CHINA.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 663, 10 December 1851, Page 3

CHINA.

The pirates have been troublesome near Hong Kong, and had received a deserved chastisement. The Friend of China, of the 28th June, says:— On Tuesday last, the Cleopatra's barge, pinnace and cutter, started in chase of the -piratical junks that bad captured two fishing boats, and committed the murder to which we have referred. The next day, about eleven, having anchored during the night off Sammoon, following the route indicated by some fishermen, several vessels were sighted in the entrance of Bias’ Bay, the masters of which, directly the pursuers were seen, lifted anchor, and ran in as far as they could ; at the same time opening a fire with all the guns that could be brought to bear. This kind of chase and running fight continued for five hours. At the expiration of that period, and in the very spot where Shap-eng-tchi’s fleet was destroyed, three of the largest junks came to an anchor, and the crews jumping overboard made for the hills. They all escaped but a Weichow and a Tamahuy man, now safely lodged in Victoria Gaol, both of whom, besides gaily pots of opium, had four or five dollars a piece on their person. In thinking of the expedition we cannot find terms expressive of our sense of maise due to Lieutenants Price and Porchers,*three midshipmen, Mr. R. D. Caldwell and the several boats crews. Starting without a day’s provision and water, they pulled and sailed, with a midsummer sun over them, for a good part of twenty-four ihours, before they came up with the enemy, and then almost sick from exhaustion, they commenced (with two 12-pounders) a cannon and fusilade upon three vessels, mounting eighteen guns each, and otherwise armed to the teeth, sufficient to have blown them out of the water with a single broadside—they continued thatattack until nearly all the powder was expended, and eventually succeeded in capturing and burning them to the water’s edge. A late number of the (Overland) Friend of China, received at Calcutta, expressed ths belief that the progress of the insurgents in the Canton province was becoming so rapid, that it would soon require the whole strength of the present dynasty to suppress it. The Chinese of the province were even expecting the issue of new coinage by the rebels, a fact of itself sufficient to prove their object a political one. Some of the other papers, however, adhere to their first statements, that the rebellion is nothing but a great rising of plunderers, a sort of Pindarric war.