Litchfield enquirer., 1859-02-10

iS 'ho'e"eht, Nltn the hrfce yelS Tor vefl- geance with which We rent the air, for a mo- ment struck terror to the hearts of the cow ariiy villains. Not gun was fired by them till We had lessened the distance between us more than one half, and even then their shots were so wild that notwithstanding the ft arfnl- ness Of our condition, we actually laughed in derision. We had four musk.ts in our boat, which were already loaded. When We had approached within f. " rods of the pirate, Mr. R., taking one of the m,,Skcts himself, and placing the others in the hands of the best shots among us, and having directed each to select his man and take deliberate aim, gave the order to fire Two at least of the msrre. ants fell, and such q scream of alright as went up from the rest of the villai,ous crew, believe never pierced human ears before.
 The next instant onr boat was alongside the vile craft. The few weapons we had had been distributed among us, aud we were just pre- pairing to leap on to her crowded deck, when fend in womans shape, leaning over the side of the vessel directly above us, threw q lighted stink rot" (Chinrse bomb sheI filed with materials which on the explosion, gene rate the most deadly gases) directly into the bow of our beat. It almost instantly cxplo- dcd--in the commoton caused among us, our boat was upset, and we suddenly found our. selves huffetIng the waves of the sea Two of onr numbers were instantly kille, by this most hciIish of all inventions to destroy human life
 We were now entirely at the mercy of our fons. Yelling with iendish delight at our helpless condition, the towards put out their small boats, and approaching us at one time, as we swam away from the vessel, srz"d us by the hair of the head, drew us partly out of the Water and while some held ther.knlvcS at onr throats. others stripped us of every ar tirle of onr clothing then thrusting us back under water, they rnwed hack to their vessel, made sail and soon disappeared. Gloomy and desperate as now seemed onr condition. yet l feet derply grateful that my life had been spared.
 On looking around for my companions, l discovered our heat, bottom up, about quar- ter of mile distant from me, and several of the crew aronnd it. and being an rXl ert in the art of swimming (thankS tony patcrnal trai'l- ine. without dffnulty 1 reached the boat. We soon found that nine of onr number were yet alive Oar first efforts were directed to right onr boat, although Mr. R. from the first declared it impossible. I need hardly say we failed. At every move we made, she rolled over Ike a log. Almost exhausted, we at length abandoned the hope, but still chung to and aronnd her, as onr only remaining tenure of life. Three of our number. wllo We're but indifferent swimmers and who already decar- ed their inability to hold ont much longer, were assisted on the bottom of the boat--thcir weight was all it would sustain, and even they were several times dslodyed by the rotary mo- tion of the boat from the action of the waves. The rest of us supported ourselves as best we could My only support during most of the time was an oar. which fortunately discover cd while swimming for the boat Such was our apparently hopeless condition. We were in the midst of the China Sea, more than hundred miles from thc shore, and as near as we could judge, it was now h;twcrn ahd o'clock. P. M. Night was hcginning to gath- CT its deepening shadows around uS-and soon everything was hidden from our view, except an occasional star revealed through break phorcscent light, which scattered its brilliant sparkles around Us in unwontcd lrofusion, as the waves broke over 01r boat and against the bodies of our struggling band. But few words were spok"n--tl.cse sometimes of encourage ment and hopc-but oftcner of despondency and fear.
 After being nearly four honrs in the water, when the stontcst hearts began to fail. heard q voice calling out in faint tones, Shipmates Shipmates v l perceived that it was the voice of q young man by the name of -, from Bal imorc, who was not more than ten or fifteen feet from me. I answered him. Sh mates" said he, I must knock under There's no use. I'm all gone. My old motl,- CT lives at No. in Baltimore If any of you should ever get to shore, promise me you'll 20 and tell her Tom thought of her when he was going down." Here tie poor fellow was perfectly ovcrpowercd by his feel ings and sobbed aloud After moments si- lcncc, he Was commencing again to speak. when suddenly the joyful cry, " X light !! A light !" burst from one of ,h crew on the ol- rositc side of the boat. "Shp ahoy ship ahoy ]" immediately fol'ow,d "Where away?' Sou'wcst" We ooked There was Fight Summoning all our remaining strength. We joined in an effort to arrest the attention of the vessel, whatever she might be.
 We succeeded. The light evidently ap- preached, and soon Chinese fishing craft was with us. Her crew. when they discovered who we were, suc'i was the universal hostility of the Chinese towards "the whites" at that time, manifested anything but friendly feelings. At length, however. they reluctantly consented to right our boat. bail it out and aid us into her. They also gave us an old blanket, which we used as sail. Obtaining the general direc- tio, for Hong Kong, we set sail. We were all nearly exl,ans.d, and however intense our feelings might be, scarcely word was spoken.
 After two days of great suffering from cold, hunger and thirst, just as the day opened, our eyes were greeted with the sight of the port we sought We ran our boats directly on to the beach-and although not one of our num- Der had sufficient strength to walk, yet we lay down on the white sand, thankful to that Pro vidence which had so wonderfully preserv ed us. In state of nakedness and complete exhaus.