The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1862-08-08

Exseu&ion q Rebel Prisoners IN China
r. ,@-HossiIble Atxoeities- -England Re.
sponsible Thersfer. -. -. :, =
The following account Of the brutaiities
committed Cd the sepings BY the Imperial
lists, ID from the pen Of an Eoglishman1 who
was present, 10 company with both English
and French officers and soldiers, at the ex.
ecution, by disemboweling, OF Tapping pris-
oners:
went with the crowd to see the execu.
ton Of the Tapping prisoners that had been
given up for execution into the hands Of the
mandarins by the English and French an.
thorities or, what is the same thing, they
took no measures to prevent the ruthless
butchery Of those they lent their aid to cap.
ture, when, horror of horrors, how am 1 to
describe the dreadful scene, or will it ever
leave my memory? Among the vretches
were young and old, of both sexes, and Of
ell ages and sizes, from the infant recently
born to the man of eighty, totteriDg on bis
stan; from the eaaciente woman to the young
maiden from ten to eighteen. The latter were
pushed out by the guards among the crowds
OF ruffians assembled, and were taken into
the sheds and by.places and debauched, and
again dragged back by the hair OF the head
to the Chinese guards, to await their turn
for execution. Some OF them had tainted,
and were pulled along the ground to the ex
ecutioners, who threw them on their backs,
tore OFT their clothes, and ripped them from
the lower part of the abdomen to their
breasts, which were cut off and dashed with
curse in their faces. The bowels, as
matter OF course, gushed ont but the cut
was made in such way, and so skillfully,
and with such experiences, that the intestines
were seldom injured.
After long time 10 this state of excess
i've torture, the executioner thrust his hand
into the chest and tore out the reeking
heart, his victim looking him in the face all
the while. A young female, apparently
about eight months pregnant, who never
uttered groan or sigh at all the previous
cruelties she had endured from the sur
rounding mob, had her infant cut out of her
womb, and held up 10 her sight by one of
its little hands, bleeding and quivering :;
when at the sight she gave one heart-rend-
ing,piercing screech, that would have awak,
ened pity in tiger, and, after it had been
IN that state dashed on her breast, she, with
last superhuman effort, released her arms
from those holding her down, and clasped
her infant to her bleeding heart and died,
holding it there with such force that they
could not be separated, and were thus
thrown together upon pile of other Car.
cases. Another young woman amoHg the
prisoners awaited her turn to he disembow-
eled, with fine boy OF ten months old,
Growing and jumping in her arms, had him
snatched suddenly away from her, and flung
to the executioner, who plunged the ruthless
knife into his tender breast before the moth.
ers eyes. Infants but recently born were
torn from their mothers breast and disem-
boweled before their faces. Young, strong
men were disemboweled, mutilated, and the
parts cut off thrust into their own mouths,
or lung among the admiring and laughing
crowd of Cinnamon. But no more.
can write no more of these scenes;
can now only regret forever that looked
on the dreadful sight. I am no longer fit
to be soldier. have been in many bat.
ties during the last twenty years, and in the
thickest Of the fight in most of them, where
the rage and thirst for carnage is dreadful
to reflect on afterwards, but nothing here
tofore that have seen or heard of, or even
read of, could be compared to the dreadful
cruelty of this disemboweling execution.
May God forgive England for the part she
is taking in this war, and may the Gin of
the enormities she has assisted In perpetrats
ing on the defenceless woman, and innocent
and helpless child, be removed from her
door; and after the treatment English wo
men und children met with from the hands
of the blacks in the Sepoy mutiny, it is
truly wonderful that EDgIishmen should
join in or countenance similar atrocities
here. 1t is now ascertained to certainty
that B. and his companions, after
having been tortured in every way that
Chinese ingenuity and cruelty could devise,
were afterwards mutilated and disembow-
eled ~ the Imperialists; and for that reason
the Chinese authorities would not produce
their dead bodies. Poor r., who
came with me to see the execution, fell down
in fainting fit, and was in that state car.
ried away, and is now a raving maniac
from the effects the dreadful sight had on
him.
Enforcement of the Con fisca.