San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-08-09
CLEARING OUT PIRATES.

Cpe south, was infested WIFI plrdUes claib-
As for that matter, this sea had been the
cruising ground of pirates for score of
years previously, but l mention these two
years for particular reasons One was that
was engaged in a vigorous warfare against
them, and the other that the close of 1854
witnessed the death of the leading spirits and
broke up piracy as trade.
In those far back days comparatively
nothing was known of China outside of
few seaports Treaties were of little account,
and consuls were few and far between.
Every merchant ship was expected to defend
herself, and the captain of every man of war
had authority to lombard any town which
refused to renew his water and provisions.
All nations were trading with China, but,
aside from few seaports, all China hated all
other people At the docks at Hong Kong ]
could drink tea with the Chinese merchants.
Half mile away the people would have cut
me to pieces. While the country wanted to
sell its products, it hated the men who bought
them. While it wanted the goods of other
countries, it despised the makers aud ship
pers. There is no doubt that the Chinese
government tacitly encouraged piracy, and,
could the great mass of the population have
had its say, not single foreigner would have
ever been allowed to land on the coast
In the year "a there was an association at
Canton called 1.-THE Foreign Traders" 1t
was composed of Americans, Englishmen,
Germans, Frenchmen, Spaniards and Rus
slams, and numbered over sixty representa-
tives. The capital represented amounted to
millions. and the object was threefold We
had more power with the Chinese govern
ment than any foreign minister. We had
rules and regulations regarding the tea trade.
We could carry a point by protests and
threats. Every pound of tea from a district
500 miles square had to pass through our
hands. We filed many protests against the
pirates and the laxity of the government in
hunting them down, and were finally officially
informed that we were at liberty to take any
steps we deemed best in the matter. That
meant we could fit out a craft and go for the
rascals right and left handed We had been
anticipating this, and had craft ready at
Hong Kong. She was an American schooner
of excellent model and large spread of
sail, and we knew that she could out
sail anything, native or foreign, we had ever
seen in those waters. We armed her with
Long Tom and four twenty-iour Founders,
having bought the guns from the sale of the
salvage of French man of war. Then we
picked up a crew of fifty men, all foreigners
and sailors, and when we went out of Hong
Kong we were prepared to give the pirates
Hail Columbia was purser of the schooner,
which was called the Revenge, and her cap
tain was an Englishman named Wetherbee,
who had served as a commissioned officer in
the regular service. The first lieutenant was
an American, and the other offices were
vivid I hn Oth
We flew the association flag, and while we
had liberty to go for pirates, we were warned
that any mistakes would be made to cost us
dearly.
The two boss pirates of that date were
Shung Wong and Climbing. The first had
q fleet of seven or eight craft, and haunted
the sea from Singapore north to the Tong
Kin Islands. The second cruised from thence
as far north as Shanghai, having his head
quarters at Formosa Island He was re-
ported to have a feet of nine craft. That
both were monsters we had hundred proofs,
and that both had grown rich and powerful
it was easy to show by the long list Of miss
ing vessels hanging in the headquarters
office. While we had kept our movements
as secret as possible, we had no doubt that
government officials had given us away, and
U.s. To deceive them as fur as possible we
ran 20 the south for three days, and spoke
and reported to four ships bound for Canton.
Then we ran over toward the Philippine
Islands until we had a good offing, when we
headed up for Formosa to get acquainted
with Old Chin-Lung.
During the next three days we did not sight
a sail Of any sort Then early one morning
H-Il Al Ia g ~. IL.
showed Us that a trader had been overhauled
and burned We were now to the east of
Formosa, and fifty miles off the coast. Men
were set to work to give the schooner the ap-
pearance Of a vessel in distress, and under
light breeze we made slow Roadway towards
the island 1t was about o'clock in the af
ternoon before anything approached us, al
though we saw number of native craft at
a distance Then small junk came out
from a bay about five miles off, and headed
directly for us. Everything aboard of us
seemed to be at skies and sevens A man
was dashed TO the manmast, to represent the
captain, everything aloft was askew, and
the seven or eight men on deck were SEEM
ingly drunk and having a high old time
We had man aloft to play part, knowing
that we should be hailed in English. Both
of these boss pirates lad Americans and
Euglishmen with them-rascals who had
deserted their ships and voluntarily adopted
the life of prate-and one of them was
always put forward to hail ship. The junk
came steadily forward to within hailing
distance before she came up into the wind.
This was proof, whether she was honest or
not, that our appearance had deceived her.
The men on deck yelled and shook their fists,
- l.