The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-03-12
MEN SKINNED ALIVE.
Horrors of War in the Wilds OF
Tongking.
An Adventure with Pirates How the
Cruel Chinese Are Punished--The
Torture of a French Officer
Terribly Avenged.

actual frontier of Tongking and China,
in the very midst of the pirates and
Chinese freebooters, where fighting is
constant and bloody outrages com.
mon. M. Bavier-Chauffour, the man
aging director of the Tongking Coal
Mining Company, gave me the use of
his launch and accompanied me, with
one of his heutenants, Mr.. Awaits, a
man of huge build and fierce beard, a
much-traveled and charming compan-
ion. The trip was of the greatest in
terest, and 1T is safe to say that hardly
an Englishman, except Mr.. James Hart,
who helped to delimit the frontier, has
been near the spot before.
From Hatou, where the coal mines
are, we steamed due north along the
coast, entering almost at once the
unique scenery OF Along Bay. On our
way cdown we came across fleet of
sampans, carrying one thousand who'd
cutters to their work, conveyed BY a
gun-boat. The commander hailed us.
81 engage you to be cautious" he said;
t'there is well-armed band of pirates
reported on the coast. l would come a
little way with you, but l have just re-
ceived Geographic orders to stand by
these boats. However, keep good
lookout.
BY the evening of the second day we
were close to our destination - the
mouth of the river separating Tongking
and China. 1t was very foggy inter-
mittently, and the pilot had got about
to the end of his knowledge. He be-
lieved us, however, to be just off the
mouth of the river. So we held a
council of war on the bridge and decided
to anchor. The word was hardly out of
our hosts mouth when scrunch,
scrunch, under the keel told us it was
too late. We were high and dry, on a
falling tide. Then the fog lifted for a
moment, and we saw where we were
far beyond the mouth of the river, with
in quarter of mile of the mainland
of China, and in probably the very worst
spot for the very worst pirates in the
whole world. And in these seas there
is only one tide in the twenty-four
hours. Then watts slowly rose TO the
height of his six feet three inches, took
our wretched Annamite pilot by the
scruf of the neck, turned him round,
and solemnly administered a sound
kicking.
The chastisement was deserved; it
was thorough and it was picturesque,
but it did not help us in the least. For
twenty hours we should be on the sand
bank, in two or three hours we could
walk round the launch. Never in their
lives would the pirates have had such
chance at such prize as the Fanny,
and they could come in any number
from the mainland. We tried to laugh
at our bad luck, but the situation was
decidedly unpleasant. Watts knew the
country very well and the natives, as he
speaks Annamese, but we all knew
enough to know on thing-namely, that
would never do to be taken alive. To
blow ones brains out, if necessary, is
one thing; to be skinned alive is anoth-
er So we made preparations for our
defense. No craft travels in these wa
tiers without being armed; and we were
particularly we'll off,
After dinner we laid our revolvers on
the table and commenced an all-night
game-the second time in my life that l
have assisted at the unholy unison of
poker and pistols. Once only were VIC
disturbed. About two o'clock the Sikh
In the bows shouted ''Sampan!" In an
instant we were on deck, and there, sure
enough, was big, black boat approach
ing from the sea. We waited till it was
within couple hundred yards-long
enough to see that it was full of men,
and was being rowed in unusual silence,
then Watts shouted in Anpamese: ssIf
you don't show light instantly we shall
shoot. There was no answer, and still
the boat came on. He shouted again,
and the rifles were at our shoulders,
when the boat showed lantern. Then
slowly it disappeared back into the
darkness.
So ended our desperate affair with the
pirates. Their existence is no Joke.
however. Numbers of native junks fall
into their hands, and within the last
TWO months several Europeans have
neen murdered by them, and two or
three, with sums of money in their pos
session, have completely disappeared.
a fortnight or two ago two redoubtable
pirate chiefs were captured, with two
hundred men with one hundred and
pty breech-loaders, after an expedi-
costing seven thousand dollars, and