The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1845-06-25
HORRORS OF THE LATE CHINESE WAR

Lieut.. Ouchterlong, in his history of the late war
of the English in China gives the following de-
scription Of scene that awaited the English troops
at the successful siorming Of Chinke-ang-too.
"In almost every deserted house the children
had been madly murdered. The bodies of
most of the hapless little children, who had
fallen sacrifices to the enthusiasm and mad
despair of their parents, were found lying within
the houses, and usually within the chambers of the
women, as if each father had assembled the whole
of his family before concentrating the dreadful
massacre; but many corpses of boys were lying in
the Streets amongst those of horses and soldiers
if an alarm had spread, and they had been stabbed
while they had been attempting to escape from their
ruthless parents. In few instances these poor
little sufferers were found the morning after the as
saul still breathing, the tide Of life ebbing slowly
away, as they lay wrthng in the agony of n broken
spine--a mode of destruction so cruel that but for
the most certain evidence Of its reality, it would
be believed.
an one Of the houses, the bodies Of seven dead
and dying persons were found in one room, forming
group which, for loathsome horror, was perhaps
unequalled The house was evidently the abode of
man Of some rank and consideration, and the
delicate forms and features Of the sufferers denoted
them as belonging to the higher order of Tartars.
On the floor essaying in vain to put forth a spoon
into the mouths Of two children extended on a
Mattress writhing in the agonies Of death, caused
by the dslocation Of their spines, sat an old de-
crepid man, weeping bitterly as he listened to the
piteous means and convusive breathngs of the
poor infants, while his eyes wandered over the
CHASTITY relics of mortality around him.
''On bed near the dying children, lay the body Of
a beautiful young woman, her limbs and apparel
arranged as il in sleep. She was cold, and had
been long dead. One arm clasped her neck, over
which silk scarf was thrown, to conceal the cash
in her throat, which had destroyed life. Near her,
lay the corpse of woman somewhat more advanc-
ed in years, stretched silk coveret, her features
distorted and her eyes open and fixed as if she had
died by poison or strangulation. There was no
wound upon the body, nor any blood upon her
person or clothes. A dead child stabbed through
the neck lay near her; and in the narrow yerandah
adjoining the room, were the corpses of two
more women, suspended from the rafters by
twisted cloths wound round their necks. They
| were both young--one quite girl and their fca
lures, in spite of the hideous distortion produced by
the mode Of their death, retained traces of their
original beauty sufficient to show the lovely mould
| in which they had been cast
| ain the death Of the Tartar chief in command at
| this disastrous business, there undoubtedly a
savage grandeur, and it has had its due share of
praise. But if other actions of the were known
this particular one might lose something Of its
gloomy lustre. His name was Har-ling After
haranguing his troops, he had mounted his horse,
and, placing himself at their head led them to the
ground upon which their desperate attack upon the
I, 18th and 49th regiments was made. Thence seeing
that the main deences of the town were in our pos
session, and that the day was rretrievably lost he
returned to his house, and calling for his secretary,
desired him to bring his official papers into small
(, room adjoining an inner court of the building,
where, deliberately seating himself, and causing the
papers, with quantity Of wood, 10 be piled up
around him, he dismissed the secretary, set FIRE to
the funeral pile and persisted in the flames. In the
apartment where this strange example of barbarian
heroism had been enacted, Mr. Morrison found,
among some heaps Of ashes and half-consumed
wood, evidences of the awful sacrifice which had
been determinedly consummated, amply stuff.
cent to corroborate the tale of his informant The
| skull Of the general was yet unconsumed; and the
bones OF the thighs and feet though partially cal
cined, retained enough Of their original form and
appearance TO be recognised. The floor of the
room was paved and the flames had consequently
not extended beyond the pile of fuel. Thus per-
ished this brave man, whose devotion to his country
rendered him, to quote the words Of SIR Henry Pot
fingers proclamation, worthy Of nobler and a
better fate'" aa8