JUDG HOW WE JUDGE OF CHINA. 337 disorderly movements in China of more or less note, and all these are apt to be accepted, not merely as political movements, but as remnants of Tai-pingdom. We have heard of Nien-fei, and of Tu-fei, and of "Honan Filchers," and Hakkas, and Mohammedan rebels, until it has very naturally been supposed that the whole Empire must be in confusion and rebellion. In point of fact, we are too apt to judge of that great country, just as a Chinaman might do, who, reading in English newspapers of Fenians and Reformers, of Confederates and Northerners, of Danes and Prussians, of Romanists and Garibaldians, and of French and Austrians, came to the conclusion that the people of the West were living in a state of endless dissatisfaction and strife. I shall speak presently of the Nien-fei and other bodies of men who have recently disturbed some portions of China; but before doing so let me note, that after the fall of Nanking the Tai-ping Rebellion became insignificant, and within two years was entirely extinguished. It would serve no good purpose to follow minutely the fate of the different bands of Tai-pings, and it will be quite sufficient to note the points at which they made anything like a serious stand previous to their final disappearance altogether. After the fall of Nanking the Governor of Kiangsoo had still some fighting with the Taipings in his province and its neighbourhood, but none of any importance, except at the city of Wu-chu, or Hoochow, in Chekiang, a strongly-fortified place, where the Tow Wang, or Yellow Tiger, made a desperate stand, and where at first he defeated some of the Imperialist forces sent against him. Lí's troops, however, among which were Colonel Bailey's Artillery and the army formerly commanded by General Ching, formed a combination with forces which came up from the South under the Y orders of Tso, the Governor-General of Chekiang, and which included 1800 Franco-Chinese under MM. D'Aiguibelle and Giquel, besides 800 disciplined Chinese, commanded by an Englishman called Reynolds, who was killed in the fighting which then took place. The jealousy which existed between Tso and Lí caused some bungling at first, of which the Yellow Tiger availed himself very smartly; but he soon found his position untenable, evacuated the town in the end of August, and retreated towards Kiangsi, with the intention of there joining the She Wang, or Attendant King, who had escaped from Nanking some time before its capture. There were about a dozen Europeans, who had fallen accidentally into the clutches of the Tai-pings, fighting along with the Yellow Tiger in Wuchu. One of these, Patrick Nellis, formerly in the Royal Engineers and in Gordon's Artillery, made a statement of his experiences, when, after many adventures, he contrived to reach Shanghai. This man, being seized by the Tai-pings when convoying silk, was forced to serve with them, and gives an appalling account of the state of matters which existed in Wuchu. "All offences," he said, "received one punishment death. I saw 160 men beheaded, as I understood, for absence from parade; two boys were beheaded for smoking; all prisoners of war were beheaded; spies, or people accused of being so, were tied with their hands behind their backs to a stake, and brushwood put around them, and they were then burned to death. In spite of the orders against smoking, the Chiefs were inveterate smokers." Nellis mentions, that when he was at this place a certain "Kang Wang" arrived from Nanking with an escort, and spoke to him in English very slowly, from whence arose a rumour that Hung Jen-kan, the Kan Wang, or Shield King, was not really executed at THE ALLEGED KAN WANG. 339 Nanking; but there is good reason to believe that this new Kan Wang was a young fellow who could only speak very little English, and who had a title resembling that of the Shield King. This same leader afterwards turned up at Changchow, near Amoy, and an American, named Baffey, who served under him there, describes him as only thirty-five years of age. Had he really been the Prime Minister of the Rebel Monarch, the fact would have been notorious, and he would not have been in a subordinate position to the Attendant King. After the loss of Wuchu the Rebels retreated along the base of the mountain-ranges of Chekiang into Kiangsi, where they threatened the city of Kwangsin, but were defeated with great loss. Having formed a combination with the forces of Li Siu-shien, the Attendant or Protecting King, they came down and occupied Changchow-fu, in the province of Fukien, near the consular port of Amoy. The Kang Wang was at this time with them, but the Attendant King was the principal Chief, and issued a manifesto in the beginning of 1865, addressed to the Representatives of England, France, and America, asking their assistance, and offering to divide with them the Celestial Empire. "If," he modestly proposed in this curious document, "your various nations, relying in the omnipotence of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and acting upon the doctrine of Christianity, will come to terms with us for destroying the Tsing dynasty; if you command your naval armies, and attack those places near the water, whatever cities, districts, ports, and passes you will have taken and conquered by your force, you will be at liberty, without the least opposition on my part, to keep; and whatever treasures and food found therein you will be at liberty to appropriate; and so I will attack on land, and whatever cities, districts, and passes I conquer, and whatever treasures and food I find, I will divide, giving one half to you; and all the distant cities and marts will be surrendered to you." The only result of this invitation was to induce about a dozen Foreigners of loose character and in desperate circumstances to join the Rebels. Among these were Rhode, Williams, and Baffey, who had formerly been officers in Gordon's force, but who at this time were out of employment; and Burgevine, as I have already mentioned, made an effort to join them, which resulted in his being seized by the Imperialists, and drowned, according to report, by the accidental upsetting of a boat. The local militia of Fukien were unable to do much against these Tai-pings, but the Government, roused to a sense of danger, sent down 8000 troops, disciplined at the Tung-wang Shan camps, under the command of Kwo Sung-ling, and accompanied by Colonel Kirkham. On this force making its appearance the Rebels evacuated Changchow by night on the 16th April 1865, and retreated towards the town of Tungshan. Pressed on all sides by Imperialist forces, and in the midst of a hostile population, they were soon broken up into small parties, and retreated into the mountainous region which separates the three provinces of Fukien, Kwangtung, and Kiangsi, where they may be said to have disappeared. The last accounts we have of the Tai-pings in this retreat is derived from a statement made at the British Consulate at Canton in 1865 by George Baffey, who, as before mentioned, had been in the Imperial service, but had been induced by Rhode and others to join the Rebels. This man states, that eleven days after the evacuation of Changchow the Attendant King's division became disorganised near Yingting, on the Han river, *See Appendix IV. THE END OF THE TAI-PINGS. . 341 and that he then joined the Kang Wang, who pushed to |