He is well seconded here by ex-Lieutenant Herbert G. Squiers, Seventh United States Cavalry, who is first secretary of legation. Had Mr. Squiers been minister, we would never have been in our present terrible situation, for he realized the appalling nature of the threatened outbreak while the ministers pooh-poohed it. As he could not of his own initiative order up troops in time, he laid in abundant stores of rice and other eatables, and bought up all the wagons and ammunition purchasable. [Illustration: HERBERT G. SQUIERS First Secretary, United States Legation, Peking] The blind trust the ministers (with the exception perhaps of M. Pichon) placed in the promises of the tsung-li-yamen, in the face of the daily increasing riots and murder, is an instance of childlike simplicity which I trust they may never have an opportunity to repeat elsewhere. The entire community here, of civilians and military alike, condemn them as a set of incompetents. They now, of course, all see their mistake in being fooled by the tsung-li-yamen, and prevented from bringing a sufficient force here until the railroad was destroyed and hordes of fierce Kansu ruffians placed in the way of advancing relief. The marines of the Newark and Oregon, of which we have fifty, that compose the entire American force, are a sturdy lot of courageous, devoted men. Sober, intelligent, cheerful, enduring, all of them are as brave as lions. Sergeant Walker alone, at the South cathedral, killed seven of the Boxers. The district held by us is about a half-mile east and west on Legation street, and is guarded by blocking the streets at the Italian legation on the east and the Russian legation on the west. At each barricade there is placed a machine gun. A diagram of the ground held will be found on another page. June 19, yesterday, the tsung-li-yamen ministers (four of them) visited the English, Russian, and American legations, and begged the foreign ministers to persuade the relief guards that we hope are coming to our aid, to return, assuring them that from this time on the Chinese would prevent any further Boxer outrages on foreigners, and that legation premises should be safe. They also said the Empress was now sure that the Boxer movement was a menace to the government as well as the foreigners, and that the imperial troops would be ordered to shoot every Boxer on sight. As all the afternoon our sentinels on the city wall saw Boxers in full regalia going at pleasure among the native troops stationed about the ruined Chien Men, we know that the tsung-li-yamen’s words were, as usual, a pack of lies. A messenger arrived yesterday from Tientsin from Mr. E. B. Drew, commissioner of customs, to Dr. Morrison, of the London _Times_, stating that the railroad had been destroyed in the rear of the relief column, and they were being driven back on Tientsin and away from us.