Summary Slaughter of Chinese Pirates.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 165, 14 August 1886, Page 4

Summary Slaughter of Chines c Pirates.

tfiifi Mbbfoo left Foochow for Chinchuj (near Amoy) on tlie 13th ultimo, having 1 taken on board at the former, place about; two hundred paesongora, who.: were bpoked, for various I 'Yangtsse' River « ports.' The^ej men were thought to be disbanded soldiers,' as each of. them came on board furnished with a passage < ticket granted by the native authorities. :They all. However, wore civilian The &eefpo ;afrived at Chinchu on the 14th ultimo, and having embarked 2, 200 disbanded trobps, left there! for Hankow on" the 2ist', 1 arriving en'route at Shanghai on the 22nd, and leaving here on the following day. Nothing worthy of note occurred on the passage from Foochovy to Shanghai. It was shortly after the transport liad left this port' that the trouble began; A nephew of the'Vicoroy of Foochow was a passenger- by the etoamer for Hankow, and shortly before the Meefoo arrived at Chinkiang it: was discovered that a lot of his luggage,' containing a good deal of money, besides his mandarian clothing and other valuables'; had' been Btolen. Numerous complaints were made to the General in' charge of the disbanded soldiers, by come of the latter, that a great deal of money had been 1 stolen, Each of these 2,000 "braves "' is said to have had between 10 and 20 mexicans in his possession, the amount with' which they werepaidoff. Inquiries were made which led to ttte discovery of Some of the thieves, and part of the Viceroy 'eluggage wasfound in the fore-hold, where the paseengers who were taken on board in Foochow were berthed, ft so leaked out that a conspiracy was being hatched amongst these men to kill all the foreigners on board and take charge of the vessel, and that for this purpose they bad come aboard, being aware at the, same time that the disbanded troops would take their backpay with them. The Meefoo arrived at Nanking on the 25th ultimo. The General went on shore to get the necessary instructions from the Viceroy, after a few hours' absence returning on board, when the_ anchor was raised, and the Meefoo proceeded on her voyage to Hankow. ' Now the bloodshed commenced. It appears that 'the Gfeneral's ordera were to decapitate the ! whole' gang of ' pirates ' on the way ' up. But' how was this to be safely accomplished ? The pirates were mixed up w,ith the disbanded, soldiers, and how were they to* bo recognised', as many of the dintanded troops 7 also • wore ' civilians clothes ? The general in his dilemma gave secret orders to each of the soldiers to have a red ribbon wove in his tail ; those who had none were to be considered pirates. The order' was obeyed, and on each hatchway leading from the fdrehold where the pirates were etowed away were placed several of the General's body with drawn swords who had orders to cut everybody's head off who camp on board without the red ribbon in hisjqueue. The General himßelf, with drawn sword, was posted alongside the hatchway just abaft theforemast. Soon ahead waa seen popping out of the hatchway ;. the red ribbon was absent, and with three slashes given by the general himself, the head was severed and rolled' along- the ship's' deck. This done, the General went- on the bridge to watch further decapitations. Soon four others of the pirates came up the hatch•way on the starboard side, but hardly had they reached the deck when about a dozen of the General's body-guard rushed upon them with swords and literally hacked them to pieces, the beadlese, armleps and legless trunks rolling about the deck in front of the chief officer's room, whilst all round was smeared with blood., The still convulsed limbs were thrown overboard. A few moments afterwards two more pirates showed themselves on deck ; seeing the drawn swords flash around they tried to escape, but were caught on the quarterdeck and also cut to pieces. Three more of the dtsperadoes, also unconscious of the fate awaiting them, appeared next, Again the pwords flashed around their heads, and in trying to escape, by jumping overboard, one of them had his back slashed in two, whilst another was run through with a sword while standing on the rails ; the third succeeded in reaching the waterwi'h his shoulder blade split open. The three bleeding bodies are 8 lid to ha-ve dyed water for a considerable distance. The Meefoo presented by ,this time anything bufc an agreeable spectacle, the deck being smeared with blood fore and att. Orders were now given to suspend each one of the pirates by bis tail to a beam, and then decapitate him. Again two pereons were seen coming up on deck, neither of them having the red ribbon in his queue They were at once captured by the body-guard and tied up to one of the awning rafters ; already the executioner was getting ready to strike the fatal blow, when some of the dipcharged soldiere recognised in the intended victims two of their comrades, who had omitted to put the ribbon in their tails. TheEe were, of course, released, though another soldier barely es' caped being hacked to pieces through a similar neglect on his part; he received two severe gashes across the shoulder, which were afterwards sewn up by the chief officer. The horrible scene was further intensified by all the body-guard dipping their swords in the pools of blood which were running into the vessel's waterways ; we beard they did this in the belief that this would act as a charm to the wearers of the sword. News of the fearful slaughter which was, going on deck must by this time have reached the pirates, who were stowed away in the forehold on the top of some coals, for no more of them ventured to come up on deck. The Meefoo arrived at Wuhu on the 26th ultimo, and it beibg evening, cast ashore. The General, tired perhaps of the sickening Bpectacle- though he had authority to kill all the gang of pirates — is said to have given the desperadoes to understand that if any were found en board in the morning they would be decapitated, and co had better make good their escape. The guards in coneequence seem not to have been veryaleit, for in the morning it was found that the remaining pirates had all made their escape by jumping through the ports and swimming ashore, though probably many weredrowned in the attempt. At any rate the Meefoo arrived at Hankow on the 27th without any further disturbance. Before she left that port, however, it became known on board that a gang of the pirates, numbering 25, bai taken passage in one of the China Merchants' steamers in Wuhu and had 'arrived in Hankow, where they all were captured by the -Taotai'a runners in a boarding-house. They were tried and cent to Wu-chang, where all were decapitated, with' the exception of the chief, who, as already stated, said he was a blue button mandarin, and had lost all his luggage on the way ;up. He is to have 'well to-do friends in Hankow,, and they 'are trying to save his , neok< As y he, claimed to have lost all his 'papers, *&c. 4, the capital sentence was deferred pending inquiries. 'The bpdies ot .three, soldiers, horribly, mutilated, were.'fotmcl in'jtHe, Mee^qp's forenold, ; v the unfortunate men wer,e likely UlftleH. by the pirates, who' took' most of them for their slain colleagues.