THE CHINESE REBELLION.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 39, 30 August 1864, Page 3

THE CHINESE REBELLION.

The following horrible narrative of the sufferings of the Chinese is taken from the Shanghai Shipjring List : — A correspondent writing from Gordon's Lead-quarters, on the way to Chancliow, mentions that the slaughter among the rebels, after the capture of Hwo-soo, whicli we recorded in our paper of the 16th inst., was terrible. Upwards of 9,000 were taken prisoners ; and of these, it. is estimated that 6,000 were killed or drowned ; principally by the Imperialists. They were all old rebels and richly deserved their fate for the diabolical cruelties they had practised during tiieir present raid. Iv one village only, eighty inhabitants were butchered— because they had pulled away wooden bridges which the rebels happened to require. During the pursuit, the bodies of villagers, whose throats had been cut because they were unable to keep up with their captors, were found at frequent intervals. The villagers followed up the Imperialists troops and ferreted out rebels who had escaped notice by hiding, stripped them and bambooed them, after which they were allowed to go free. Outside tlie north and east gates of Chanchow, about half a mile from the city, are ranges of huts, amidst which, seeking what they can pick up from the Imperialists, are hxme'reds of gaunt, wretched people, dying of hunger and disease, horrible and loathsome to look upon. The living are too weak and indifferent to buiy the dead, the bodies remain where they fall, and decompose in the roads unless eaten by tlie dogs. We cannot describe the horrors that meet the eye at every step, better than by quoting the words of our correspondent. " It is horrible to relate, it is horrible to witness. To read that people are eating human flesh, is one thing; to see the bodies from which that flesh has been cut is another. No one can eat a meal here without a certain degree of loathing. The poor wretches have a wolfish look about them that is indescribable, and they haunt one's boat in shoals, in the hope of getting sonic scraps of food ; their lamentations and moans completely take away any appetite which the horrors one has witnessed might have left one. I ought to be tolerably callous by this time ; but no one could witness, unmoved, such scenes as these." Our correspondent concludes by expressing an earnest hope that the merchants of Shanghai will send some rice to relieve the starving inhabitants, and palliate, to some extent, their misery. As they are literally starving, and living on human flesh, no description of food can be too inferior. Rice so damaged as to be considered worthless, will be only to welcome at Changchow and Tihsaing, both of which places are in an equally horrible condition. The rebels have evidently made a last sweep of a country already desolated by their depredations, and have left the unfortunate inhabitants to starve. Even within sight of the walls of Changchow starvation and cannibalism prevail, unrelieved by the friends who have been the cause of so much misery. It is to be regretted that a few of those individuals who make a practice of periodically protesting in parliament against the aid we give the Imperialists, cannot be led over some of the districts recently recovered from their opponents. They could hardly fail to be converted, and to wish devoutly for the extinction of the rebellion, by any means, in order that such horrors may be put an end to. Our correspondent's description of the misery of tho inhabitants is the most powerful support that can be given to his appeal to the foreign and native merchants of Shanghai to send food to relieve them, and we are confident that it mil be^re^ponded to.