, 1899-08-31
CHINESE PIRATES.
TERRIBLE GRIMES AND PUNISH,
MENTS.
Curious Exploits OF These Red Rovers oil
the Sea They ImPartiaTy Capt.r'
Ships and Towns.

Ships and Towns.
'The Scourge of the Eastern Seas
are the pirates that lnfest the Chins
sea and the Philippine islands. John 3
Sewall relates several thrilling storls,
of the Chinese vikings crimes and Their
punishment in the SALTWATER Cen.
tury-the September numbers:
Some of the exploits of these red ron
ers are %curiously interesting. If any O,
nv readers have sailed up the Canton
river they will recall the Chinese fort
ress of the Boca Tigris Mt its mouth.
on the starboard side as you enter
Down by the waterside n long white
parapet stretches along the shore; at
each end n wall of masonry reaches up
the hill, and disappears over the crest.
Whether there Is a fourth wall out Of
sight, Joining the two and completing
the square, l do not now remember;
but certain British tars could tell YOU
If they have lasted from 1912 till this
present year of grace. During the
opium war the fortress was attacked:
but the storming party pulled quietly
around the headland. and forming on
the beach, clambered up over h hill,
and the first thing the Celestials knew
their foe was rushing down upon them
from the rear, and within the Enclosure.
There was nothing for 1t bu to surren-
der, which they did, bristling with
wrath at such n breach of military
manners. "Hiyah! Why you no come
front side? More better fight where We
make ready for your
But this is n DEPRESSION. What we are
after is the pirates. II was an earlier
commandant of this same fortress who
mel with equally bad luck. One of the
fleets appeared in his neighborhood.
| md he sailed out to attack 1t. The pi-
| rates surrounded him, and after n fu-
rious engagement. which lasted all day,
and with such havoc as may be left to
the imagination, captured him n
whatever fragments of his fleet were
still afloat. This disaster was partly
avenged the next year. when the Chi
nese admiral. with Il hundred junks,
attacked another fleet on the same
cruising ground. Great numbers of the
pirates We're destroyed II some two
hundred taken prisoners. Those who
are familiar with Chinese methods can
easily judge how long the two hundred
We're kept from joining their bloody
comrades in the shades below.
In another encounter not far from
the same place, before the combatants
could close upon one another, 1t fell
dead calm. whereupon crowds of the
pirates leaped into the sea like saw
ages, swan to the enemy with their
knives in their teeth. and attacked
them so f~iercely that they could not be
beaten off. and actually cut out sever
al junks from the imperial fleet.
The fortunes of war varied. With
provoking impartlality, and apparently
with no ethical preference, victory
would perch on the standard of the pi-
rate quite as often as on the banners
of the righteous defenders of their
country's commerce.
We read of whole fleets engaged,
fighting all day and all night, two days,
even three days ut Il time, two or
three hundred punks on a side, and n
drawn game at the end. No child's
play this. At one time the admiral is
lying quietly at anchor among the ISL
ands, when suddenly two hundred pi-
rate craft slip around the ~headland,
and pounce upon him with an onset SO
furious that, in spite of a vigorous de-
Tense, twenty-five of his fleet are gone
with their captors before he can get
up his anchors and chase them. These
encounters We're not confined to the
sea There were frequent raids on the
villages that lined the harbors and
rivers