The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-07 00:00:00

During his forced sojourn with the Cochin China
pirates he witnessed many atrocities, and had
many opportunities of inspecting their retreats,
and studying the peculiarities of their
character. On the whole he was well treated, hut '..he
very kindness shown him was sometimes distaste•
fill. He was invited to dine with the admiral on his
joining the fleet. He thus describes part of the
entertainment :

" Rice, the Chinese c staff of life,' to a basin full of which
WO were first helped, was served up in two large wooden
kids, placed at the head of the table, and holding something
like twenty pounds each. These formed rather an incon-
venient addition to the feast. They were continually pass-
ing to and fro, over and even under the table, to the immi-
nent danger of some of the long-tailed gentry dipping the
wrist-bands and sleeves of their silk and satin garments in
the gravy of the savoury dishes. We had no waiters to
attend upon us, but every one helped himself to what here-
quired, and then passed the dish or kid to the next person.
who asked for it.

" Ihe liquor, which they called bee-chew, was pourod
into little cup!, and served out hot to each person. It was
a very suspicious-looking fluid. The interpreter commenced
capering, with a glass of it in his hand, drinking, and hob-
nobbing with everybody, and would insist upon my trying
some. As soon as I put it to my lips, I knew what blue
ruin' was; for this bee-chew was of a dull blue colour, and
it tasted, ugh ! of what did it not taste ? bilge-water, vitriol,
turpentine, copal varnish, tar, fi!-e, and castor oil ! An
entire stranger might have fancied that garlic had been
toiled in it. All Chinese liquor has a very unpleasant
flavour, or twang; but this, being pure and unadulterated,
was real fire itself, ' chain lightning 1' The twang may in
some measure be accounted for, by their not knowing how
to remove the essential oils properly ; or because they distil
from rice. I cannot give a decided opinion on this subject,
I must leave it to some of my kind readers, who may be
better chemists than I am.

" The repast being finished, they all took to smoking
opium again, and therefore I took my leave of them."

Residing at one time at a village for
some days, he observes that there was
a small body of troops stationed there under
a mandarin ; that daily some dozen or more were
flogged, and that during the thirty days he re-
mained with them every one of the soldiers had
been beaten and some of them several times. The
mode of inflicting this punishment is singular, and
executed with a neatness peculiar to the Celestials.
The victim's hands are bound tightly together and
placed over a peg driven into the ground ; his feet
are th©n bound
Ile he
is
pegbeiri
stretchedg
out
driven to his full
length, and
them he is ready to be operated upon. No sen-
tence is passed upon the offender, but one of his
comrades continues to belabour him during the
mandarin's pleasure. Flogging is often resorted
to, to induce suspected persons to confess to the
perpetration of certain crimes, and they are beaten
until they confess, when the previous fiagillation
is not taken Lit° consideration, but a sentence in
accordance with the offence passed; if, however, they
persist in their innocence after asevere beating, they
are released. This is something like the good old
nglish custom of trying whether some un-
fortunate old woman were a witch or not,
by casting her into a horse-pond, and if she
floated she was a witch, and was accordingly
burned, but if the unfortunate sank and was
drowned, her character was vindicated at the ex-
pense of her vitality. After his escape from the
pirates he was kept in prison in Cochin China for
some three months, during which period he witnessed
much barbarity practised upon the unfortunate
prisoners who were unmercifully beaten for every
imaginary offence. The following uses to which a
wife and family may be turned by this ingenious
people beats Sir Cresswell Cresswell hol:ew