Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-05

pirates AS soon as suspected group ap-
pears in the distance the camels are COL
piled up behind them, and inside this
double rampant the traders open fire when
the enemy comes within range. More than
halt the time the Touaregs win the day, and
the booty that falls to them they regard as
an ample recompense for the losses they
sustain. Few white men have seen the
Touaregs and lived to describe them.
On May 1S, dispatch from Tonkin said
that the French had been further success
ful in their operations against the pirates,
who have been keeping a third of that
country in a turmoil for over two years
past. This is long existing evil that
assumed its most formidable phases only
after France, four years ago, ended the buc-
caneering exploits of about 500 outlawed
Chinese who, inhabiting the little islands
OF the coast, known as the Pirate islands,
had been terror to the coast towns, and
had almost paralyzed the junk trade.
Stealing Women for China.
Not long after the so miles of Pirate ISL
ands were swept clean of outlaws trouble be-
gan to breed among the mountains of north
east Tonkin. Chinese outlaws crossed the
border in larger numbers than ever before,
and built strongholds among the mountains
They found it very easy to make living
by plundering native villages, and carrying
all sorts of valuables, including food sup
plies, off to their stockaded camps. But q
still more profitable business was stealing
Tonkinese women and taking them to China
to adorn the harems or the kitchens of the
wealthy. DR.. Hocquard has described this
odious traffic. At first it was not easy to
dispose of these poor slaves, but the pirates
asked SO small price that the traffic gradu-
ally grew. To-day the Tonkinese women,
gentle, submissive and laborious, bring q
good price in China; and the pirates and
Chinese middlemen who take the human
freight to China have become very bold in
carrying on the traffic. The outlaw bands,
surprising village, drag off all the desra-
BILE women to their strongholds. There they
are turned over to so-called merchants, who
carry them over the border into China. The
laws of China prohibit slavery, but this
difficulty is easily surmounted. the code
permits the rich to become the guardians of
the children of the poor by paying an agreed
sum to the parents. The slave dealers pose
as the poor fathers.
Snap Shot OF an Execution.
The French have been exerting every en-
ergy to put an end to the crimes of these
land pirates, and in particular to stop the
capture and sale of women. The French
loss has at times been heavy, and hundreds
of the pirates have been killed. The
French have executed all the pirates who
have fallen into their hands, and one of
these pictures, made from an instantaneous
photograph, shows an executioner and his
victim the moment before the fatal blow
was struck. The present indications, hap
PLY, point to their speedy suppression.
Another class of Chinese bandits whom
the French have reduced to submission are
the famous Black Flags, deserters from the
Chinese army who, nearly quarter of a
century ago, took part in the TAPPING re-
bellion, and attacked the posts open to
Europeans. Defeated by the Chinese army.
about 1000 of the Black Flag rebels crossed |
the frontier into Tonkin and terrorized the |
country along the Song Koi river, where
they lived by brigandage, and by imposing
a heavy tax upon the river commerce. Most
of the Black Flags are now compelled to
earn their living by honest and peaceable
methods.
For years England has been waging war
upon the Dacoits, who live by plunder, and
who have kept Upper Burmah terror
stricken, and are at last getting the upper
hand. CYRUS G. ADAMS.