[62] ``China in Convulsion,'' Arthur H. Smith; ``The Outbreak in China,'' F. L. Hawks Pott; ``The World Crisis in China, 1900,'' Allen S. Will; ``Siege Days,'' A. H. Mateer; ``The Siege of Peking,'' Wm. A. P. Martin; ``The Providence of God in the Siege of Peking,'' C. H. Fenn; ``The Tragedy of Paoting-fu,'' Isaac C. Ketler; ``The China Martyrs of 1900,'' Robert C. Forsythe; ``China,'' James H. Wilson, ``China's Book of Martyrs,'' Luella Miner; ``Two Heroes of Cathay,'' Luella Miner; ``Through Fire and Sword in Shan-si,'' E. H. Edwards; ``Chinese Heroes,'' I. T. Headland; ``Martyred Missionaries of the C. I. M.,'' Broomhall; ``The Crisis in China,'' G. B. Smith and others. After a delightful voyage of eighteen hours from Chefoo over a smooth sea, we anchored outside the bar, nine miles from shore, the tide not permitting our steamer to cross with its heavy load. A tug took us off and entering the Pei-ho River, we passed the famous Taku forts to the railway wharf at Tong-ku. It was significant to find foreign flags flying over the Taku forts and also over the mud-walled villages near by. Scores of merchant steamers, transports and war vessels were lying off Taku as well as hundreds of junks. The river was full of smaller craft among which were several Japanese and American gunboats. The railroad station presented a motley appearance. A regiment of Japanese had just arrived and while we were waiting, three train-loads of British Sikhs and several cars of Austrian marines and British ``Tommy Atkins'' came in. The platform was thronged with officers and soldiers of various nationalities, including a few Russians. Nothing could be more dreary than the mud flats that the traveller to the imperial city first sees. The greater part of the way from Taku to Peking, the soil is poor and little cultivated. But as we advanced, kao-liang fields were more frequent, though the growth was far behind that in Shantung at the same season. Small trees were numerous during the latter half of the trip. The soil being too thin for good crops, the people grow more fuel and fruit. Evidences of the great catastrophe were seen long before reaching the capital. Burned villages and battered buildings lined the route. At Tien-tsin several of the foreign buildings had shell holes. One corrugated iron building near the railway station was pierced like a sieve and thousands of native houses were in ruins. The city wall had been razed to the ground and a highway made where it had stood--an unspeakable humiliation to the proud commercial metropolis. The Japanese soldiers teased the citizens by telling them that ``a city without a wall is like a woman without clothes,'' and the people keenly felt the shame implied in the taunt.