Before five o'clock, the whole of the outer defences of Amoy were in our possession. The Blonde and Modeste, as soon as they had silenced the batteries on Kolingsoo, with the assistance of the Druid, had pushed on into the inner harbour, and captured twenty-six war-junks, mounting not less than one hundred and twenty-eight guns; they were nearly ready for sea, but were deserted by their crews. A large building-yard was discovered, with an immense quantity of timber collected in it; and there was a good-sized frigate-junk, of about three hundred tons, in course of building, in a regular dry dock, something after the European model; they had evidently made a great step in advance in the art of ship-building; indeed, the longer the war lasted, the more the Chinese found themselves led on, by the "impulse of necessity," to attempt great changes, and, in many respects, improvements, not only in their vessels, but in their warlike weapons, and other matters relating to the art of defence. The Nemesis, in running along the shore to avoid the swell which was setting in, unexpectedly found herself within a circular patch of coral rock, which was not visible above the surface. Several fruitless attempts were made to extricate her from this curious position, but the entrance by which she had got into it could not again be found; but her draught of water being very small, it was thought likely she would be able to force her way over the reef without suffering much damage to her iron hull, and she dashed at it at half speed. The blow, however, was more severe than was expected; the vessel bounded completely over the reef; but the sharp coral rock cut completely through her bottom, making a considerable leak in the engine-room. This was fortunately stopped from the _inside_ without much difficulty, and no further notice was taken of it until some time afterwards, when she arrived at Chusan, where the damage was substantially repaired.