[28] During the heat of the action against the batteries of Anunghoy, a very dashing thing was done by Commander Sullivan, who was serving as a supernumerary commander on board the Melville. One of the boats got adrift, owing to some accident, and was being carried by the tide close in under the batteries. The instant this was perceived by Commander Sullivan, he jumped into his gig, and pulled off to recover the boat, in doing which he was of course exposed to the close fire of the batteries, but he fortunately escaped unhurt, and brought the boat safely back. This little spirited incident was not taken public notice of. [29] Consisting of the Wellesley and Druid, with the Calliope, Samarang, Herald, Alligator, Modeste, and Sulphur. [30] The Chinese rarely make any effort to save even their own countrymen from being drowned. Indeed, should a common boatman tumble overboard accidentally, his own companions in the boat will often give him no assistance, particularly if he is really in danger of being drowned without it. CHAPTER XVII. The great event which has now been described, the capture of the Bogue forts, though purchased at a very small sacrifice on the part of the victors, derived an immense importance from the greatness of the sacrifice in reference to the Chinese. Although the cautious discernment of a few men like Keshen might have appreciated the strength of their enemy, and the comparative weakness of their own defences, the fact of the fall of the Bogue forts, which were considered by the Chinese throughout the empire, as well as by the government, to be impregnable, created a degree of alarm in the public mind without parallel since the Tartar conquest. Whatever reliance the authorities on the spot, and the overweening arrogance of a population accustomed only to the "submission" of foreigners, may have placed in the efficiency of other recent preparations of a different description higher up the river, these could never inspire confidence in the mass of the nation, or even in the government, to whom the nature of them could be little known.