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with even the old imperial government. He is violent in his temper, and lets his wrath fall heavily upon his people, making a man or woman an offender for a word,' and ordering such instantly to be murdered without judge or jury. He is opposed to commerce, having had more than a dozen of his own people murdered since I have been here, for no other crime than trading in the city, and has promptly repelled every foreign effort to establish lawful commerce here among them, whether inside of the city or not. His religious toleration, and multiplicity of chapels, turn out to be a farce, of no avail in the spread of Christianity-worse than useless. It only amounts to a machinery for the promotion and spread of his own political religion, making himself equal with Jesus Christ, who with God the Father, himself, and his own son, constitutes one Lord over all. Nor is any missionary, who will not believe in his divine appointment to this high equality, and promulgate his political religion accordingly, safe among these rebels, in life, servants, or property. He told me, soon after I arrived, that if I did not believe in him I should perish, like the Jews did for not believing in the Saviour. But little did I then think that I should ever come so near to it by the sword of one of his own miscreants, in his own capital, as I did the other day. Kan-wang, moved by his coolie elder brother-literally a coolie at Hong-kong-and the devil, without fear of God before his eyes, did on Monday, the 13th inst., come into the house in which I was living, and with malice aforethought murder one of my servants with a large sword in his own hand in my presence, without a moment's

He

warning, or any just cause. And after having slain my poor harmless, helpless boy, he jumped on his head most fiend-like, and stamped it with his foot, notwithstanding I besought him most entreatingly from the commencement of his murderous attack to spare my poor boy's life. And not only so, but he insulted me myself in every possible way he could think of, to provoke me to do or say something which would give him an apology, as I then thought, and think yet, to kill me, as well as my dear boy, whom I loved like a son. stormed at me, seized the bench on which I sat with the violence of a madman, threw the dregs of a cup of tea in my face, seized hold of me personally and shook me violently, struck me on my right cheek with his open hand. Then, according to the instruction of my King for whom I am an ambassador, I turned the other, and he struck me quite a sounding blow on my left cheek with his right hand, making my ear ring again; and then, perceiving that he could not provoke me to offend him in word or deed, he seemed to get the more outrageous, and stormed at me like a dog to be gone out of his presence. If they will do these things in a green tree, what will they do in the dry?' If to a favourite of the Tien-Wang's, who can trust himself amongst them either as a missionary or a merchant? I then despaired of missionary success among them, or any good coming out of the movement-religious, commercial, or political-and determined to leave them, which I did on Monday, January 20th, 1862."

The above letter was written from H.M.S. 'Renard,' which vessel was at the time lying off Nankin, ten

days after his departure. Mr. Roberts does not choose to give any explanation that would account for the apparently causeless massacre of his servant, and thus he unfairly leaves it to be inferred that the Kan-wang committed a most brutal murder upon an unoffending boy. But it has been stated that this boy, a considerable time back, had been guilty of some offence for which he was liable to be punished by death; and that Mr. Roberts, having by chance picked him up, shielded him from his impending decapitation by taking him under his protection, and thus standing between him and the due observance of the law. To save this boy's life, and to bring him up as a Protestant convert, was doubtless considered by Mr. Roberts as a most praiseworthy act. The Kan-wang differed in opinion, and after a certain lapse of time, the affair was settled in the conclusive manner detailed.

Nothing can extenuate the conduct of the Kanwang, as described in the letter, either to the boy or Mr. Roberts, but it is only fair to remove the implied imputation of his having been guilty of murdering in cold blood a blameless lad. If the latter deserved the punishment of decapitation, the censure that attaches itself to the Kan-wang, refers, not to the so-called murder, but to the manner in which the boy's sentence was carried into execution.

Mr. Roberts has returned to the scene of his former labours in the south, and thus the principal link that connected our Protestant missionaries with the Taeping movement is now broken.

CHAPTER XIII.

Opening of the Yang-zte-kiang to foreign trade-Proceedings of the Taepings-Siege of Ngan-king-Capture of Ningpo-Extent of country at present under the Taeping rule.

At the beginning of the year 1861, the Taepings were governed, exclusive of the Tien-Wang, by the following wangs or kings. The Kan-wang (Shield king) was at Nankin. The Chung-wang (Faithful king), the man who captured Soo-chow and made the attempt upon Shanghae, was governor at the former city. The Yingwang (Heroic king), a young Cantonese who had distinguished himself by his bravery in action, commanded an army in the province of Ngan-hwui. I-wang (the Assistant king), was in Sz-chuen at the head of a large force. I-wang is Shih-ta-kae, the last surviving chief of those that accompanied the Tien-Wang from Kwang-si. In addition to the above, and holding various posts, principally over civil departments, were the Shi-wang (Attendant king), the Foo-wang (Auxiliary king), the Tsan-wang (Waiting king), the Chang-wang (Accomplished king), and Si-wang, the young son and successor of the old Western king.

The extent of country under their rule was very considerable. On the south bank of the Yang-zte their territory may be loosely defined as embracing a space, above Nankin, one hundred miles in length and fifty miles in breadth. This includes the cities of Tai-ping and Woo-hoo.

On the north bank they held the city of Nganking and the greater portion of the intermediate country as far as Luh-ho, a small town situated a few miles north of Nankin. East of the latter city, all that part of the province of Kiang-su lying south of the Yang-zte-kiang was mainly under their command, Chin-keang and Shanghae, with the districts immediately adjoining, excepted.

The occupation of this region was the result of the defeat of the imperialist army at Nankin in May, 1860, and must be deemed the most important move made of late by the Taepings. It has given them possession of the valuable city of Soo-chow, and consequently the command of the Grand Canal at that point. It also affords a good base for all operations directed against the adjacent seaports.

In estimating the strength of the rebel forces, it is impossible to adopt any determinate statement, for as their armies proceed on their march they gather up all the lawless vagabonds in their path; and thus their force increases in numbers as a rolling snowball increases in bulk. It, however, fortunately happened that in the month of March a series of contemporary letters, giving an approximate estimate of the Taeping force at different points, enables their total number to be fixed with tolerable precision. In that month the Ying-wang states his army in Ngan-hwui to be one hundred thousand. In Sz-chuen, Shih-ta-kae was said by the Kan-wang to command seventy thousand men. The garrison at Ngan-king was estimated by the officers of the Yang-zte expedition to be twenty thousand.

Seventy thousand insurgents from Kwang-tung and