The Express.
London, England, 1852-07-30 00:00:00

PIRACY AND MURDER BY COOLIES.

The following details of the murder of the captain
sad several of the crew of the American chip Robert Bonne
an taken from the A'orlis China Ikrald :

" It was mentioned that two of the seamen of the Holten
Bovine had gone off in one of the boats preyi.us ti the
Yawl being recaptured by the crew. It appears these meu
—named Valentine and Smith—were picked up by Captain
Wilson of the Nymph, and taken to Shanghae, where they
made a deposition be ore the American consul, wide, our
contemporary of the North China Ileratd publishes. We
extract the deposition of Valentine—Smith's is merely a re-
petition of it. We regret to learn from this deposition t at
all that was said of the bad usage of the Coolies by the
captain is more than confirmed. That usage, though
no enellke, is an extenuation of their crime. We
hope that the many severe Lewes lately given to
the masters of ships will either put a stop to the
Coolie carrying trade to South America, the Sand.
wich Islands, and Australia, or make it be emend
on with more attention to the comforts and feelings of the
emigrant.. Of the coolies per General Palmer, which
loaded from Amoy for Sydney, no less than 70 died on the
passage. Nothing short of the greatest inattention and
carelessness to the wants and comforts of these unfortunate
meu could have brought about this mortality.
" The deposition of Joseph Valentine, steward of the
American ship Robert Bowne, is as follows:
s That he was steward in the American ship Hobert
Downe, Capt. Bruen, and that said Orin sailed from Amoy
about March 20, with a crew of 19 men including all hand.,
and about 410 Chinese passengers bound fur San Francisco.
That the captain in order to maintain cleanlinesss cut
off the tails of a great many of the Coolies and obliged
them to come on deck and be washed all over in cold
water, the men scrubbing them with cane brooms. The
Coolies evinced much concern at losing their tails, marry
of them crying. They were well furnished with food and
water. Oa the 10th day out, while cutting up a chicken at
the galley dour about hallpast nine in the morning, the
deponent heard a about from the Chinamen, and looking
round saw a body of them rushing aft, armed with pieces of
wood as clubs, and, at the same time, one from behind
seised him round the wrist. With • small knife he held
he cut his wrist, and the Coolie let go his hold and followed
Lis companions aft. The deponent then went into the
galley with the Chinese cook, and both held the doors to
prevent the ingress of the Coolies. From a small window
in the front of the galley, he saw the murder of the fteemel
mate, who was knocked down by blows on the head from
ten or twelve men, and some of the Coolies having by that
time obtained boarding pike, stabbed him. Ile was thrown
overboard not quite dead, and clinging to a rope was
stabbed again with pikes till he relinquished his hold.
" The Coolies then forced the doors of the galley and
stabbed at deponent with the pikes notwithstanding the
intercession of the cook. lie succeeded in wresting a pike
from them, and drove them aft, one or two of the COMICS
falling by his thrusts. lie then jumped down the fore-
castle hatch, where they barricaded him in. In about an
hour they called to him through one of the Chinese, who
spoke English, and told him to come up, promising not to
hurt him. Ile did so, and was led aft to the wheel,
where Smith was also brought. After steering for an hour
deponent was taken into the cabin, and ordered under
pain of death to show where the captain's valuable* were. I
He did so, but they got but little. The men
were aloft when deponent came on deck, whither
they bad retreated after making unavailing resiet-
mice. The COOliee told the men if they would come down
and take them to land they would nut hurt them. The
men did so and they were all well treated while they were
returning. Deponent was informed by the Chin, se that
the captain, two officers, and three men, had been killed.
The Cooliceobliged deponent to attend the wounded among
themselves of which there were several, and they said 8 of
their number were killed in the fight and thrown overboard.
They quarreled much among themselves about the divi-
sion of the plunder. Land was made about the fourth day
after turning back, and after banging about it three days
trying to land, the Coolies became uneasy and wanted the
ship run ashore. The steersman in trying to pass to the
westward side of the island, ran on a reef. They then
landed about 150 of the Coolies. The ship slipped off
and was anchored in '2O fathoms but dragged into about 80,
where she rode with 100 fathoms chain out. The next day
they landed 100 or 150 more, and the Coolies wanted a part
of the crew to stay on shore, promising, when all were
landed, to allow them to go on board and take the ship to
some port. Two of the men were on shore, and not being
allowed to get into the boat again, the remander pushed off'
and went on board They then got out the longboat and
offered to put the Coolies onshore that night, but they chose
to wait till next day. The men then agreed to escape that
night in the long-boat. The deponent and Smith got in her to
hail her out, leaving in the ehip 8 men, who passed in from
time to time various articles necessary fur their voyage. After
awhile the Coolies apparently discovered their proceedings as
there was a great noise on deck, the Chinese running about
with lanterns, and as they saw and heard nothing more of
their messmates they concluded they were either tied or
murdered. At daylight, therefore, they cut loose, drifted
clear of the ship and hoisted a sail. In crossing a reef they
stuck for an hour which caused their boat to leak badly,
so they went ashore on the other side of the same island
on which the Coolies were. Here they were well treated
by the natives who brought them water, vegetables, and
chickens, and set a watch over them at night. The natives
were dressed in long gowns, their hair done up in • bunch
on the top of the head, fastened with a pin with a star in
front. After caulking their boat they launched her, made
sail, and °lithe Bth day were picked up by the Nymph."