_Yamun, Tientsin.--May 30th._--Only look at my date, does it not astonish you? I hardly yet realise to myself where I am. I started at about 4.30 P.M. yesterday from the 'Furious,' crossed the bar, at the forts at the entrance of the river, picked up Gros and the French mission, whose vessel could not get on, and moved on to this place. The night was lovely--a moon nearly full. The banks, perfectly flat and treeless at first, became fringed with mud villages, silent as the grave, and trees standing like spectres over the stream. There we went ceaselessly on through this silvery silence, panting and breathing flame. Through the night-watches, when no Chinaman moves, when the junks cast anchor, we laboured on, cutting ruthlessly and recklessly through the waters of that glancing and startled river, which, until within the last few weeks, no stranger keel had ever furrowed! Whose work are we engaged in, when we burst thus with hideous violence and brutal energy into these darkest and most mysterious recesses of the traditions of the past? I wish I could answer that question in a manner satisfactory to myself. At the same time, there is certainly not much to regret in the old civilisation which we are thus scattering to the winds. A dense population, timorous and pauperised, such would seem to be its chief product. I passed most of the night on deck, and at about 4 A.M. we reached a point in the centre of the suburb of Tientsin, at which the Great Canal joins the Tientsin or Peiho river. There I found the Admirals, Frederick, &c. Frederick had got this yamun for us, half of which I have had to give to my French colleague. It consists of a number of detached rooms, scattered about a garden. I have installed myself in the joss-house, my bedroom being on one side, and my sitting-room on the other, of the idol's altar. We have a letter informing us that the Emperor has named two great Officers of State to come here and treat, and our Admirals are in very good humour, so that matters look well for the present. _June 1st._--I found my joss-house so gloomy and low, that I have returned to my first quarter in the garden, on a mound overlooking the river. It consists, of a single room, part of which is screened off by a curtain for a bedroom. It is hot during the day, but nothing much to complain of. I took a walk yesterday. The country is quite flat, cultivated in wheat, millet, &c. Instead of the footpaths of the southern parts of China, there are roads for carriages, and wheeled carts dragged by mules in tandem going along them. I have not been in the town, but some of the party were there this morning, and one had his pocket picked, which is a proof of civilisation. They say it is a poor place, the people stupid-looking and curious, but not as yet unfriendly.