Morning journal and courier., 1882-12-09
cgournaI aaD Gourier,
Saturday, Dee. 9, 1882.
Chinese Warfare

a score or more of the matohlocks as they wound up the opening chorus, with no mur- 1 derous results, however. After leaving the i ietty the invading force spread over the eastern end of the plaza in most irregular,
 disorderly manner, and slowly came
 onward as the town forces, with the same
 irregrlarity, marched to meet them until the advance guards were less than forty yards apart (the intervening space being directly in front of our ofice) Then they stopped, and for an hour or more both sides seemed content to yell, pull faces, wave banners, shake spears, beat gongs and tom toms and l fire matchlocks. Occasionally few spear men from one side would rush out in advance | of admiring friends who applauded to the ! echo, would be met by equally valiant braves l l from the other side, and hand to hand en- ! ] agreements would occur, in several of which ! I saw men killed wounded by spear l l thrusts, but that was all the damage done to l l actual combatants. The captain of an Eng 1 fish ship lying in the harbor, in going from his agents office to ship chander's store, was wounded in the shoulder by piece of iron from one of the matchlocks and came l near losing his life, but that was an accident ! (and shows how much more dangerous 1t IS
 not to be in the line of fire when matchlocks are the weapons), for which ample apology, l and l believe some reparation, was after ! wards made.
 l One of the invaders had Q long, very large l bore punt-gun barrel, fastened by clamps to ! big block of wood, which he dragged be- ! hind one side of the wall of our office com pound to load. Then he would creep out,
 1 place it in position low wall the exten- ] sion of the same one behind which he had loaded it, point it towards the enemy but ct
 nothing or nobody in particular lay short
 train from the vent light it and run back
 ! fast as he could go to his shelter under the
 l office wall (apparently more afraid of being
 l himself injured by the explosion than of
 ! killing any of the enemy.) His eXtempore
 cannon would be discharged with tremen-
 dous explosion that would tumble it end over
 { end from the wall, (showing that the cannon
 eer was no niggard with his powder), and the
 l artillerist would run out, drag it back to his
 { armory under our lee and proceed to repeat
 the operation of loading, etc, occasionally
 exchanging few remarks, of rather equivo-
 I cal compliment, with some of our Coolies who were watching the fight from the small I l basement windows of our office building, and l townsmen.
 I Shortly after the commencement of hostli- l ities the little English gunboat that usually | lay at anchor off the Consulate on the oppo- II site side of the harbor and mile away, got up steam and crossing the upper part of the $. harbor through the foreign shipping and na 2 tive junks etc., dropped anchor close to the 'a town. At about o'clock, when the battle ID \ was becoming wearisome from its very mo-
 notony, as much anything else, and when s. we foreigners were growing restive under the
 { racket and enforced captivity the accident to
 { the captain having effectually kept us from
 ! courting similar one by showing any parts D. 1 of our bodies out of doors), file of blue VIZ jackets and marines, armed with carbnes and
 \ side-arms, under command of The executive GU \ officer, landed at point out of sight of the
 combatants and, after marching through {
 corner of the town, suddenly appeared or ,o. The invaders rushed pell mell tt ali ali ! their boats, retiring much mor N ! expeditiously, if less noisily and impressive ly, than they had landed, carrying with then 61 ! their dead and wounded, and hastily gettin, # under way sailed and rowed back towar' sH { Ta-ta Poh as fast they could go, while tn sA townsnen all hurried precipitately back int s$ the town, taking with them their dead an & wounded. Tho battle was over and the fiel s# \ left in undisputed possession of the TOW com '# batiye, peace enforcing British troops. Tn # foreigners wero released and most of us pro | ! ceeded to examine the battle ground Ther A were a number of marks upon the walls c 8 the houses and compounds made by bullet A \ and other projectiles, occasional stains an ga even pools of blood, with hero and ther -W 6 spear or pike, marked the center of th m ! fight, principally in the space immediately i E front of our office. The general appearanc # ! of the place, however, was very natural, say # I for the entire absence of the horde of labo E CTS, coolies, boatmen and others wh @ \ usually held possession of it, an E quite failed to fill one's idea of g battlefield "a \ The rest of the day only marked by p6acSIui Chlnl aNO an 6ntlr0 suspension
 business, though there had been precious Ii
 tie transacted all day long. Next morning
 however, affairs began to resume their no N nal condition; in few days even the Ia t. g. Poh men were permitted to return and r
 sume their customary avocations along u
 water front, and the wave of excitemel ,t. ! ebbed quietly away leaving ripple on u
 { usually placid surface of Swatow's sea Tn,
 began, continued and ended the biggest ski mish of which I have ever been an eye-wi - ness, and I am sure my mirth was mo- ,ev moved than my horror. for the whole affa ,i,v seemed more like ridiculous farce than ,s ,rs E bit of tragedy. The antics of the bray +pa were everyone patterned after those of u w .u medieval warrior depicted the Chine 0 t. ! stage, and the utter collapse of the who " affair at the appearance of corporaIs gual ~, ' of Englshmen showed how ridicuously lit e,, rieu notion of fighting the participants had. for I subsequently, learned that about dozt nose men had been killed wounded on bo ed sides; that the townsmen had captured mp bS couple of banners and 8 spear or two, al log ! that the Ia ta Poh men had carried off abo
 an eqAal number of trophies Small compe and 1 sation for the amount of powder burned al
 lung and muscle tissue consumed, and with
 an absurd waste of time and money for SUI pK l trif1ing matter as few bad cash
 .l, i.N KING GOODRICH.