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Judging from the numbers that nearly, if not quite, the whole of the Japanese fleet was present, Ting immediately ordered the transports to break away and make for Wei-hai-wei at full speed, the men-of-war undertaking the duty of preventing any of the enemy getting past and going in pursuit in itself an unlikely contingency, since the Japanese admiral would need all his ships if he was to gain a victory over China the transports consequently quickened their pace, being all fast steamers, and gradually began to draw away from the slower and more unwieldy battle squadron.
We give here the account of the revolution itself and of its causes, by the well-known English writer on Eastern affairs, Robert Machray. Then comes a discussion of the doubtful wisdom of the movement by a European official who has long dwelt in China, Mr. R.F. Johnston, District Officer of Wei-hai-wei.
In the north, Chefoo, Wei-hai-wei and Pei-tai-ho attract a goodly number of visitors to the seaside during summer months, while others desiring greater change sail to earth's fairyland, Japan, or even make the voyage to Canada and back. We dance whenever and wherever we can.
This consisted in the capture, off Round Island, of a great fleet of Chinese junks, bound from Wei-hai-wei to Port Arthur, conveying to the beleaguered city vast quantities of food, clothing, ammunition, explosives, and supplies of every imaginable description. The junks were taken into Dalny, where their cargoes were declared to be contraband of war, and confiscated by the Japanese.
That fool aboard there who calls himself the captain tells me that, shortly after I sailed, Prince Hsi, who considers himself an authority on Naval matters, decided that the guns in the fore barbette of the Chi' Yuen were of too small a calibre, and in my absence he managed to prevail upon the Council to send her to Wei-hai-wei to be docked and have her 9.4's replaced by 12-inch guns.
This was done by cable, before I left Wei-hai-wei, and the Japanese reply arrived by cable, also before I left.
In the evening I had a glimpse of Admiral Ting, who had been ashore and was returning to his ship. His barge passed close alongside the Columbia. I saw a young-looking man, very pleasant in expression and manner; altogether what we should call highly gentlemanly in appearance. It is well known that he expiated his failures by suicide after the final ruin of Wei-hai-wei.
He mentioned that he would be detained for some days at Wei-hai-wei making arrangements for the repair of the ships each of which had been more or less damaged by the rebel fire during the fight in Prince Jerome Bay and getting a new ten-inch gun mounted in the Mai-yen's forward turret, to replace the one which had been dismounted on the same occasion.
The distance from Wei-hai-wei to Wi-ju is a little under two hundred miles, and the voyage was completed without mishap in about twenty hours, the whole fleet coming to an anchor in the roadstead just as the first shades of evening were falling.
They evidently considered that, the Chinese northern fleet being still under repair at Wei-hai-wei, and the southern fleet away in southern Chinese waters, they had little or nothing to fear, and that a very small measure of protection, or even none at all, would suffice.
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