so they all retired.  I cannot vouch for the truth of the whole of the above statement.  Such, however, is the story soberly related by some of the Chinese.  We could see the smoke and hear the reports of the guns from the top of our house.  The fighting commenced very early.  We thought that the Mandarin troops were gradually approaching the city, until about Chinese breakfast-time (eight to nine o’clock), when the firing ceased.  We know not how many lives were lost in the engagement.  The rebels brought into the city some seventeen or eighteen heads which they had decapitated.  I know not whether these were all killed in the fight or whether they were the heads of some villagers on whom the rebels took vengeance for assisting the Mandarins.”

“Now for the engagement on the water.  The rebel forces on the water were much inferior to the Mandarin forces, but the Chinese say they fought more desperately.  The engagement opened on Wednesday about noon and lasted until nearly evening.  Towards evening the Mandarin fleet withdrew a few miles and came to anchor.  On Thursday at high-tide (about noon) the engagement was renewed.  Towards evening the Mandarin fleet again withdrew as before.  On Friday the engagement was again renewed with similar results.  On Saturday the Mandarin fleet withdrew entirely and left the harbor.

“During the three days of the fight, as you would expect, there was much excitement in Amoy.  The tops of the houses and the hills around about, at the time of the engagement, were thronged with people, and there was a continual discharge of cannon.  But I have not given the number of the killed and wounded in the three days’ naval action.  Reports, you know, are often much exaggerated on such occasions.  According to the most reliable statements (and I have not yet heard of any other statement), the list stands thus: 

  “Killed-None! 
  “Wounded-None! 
  “Prisoners-None!

“It is said that one ball from a Mandarin junk did strike a rebel junk, but did not hurt any one.  During the fighting the vessels kept so far apart that the balls almost always fell into the water between them.  On the second day of the fight, a boat from the city in which were three men, who were not engaged in the fight, was captured by the Mandarin fleet, and the three men were beheaded.  War is too serious a matter to be laughed at, but the kind of war we have thus far seen at Amoy is only like children’s play.”

Nov. 1, 1853.  To his brother, Daniel.

“Our war still continues, fighting almost every day.  The day I sent off my last package to you, two more balls struck our house.  One came through the roof of an unoccupied part of the premises.  I did not weigh it, but suppose it was about a six-pounder.  The other struck against a pillar in the outside wall and fell down and was picked up by some one outside of the house, so that I do not know the size of it.  It was a merciful Providence that it struck the pillar.