Page:Chinese account of the Opium war (IA chineseaccountof00parkrich).pdf/76

 repairs to the Yellow River having now been com- pleted, LIN TSÊH-SÜ was again ordered to Kashgaria, and the Grand Secretary WANG TING, who had been associated with him, died of grief and mortification. Meanwhile the English made reconnoitring ex- peditions round Shanghai and up the Yangtsze; obtained at Ningpo maps of the Empire and charts of the Yangtsze and Yellow River; turned our dis- charged fisherman marines into pilots and guides; manufactured a number of small boats for use in the creeks; and exacted from the gentry of Ningpo, as the price of their retirement, an indemnity of $200,000, withdrawing on board their ships on the 7th of May. YIKKING and his party accordingly reported that he had "forced the British troops to retire," and had recovered Ningpo. The real facts were that a steamer had been sent to England to report the capture of Ningpo, and that six months later a reply had been received from the King ordering the ships to proceed again to Tientsin to ask for open ports and free trade, the retirement of the troops from Ningpo having nothing whatever to do with the movements of our armies. Towards the middle of May the foreign ships at Chên-hai also left the place for the north, leaving only four ships and 1,000 men in charge of Ting-hai. The two promontories at the mouth of the Hangchow River