Finding that they could not hold their own in the villages in which they were located, missionaries and other foreigners in and around Pekin and Tien-Tsin gradually congregated in the cities named, under the protection of their home consuls, until the various American, English, German, French, Italian, and other foreign legations became crowded with people all clamoring for aid, with Boxers on the outside howling that they be driven out or slain. By June 1 matters had reached an acute stage; and the outside powers felt that something must be done, or China would witness one of the most barbarous slaughters in the annals of history. No war was declared on China; but the government was given to understand that each outside nation intended to rescue its own people, no matter at what cost. The first movement of the foreign nations, or the Allies, as they were termed, was from Tien-Tsin. All the nations had sent warships up to the Gulf of Pechili, and from these were landed a force of twenty-five hundred marines and soldiers, under the general command of Admiral Seymour of the British Navy, he being the highest in rank of any of the officers present. With this force were one hundred marines from the United States cruiser _Newark_, under the command of Captain McCalla. News had come that the legations at Pekin were in a state of siege, and that all the foreign ministers were either murdered or about to be slain, and that hundreds of foreigners were already dead; and the object of the expedition was to relieve those at the capital. But the force was altogether too small for the purpose in view. It was stopped long before Pekin was in sight, and escaped total annihilation only by what seemed almost a miracle. On June 15 it was decided by several of the European powers that it would be necessary to take possession of the railroad station at Tongku, so that communications could be opened with the advancing army by rail. In the mean time a strong force of Boxers and Chinese troops had taken possession of the Taku forts. As this was a menace to the warships in the harbor, orders were served that the Chinese must vacate the forts, or they would be bombarded. The Chinese paid no attention to the orders. The American warships had no authority to attack at that time, so the bombardment of the forts was conducted by the European gunboats, the cruisers finding the water too shallow for them. Three Russian, one British, one French, and one German craft took part in the engagement. One of the Russian boats was badly disabled, and the Allies lost twenty men killed and had over sixty wounded. The Chinese loss was over four hundred, and after seven hours’ fighting the forts were stormed by the sailors and the Celestials fled. During the engagement the American vessel _Monocacy_ was struck, but the shot did little damage.