The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-12-07

to their excursions euphemistically as
going east and many an instance of
their holiness and cruelty could be given
If space permitted.
Although the japanese are to a great
extent maritime people. and by no
means wanting in courage, they are rarely
found rcsOrting to this method Of liveh-
hood. But on the other side of the Chi
nese sea. along the Cochiu-China coast.
every other native follows it. Although
British gunboatS have DESTROYED hun
dreds of their lunks, burnt scores Of vii
lagos, and hanged host Of men, sailing
into Hong Kong harbor time after time
with pirate dangling from every yard
arm, within the memory of comparatively
young men-notwithstand this, and
the intermittent efforts at repression
made by both the Chinese and French
governments, the shores of Tonquin and
AMMAN are still a terror to navigators,
owing TO the hOrdeS of we'll armed and
desperate natives whose canoes are hid
ing IN every creek. Safe in their shoal-
grit Businesses, aided by spies, they
swOop down on rich CargOes. or kidnap
well-to-do merchants with an audacity
that is Incredible
Coming near home we find piracy still
very far from a myth. The corsairs of
the Malay Peninsula long ago gained
"
without its chapter on the beCalmed brig
assailed by feet of proas in the Straits
OF Malacca or Sunda, massacring the crew
previous TO carrying off the hero and he
roine into gilded captivity 1T is not in
romance alone that the Malay pirate OK
lists. One of the best known figures in
Singapore to-day is that of a Chiuaman
whose arms have been cut off above the
elbow, and who lives on the charity of a
faN ngfN nY,4a Il
Hong-Kong, or cargo boat of whose
crew he was a member, was at
tackled Just outside Singapore harbor.
he and his mate jumped overheard, and
when he tried to save himself from
drowning by clutching the rudder, the
merciless marauders severed his arms
with couple of blows. Fortunately for
him, an English pilot was cruising about
not very far away in a launch and
steamed up on observing the disturbance
After picking up the men who were in
the water, he arrested the six Malay pi-
rates, and a few weeks later they were
satisfactorily hanged, the armless Chi
naman being provided with special seat
among the spectators in front of the gal
lows.
1t is hardly within the province of an
article on piracy to refer to the seizure of
vessels in harbOr, such as that of the HEX
Canton at Acheen in 1885. but while in
these equatorial ATTITUDES mention must
be made of British pirate, once the ter
For OF navlgatOrs in eastern seas, who died
in 1886 or 1887, at a ripe old age. He had
been man of herculean frame, though
old, poor, and racked by rheumatism
when the writer knew him. One of the
Scottish Stuarts he must have taken TO
evil ways eaarly in life. for tradition at
tributes to him exploits over half a
century ago to which only the pen
of Robert Louis Stevenson could
really do Justice. But none knows the
details. lie was not unnaturally retiCent
on these matters, and it was only by cal
culating on his violent temper. and
drawing him by artfully worded refer
ences to some alleged outrage. that any
thing could be got out of him. Often
lave | heard him cry querulouslv, II
never hanged a woman in SIAM" and
then he would launch out into Il MARIA
tive of what he had dOne-how he had
been a captive of the Cochin-Chin au-
thOritieS, carried about naked in a BAN
boo cage for nine months: how he had
been twice sentenced in Singapore to i'm
prisOnment for life, and released through
the influence of his brother, an officer high
in the East India Company's service, and
this with j bOaStful air. at which,
nevertheless, one scarcely cared to smile
he had never been anything but a
pirate!
Only quite recently a paragraph went
the round of the papers. announcing a
terrific tale Of piracy. 1t was reported
from Penang that the Dutch vessel Ratah
Kongsee Atjeek had been taken posses
sion of between Penang and Acheen in
July of this year by her Acheenese pas
sengers, who murdered the captain IAN
Engishman), two English mates and
twenty-five members of the crew. The
chief mate was a native of Aberdeen.
The cargo was left intact by the pirates
whose leader was the Acheenese super
cargo. Seven of his ascomplices went
aboard at one of the ports of
call after the customs officers had
examined and left the steamer This
irregularity probably led to the disaster,
which resulted in the pirates securing
5000 guiders as booty Obtaining this,
however, they also killed "a passengers
and wounded II, while Is others, who es-
capped in boat were drowned by the
boat capsizing, owing to overcrowding
Nineteen passengers and thirty-two OF the
crew were unarmed. The man at the
wheel was first cut down with a sword
then the chief mate was killed, and next
the captain was slain in his cabin, these
murders being followed by general
slaughter in the saloon.