Four days ago a ragged, dirty foreigner, hatless and coatless, of general disreputable appearance, was captured by Tung Fu Hsiang’s men and brought to Jung Lu. He was of medium height, blonde mustache and beard, and spoke Chinese. (This referred to a Swede named Nestergaard, who, on some slight offense, left the legation and went over to the Chinese.) He said he went out to find food. Meanwhile Boxers assembled around Jung Lu’s house, and demanded the foreigner, but Jung Lu sent him off under guard to the yamen of the Shun Tien Fu for safe keeping.
A messenger sent out on July 4 to go to Tientsin with our letter returned to-day, bringing the following note from the British consul at Tientsin:
Your letter of July 4 received. There are now 24,000 troops landed and 10,000 here. General Gaselee expected at Taku to-morrow. Russian troops are at Peitsang. Tientsin city is under foreign government, and Boxer power here is exploded. There are plenty of troops on the way if you can keep yourselves in food. Almost all ladies have left Tientsin.
(Signed) W. R. CARLES.
Dated July 22.
(The letter of July 4 gave details of the siege up to that date, numbers of killed and wounded, and stated that Chinese troops had fired into the legation quarter continuously since June 20, and that we were hard pressed.)
This answer of the British consul aroused great indignation among all the besieged. It had been impossible up to that time to get any word from the outside world, though many messengers were sent out, and then when one did succeed in getting through the Chinese lines, to receive a letter (and that from an official, too) which gave no information of any attempt to relieve us!
Following is the story of the runner’s trip to Tientsin and back: Lin Wu Yuan, sixteen years old, a messenger, native of Shantung, living in Peking, arrived this morning, from Tientsin. He left Peking with letters on the night of July 4, disguised as a beggar. He was let down over the wall by a rope, crept along the moat to the Chien Men, slept under the gate, and in the morning walked to the Yungting Men, passed through, and went to Machiapu station without being molested.
Hearing nothing there, he went to Tungchow and worked his way along the main road to Tientsin. At a village near Hoshiwu he was stopped by the villagers and made to work eight days. He reached Tientsin July 18, first met Russian, then Japanese, and on July 21 met the British troops at Peiving Men, the entrance through the defense wall, half a mile from Tientsin city, on the Peking road.