New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1890-08-27

Pearl river delta, and had taken a
pilot ian old pirate who knew those
intricate waters thoroughly.
s'Wereached the mouth of the river,
anchored for the night, and next
morning at daybreak hove up and
began to thread the creeks and estu-
aries of that region, ofcourse with
due caution and the lead always.
going. The first day brought no
grist to my mill, and that evening /
brought up between two islets, and,
being doubtful of the neighborhood,
| kepta boats crew rowing guard all
night, foritWas so dark in there that
the pirates might have surrounded
us without being seen, provided they
were quite enough. However, we
were not disturbed, and the second
day opened without much prospect
of excitement. Probably the pirates
had got wind of our expedition and
had made themselves scarce. In any
case there was nothing to do but to
go on, and on we went. The scenery
was interesting enough if had cared
for that, but I was fdgeting to try
the guns on a mob of pirate junks,
and the idea of being fooled was not
smoothing.
''We were steaming slowly along,
lodging and turning to avoid the
numerous shoals, when suddenly a
peculiar ripping cracking sound
broke the silence. lat once recogniz-
ed the noise. It was the report of a
match lock volley, and it of course
indicated ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS all
probability an attack by the parties
on some vessel. I waited for the
smoke to rise, and thus ascertained
the scene of the difficulty, whatever
it was The white smoke showed
above the trees about four miles off
in a straight line as nearly as l
could judge, but how far that meant
by water it was quite impossible
to tell. My delta pilot, who had
pricked up his ears like an old char
ger on hearing the firing, told me he
knew where the fighting was going
on and could take me to il, but it
would requires full hour to get there.
There was no help for it, of course.
We could not straighten or shorten
the winding channel, nor could we
clap on full speed. The firing mean
time continued in queer spasmodic
way, and at intervals the rattle of
the matchlocks was punctuated by
a much clearer, sharper sound, which
| felt sure was that of a rifle or re-
volver. This made the case more
serious, for it looked as though the
pirates were attacking a foreign
Chat is, European vessel.
cit was tiresome work crawling
through these passages, and I was
afraid we should be too late for help
in the rescue after all. But at last
we rounded bluff point and came
suddenly into sort OF lagoon, three
times as wide as the average pass
ages, and then we saw what all the
fuss meant. There lay my friend
Winsar's bark the So-Kiang, fairly
surrounded, at a distance of hun
dred yards, by vicious looking junks,
which were peppering her at leisure,
but not yet venturing to board her.
Probably they had suffered from
Winsar's fire and concluded to keep
on shooting from a distance until
they had killed Or wounded him and
the boat-sWain, they being the only
white men on the trader. Winsar's
Chinese crew seemed to have taken
no part in the fight; at all events
they were not visible. The attacking
junks were so occupied in batting
poor Winsar that they did not see
the gunboat for a few moments, and
| had time to give them one smash
ing discharge from both the Arm
strongs and both the gatlings be-
fore they recovered their scattered
wits and sprang to sweep and sail in
desperate hurry.
II suppose ought to have armed
my boats and chased the rufians, but
| was feeling uneasy about Winsar,
whose rifle | had not heard for sever
al minutes, and | remembered, too,
with fresh misgiving, the sinister
looks of the pet steward, Tin-Ling.
So after driving half a dozen iunks
ashore drew alongside of the So
Kiang, piped away the cutter and
went aboard her. The first thing [
noticed was that the deck was DESERT
ed. The next sign looked for was
marks of blood, but there were none.
This seemed to indicate that the
crew had not risen upon the captain,
and perhaps also that he had not
been wounded. But, if alive, where
was he? Silence reigned throughout
the vessel. [ went down the COM
panionWay into the cabin. There
was no sign of life there I of course
knew the position OF the captains
cabin and FASTENED toward it. Com
ing out of the glare of the sun my
eyes could not instantly adjust them
selves to the semi-darkness of the
cabin. but by the time reached the
door I could see we'll enough, and the
scene that met me on the threshold
brought me to a dead halt.
~, II Ii