The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-23 00:00:00

LETTER FROM CHINA-AN AD-

VENTURE.
(The fc 'flowing are extracts from a letter by the chief
engineer of one of the war-steamers at present on the
coast of China to his friends in Edinburgh.]
(11P0A, Jan.26.—The last instalment of the Chinese
ransom money (2,000,000 of dollars) was paid in Canton
last wee k. The inhabitants being in a riotous state, we
were or Jered from Hong-kong up the river to lie abreast
of Cant on, and I believe to fire into the city in case of
their attempting to burn the factories. We remained
there ei.g :lit days, every man on board under arms, as we
expect d every night an attack from the populace, who
seem to have the most bitter enmity towards Euro-
peans. The money was all paid, however, and the riot-
ing hay i:ng partially subsided, we were ordered away, at
which I" was just as well pleased, having got tired of my
bed-fell .ows, no other than a pair of loaded pistols and a
drawn cutlass. Engineers were ordered to lie under
arms, as well as every one else on bnaid. We have
since t aken up our station here, which is twenty miles
further down the river than Canton, and about sixty
from I bong-Kong.
The s cenery in this place being most beautiful, and
yester di y, feeling inclined to enjoy it in a walk through
the cow itry, I took a boat and one of my apprentices
with mg and thinking I might find some game, I took
my gun also. We sailed up a small creek, and leaving the
boy to take charge of the boat, I, with the gun in my
hand, w• alked into the country. I had not gone a quar-
ter of a t vile, when approaching a small village, the people
came to'i yards me, about thirty or forty in number.
They be, ;an hooting and crying at me, which is the
usual way they have of treating us " barbarians "
when they get a lone one unprotected ; and as they
kept pressing round me closely, I thought it useless
to persevere in going forward. Therefore, turning
myself round to go back to the boat, one of them from
behind made a sudden spring, grasping in his arms,
both my legs under the knees, and another
seizing the barrel of my gun, they dragged me to
the ground. The latter kept pulling at the gun trying to
wrest it from me, all the while the muzzle pointing to his
breast. The gun being at the time in full cock, I had
his life completely in my power; my first thought was,
, " I will take it -" the second was, "Ifl do so, mine will
certainly pay aie penalty." In the meantime another
was striking at me' aith a stick, and I was compelled to
arms,
relinquish my hold of the gun to defend my face
with myarms,
wieldingthiet fellowasif ntoow
strikei
in possession
the
n
of
the gun
h, gad with the butt-end. I cannot tell you how I felr,
ev, lry instant expecting a death-blow. It was
eer y strange, that at that moment the picture of the
dea th of Captain Cook, in the volume of his voyages in
my father's book-case, came vividly before my eyes—
thei r gestures and appearance were altogether quite as
save we like. Before the blow came, I managed to spring
to a av feet, and attempted to keep them back, unarmed as '
I sv. ts. They then desisted, and went into the village,taking
with i a tem nay gun, hat, powder-flask—in fact, all my pro-
completely fleeced, my clothes torn to pieces,
131,,ert y. li. was
ets and their • confrom tents torn away my
p, )c.
coat. Glad I was, I can assure you, when I saw theirl
saw
backer turned ; and walking on towards the boat,
me. Now.
theno. assembling again, and to intercept
tis
thou .f lit I, they are going to have a shot a me —'his
la t,his h
o
ano A .er ordeal ; but presently the gun went off
mid d le of them, and I felt relieved so far, as it is very
like l• ,r some of them were hurt. The savages are quite
ign. ;rant of the use of a gun, and one of them may have
bee a looking into its barrel, for all I know to the con-
tral My troubles dii not cease here; for on reaching
the spot vhere I had left the boat, I found both it and
the e boy bole. I saw, however, two Chinese in a boat,
.d promised them money if they
tl Le c. reek. I went into their boat, and finding in one
o'k• m, 7 pockets two rupees, which the late robbers had
miss; al, I gave them to them ; they then wanted more,
and flaying me a prisoner in their boat, made motions as
if th, -.-y were going to search me, upon which I made an
att2l apt to throw one of them overboard. They desisted,
and landed me on the other side. I know the villains only
wain ted a few more to help them—they don't consider
tl ie odds in their favour ; two against one European.
I thel a walked along the banks of the river for a long
listan ce, until I discovered another boat, which I per-
suaded by promises to take me to my ship. It turned out
bat the boy I had left in the boat bad been plundered