Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-05-16
HORRORS OF A BURNING SHIP.
Terrible Holocaust of Coolies.

In an editorial in the London Tele-
graph of April 22d occurs this state
ment: iUs.p.
A catastrophe almost unparalleled in
horror, disclosing the gross cruelties OF
the Macao emigrant trade by one last
and most terrible demonstration, hap.
pened in the China seas last May, and is
recorded in parliamentary report just
published. A vessel called the Don
Juan set sail on the 4th of that month
from Macao, bound to Peru, with six
hundred and fifty-fye coolies on board,
who had been kidnapped and shipped
under the flag and with the authority of
the Portuguese Government. Once on
board, this large multitude was placed
literally in prison-penned on the main
deck and fastened down by three iron
gratings, which closed the matches, ten
coolies at time only being allowed to
come on deck. The ship sailed in fair
weather from Macao. On the second
day Of the voyage, as declared by Her
ker, an Austrian seaman, the captain
selected twenty coolies and put them
in irons, with much brutality, as an ex-
ample to the others. On the third
day difficulty arose about the food
passed down to the emigrants, The
interpreter got angry and struck those
who complained with his cane, where
upon the wretched coolies made rush
at their European jailcrs. The iron
matches were Immediately slammed
back upon them, and when the poor
creatures beat on the beams and planks
to get air, muskets were fired down into
the crowd. 1t then appears that, in des-
peration, some few coolies set lire to a
store-room forward, hoping, no doubt,
to force the crew to throw their prison
open. The sailors tried to pump water
down upon the seat of the conhagra-
tion, but the frenzied men below passed
the hose out of the lportholes, so that
pumping became useless. Then the fire
spread beyond all control, and volumes
of thick smoke rolled into the main deck
choking the mass of coolies a. either
end, who had taken no part in the pre-
vious proceedings. Red tongues. of
flame and suffocating clouds filled the
ship below matches, while the miserable
prisoners beat at the iron gratings, tore at
the fastenings Of the deck, and even en-
deavored to get up to the air through the
ventilators. The portfolios, however,
we're fastened, the. headlights we're too
small to allow of n mans body passing,
and the ventilators were barred, so that
there was no escape. In two hours
time the fire was established on the main
deck, which means that scores of the
Chinese had already been roasted or
smothered; yet the crew never took a
single step toward saving the lives of the
imprisoned wretches. They merely low
cred three boats on their own account,
and pushed off from the burning vessel,
leaving all that mass of human creatures
pent in floating hell of fear and ago
ny. The sea was calm; the matches
might surely have been opened at the
last moment; yet the Don Juan captain
and hands showed off, while the. ship
blazed, and while the coolies perished
inside with frightful cries and screams.
The scoundrel master and crew saved
their villainous lives; junk picked
them up; and the same witness who tells
this says that when the twenty Chinese
in irons, who were upon the fore
castle, broke away their letters
and swan toward the junk, they were
pushed of into the sea and we're
drowned. Meantime, in their awful ter
ror, the survivors of the six hundred and
fifty-fve below found some means of
bursting the fore-hatch Scores were by
this time killed by the flames or the
smoke scores had been trampled down
in the frenzied rush for life to the upper
deck. About hundred in all at last
emerged from that Golgotha OF anguish
and leaped at once into the sea. A few
managed to get hold of spars and float
ing gear, and hung upon these till some
fishing boats picked them up next morn
ing. The majority were already NOR
tally injured when they escaped, or were
drowned, or crushed by the falling chains
and spars of the ship. But at least five
hundred we're first scorched to death, or
choked and trampled dead, before the
internal prison-gate was forced by the
breaking open of the matches, which the
captain and crew had so shamefully left
fast. ...