Extract from the British consul’s dispatch to Her Britannic Majesty’s minister, May 29, 1873

Extract from the British consul’s dispatch to Her Britannic Majesty’s minister.

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In company with the acting French consul and M. Coutenson, I proceeded by boat to Hsin Chêng on the afternoon of the 26th instant. We arrived there on the morning of the 27th, and found the landing-place thronged with fatigue-parties, carts, and coolies, employed in conveying lime, bricks, &c., to the works.

We asked one of the soldiers which was the shortest way to the nearest of the large recently constructed earth-works, and he immediately pointed it out to us, whereupon we walked through the camps, no opposition of any sort being offered to our doing so, and ascended the work itself, which is a circular tower 31 feet high and 303 feet in circumference. The two others are of similar dimensions, and all will be inclosed by a new wall, which is now being constructed, and which, we were told, would be, on each of its four sides, 970 feet in length, while its breadth would be 170 feet and its height 28 feet. A canal large enough for a gun-boat to steam in is to be made outside the new wall, and when this has been completed, the old high-road between Tien-tsin and Taku (passing east and west through Hsin Chêng, and now temporarily blocked on either side during the progress of the works) will be re-opened, and the Au Huei and Honan militia all withdrawn from the eighteen camps which they now occupy, into the new town. I have only time to add that we were well received by General Wu, the commander-in-chief. * * * * *