Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1855-09-28
China.

The Pekin Gazette reports that the in.ur-
gents are losing ground in the north Of
China The Overland Friend Of China SAYS
. The amount of bloodshed at Canton du-
ring the last month has been sickening
When Shau-king, the second city of the pro-
vince, was vacated without fighting, short
time ago, number of the inhabitants
thought mercy wsuld be shown to them if
they gave themselves up, With equal reason
might forbearance have been expected from
the hungry wolf-they were taken to Canton
i'll droves Of five hundred as many as ten
thousand, it is said, being confined in the city
at one time. Kept without food for several
days. when the hour of examination, so
called, arrived, cye-witnesses tell of the ut
most callOusness being exhibited the con-
demned getting into the execution basket
1 with even apparent satisfaction.
At the rate of seven and eight hundred a
/ day for some time, the whole ten thousand
and thousands more, were soon got rid Of
| Several were skinned alive, and one higher
| criminal than the rest was cut in twenty four
/ pieces, lingering dying From the careless
way in which the bodies are inferred in heaps
at eastward Of the city, and the disgusting
stencil in the vicinity of the execution
ground, it will not surprise us to hear Of n
plague carrying off its victims by thousands.
probable terrible consequences, there is no
abatement Of the rebellion there is no in
stance of any of the leaders giving up the
cause for promised rewards in no case have
the insurgents retired before, through want
of food and ammunition, all reasonable pros
pect of successful opposition had apparently
gone. From Shau-kng- foo they marched
northwest, with Hoe Alukn's band in compa-
ny, forty thousand strong.
EXECUTION OF THIRTY FIVE HUNDRED Chr
SEsE REBELS NEAR CASToN.-Mr. Silas Z.
Burrows, Jr., who has just returned to this
city, after an absence of nearly two years,
the greater portion of which time he spent in
China, was an eye witness to the execution of
thirty-fve hundred Chinese rebels, who were
taken prisoners in the battle near Canton in
the month of March last The prisoners were
taken to a low marshy island, and there each
was compelled to undergo a form Of trial
before a tribunal of Mandarins, and each was
sentenced to death by decapitation. One by
one they were led forth to the execution
ground, large space covered with sawdust
to the depth Of several inches. To give a
greater degree of awful effect to the scene, an
elevated platform was erected, consisting OF
a single narrow plank, over which each un-
happy victim had to pass in full view of his
fellow captives, whose term Of existence,
whether Tor an hour or day, depended entirely
upon the will Of their captors, The prison
ers manifested the most stolid Indifference to
every thing connected with the scene, appar-
emily as unconscious of their terrible fate az
dumb brutes going to the shambles. Arriv-
ing at the execution ground, the captives fell
upon their knees, and bending forward, calm
~ awaited the single stroke of the execution
er's sword that severed head and trunk-body
and soul. There were no shreks of terror
no supplications for pardon or mercy, From
the moment Of capture the captive knew his
doom, and .ullenly awaited its accomplish
ment San Francisco Hearid