Of course, this information is not official, and there may be much that is not strictly accurate. It simply represents the gossip of the tea-shops and restaurants.
One reason the Chinese have for thinking we have so many men here is that a number of them are killed by their own bullets, which are aimed high and pass over our heads and drop among their own people. This shooting they attribute to our men, and so think we have a large force here.
Same date, 6.30 p.m. The Chinese exploded a mine under the French legation wall, destroying part of the wall and also part of their own fortifications. Four men were buried by the first explosion, one of whom was dug out, and another blown up again by a second explosion. Having done this, the Chinese made a desperate assault, but were beaten off after having killed three and wounded three French marines and lost about twenty of their number.
VIEW IN LEGATION STREET
The entrance to French legation is on the left. The lions shown on either side of the entrance are such as can be found nowhere outside of China. The street is in somewhat better condition, since it is presumably under foreign control, or at least is modified by foreign influences.
The minister’s and first secretary’s houses were fired, the minister destroying all his official papers himself, to prevent their falling into the hands of the Chinese.
Simultaneously with this attack came a tremendous fusillade from all sides, which lasted forty-five minutes, by far the longest we have had yet.
The Su Wang Fu was the scene of the hottest firing, and once it was thought it would have to be given up.
At the same time a body of Chinese, numbering about two hundred, charged down the wall street and got past the German legation without being stopped. When they got to the bridge, one of the United States marines was just coming down from the wall and saw them as they were coming up over the bridge. He gave the alarm to four men stationed in the barricade on the street, who fired about a dozen volleys on them, killing thirty of them. The natives then turned and fled; on the way back the Germans fired on them, driving them into the club tennis courts, where they killed eighteen more. The officer in command of the Chinese was shot by E. von Strauch, captain of the customs volunteers. In the fray two Germans were seriously, and two slightly, wounded. The Chinese kept up a desultory firing all night.