Under the Dragon Flag / My Experiences in the Chino-Japanese War

uide us. When again aboard we got up steam and stood out to sea. We should have run for the Yellow Sea at once but for the presence of the Chinese agent, whom we had had no opportunity of

ever, was not fated to be the case. The Japanese allege that they intended to renew the attack in the morning, and

ing to the defeated squadron, the Ping Yuen and the Kwang Ting. The former did not seem much injured, but the latter had evidently

wo days, and he arranged to take advantage of her departure to regain that port, from which, it will be remembered, he had come on board the Columbia. As he seemed well acquainted with Port Arthu

e bungle of the job, it was entrusted to a French company, and by them completed. Since then the place has increased, from an insignificant village of sixty or seventy mud houses and a few shops, to a town of over a thousand dwellings, as well as two large theatres, two temples, and a number of banks and inns. The population at the time of the Japanese incursion was about 5000 or 6000, in addition to a garrison of about 7000. The port is very spacious and commodious, and dredgers have worked assiduously for several years past to deepen the entrance to it. The bar has been deepened from twelve feet to about twenty-five feet to enable permanent moorings to be laid down for men-of-war. The dock basin, called the East Port, covering an area of thirty-two acres, has been constructed well behind the signal bluffs to the right

ntages which, as far as construction goes, have been well utilized, massive and lofty stone forts occupying every point of advantage. I believe they are of German construction. They bristle with heavy Krupp and Nordenfeldt guns. The elevation on the coast varies

operly defended, it should be unreducible by anything but famine. The coast defences are impregnable, and those inland, though more susceptible of attack, should not fall before anything short of overwhelming superiority of force. I should like to have seen the 20,000 men whom the Japanese led a

t had been increased to nearly 20,000. This is inadequate; 30,000 men at least shoul

which we associate with the military character. Everywhere was a most portentous display of banners, as if the sacrilegious foot of a foeman could not be set on any spot rendered sacred by the dragon flag. The town presented a very neat and compact aspect, and struck me very favourably as compared with Tientsin, the only other Chinese town I had been in, and which seemed to me to be

eft ashore, but in the meantime what was I to do? A suggestion by Lin solved the difficulty. If the Columbia did not put back, I could obtain a passage to Tientsin on the vessel which was soon to convey him to that port, where I could arrange my future proceedings according to circumstances. This seeming the only feasible plan, I, with many internal maledictions upon the stupid mischance, accompanied the agent to an hotel or inn where he had already chartered quarters for his short stay in the place. There are some half-dozen of these establishments in Port Arthur. Three or four of them are wretched hovels, which existed in the squalid infancy of the town; the newer ones are larger and fairly commodious and comfortable. The one we o