had gone on famously to this point, scraping through the mud occasionally with success.  In rounding a corner, however, at which a French gunboat had already stuck before us, we have run upon a bank.  It is very strange to me to be going up the Peiho river again.  The fertility of the plain through which it runs strikes me more than it did formerly.  The harvest is at hand, and the crops clothe it luxuriantly.  The poor people in the villages do not appear to fear us much.  We treated them well before, and they expect similar treatment again.  The Admiral did his work of occupying Tientsin well....  He has great qualities.

[Sidenote:  Tientsin.]

Tientsin.—­Sunday, August 26th.—­We reached this place about midnight.  It was about the most nervous operation at which I ever assisted, going round the sharp turns with this long ship by moonlight.  I had a moment of painful saisissement when I felt almost certain that we should run into my dear colleague Gros, who had grounded in a little gunboat at one of the worst bends of the river.  We only saved him by dropping an anchor from the stern, and going backwards full speed.  The Yangtze was bad enough, but we never used to go on at night, and there was no danger of collisions.  This ship looks also as if she would go head over heels much more easily than the ‘Furious.’  I am waiting for Parkes and the General before I decide as to landing, &c.  Is it not strange to be here?  Immediately ahead of us is the yamun