Foreign Minister, to Lord Augustus Loftus, Ambassador in Russia, and in which Prince Gortschakoff had acquiesced, had established, at least provisionally, the sphere of influence of the two Powers. Afghanistan formed a buffer State between Russian Turkestan and British India.

Annam and

About the same period, at the Eastern extremity of the Asiatic Continent, some Tonquin serious incidents took place, which were one day to bring about an intervention from France in Annam and Tonkin.

A French merchant, M. Jean Dupuis, who had settled on the Yang-tse-Kiang, had sought for means of access to the Yunnan, and ascertained that the river was navigable. On three occasions he went up from Hanoi to Mang-Hao, a frontier town of the Yunnan, forming friendly relations with the Chinese mandarins and with the Tonkinese.

This success alarmed the Court at Hué, with whom Admiral Dupré, Governor of Cochin-China, was negotiating a commercial treaty. The Annamite mandarins multiplied difficulties in the way of M. Dupuis' enterprise, and insisted, at Saigon, on the removal of the French merchant.

Admiral Dupré sent to Hanoi Commander Francis Garnier, already celebrated by his admirable explorations in Indo-China and Southern China, along the river Mei-Kong, in collaboration with the Doudart de Lagrée Mission.

Garnier left Saigon on October 11th, 1873, with two gunboats and 180 men. He took with him MM. Balny d'Avricourt, ensign; Hautefeuille, cadet, and de Trentinian, Lieutenant in the Marines. He had hoped for a peaceful settlement of the difficulties between M. Dupuis and the Annamite man

darins, but he was disappointed. The attitude of Marshal Nguyen, commandant of Hanoi, forced him to have recourse to arms. On November 20th, 1873, Garnier stormed the citadel of Hanoi and captured about a thousand Annamites who defended it. In less than a month he and his little band seized the delta of the Yang-tse-Kiang.

The Annamite mandarins called for assistance on the Black Flags, a remnant of the insurgent army of the Tai-Pings, who, since the repression of the rebellion, ravaged the southern provinces of China, living on pillage and plunder.

Death

Garnier

They attacked Hanoi on December of 21st, 1873. Garnier repulsed them and boldly started on their pursuit, accompanied by M. Balny d'Avricourt. The two officers fell into an ambush and were massacred, not far from the town.

At Versailles, the Duc de Broglie's Government, on being informed of the difficulties born of M. Dupuis' commercial attempts, had given powers to negotiate to its Minister at the Court of Hué, M. Philastre, who was on familiar terms with King Tu-Duc.

The Garnier expedition had gone to Tonkin "against formal orders from the Duc de Broglie." 1 The Journal Officiel of January 11th, 1874, announced the death of that officer and of M. Balny d'Avricourt, and continued in these terms: "Garnier and Balny had been sent on a Mission to Tonkin, by the Governor of Cochin-China, and at the request of the Court of Hué, in order to demand from a French traveller, M. Dupuis, the strict observance

1 Duc de Broglie, Histoire et Politique, p. 133.

of the clauses inserted in our treaties with King Tu-Duc."

Philastre
Treaty

The instructions given to M. Philastre were conceived in the same spirit. On his arrival at Hanoi, the new Commissioner disavowed Francis Garnier, restored to the Annamites the towns occupied by French marines, and brought the latter back to Hai-Phong. Their departure was a signal for the massacre of the Tonkinese, who had assisted Francis Garnier and his companions; it is said that at least 25,000 of them perished or were forced to flee into the forests.

On

M. Philastre witnessed these sad events without a protest. After intimating to M. Dupuis an order to leave Tonkin under penalty of being expelled, he returned to Hué to resume negotiations. March 15th, he signed a treaty by which France recognised" the Sovereignty and entire independence of the King of Annam, undertook to give him gratuitously the support necessary to maintain order and tranquillity within his States, to defend him against any attacks and to destroy the pirates who devastated part of the coasts of his kingdom." France handed over to Tu-Duc five steamers, of the total strength of 500 horse-power, including Francis Garnier's two gunboats, 100 guns, 1,000 rifles, 500,000 cartridges, etc. .

King Tu-Duc undertook on his side to conform his exterior policy to that of France, to open the Yang-tse-Kiang to navigation, and recognised the sovereignty of France over the colony of CochinChina. It was a Protectorate treaty, but a Protectorate without either authority or strength, pregnant with complications and difficulties. The eminent situation which the French had for a moment occu

pied in Tonquin was abandoned. M. Dupuis went back to France, ruined.'

In China the consequences of the war of 1860 continued to unfold themselves. On June 29th, 1873, the Emperor received foreign ministers for the first time.

In virtue of the Pekin treaties of October 1860, France and England could establish in Pekin a permanent diplomatic mission. On January 23rd, 1861, the Tsung-li-Yamen, or Foreign Office, had been created in Pekin; on March 22nd the French and English legations were established in Pekin, soon followed by those of other powers.

But the interior situation of China prevented the Ministers from presenting their credentials to the Emperor. For on August 22nd, 1861, the Emperor Hien-Foung died, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Toung-Tche, aged five. The Regency was entrusted to the two Dowager-Empresses and to Prince Kong. The representatives of the Powers took the opportunity of the Emperor's coming of age to address, on February 24th, 1872, a collective note to the Tsung-li-Yamen, requesting an Imperial audience.

This audience, in spite of the resistance of the Chinese Government, was fixed for June 29th, and took place with ceremonies which had been minutely settled beforehand. An eye-witness gives the following account :

1 See Jean Dupuis, L'Ouverture du Fleuve Rouge au commerce et les évènements du Tonkin (1872-73); Paul Deschanel, La question du Tonkin (1883, 12o ); Jules Ferry, Le Tonkin et la Mère patrie, en 12o, 1890; Billot, L'Affaire du Tonkin, 8vo; Nolte, L'Europe Diplomatique et militaire au XIXème siècle, vol. iv. pp. 87-148.

"Across one end of the reception hall, a wooden platform had been erected, about three square metres in area and one metre in height; it was surrounded by a railing, also wooden, painted in all the colours of the rainbow. On this platform stood a wide chair, of plain black wood, and entirely without any kind of ornament, and, on this chair, his legs crossed, 'squatted' the Emperor of China, the supreme Chief of four hundred million souls. The Emperor is about eighteen years old, but his appearance would scarcely credit him with more than fourteen. His pale and sallow countenance, almost expressionless, is childish and harmless; his eyes followed this unprecedented ceremony, of which he himself was the principal figure, with a curiosity mingled with anxiety. His costume, as far as we could judge, was simple in the highest degree; a dark mauve gauze tunic, without any ornament, was the only garment visible, and his head was covered with a cap of pretty plaited straw, topped with a red tassel and the small red silk button which is the only distinctive sign of the Imperial House." "

Ashanti

In Africa, the English having taken War possession of the Gold Coast Colony, which had been conceded to them by the Dutch on November 2nd, 1871, in exchange for British rights in Sumatra, this was the signal for a rising of the Ashantis, natives of the hinterland. The British remained on the defensive for a year; but the insurrection gained ground, and, in June 1873, the Ashantis besieged the fort of Elmina, defended by 400 men, at the very gates of Cape Coast Castle.

1 Henri Cordier, Histoire des relations de la Chine avec les puissances occidentales, vol. i. pp. 480-481.