hold
on for Port Arthur, where we could get rid of him without going much
out of our way. Besides, we felt curious to see if any further
encounter would take place between the hostile squadrons. Such,
however, was not fated to be the case. The Japanese allege that they
intended to renew the attack in the morning, and tried with that view
to hold a course parallel with that of the retreating Chinese, but
lost them during the night.

We reached Port Arthur on the 19th, and having obtained a pilot,
entered the harbour. We found there only two of the vessels belonging
to the defeated squadron, the _Ping Yuen_ and the _Kwang Ting_.
The former did not seem much injured, but the latter had evidently
suffered heavily, the port bow being partially stove, the upper works
demolished, and the armouring tremendously battered and dinted.

Shortly after casting anchor in the West Port, I lowered a boat to
take Lin Wong ashore. In the dockyard he ascertained that a fast steam
launch was to leave for Tientsin with despatches within two days, and
he arranged to take advantage of her departure to regain that port,
from which, it will be remembered, he had come on board the
_Columbia_. As he seemed well acquainted with Port Arthur, I got him
to take me round, and show me as much of the place as could be seen in
the two or three hours of leisure at my disposal, for the _Columbia_
was to trip her anchor again in the evening.

The general features of Port Arthur, or, to give it its native name,
Lu-Shun-Kou, must be tolerably familiar to all who have followed the
course of the war. A glance at the map shows its position, at the
southern extremity of the Liaotung Peninsula, commanding, with the
formidable forts of Wei-hai-wei on the opposite tongue of land, near
Chefoo, the entrance to the Gulf of Pechili. Although now the
principal arsenal and naval depot of the Chinese Empire, it is of
quite recent creation, only having come into note since 1881, in which
year it was decided to establish a naval dockyard. Up to then it had
only been used as a harbour for junks employed in the timber trade and
carrying cargoes from the Yalu to ports in the Pechili Gulf, or from
the south to Niuchang and West Chin-chou. Native contractors having
made an extensive bungle of the job, it was entrusted to a French
company, and by them completed. Since then the place has increased,
from an insignificant village of sixty or seventy mud houses and a few
shops, to