Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1871-06-22
Burning of the Co0fse ship Don Juam--
Horrible Eacrlace sNA

Burning of the C00sSe Ship D0n juan
Horrible SacrIIce.
BY the steamship China, waieh arrived
at San Francisco Monday. particl lars
have been received OF the horrible sacri-
ice cf human life caused 81 the burning
of the eoolie ship Don Juan, which lett
Macao, China, on HE 18th Of May, with
a cago Of coolies Tor Peru Ii seems that
the Don Juan entrappea 65G coolies on
board at Macao and set sail for Peru
On the 9th of May, when not more than
fifty miles from Hong Kong, the ship
took fire burning to the waters edge
The crew abandoned the vessel, 800
coo lies fastened under the matches. Five
hundred were roasted alive, ranl tAe. 9th .
ers escaped when the hat, hes burned off !.
The vessel was American built, and was
sold il San Franc isco to Compaina Mari
tema de Peru, and rechri>tened Do Ores
Urgarte. Sue was fitted outin San Fran
cisco for the cooiie trade, and returned
several times for supplies. Coolies who
have arrived in Hong Kong aver that
the If treatment was humane, and that
they had no ihiug whatever to complain
of, either as to allowance o f food or quail
ity or sand the whole affair was
simply accidental. o b,d
The other view in the question, name
iy, that the yesse Twas Sc On fire by de-
signing monamong the Chinese, is not
Impossible. One of tie men distinctly
ayers he heard the explosion Of gun pow
der aft, and also smelt strong smell of
it. Others aga in say they did not hear
any report, tut they were nearly over
powered by sickenihg smell, aft of ship,
material burning. It is greatly to be
regretted that the European who had the
humanity to open the matches lid not
sacoeed'in saving his own life, as he was
overtaLen Ky the coolies who mnde a
rush for the boat wa itiag for h bn, and
general scramble occurred to get to it.
tie European using his arms to prevent
the coolies getting ii it, In this scram-
bic several Chinese weIe drowned The
boat, however. ultimately succeeded in
getting clear of tLe ship, but had not gone
far before it upse5in sight of but not III
reach of the coolies The coolies then
seemed to have had little leisure when
they observed the three other boats at
distance. During this time all tho ma
efialso f the ship were rapidly burning,
and large number persisted in the hold,
some of whom were no doubt satfocated.
but freta others the cries were piteouss
Many, however, Jumped into the wa ten
and escaped. by drowning, the more hora
rible death by fire. .3aa,
While the luckle men were or deck
and on the bowspris, in iii is position one
of the masts fortunately gave way, and
the men made such efforts as they cou Id
to reach it. Having got to it thew
clang on iih desperation, calling ,as
loud as they could to save their lives.
They had no. been long in the water be-
fore fishing junk calhe up, and they
were taken OF two or three at a time
The mast was held on the wreck by wire
rigging, or it would others ise undenbled-
~ have drifted away to sea. The coil les
sly there we're no less than fifty Europe
ans on the vessel, SO it remains to be
seen what became of them. Some 70
doubt we're lost in the boat that ssampcd.
From Maeao it is reported that thirty of
The crew arrived there, and are dDani-
nous in stating that the coolies mutiaied
and set fire 10 the slip aft in hopes Of
forcing all forward and SO take file yes
rel 1t seems they thoughtthc fire could
be extinguishod Afterwards.