The battles of the world : $b or, cyclopedia of battles, sieges, and important military eventsBorthwick, J. Douglas (John Douglas)
History
The battles of the world : $b or, cyclopedia of battles, sieges, and important military events
Borthwick, J. Douglas (John Douglas)
Battles; Military history
On arrival they were well received; but in discussing affairs they
were surprised to find objections raised on several points to which
the Chinese Commissioners had before consented. However, after a
discussion of five or six hours, the Chinese negociators gave way;
and having arranged details, our party slept that night in the
city, the guests of the Commissioners.
Next morning Colonel Walker, accompanied by Messrs. Parkes
and Loch, and attended by a Chinese officer deputed by the
Commissioners, proceeded to examine the ground on which the British
army was to be encamped, leaving the larger part of the escort
at Tung-chow, where Messrs. Bowlby and De Norman also remained,
pending the return of Parkes and Loch, who had yet to find a
suitable residence for Lord Elgin within the walls of Tung-chow. On
the way out, the party found the Tartar army in hurried movement
in the direction of our forces, and on reaching the ground
proposed for encampment, discovered it to be entirely commanded
by the position which the Tartar forces, supported by a numerous
artillery, were then taking up.
Seeing this, Parkes turned round and rode back to Tung-chow to
demand a cessation of these hostile movements. Loch went on into
the British camp with a couple of men to report progress, whilst
Col. Walker, Thompson, and half-a-dozen dragoons, remained in the
Tartar position, at Parkes’s request, until he should return.
Having reported progress to the Commander-in-Chief, whom he met
advancing, about a mile from the Tartar position, Loch returned
towards the Tartars, accompanied by Captain Brabazon, R. A., with
orders to Parkes to come back at once.
Mr. Parkes, on reaching Tung-chow, was rudely received by the
Prince of Ee, and was told that until the questions to which
objections had been made the day previous had been satisfactorily
determined, peace could not exist. Thereupon Parkes, with Bowlby,
De Norman, and all our people, left Tung-chow for the British camp.
Mid-way they met Loch and Brabazon, who turned homewards with them,
and all went on together, preceded by a flag of truce.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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