Besides the soldiers, there were a regimental band, a hospital corps, a number of officers’ families, and half a dozen newspaper correspondents. There were also others on board whose presence were to surprise the young lieutenant greatly.
“Well, lieutenant, how do you feel?” asked Major Morris, as he met Gilbert in one of the gangways.
“First-rate, major, but rather sorry to leave the Philippines, after all.”
“Precisely my case. We had many a lively campaign there, didn’t we?”
So the talk ran on until night shut out a view of the city, leaving only the electric and other lights to twinkle in the darkness. There was but little sleep on board. At sunrise all were astir, and a little while later the steamship turned her head for the entrance to Manila Bay. Two hours sufficed to pass Corregidor Island; and then it could be said that the voyage to China was fairly begun.
CHAPTER VII
WHAT CAUSED THE WAR
In this tale of a young soldier’s experiences during the American army’s first campaign in China, it is not my intention to go into the details of all that led up to the terrible outbreak in the Celestial Empire,—an outbreak which will probably be known as the Boxers’ Uprising of 1900. Yet it will be well for us to glance over some of the events which had occurred immediately before the sailing of the troops from Manila, in order to understand the situation as Gilbert and his fellow-soldiers found it, on their arrival at Taku.
The real trouble dated back to years before, when China and Japan went to war, the result of which was that China lost her ancient dependency of Korea; and a general “mix up” resulted in Japan taking the island of Formosa, and Russia taking Manchuria, Port Arthur, and other strategic points. This was followed by England’s occupation of Wei-Hai-Wei, and Germany’s seizure of Kaio-Chau. And then these powers and others went even further, by establishing what were known as Spheres of Influence throughout the Celestial Kingdom.
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.