In the past China had lost ground only in her outlying districts or territories. Now one of her original eighteen provinces was opened to the foreigners; and probably the Chinese felt as Americans might have felt had somebody tampered with the rights of the citizens living in one of our thirteen original States. Railroads were built against the Chinese will; and, because of resistance to the workers on the roads, two whole Chinese villages were razed, and the inhabitants driven forth, homeless. The anti-foreign feeling had been strong; and now, as the Chinese saw the Europeans gradually closing down upon them, with here and there a number of Americans as well, the feeling against the “foreign devils”--as all people of white skin are called--grew hotter and hotter. The missionaries were the first to feel the pressure brought to bear by the Boxers, who, in secret conclave, determined that all foreigners must either be driven from the country or slain. Notices were posted on the churches and houses, ordering the missionaries to depart within a week or a moon or three moons, under penalty of death; and all merchants, traders, and travellers were also warned to leave. A few paid heed to these warnings; but the majority decided that they had a right to stay, and remained. They had been guaranteed protection by the Chinese government, under treaties made with their home governments; and the missionaries were also promised protection by the Chinamen they had converted. But, when the storm broke, the converted Chinamen suffered as much as did those who had converted them. What led to the first fight of 1900 it would be hard to say; but the troubles began early in the year, when Dr. Brooks, who had sheltered the German engineer for whom the Chinese were searching in his house, was murdered on January 2. This act was quickly followed by the slaying of a number of other missionaries and of foreigners generally, until by May the whole civilized world woke up to the fact that no white people in China would be safe unless they were defended by their own countrymen. The Chinese government could not suppress the Boxer movement, even if it felt so inclined, which was doubtful. The greatest uprising was in the provinces of Pechili and Shantung, situated in the extreme east of the empire, on the Yellow Sea and the Gulf of Pechili. Here the Pei-Ho (Ho means river) empties into the gulf, with the forts of Taku on one side and the village of Tongku on the other. Back of the Taku forts is Taku village, and twenty-seven miles up the stream lies the important city of Tien-Tsin. From Tien-Tsin to Pekin is about eighty miles, but navigation on the river does not extend the entire distance.