Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/331

308 A. Your servant's talents will probably not suffice to accomplish it.

Thereupon Tsêng kotowed and retired. The following morning he was again ushered into the same place and another set of questions and answers followed:

Q. How many steamers have you built?

A. I have built one, and a second is being built but is not yet completed.

Q. Do you employ foreign builders or not?

A. The foreign builders do not exceed six or seven in number; the number of Chinese builders is very great.

Q. Of what nationality are the foreign builders?

A. Both Englishmen and Frenchmen are employed.

Q. Have you recovered from your illness?

A. I am somewhat better. Two years ago I was very ill at Chowchiak'ow, but in the seventh and eighth moons last year I grew better.

Q. Do you take medicine or not?

A. I did take some. [Retires.]

After the Chinese New Year Tsêng went to Paotingfu, where he took up the duties of office, matters chiefly of a routine nature.

In 1870, however, occurred an event of prime importance in the relations between China and the Western world — the T'ientsin massacre. Beside it the riot in Yangchow two years before, and other outbreaks here and there, paled into insignificance, both in extent of damage done and of excitement caused in China and abroad. It is generally asserted by foreign writers that there was much uneasiness and a far-reaching wave of anti-foreign propaganda about this time which, through the neglect or even the instigation of officials, reached a climax and broke against the unlucky missionaries at T'ientsin.