The Sun.
London, England, 1855-09-10 00:00:00

DR. F;ASTON'S ACCOUNT OF THE HANGO

AFFAIR.

The Scotsman says the friends of Mr. Easton, the sur-
geon captured at ilango, and, in the first instance, sup-
posed to have been killed by the Russians, have received
from him an account of the occurrence at Hango, which
we give below. Dr Easton, in his private letter, dated
" \Vladimir, August 5," says :
_

" I left St. Petersburg on the afternoon of Saturday
the 14th July, I think, escorted by a gendarme officer
and two of his men, and travelled along the celebrated
but most uninteresting road from St. Petersburg to
Moscow, reaching the latter place on Tuesday afternoon,
and leaving it at eleven o'clock p.m. We reached
\Vladimir about noon next day, after a fatiguing journey
of four days.
" Here am I planted in the midst of Russia. The
governor is very kind, and his lady speaks English most
admirably, and uses it to promote my comfort and hap-
piness by every means possible. In truth, lam over-
whelmingly indebted to Lady Annenkoff for her unceas-
ing benefits, taking from exile most of its sting. I have
good quarters and kindness from all I meet. What can
I desire more, except liberty ?
" \Vladimir is a very beautiful town, situated on a
small river called the Kliasme, which waters the plain
above which the town stands. It is choke full of pic-
turesque churches, very old and very noisy when their
bells are clinking, which is pretty frequently.
" I send you an account of what came under my
knowledge at Haugo. I see from the St. Petersburg
Journal very erroneous accounts have been published.
" June 4 or 5 (I am not quite sure of the date.)—The
Cossack anchored off Hang) for the purpose of setting
at liberty several Finnish merchant captains taken pri-
soners in the Gulf of Finland.
" On this service a cutter with eleven men, under the
command of Lieutenant Geneste, accompanied by Mr.
Sullivan, was ordered to proceed on shore, heisting a
flag of truce (white flag.)
" I, bearing there was a boat to be sent to the shore
to land the prisoners, thought I might as well take ad-
vantage of the choice of a walk, however short.
" Three stewards were sent into the boat to purchase,
if allowed, milk, eggs, &c.
"Being a medical man, I of course paid no attention •
to any of the arrangements connected with the boat, so
that I did not know there was any arms in her ; nor
did I think it necessary to pay any attention as to flags,
except that I sometimes called out to let the flag of
truce be well seen.
" The boat, bearing the white flag in her bows lashedh
harbourland u
to a boarding-pike, was pulled under the t_eleignriasi,
station, the
sllalinlnldinveiadsph,oichatphtiamin, Lundstrom 1
dwihreieehtintghewtleielergertaophlaniedp.lanlendsidwee
ftohnendpaoennitoloiff.
with a wooden pier, which we went alongsideto
"Lieutenant Geneste then gave orders. o the sailors
not to leave the boat, but to put on the pier the luggage
belonging to the prisoners.
myself,
he
pier,the
othree e
thef te w aartdesw, and
taking
prisoners, et
tnrhoemes twenexth
"We had only taken a few steps when from all sides
a fire was opened on us. I saw for the first time
one of the stewards. I immediately
sol-
diers, and at aitheuflrraigedwigtlan glance thought about 100 of
them had surrounded us. The first I saw fall was
Lunjumped into the water to get to the boat, but saw she
bad drifted a little from the landing-place, with several
of the sailors seemingly dead in her.
pie,r,,Steheiing
nkmugh,oitihneertmdeisacnos of escape,veredl I
might gotma undernag
manage
to
get
off to the ship at night. I found that one of the
stewards, wounded, and one of the sailors, unwounded,
also one of the Finnish captains, had likewise taken
shelter under the pier. The affair seemed to be over in
an instant, there being no resistance on our part—i n
fact no time for it.
" After a short time, all being quiet, the Finnish cap-
tain left the pier, and shortly after returned with men
from the village, when of course we became prisoners.
" We were placed in waggons and taken to Ekenae,
where to my great delight I found Geneste and Sulli-
van, with three of our men unwounded, and three others
wounded.
" While under the pier I of course did not know the
fate of the others, but, from the firing, thought all ex-
cept the two with me had fallen. We were very kindly
treated when prisoners, and everything was done for
the wounded th,a,titocoßuLdT T. E
possibly be
Surgeonsedone.
R.N."

CHINESE BARBERS.—The barbers in towns of China
go about ringing bells to get customers. They carry with
them a stool, a basin, a towel, and a pot containing fire.
When any person calls them, they run to him, and
planting their stool in a convenient place in the street,
shave the head, clean the ears, dress the eyebrows, and
brush the shoulders—all for the value of little more than
a half-penny. They then ring the bell again, and start
in pursuit of another customer. What would our Eng.
lisp barbers say to this custom
_ _