The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-28 00:00:00

AFFRAYS 6VIIII PIRATES.

(From the Uverkind China Mail.)
The following is an account of the proceedings
of her Majesty's ships Grasshopper and Janus since
Sept. 27 : fhe two vessels left Hong Kong on the
27th, and made the best of their way to Nimshan,
a town or village lying at the head of Bias Bay.
The approach was difficult, as no reliable surveys
of the approach exist. On the morning of the 29th
the Grasshopper and Janus got within a practicable
distance of the town, and the commander of the
latter (who was furnished with a boat's crew and
the marines of the Grasshopper) was instructed to
communicate with the native authorities and obtain
from them information of the precise locality of
the town of which they were in quest—a place
called Shek-tow-ling, where a large amount of
property stolen from a trading junk had been
carried and concealed. This ' place turned out
to be some two miles distant from Ninisham, and
was given a bad character as the resort of piratical
cut-throats. The Janus was accordingly directed
to push her way up a narrow creek leading to the
town, and anchor in a position to cover the landing
of a force from the vessels. Upon searching the
town, the goods were found to have been removed,
and a large portion of the inhabitants, wisely judg-
ing that the visit foreboded them no good, had also
levanted. Two or three Chinese identified as pirates
were, however, captured, not without vigorous pro-
test and energetic resistance. One man, a fellow
of herculean strength, was shot in the struggle
which ensued between him and his capturers. It
being found impossible to recover any of the pro-
perty stolen, the landing party were turned to march
down to the boats, but were immediately met by a
body of armed Chinese, who evidently meant to
show fight. The marines opened fire, and they re-
treated, several of the Chinese being wounded. The
party then returned to the Janus with the two men
captured, one of whom was the man shot in his en-
deavour to escape. Efforts were then made to get
the Grasshopper close up, but she unfortunately
grounded, and remained on the mud for 24 hours in
spite of every effort to get her off. At 11.45 p.m.
of the 30th she was so far got off that her stern was
in deep water, and about this time the typhoon (ex-
perienced here) commenced. Despite this, the falling
tide rendered it necessary to leave her in that position
until 10 p.m. of the 10 October. Scarcely, however,
had she, by the aid of steam and sail, escaped from
her former position than the violence of the wind
drove her on the opposite bank, where she remained
immovable. The townspeople, however, by this
time seemed disposed to come to terms, and, consi-
dering that the Grasshopper was immovable until
the tide rose, they were given till the following day
to make the reparation demanded. A deputation
from a neighbouring town visited the ship to beg
for easy terms for their offending countrymen, and
an intimation was given that the property stolen
must be returned by ten a.m. of the next day
(4th October), or the town would be bombarded.
The Chinese, however, seemed to have repented
of their intention to come to terms, and the
specified time having elapsed, the comman-
der of the Grasshopper, with the approval
of the mandarin on board, decided to carry
out his threat. Fire was accordingly opened
with shot, shell, and rockets, the practice being very
accurate, and by sunset a considerable portion of
the town had been destroyed. On the following
morning the effect of these salutary proceedings be-
came evident. The chief men of the town came on
board and handed over all the missing property they
could collect, with the stipulated compensation for
whatever was short. This being accomplished, the
Janus was withdrawn from her position, and efforts
were made to lighten the Grasshopper by discharging
smile of her shot, shell, &c. into the Janus. The efforts
were not crowned with success until the 12th inst.,
when she fortunately got off the bank and was
enabled to leave her dangerous position. We under-
stand that the officers and crews of both vessels
acquitted themselves most creditably, and we be-
lieve that the efforts of Mr. Packer, navigating sub-
lieutenant, to obtain the necessary surveys has been
Specially noticed. Altogether we can congratulate
Lieutenants Commander Patterson and Lloyd upon
the,suecess which has attended their cruise.

In addition to the foregoing particulars we sub-
join the following particulars from our morning
contemporary :—A curious incident occurred during
the bombardment. The Grasshopper was firing per-
cussion shell, which do not explode until they
strike, and to outward appearance it very much
resembles solid shot. It appears that some of the
villagers picked up one of these shells still unex-
ploded, and were hammering away at the percussion
spot for the purpose of opening it to see what it was
made of, w-hen, to their consternation, it suddenly
exploded, killing eight men who were round it. The
villagers were so horrified at this that, after the fir-
ing was over, happening to find a solid shot, they
mfstook it for another explosive devil, and took it on
board the Grasshopper, carefully wrapped up in
matting, and begged the commander to take it away
for fed ir it should go off as the other had done.