The Press. — London, England, 1857-05-02 00:00:00

MAY 2,1857. THE WAR WITH CHINA. THE intelligence brought by the last mail from China details some important occurrences. The despatches reach to the 15th of March. In the Canton river affairs were tolerably quiet. Two successful junk engagements at Fatshan creek and at Toon-Chung, and the capture and destruction of some dbzen junks, may, say the China papers, be accepted as " compensation" for the capture by the Chinese of the Queen passenger steamer while on her voyage from Hong Kong to Macao. But the most important event connected with the war is the sudden insurrection of the Chinese colonists at Kuchin, Sarawak, and their attempt to destroy the resident English. Rumours appear to have been current that the Chinese contemplated resisting the authority of the local Government for some time previous. On the night of the 17th of February a large body, number ing about 200 Chinese, came down the river at mid night, and made a most determined attack on the Government people and property. They first secured possession of the two forts, one below and the other above the town of Kuchin (the seat of Rajah Brooke's authority), and, having furnished themselves with all the arms and ammunition in stcre, proceeded to the work of destruction upon which they had ventured. One party attacked the residence of Sir James Brooke, whilst the remainder assaulted the houses of Mr. Ctookshank, the magistrate, and Mr. Middleton, also a Government official. The surprise and consternation was so great, and the measures of the attacking party so well organised, that all communication between the different European members of the community was impossible. While the Chinese attacked the front of the house, Sir James Brooke succeeded in effect ing an extraordinary escape; he passed down the bath-room, swam a creek near his house, and suc ceeded in gaining a neighbouring Malay village. The assailants fired into Sir James Brooke's resi dence, killed Mr. Nicholets, plundered the place of everything of value in their estimation, and then set tire to the house. Sir James Brooke at once took tl.e most active measures to destroy his assailants, and as his own account of the whole affair is most interesting, we venture to subjoin it as extracted from a private letter : A follower of Tien•Te, the rebel chief, bad arrived in Sarawak. and some criminals, who had been banished the country, secretly returned from Singapore. f had been unwell fot• some days, and on the night at the 18th retired early to bed. My servant was sleeping in a room near mine, and Mr. Steel and Nicholets occupied a small bungalow close hy. Between twelve and one o'clock I was awakened by yells and shots, and, seizing my sword aid revolver, I opened a window and saw that the house was surrounded. The noise told me it was by Chinese. I opened door by door in the hope of finding means for escape, but in vain. I told Pent) , [his native servant] that our deaths were at hand, and, as the last hope, went down to the hathing•rootn, which was under repair. The dour was not fastened. I opened it gently, and, seeing the way clear, ran across the lawn to the creek on the right hand of the house, and took the w•tter close under the bows of the boat which had brought the murderers to their bloody work. I carried my pistol and sword across with me. Glad was I to touch ground on the far side, though not above thirty yards. I struggled through the deep mud, and lay down exhausted and panting in the road. Recovering breath, I gut to the neamst house, and, launching a canoe, pulled up to the Datoo Handers kampong. All was in confusion. I was too exhausted to do much, and Hercules himself could nut have restored courage or order to such a polio stricken crowd. Here Crookshank joined me bleeding from a severe sword•cut in the arm. lie believed his wife to be dead, and we both apprehended that the massacre would be general. Finding all hope of restoring affairs at the Handers gone, I pulled to the kampongs above, and persuaded the people to secure their women and valuables in prahus, and to cross to the opposite or left bank of the river, so as to prevent the assailants from attacking them by land. My house, Arthur's, and Middleton's were long before this in flames. We got the women and children acmes the river, and Arthur, Crookshank, and myself retired to the same side, to the house of Nakndah Bryak. Here Crymble joined us with the intelligence that after an hour's defence our fort or palisade had been taken, and with it all our guns, small arms, ammunition, &c. I t had been defended by Crymble, with four men, and two prisoners ; three of the defenders were killed, one or two wounded, and Crymble himself had been grazed by a spear in his side. Middleton, Steele, Ruppell, and Penty dropped in one after another. The bright fires went out, and the dull morning broke at length, but only disclosing to us the hopeless state of our affairs. We remained quietly at Inkodah Bryaks, doing what we could to animate the natives, and to prepare for knell defence as our means allowed, should we be attacked. Mal here relate the fate and misfortunes of our fellow•sufferers. Poor Harry Nicholets was murdered on the grass, trying to reach my house. Crookshank amd Ins wife escaped by their bath•►oom door. She ran first, and he protected her retreat with a spear in his hand, but, in passing the stable, one Of these villains rushed from TILL PRESS. the opposite side and cut her down. Her husband jobbed his spear into the misczeant's back, but with a twist of his body he wrenched it out, and, seizing the shaft, he struggled to get the spear. Suddenly, however, letting go with his right hand, in which he held a short sword, he cut Crookshank across the fleshy part of the arm. Bcth staggered, both let go the spear, and Crookshank, weak with loss of blood, and believing his wife dead, staggered away and reached me. She, young and beautiful, lay for twelve hours weltering in her blood, conscious and calm in this extremity. One fiend hacked at her head till he cut off the long tresses which protected it; another tore her rings from her fingers ; a third—for the sake of our common nature let it be told—gave her water to drink. By this time the remainder of the Europeans had been assured of protection; but when the bishop asked the leader's permission to carry her to his house, he was told that she should be left to perish. At length the boon was granted, and she was relieved and tended, and is now, God be praised, recovering. Middleton's house was attacked at the same time anti in the same manner as the others. He escaped with difficulty. His poor little wife hid in a bakery till the burning rafters fell about her, and, from her concealment, saw the assailants kicking about the head of her eldest child. The mother was paralysed ; she wished, she said, to rush out, but could not move. The youngest child was murdered and thrown into the flames, where poor Wellington's remains were likewise consumed, his head borne off in triumph alone attesting his previous murder. The day broke, as I said, and shortly after I heard that the Chinese had assured the survivors of safety ; that they had communicated with the bishop, and sent for Helms and Ruppell. I then, hopeless of doing good, started for the Siole, a small stream which has its outlet far below the town ; it was a wild walk ; we swam the stream, washed out every track of our footsteps in the mud, and took refuge in a mangrove swamp as dark came on. By eight o'clock two small boats came to carry us away, and in an hour afterwards I was in Abong Buyong'sprahu, manned by forty men, with six smaller boats in company. Our party consisted of Arthur, Crookshank, Crymble, ton, and Penty, and, after the trials and fatigues of the twenty.four hours, we slept as though misfortune had not overtaken us. On Sunday, the 22nd, Sir James Brooke, having received intelligence of the retirement of the Chinese, ventured towards Kuchin, but before he reached the town the Chinese returned in great force and com pelled him to retire. He determined as his only resource to rouse the native population against tne rebels:— A force from Sakarran was our only hope, and with a base for operations we might rally the people, re-arm, and act against the enemy. The next morning I was on my way to Lingao, when the steamer hove in sight. I hoarded her. Skinner was most zealous and active. Here was the very base for our operations we wanted. We drove the miscreants out of the town, found the Datoo in a cluster of prahus, and heard that he had recaptured nine sampans and one of our prahus containing stores of powder, some gnus, .Cc., of which we were in great want. This was the first blow struck at the Chinese. I felt as sured that each day would improve our resources and diminish those of our enemies. Their body of men was nearly annihilated ; for, taking the jungle behind the town or making off by the road, as they had no boats to carry them away, they were cut off by the Dyaks or starved. My next measure was to let the land Dyaks loose upon them, and, within a circuit of thirty miles from Siniawan, Bau, and Bula, tl:ey were driven into their defences with great loss of lite, and all communication between Bau and Sinaiwan prevented, excepting by means of large parties of armed men. Night and day they were harassed by alarms ; every straggler was cut down. In short, it was a guerilla warfare of the most harassing character, and quite shut the enemy up in their two places of strength, Ban and Sinia wan, The want of food was sure to do the rest, and it was a mere question of time how long they could hold out. Simovar and Bank were each covered, the former by the fort of Balitlah, the latter by its landing-place, but early in the month the Chinese again came forth in five prahus and began ravaging the banks of the river. 1 was col lecting my people, and reassuring them after their panic. The Datoo 13andar, on the 9th, was in a single Malay prahu on the lookout at Linda Tarak when this Chinese party came there. They declined an engagement on the water, but landed and threw up a stockade, which they de- fended with four guns and manned with about 250 men, armed with muskets and Titles. The Datoo came down himself in a small boat, and by one o'clock on the 10th we got off two more large prahus, some thirty Dyak bang kongs as a reserve ; other prahus were preparing, and some followed the same evening, but too late. These three prahus ranged themselves in line and dashed at the Chinese stockade, landed sword in hand, and carried it without a cheek. The Dyaks cut the Chinese to pieces in the jungle, and the haif•hour before sunset cost our ene mies from 100 to 1 . 30 men. Again the remnant was dis tressed in the jungle. Our party returned; had it as- cended the river, no man, woman, or child of our enemies would have escaped death or capture. This defeated party consisted of their picked men, and their two great leaders were killed in the stockade. A panic now seized them. On the night of the 11th 1 . heard that Balitlith and Simovar had been abandoned, and, hurrying up the following morning, the intelligence greeted me that Bank was likewise deserted. and had been burned, and that the Chinese were in full retreat towards Sambas. 'Phis took us by surprise, but our force got upon their trail on the 1301, and, after three days' desultory fighting, drove them across the frontier with great slaughter, the enemy, however, making a desperate resistance in defence of the women and children, and the efforts of our people not being able to break them. Had twenty-four hours' delay intervened to allow a concerted attack we should have had 425 them all ; but as it is we may be thankful, for a mere rem nant of the body of Chinese men has escaped, and the capture of the women and children was not to be desired. Even now, however, this wretched mass, driven to the further side of the Sambas river, must suffer great loss, and may altogether perish in the wild jungle for want of food and from exposure. Thus the punishment has been almost as sudden and far mote sharp than the treachery and first success of this miscreant body. A thousand and more have been killed in different places, their flourishing settlements destroyed, and not a rooftree to cover their dastard heads in the country. The numbers starved in their flight by being lost in the jungle it is difficult to reckon, but it must be considerable, and out of a ;inputs. tion of 4,000 or 5,000 certainly not more than 2,000 have escaped, and half this number is composed of women and children. As to the causes and origin of the i______ James Brooke explains them as follows Wherever there is a Chinaman there is the conceit of supremacy and the desire of dominion. When associated in bodies as in Sambas formerly, and thence in Sarawak before my arrival, this lust of rule grows stronger. The stringent proceedings of the Dutch have recently thrown many desperate characters into Sarawak, and the miserably feeble Government of Singapore, with its toleration of secret societies, has strengthened the Chinese Kungsi here an?. given it advisers aware of the state of British affairs and policy. Without such advisers the idea of encouraging trade while murdering the officers of Government would never have entered the head of any of the rude Chinese here, and without the means of Evelihood from without and the support of the European community so mad a projt.ct could hardly have been undertaken. To upset the Govern ment by the murder of its principal officers and heads and to establish other Englishmen to carry on the trade, was the suggestion of Chinese of Singapore, well acquainted with the isolated position of Sarawak, and possessed with the idea that the murder of Sarawak officers and the Sarawak Rajah would he a matter of supreme indifference to the British nation, provided that trade was continued and cottons sold. It was a high compliment to my Go vernment that, murdering me with the intention of obtain ing power, these stupidly clever Chinese desired as little change as possible. They forgot the native element, and hence their destruction has come. It was a grand super structure, cleverly devaid by men acquainted with English policy and mo of proceeding, but miserably based as regards the feelings and the ferocity of the native population. I think I have told you that one of Tien-Te's followers—i.e. a follower of the rebel and Hoe leader in China—has since been ascertained to have arrived in the country. It is probable that he was the great Singapore mover anti agent, and to all these causes to encourage the attempt to acquire power anti plunder by means of treachery and murder may be added the poverty of the Chinese, owing to the scanty yield of gold during the last eight months. In conclusion, he writes : The loss of the Company is trifling. It is fortunate that you will hear of our disaster and its retrieval at the same time: arid, for myself, I may say that I am in good health anti spirits, and ready to rouzh it with the best of them. Our ladies behaved with great fortitude and resignation. Charlie Johnson, as usual, has been my right hand, and every Government servant, has declared he will follow its fortunes in evil as well as in good fortune. I have written to retrench every superfluous expense, and I have appro priated toy pension from the East India Company to pity the pensions I grant to others. Everything else is super fluous. No books, no papers, no wine, no nothing. i, Sir The following is an extract firm a letter from Singapore, dated the 23rd of March : The Chinese here and in the Straits generally are in a disaffected state, and, should there be auy rumour of mis• fortune to us in China, it may lead to unpleasant conse• quences in the meantime, though there can be no doubt of the ultimate result. The punishment cf the Chinese in Borneo must have an excellent effect on other populations. The only pity is that the English did nut do it instead of the Malays. Sir W. Hoste's going t' Borneo must produce the best results. Sir James Brooke is stated to regard the affair as trifling and soon to be retrieved. The Government gunboats and the Malays were in eager pursuit of the Chinese, and if the latter are overtaken the re tribution will doubtless be severe. On the arrival of the news at Singapore the agents of Sir James Brooke and the Borneo Company lost no time in chartering the schooner Waterlily, and loading her with arms and ammunition, as also some volunteers for service, while the Dutch authorities at Sambas immediately despatched troops and a war steamer to the scene of action. Sir James Brooke, by latest advice, had departed for Simunjang, on the Sadong, the scene of the Borneo Company's operations, and where a large number of Chinese coolies are employed, with the view of preventing any rising on the part of the coolies in that quarter. The Chinese resident.s at Kuchin were completely restored to confidence when the steamer left, and had reopened their shops. So great, indeed, was their reliance in the stability of the Rajah's Government, that not one of their wives or children was sent away to Singapore in the steamer. The loss by the late outrages chiefly falls on Sir James Brooke and the Government people. Mrs. Crookshank had nearly recovered from her injuries, and her husband's wounds were doing well. With respect to affairs at Hong Kong, a general sense of insecurity prevailed. The Government contractors' storehouses had been burned down, and I