The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-04-14 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY ESCAPE

Some private letters received here by the late o
Indianl Ilai l enable.
papers
ot of
ol
the contradict
inurd e rthe f
are:).
oour
et
g given
E ii 4
lii
snhLs oimed,
speak
tca_
t
named Craven Wilson. Mr. Wilson is well known
before
roef
goingtl le St , George
verpool, where he had resided previous to having gone 'c
a mHpea icsk ae
Packet
Company,on oof 111 r
China as an assistant in the house of Messrs. Turner a
brokers
ei in s t; h
Mr.
1 house üßs er 0 ofd Wilson,atC 11, aiimanagerd
CS
toe.
ri
blibrobderiinbgb ,
his
uiiStewart,cle . and Nye
cannot to Chinaco':g''
too highly of the energy and determination of this Your
gentleman, who has had such a miraculous ese
murder. In the account we have of the affair
seen that Mr. Wilson's escape was provident
the same time we cannot but admire the ready forethought
of a youth, so signally displayed duriug a long time of
forethought
of
treme peril, and which enabled him at last not only exo
-
escape himself, but to save the life of a fellow-creaturteWe are acquainted with the friends of Mr. Wilson, and
on all sides we hear the highest opinions of his cool courage
and activity of mind and body. In sending home thee
letter we subjoin, it will at once be seen how anxious he
was to save his friends the pain which would fall to there
in hearing of such a calamity, without any intimation of his
own safety. The following letter was written to his father
instantly on his arrival at Macao. The writer is under
twenty years of age, but when with Messrs. Brodribb
had endeared himself to every one with whom he had as
aociated.
The letter giving particulars of this horrid transacti
and of the providential escape of the gentle
and near
man we
mentioned, is dated Macao, January 15,
follows :
" As there is a clipper vessel leaving this for 80,
the course of a few hours, I take the opportunity of wia,
a few lines, trusting the letter wan ill
sue in time
England n tiin
to contradict any report of my having been murdered o
house the Enterprise, a lordlier or lighter, employed by ou
house to carry goods from 31acao to 'Canton. It is true
that the vessel has been captured and destroyed, and up tt
the; present moment we have no reason to infe
survr other ththe
au
that nay' if and a Chinese girl are te only
captain and crew having been horribly murdered ; and the
vessel, after -being plundered, was set on tire and destroyed.
Through ,a wonderful and great providential care I have
escaped a multitude of dangers, the relation of which are
beyond any description, aual 1 can only heartily and sin-
cerely tbaok,ciod for having
,extended towards me such a
miracadous alraervatlAti•
" Oa l'hursday, the 6th of January, at about five O'clock
in the afternoon, I left theslitireatMacao to reach the vesses l,
which afterwards proved so great a source of dhe
was called the Enterprise, and in command of Captain
Sharp. We remained alongside a schooner in the Macao
roads, until about nine o'clock that evening, being engaged
in taking bales from her to be conveyed to Canton. aa
• :e got
under weigh with a fair breeze, intending to call first at
Hong Kong. She had been off about three hours, when I
went to bed, but did not take off my clothes, Captain Sharp
also went to bed at the same time. I had been asleep for
i
about three hours, as nearly as I can guess, when 1 as
awakened with bearing a scuttling noise on deck, and a was
al_
melt afterwards I heard a fearful screaming from a Chineu,;
girl who was on board. On looking out from my berth'i
could see the captain, whose sleeping place was exactly
0
polite mine; he was lying with his throat cut, and as ~. op-
could
been murdered without making any resistance. if
;lyipg down on the bed, I had taken the precaution of hautea
my musket close at hand, indeed it was close tom yhand
behind the bed curtains. On my first awaking
seeing the horrid fate of the poor captain T
- jumped and
of the ted, seizing a cutlass from the cabin, rushed out
the companion stairs, and just as I had reached the to was
struck down ,by the blow of a cutlass, given h
-Y a man P wa-
• thecompanion. For a moment I was staggered,
anover stand-
and on making a second attempt I was again knockeadggdered,
and received in this second .blow a slight cut on in o'wil,
cheek. seeing that any attempt
_at forcing my way would
right
only end in certain death, I concealed myself behind thwe
oartains, but here I was eoon discovered by the man, ,beda.i
war still standing over the cabin stairs, and who on seeing" i°
my place whichl immediately seizeu
hoarding
beg
hind A scuffle at that moment was goiug on upon thee-
deck ; ,this attracted his attention, and gave me an ,apport
of
,concealing myself in
.the butler's pantry, where uT
nit}
found the steward (who, I believe, was a Portuguese, -
covered over by what appeared
to be a dour,
oar, or some la%
heavy piece of wood. I immediately got under this. I
' ed there with him the whole of that re.
main night,
day, and half t lea 1 -acceding night with . and next
a . nothing to -
one orange, which wehadfound in a basket in th eat save
.We weret one or twice routed with poles by e pantry.
t discovered until they had finished the men, hut
were DO plundering the
vessel. On looking from our hiding place % he
standing near, looking in under upon we could see
man us, and haling
lantern in bin hand, the light of which shone u a
through wasoor looking from the pantr i upon my face
The man Chinese, and instantly on uto the gad
The awful yell to his companions, and then, laying eeing me gas
iron bar which they had used to break tae
hold of
thrust it underneath,_ and gave us some awful
the head. In fact, I. ww gave myself u fpokes a_
rnained without moving a muscle the whole
P for dead, and re.
attack, and for some time afterwards. the time of
thinking I uite dead. He then left '
me,
~ After plundering the lighter oe ever ‘ihi
tiered valuable, they set to and burne:--tig they consi-
dered
to a heap of coals which the had her, by first setting
Y d
the hold along with some straw and otherpreviously placed in
however, did not move until we such things. We,
smoke and heat, and the fire had reached forced out by the
fret of us. We then both got u reached to within a few
way to the companion, but foul) and made the best of our
this down, and therefore we
hadm the wretches had pulled
the deck. On reaching the n to scramble up the side of
all zone. and we did not see upper deck we found they had
dead. The night was very dark, signs of either living or
have favoured us. We had , and probably this might
minutes before the Chinese not been there more than two
her either to burn or drown girl joined us. They had left
towing aateru of the lighter. and ortunately there was a boat
and exertion we managed to, after a great deai of trouble
reach it. What with cold, fright,
hugger, and lose of blood,
bausted. The poor stewardwe were all three well nig!. ex-
the legs, arms,and
body, larw.as cut moofstfledsrheadbfully about
plei:ely torn out. The girl, beltngplaeeohinese, hadeibnegeneoltenrt
uninjured. We were now in an open boat, without either
,sailers, oars, or rudder ; and as it blew fresh at the time, we
could not do more than trust in the merciful consideration
of the ALMIGHTY to deliver us. The boat was almost
half full of water at the time we got in her, a
nd we ,very at
a hiss for anything to bale her out with. I was obliged to
take off my boots and bale her out with these, fortunately
they were aVellingtons, and so we overcame this seeming in-
surmountable difficulty. During, all the time of doing. this
and as it was pitch dark, our saun-
a heavy sea was running,
tion was most precarious and distressing. The poor steward
was lying in the boat, almost insensible front the excessive
pain he had endured, together with !famine and loss of
blood ; he was crying bitterly for water to drink. The Chi-
nese girl was bundled up in the stern of the boat, and
hut
1
was endeavouring to steer with a piece of thin footboard,
The night passed most anxiously and.
with no success.
prayerfully with nie, and without our knowing at all in what
wee. The morning, however, brought us brighter
part we
and we found ourselves about nine o'clock d 'a
propects,la t-
ing On towards one o.
fthe islandsthe boat •
; on touching, we
immediately landed, the girl and I proceeding in search of the
inhabitants, and we left the stewardfellow died lying on n the shor
ore— twllo
e
was unable to walk; the pour a day
afterwards from previous starvation and loss of blood. The
girl and myself rested for a short time, and, looking up, saw
several Chinamen, who appeared to be fishermen, corning.
towards us, and bringing with them some rice and cakes,-
for which we were very thankful, as we bad now been
more
than 48 hours without food. We cat with great avidit
with extreme thankfulness to the Almighty. Th., y, and
men treated us very. kindly in every respect, ores 'hsher"
wounds and making us up beds with mats andsing nil'
straw. I
remained on the island from the morning of Satur
Thursday, when I left, and arrived safe at ay until
o'clock, by a Chinese boat, the passageMnacao at seven
in which .
for sixty dollars. Eight of the Ladrone pirates was given
captured. and are in Macao. The value of on have been.
the Enterprise was 25,000 dollars, and had ►
r cargo on board
Kong, they would have had greater b we reached llor► g•
booty ;
taken on board 25,000 dollars there we were to havei
It is supposed that two of our Own to take on to Cant
the pirates." crew w Colton.
It associated with.

n in Li
• out t

ape from
it will hi

1; but at

coals with, 1