her armies to
be fought, and for a number of years the Chinese fought desperately for
their native land. But one by one their fortified cities fell, one by
one their armies were driven back by the impetuous foe, and gradually
the conquest of Southern China was added to that of the north.

Finally the hopes of China were centred upon a single man, Chang Chikie,
a general of unflinching zeal and courage, who recaptured several towns,
and, gathering a great fleet, said to have numbered no fewer than two
thousand war-junks, sailed up the Yang-tse-Kiang with the purpose of
attacking the Mongol positions below Nanking. The fleet of the Mongols
lay at that point where the Imperial Canal enters the Kiang on both
sides. Here the stream is wide and ample and presents a magnificent
field for a naval battle.

The attack of the Chinese was made with resolution and energy, but the
Mongol admiral had prepared for them by sending in advance his largest
vessels, manned with bowmen instructed to attach lighted pitch to their
arrows. The Mongol assault was made before the Chinese fleet had emerged
from the narrow part of the river, in which comparatively few of the
host of vessels could be brought into play. The flaming arrows set on
fire a number of the junks, and, though the Chinese in advance fought
bravely, these burning vessels carried confusion and alarm to the
thronging vessels in the rear. Here the crews, unable to take part in
the fight and their crowded vessels threatened with the flames, were
seized with a fear that soon became an uncontrollable panic. The result
was disastrous. Of the great fleet no less than seven hundred vessels
were captured by the Mongols, while a still greater number were burnt or
sunk, hardly a fourth of the vast armament escaping from that fatal
field.

The next events which we have to record take us forward to the year
1278, when the city of Canton had been captured by the Mongol troops,
and scarcely a fragment of the once great empire remained in the hands
of the Chinese ruler.

The incompetent Chinese emperor had died, and the incapable minister to
whose feebleness the fall of Sianyang was due had been dismissed by his
master and murdered by his enemies. The succeeding emperor had been
captured by the Mongols on the fall of the capital. Another had been
proclaimed and had died, and the last emperor of the Sung dynasty, a
young prince named Tiping, was now with Chang Chikie, whose small army
cons