The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1872-05-31
AN UNPARALLELED HORROR.
Five Hundred Human Beings Meet /;
Horrible Death.

a catastrophe, almost unparallel
ed in horror, disclosing the gross
cruelties of the emigrant trade BY
one last and terrible demonstration
happened in the China Sea last May
and is recorded in a Parliamentary
report Just ordered by the House Of
Commons to be printed. a vessel
called the Don Juan, sailing under
the flag and with the consent of the
Portuguese government, set sail on
the 18th of May, with $50 coolies on
board. These poor wretches, it ap-
pears, were Kidnapped and shipped
i'll the most shameful manner. Once
on board, this large multitude was
| placed litteraly in prison-penned on
the main deck and fastened down
by three iron gratings, which closed
| the matches, ten coolies at a time
only being allowed 10 come on deck.
The sailed in fair weather from Ma
Goa. On tho second day ofthc voy-
age, as declared by Herker, an Aus
trian seaman, the captain selected
twenty coolies and put them in irons
with much brutality, as an example
to the others. On the third day Il
difficulty arose about the food pass
ed down to the emigrants. The in
terpreter got angry, and struck
those who complained with his cane
whereupon the wretched coolies
made dash at their European jail
ors. The iron matches were imme-
diately slammed back upon them,
and, when the poor creatures beat
upon the beams and planks TO get
q re0Etzl-nFS G,.aI 4
the crowd. 1t then appears that, III
desperation. some few of the coolies
set fire to storeroom forward, no.
ping, no doubt, to force the crew
to throw their prison open. The
sailors tried to pump water down
upon the seat of the confiagration,
but the frenZied men below passed
the hose out of the portfolios, so
that pumping became useless. Then
the fire spread beyond all control,
and volumes of thick smoke rolled
into tie main deck, choking the mass
of coolies at the other end, who had
taken no part in the previous pro-
ceedings. 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 endeavored to get up to
the air through the Ventilators.
The PORTFOLIOS, however, were fast
ened, the headlights were too small
to allow of 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 Chi |
nese had already been roasted or
smothered-yet the crew never took |
q single step towards saving the |
lives of the imprisoned wretches. |
They merely let down three boats |
OIL their own account, and pushed |
OFT from the burning vessel, leaving
all that mass of human creatures
pent up in floating hell of fear and
agony. The sea was calm: the
hatchets might surely have been
opened at the last moment; yet the
Don Juan's captain and hands
showed off, while the ship blazed,
and while the coolies persisted iu-
side with frightful cries and screams.
The scoundrel master and crew sa-
we'd their villainOus lives; q junk
picked them up; and the same wit
ness who tells us this says that when
the twenty Chinese in irons, who
were upon the forecastle, broke
away their letters and swan to-
wards the junk, they were pushed
of into the sea to drown. Mean
line, in their awful terror, the sur
EiYorS of the $50 below found some
means of bursting the forehatch.
Scores were by this time killed by
he flames or the smoke; scores had
been tramplcd down i'll the frenzied
'ush for life TO the upper deck.
About hundred in all at last emer-
scd from that Golgotha of an
guish, and leaped at once into the
sea- A few managed TO get hold of
;pars and floating gear, and hung
upon these till some fishing boats
picked them up next morning The
were already mOrtally in
ured when they escaped, or escaped
d. were drowned, or crushed by the
falling chains and spars of the ship.
But at least five hundred were first
to death, or choked and
dead, before the Internal
prison gate was forced by the brea-
king open of the matches, which
The captain and crew had so shame
fully left fast.