BELEAGUERED INPEKING

THE BOXER’S WARAGAINST THE FOREIGNER

BY

ROBERT COLTMAN, Jr., M.D.

Professor of Surgery in Imperial University; Professor of Anatomy, the Imperial Tung Wen Kuan;Surgeon, Imperial Maritime Customs; Surgeon, Imperial Chinese Railways.Author of “The Chinese, Their Present and Future: Medical, Political, and Social.”

Illustrated withSeventy-seven Photo-Engravings

PHILADELPHIA:

F. A. DAVIS COMPANY, PUBLISHERS1901

[ii]

Copyright, 1901

By F. A. DAVIS COMPANY

Mount Pleasant PrinteryJ. Horace McFarland CompanyHarrisburg · Pennsylvania

PREFACE

IN THE following pages I have endeavored togive an accurate and comprehensive accountof the Siege in Peking and of the Boxermovement that led up to it.

Authentic details furnished by representativesof those legations whose work has been speciallymentioned have made possible a greater detailin those cases. I regret that others who hadpromised me accounts of their work have failedto furnish the promised material.

The siege at Pei Tang or North Cathedral,coincident with that of the legations and civilians,is not described for the reason that wewere absolutely cut off from them for over sixtydays and knew nothing of their movements.Much detail that might be interesting to manyI have been obliged to omit, as it would makethe book too cumbersome.

I make no claim for the book as a literaryeffort, the object being to state the facts in theclearest manner possible. The illustrations are[iv]from actual photographs, the authenticity ofwhich is absolutely proved, and these carefullystudied, add much to the information of thevolume.

To my sixteen-year-old son, the youngest soldierto shoulder a rifle during the siege, I amindebted for much of the diary and great helpin copying. A considerable portion of the bookwas written with bullets whistling about us aswe sat in the students’ library building of theEnglish legation.

There are several men whose work entitlesthem to decorations from all the countries representedin the siege, and their names will beindelibly written in our memories even if thepowers and ministers concerned overlook them.I refer to F. A. Gamewell, August Chamot,Colonel Shiba, and Herbert G. Squiers.

ROBERT COLTMAN, Jr., M.D.

Peking, China, September 10, 1900.

CONTENTS