April 24. Boxers aggregating nearly 10,000 have collected in one place near Paotingfu, and are very disorderly. The outlook is very threatening, not only there but at Tungchow, thirteen miles south of Peking, and at Tsunhua, to the east of Peking. At all these places there are large American missionary stations.
May 17. Boxer movement has now assumed definite shape and alarming proportions. They have destroyed several Catholic villages east of Paotingfu, and are moving on the property of the American Board’s mission at Choochow at Kung Tsun. They have also looted the London mission’s premises, and killed several Christians. Boxers are now daily to be seen practicing in Peking and the suburbs. Situation is growing serious here.
May 18. I have been warned by one of the princes that I should take my family from Peking, as he states his own elder brother is a Boxer, and that foreigners are no longer safe in Peking. Have fully informed the United States minister of the situation, but he believes the official promises that all is well.
May 21. Foreign ministers have held a meeting and discussed question of bringing legation guards to Peking. The French minister favored this, but Conger opposed, stating he believed the government resolutely means to suppress the Boxers. No action was taken, it being decided to await further developments.
May 24. The tsung-li-yamen has not yet replied to the joint note sent them by the foreign ministers four days ago, requesting that the Boxers be dealt with summarily. Unless an immediate and vigorous foreign pressure is applied, a general uprising is sure.
May 25. General Yang was killed at Ting-hsing, Hsien, near Paotingfu, either by his own soldiers or the Boxers. The soldiers then joined the Boxers.
May 26. The tsung-li-yamen has sent a vague and temporizing reply to the foreign ministers’ demand requiring the suppression of the Boxers. They are now regularly enrolled at the residences of several of the princes in this city.
May 28, a.m. The foreign ministers held another meeting to-day, but still deferred any action looking toward defense, as the tsung-li-yamen promises that it will shortly issue a strong edict that will suppress the Boxers. Pichon distrusts the Chinese promises and again advocates strong legation guards.
May 28, 4.10 p.m. Boxers have burned the bridge and destroyed the track at Liuliho, forty-five miles west of Peking, on the Lu Han railway, and are advancing toward Marco Polo bridge, twelve miles from here. The foreigners employed on the railway have all fled. The Tientsin train is overdue, and our communication with the coast threatened. The legations are just beginning to wake up to the fact that the Boxer movement is a perilous one.