The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-12-17
THE REVOLT IN CHINA,
The Fiendish Barbarity of Monaghan
Warfare

The Fiendish Barbarity of Monaghan
Warfare.
Events now transDiring in China tend to
revive recollections of the Tapping rebellion.
An employe of the Pacific Mail Steam
ship Company who was stationed at Hong
Kong gives the New York Press a remark
able story of adventure which illustrates
the fendish barbarity Of Chinese warfare
At the start the Tapping rebellion had much
to recommend it to foreigners. series of
victories supplied the rebels with enough
treasure to tempt number of foreigners
who accepted service in the regular army
at high pay. They for time did much to
keep the forces within decent bounds The
agent OF the Pacific Mail Steamship Com
pany was one of these. His narrow escape
he described in nearly these words:
Things went from bad to worse, and the
rebels became perfect devils, without honor
or conjunction of any sort | stayed be-
cause 1t was death To desert; but finally a
scene occurred which made me feel that l
must try to get away no matter what hap
pened. We had invested a walled town,
and the inhabitants had surrendered on
condition that their lives were to be spared.
The terms were granted. and it was agreed
that the inhabitants should leave the city
by certain gate without their arms or
possessions, after which the town was to be
sacked by the victors. Under this agree
ment the townspeople emerged from the
narrow gate one by one.
The TaepIngS had executioners sta
Il oned with heavy swords at either side of
the gate. and as the poor wretches came
out these headsmen would decapitate them
at stroke, when eager hands would catch
up the bloody corpses and fling them on a
heap on either side. | was stationed in the
thick OF the massacre, and | had to stand
in the passage between the heaps of cOrpses,
and there / remained till stood in stream
OF human blood nearly up TO my knees.
This so sickened me that l resolved to de-
sert that night
got to the bank of the river, where we were
at the time, several hundred miles from
Canton. Here | hid in a thicket of UNDER
brush until night. L had found log which
would just bear my weight, and my pur-
pose was to float down the stream by night,
concealing myself by day in some clump Of
shrubbery along the bank
Il would float down with the current dur
Ing the night and at the first streak of dawn
would find a thick bush or bit of rank grass.
and hide there till night again.
"One morning | awoke from a half sleep
and half stupor and found, to my despair,
that had fallen asleep on my log and
had drifted ashore, without awakening till
broad day, in the midst of populous tow
on the rivers banks. l at once Thought l
had fallen into the hands of sympathizers
with the Taepings, and booked for nothing
but a speedy and dreadful death.
1 was StlZcu ana pound and carried in tri-
umph to the public square Here l was put
in a large iron cage, such as is used for the
exhibition Of criminals in China, and on this
cage was inscribed the fact that l was
Tapping rebel. My sufferings from that
time ON can hardly narrate. My captors
claimed me as their private booty, and /
was exhibited for so much a head OF
course as rare beast was worth money,
and on that account was kept alive, but no
tongue can tell the horrors of my fate. The
bystanders pelted me through tho bars with
all kinds of refuse, and subjected me to the
most indescrbable indignities. l was fed
only once day, and given no protection
against the burning sun. managed, fin ally,
to communicate with some of the spectators,
whom l perceived to be more sympathetic
than the mass, and in this way got informa-
tion started toward Shanghai of my capture
and suffering. supposed should be con-
demned to death, after a trial, but, at any
rate, l should die in decent manner and be
buried like white man. Just what hap
pened do not know, for my sufferngs up
set my reason, and for long time / was in
sane, but when L came to myself l found
myself In hospital at Shanghai, with my
friends around me-"