The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1898-02-15
ROUNDING UP PIRATES.
How Fifteen Hundred Desper-
ate Chinese Were Slain.
FIVE HUNDRED pUTT0 THE SWORD

Search of Thirty-seven Ycars-Graphic
Description OF the Bloody Battle OF
determination.
Tho recent dcnth Of Lun Tai in skir-
mish between Germans ana Chinese mt
kiao Chou recalls tho remarkable career
OF this most infamous of Chinese pirates
Lun Tai was tho chief of the desperate
band OF 1900 who were wiped out by the
British i'll 1860. Captain George f.. Jack
son, who served in that memorable cam
paign, gives graphic account to the San
Francisco ncwSpapers:
Lun Tai WAS tho clcvcrcSt and biggest
daredevil among that punk smelling gong
heating crew of hcathen devils. They kill
cd and plundcrcd from sheer delight i'm
such work Many's the poor crew they
smothcrcd between decks with their ncsti
lcnti;.l stinkInts, and manys the poor fol
low that has saved himself Il worse death
by simply jumping overheard to drown.
lin Moss did that but ho came out All
right, If he was nearly dead for IA time.
anu 1t was his escape. guess, that led To-
the hot attack on I.un Tai and his ficnds
Understand that I'll Of them that we round
I'd up were directly under Lun Tai. Their,
were some 800 that mado the last stand
III their junks and behind their mud forts
H. NJ. :. Pearl, on which l was an officer
was OF too heavy draft to use against the
pirates junkS, which could wallow into
very shallow water, but lying alongside of
us i'll the harbor were three gunboats. the
Firm the Naughty and tho Cock chafer.
We held another discussion. and Captain
John Borlaisc asked the men whether they
would go up in tho three gunboats and
fight until there wasn'tn pig tailed pirate
left. You SHOULD have heard the aye aye.
sir" 1t woke half of lIongkong up That
was the last aye aye of some of the POOR
fellows
Tho l'cnrl, commanding tho squadron.
with the three gunhunts alongside. sailed
mp tn Swatow. There Captain Hnrlnisc
saw the mayor, TaS Tai, who assured him
that he WAS rs anxious as we were u SEQ
the pirates cZtcrinnatcd. hut What can
do:' In said. have M boats. That biz
lIun Tai laughs at me. But tell ynu.
You furnish the boats and will furnish
the mon on land. ana you must promise 40
CATCH l'un Tai alive for me 10 can chop
off his head and han" il on the wall
30 lie sent ont his spies, who returned!
with IL description of the pirates strorg-
hold, which was - miles to the northwest
of Swatow. 1t consisted of several fortiii-
cations, mud forts and hrcastworks armed
with odds ana ENDS Of cannon bought,
stolen and looted.
Ths Tai according to his promise,
placed IL large fierce Of Chinese regulars in
the pass Of the hills back Of the pirates
stronghold, SO that those attempting to
escape that way could bc captured.
II know now that one Of these spies
sent out by Tas Tai warned that old fox,
Lln Tai, OF the trap we were preparing for
him. But VIC never knew it then. and wo
set about drawing tho net so as to capture
every ono of those 800 pirates. The
forces on the gunboats numbered about
500 men all told.
'''rhe hour the land forces set ont TO
blockade the hills back of tho pirate nest
we sailed up the coast to blockade the On
trance of the bay and keep in the jtlnks
Tho sun was just rising rs we ap-
preached the bay. Six miles to the south
cast the Pearl had to rcilain at anchor,
the water "as SO shallow
Tho pirates We're ready for us About
30 junks OF all sizes flying innumcrablc
flags, set up Il dcafening ringing of gonys
They changed them at IL tremendous rate,
for this it WIS believed would insure then.
success.
We were prepared for their first assault
Win NO urauly stlnkliOtS y pirate at tho
first junk masthead lifted one but before
it could 10 thrown he WAS shot and fell
into tho Tho falling form attracted
tho attention of his companions, and our
brave fellows boarded the junk Onco
heard somo one say, My Gcd!' ana SAW
the man back of me trying awkwarily 10
pull the trigger of his gun, and for the first
time he noticed that three of his fingers
were shot away.
We realized that defeat meant some
horrible death, and SIC fought desperately
to escape it.
According to my logbook. we fought
two days with the desperate fleet and finnl-
~ drove those pirates who escaped from
Tho disabled junis OH to the shore. No los,
ten men, and several more wore MORALLY
wounded. AS near rs we could make out
not more than 800 pirates ever reached the
shore.
ON the third morning, under cover o,
constant firing from the gunboats, we low
cred launches armed with marines anG
made for the shore on the right, thus flank
ing tho pirates, who were expecting us tc
land in front whore they had straw,