and the reported wealth of the country added the powerful motive of self-interest to the yearnings of patriotism. Already Jean Dupuis, a trader who in the pursuit of his calling had penetrated into Yun-nan, was attempting to negotiate for the passage up the Song-Koi of himself and a cargo of military stores for the Chinese authorities in Yun-nan. Meanwhile Captain Senez appeared from Saigon, having received instructions to open the route to French commerce. But to neither the trader nor the naval officer would the Tongkingese lend a favourable ear, and in default of official permission Dupuis determined to force his way up the river. This he succeeded in doing, but arrived too late, for he found the Taiping rebellion crushed and the stores no longer wanted.
On the return of Dupuis to Hanoi, the Tongkingese general at that place wrote to the king of Annam, begging him to induce the governor of Cochin-China to remove the intruder. An order was thereupon issued calling upon Dupuis to leave the country. This he declined to do, and, after some negotiations, Francis Garnier with a detachment was sent to Hanoi to do the best he could in the difficult circumstances. Garnier threw himself heart and soul into Dupuis's projects, and, when the Tongkingese authorities refused to treat with him except on the subject Of Dupuis's expulsion, he attacked the citadel in November, 1873, and carried it by assault. Having thus secured his position, he sent to Saigon for reinforcements, and meanwhile sent small detachments against the five other important fortresses in the delta (Hung-yen, Phu-Ly, Hai-Duong, Ninh-Binh and Nam-Dinh), and captured them all. The Tongkingese now called in the help of Lu-Vinh-Phuoc, the leader of the “Black Flags,”[1] who at once marched with a large force to the scene of action. Within a few days he recaptured several villages near Hanoi, and so threatening did his attitude appear that Garnier, who had hurried back after capturing Nam-Dinh, made a sortie from the citadel. The movement proved a disastrous one, and resulted in the death of Garnier and of his second in command, Balny d'Avricourt.
Meanwhile the news of Garnier's hostilities had alarmed the governor of Saigon, who, having no desire to be plunged into a war, sent Philastre, an inspector of native affairs, to offer apologies to the king of Annam. When, however, on arriving in Tongking Philastre heard of Garnier's death, he took command of the French forces, and at once ordered the evacuation of Nam-Dinh, Ninh-Binh and Hai-Duong—a measure which, however advantageous it may have been to the French at the moment, was most disastrous to the native Christian population, the withdrawal of the French being the signal for a general massacre of the converts. In pursuance of the same policy Philastre made a convention with the authorities (March, 1874) by which he bound his countrymen to withdraw from the occupation of the country, retaining only the right to trade on the Song-Koi and at Hanoi and Hai-Phong, and agreed to put an end to Dupuis's aggressive action.
For a time affairs remained in statu quo, but in 1882 Le Myre deVillers, the governor of Cochin-China, sent Henri Rivière with a small force to open up the route to Yun-nan by the Song-Koi. With a curious similarity the events of Garnier's campaign were repeated. Finding the authorities intractable, Rivière stormed and carried the citadel of Hanoi, and then, with very slight loss, he captured Nam-Dinh, Hai-Duong, and other towns in the delta. And once again these victories brought the Black Flags into the neighbourhood of Hanoi. As Garnier had done, so Rivière hurried back from Nam-Dinh on news of the threatened danger. Like Garnier also he headed a sortie against his enemies, and like Garnier he fell a victim to his own impetuosity (May, 1883).
In the meantime the Annamese court had been seeking to enlist the help of the Chinese in their contest with the French. The tie which bound the tributary nation to the sovereign state had been for many generations slackened or drawn closer as circumstances determined, but it had never been entirely dissevered, and from the Annamese point of view this was one of the occasions when it was of paramount importance that it should be acknowledged and acted upon. With much more than usual regularity, therefore, the king despatched presents and letters to the court of Peking, and in 1880 he sent a special embassy, loaded with unusually costly offerings, and bearing a letter in which his position of a tributary was emphatically asserted. Far from ignoring the responsibility thrust upon him, the emperor of China ordered the publication of the letter in the Peking Gazette.
The death of Rivière and the defeat of his troops had placed the French in a position of extreme difficulty. M. Jules Ferry, who had become premier of France in February 1883, determined on a vigorous forward policy. But for the moment the outlying garrisons, except those of Nam-Dinh and Hai-Phong, had to be withdrawn and Hanoi itself was besieged by the Black Flags. Reinforcements brought by Admiral Courbet and General Bouet were insufficient to do more than keep them at bay. So continued was the pressure on the garrison that Bouet determined to make an advance upon Son-Tay to relieve the blockade. He attacked Vong, a fortified village, but he met with such resistance that, after suffering considerable loss, he was obliged to retreat to Hanoi. In the lower delta fortune sided with the French, and almost without a casualty Hai-Duong and Phu-Binh fell into their hands. Meanwhile, in order to put more effective pressure upon the court of Hué, Dr Harmand, commissary-general, supported by Courbet, proceeded with a naval force to the Hué river. They found that, though King Tu Duc was dead, his policy of resistance was maintained, and therefore stormed the city. After a feeble defence it was taken, and Harmand concluded a treaty with the king (August 1883) in which the French protectorate was fully recognized, the king further binding himself to recall the Annamese troops serving in Tongking, and to construct a road from Saigon to Hanoi.
Though this treaty was exacted from Annam under pressure, the French lost no time in carrying out that part of it which gave them the authority to protect Tongking, and Bouet again advanced in the direction of Son-Tay. But again the resistance he met with compelled him to retreat, after capturing the fortified post of Palan. Meanwhile, on the determination to attack Son-Tay becoming known in Paris, the Chinese ambassador warned the ministry that, since Chinese troops formed part of the garrison, he should consider it as tantamount to a declaration of war. But his protest met with no consideration. On the arrival of reinforcements an advance was again made; and on the 16th of December 1883, after some desperate fighting, Son-Tay fell.
During 1884 the French made themselves masters of the lower delta. Throughout the campaign Chinese regulars fought against the French, who thus found themselves involved in war with China. While hostilities were in progress M. Fournier, the French consul at Tientsin, had been negotiating for peace, so far as China was concerned, with Li Hung-chang, and in May 1884 had signed and sealed a memorandum by which the Chinese plenipotentiary agreed that the Chinese troops should evacuate the northern provinces of Tongking “immédiatement.” In the following month another treaty, signed at Hué, confirmed the French protectorate over Annam and Tongking. It was not, however, followed by a cessation of military operations. A misunderstanding arose between the French and the Chinese as to the exact date for the evacuation of their posts by the Chinese, and in June General Millot, then commander-in-chief of the French forces, dispatched Colonel Dugenne at the head of a strong force to occupy Lang-Son. The expedition was badly arranged; the baggage train was far too unwieldy; and the pace at which the men were made to march was too quick for that scorching time of the year. They advanced, however, to Bac-Le, within 25 m. of Lang-Son, when they suddenly came upon a Chinese camp. An irregular engagement began, and, in the pitched battle which ensued, the Chinese broke the French lines, and drove them away in headlong flight. This brought the military operations for the season to a close.
During the rainy season fevers of all kinds became alarmingly
- ↑ Bands of Chinese rebels who infested the mountainous region of Tongking.
