THE LATEST TRAGEDY IN CHINA.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 877, 21 October 1871, Page 2

THE LATEST TRAGEDY IN CHINA.

During the month of April, 1871, a ship called the Dolores Ugarte,but rebaptized as the Don Juan, and carrying the Peruvian flag, lay in the harbour of Macao, waiting, it was understood, for a supply of coolies, for whose transport she had been fitted up in Hong Kong a British port. Chinese agents were scouring the country in search of coolies, whom, according to the survivor's evidence, they uniformly tempted with the offer of eight dollars, new clothes, a free passage to Anam, and four dollars a month on arrival. Anam is a favourite colony of the Chinese, the Siamese Government encouraging their immigra tion, protecting them, and exempting them from all military duty. The coolies who accepted the offers were marched to great barracobns in Macao, where they were kindly treated and well fed, but forbidden to leave, and threatened, as they say, by armed sentries with six years' penal servitude for desertion. On the 4th of May such of them as' formed the cargo of the Dolores Ugarte were marched on board between rows of armed sailors, and sent down into the hold, the hatches battened down on them, and the deck patrolled by armed men. These precautions were needed, for the unhappy coolies were not intended for Anam, but for Callao, thence to be sent to dig guano on the islands—a fate so dreaded and detested by the Chinese, who never will yield to slavery anywhere, that, as has been repeatedly affirmed by witnesses officially examined, suicide is in the islands the most frequent cause of death. The "New \'ork Tribune" indeed, which has long watched this trade, affirms, we believe with truth, that no coolie engaged on the islands has ever returned to China. The coolies,.once aware of this destination, can never be restrained, have repeatedly massacred all hands, and have still more frequently burnt the ships, preferring that the majority of their number should perish, while a few escaped in the boats, rather than all should die of compulsory labour. It would seem certain that the coolies on the Dolores Ugarte, though this is not proved in evidence, began, from the extra precautions taken,to suspect the truth, for the survivors all say they were well treated and excellently fed, and had no immediate motive for breaking out. They were, however, kept under hatches like slaves, and were forbidden to go on deck for any cause whatever, while a small fatigue party of twelve which was allowed to assist in cleaning the vessel was on its return below jealously searched for fire. If the captain of these ships can once gain the ocean they are comapratively safe from fire, as the Chinese will not run the risk of burning without auy advantage; but within Chinese waters the danger is deadly, and in this vessel the watchfulness seems to have been unremitting. On the 6th, however, theicoolies, who are entirely careless Of life, made an attack upon the sentries, and failing to overcome them, resorted to their last desperate expedient of fire. They fired the hold, hoping, as frequently happens, that the Europeans would let them up in the confusion, when they would kill everybody but the steersman, and run the ship on shore. The captain, however, perhaps familiar with the traditions of the trade, knew his danger, kept the hatches battened down, rmd after an ineffectual attempt to extinguish the fire —frustrated, it is reported, though not proved, by the Chinese " chopping up" the man who held the hose—ordered his men into tho boats, and rowed away. As the last boat was leaving a European sailor, let us hope by order broke tho padlock of tho hatch, and called to the Chinese to fly. Fifty or sixty poor wretches nearest to the hatchway rushed up, and aa the fire advanced

jumped into the sea, floated abciAon 1 spars, and were ultimately pickecrup | by a junk; but that respurce was too ] late for the majority The; ship had I oil on board, and the men were closely j packed, the smoke could not get readily away from the hold, and 600 human beiugs drawn on board the Dolores Ugarte by false promises, \ were roasted alive—"stewed," says one witness, " in their own fat."