The sun., 1900-06-28

THROUGH BOXER LINES,
Heroic Fight of Foreign Engineers
AT Fengtai.

Heroic Fight of Foreign Engineer
at Fengtai.
Victoria, b. c., June 27.-Advices 70
ceiyed by the steamship Empress of In
dia give graphic details of the eseape q
foreigners from Peking and Tien-tsin. O
all the fugitives to reach the coast non,
had harder fight for their lives tha,
the American, French and Belgian on
gineers, who were surrounded by th,
Boxers at Fengtai, the beginning of th,
railway that was to run to Hankow
When the Boxers attacked the station
and the machine shops, the engineers bor-
ricaded themselves in the machine shops
and held the Chinese off for some time.
Several women were with them, wives
of some of the party, and these loaded
the rifle belts of the men and otherwise
assisted in the effort to repel the Boxers.
Soon, though, the foreigners found their
position in the shops untenable, as some
of the Chinese had rushed them and set
fire to part of the building.
They ran for it, fighting their way
through the Boxers. When they got
through the Boxer lines the Chinese gave
no more attention to them, but instead
went to pillage and destroy the station
and machine shops.
Two of the Belgians hurried to Peking,
where they reported the danger of the
party and called for volunteers to 20 TO
help them. A number of Cossacks were
dispatched to the rescue. They set out
on June 2, encountered large crowd of
Boxers 40 miles from Tien-tsin and were
Obliged to put back, being unable to fight
their way through the Boxers.
The t'OSSapES who piltn lnra6 bnJ
two officers wounded. The engineers
meanwhile were between two forces of
Boxers. There We're 80 of them in all.
They had taken up a position on a small
hill, and there they made trenches, in
which they fought for hours, holding off
the Boxers at the front.
They We're all unconscious of the party
at their rear, and after their hard fight
ing it was arranged that eight men
should be left in the trenches to hold
back the Boxers while the other %, in
ciuding the women and children, went on
toward Peking. They had no carts, and
the men carried the weaker ones when
they became exhausted.
The march of the fugitives to Peking
was an awful one. When some few
miles from where they had been in
trenched, they found another party of
Boxers, not SO strong as the party before
encountered, however. The men formed
a hollow square, with the women and |
children in the center, and, dragging |
along, fighting and repelling the ons-
slaughts Of the Boxers, they made their |
way to Peking after two days replete |
with terror.
The Boxers of the second party were |
without firearms, being armed only with |
poles shod with iron and with knives and |
spears. They were kept at distance
by the rifles and revolvers of the railway |
men, who killed number of them.
The eight heroes who were left behind |
to guard the retreat were slain by the
Boxers. There were three Frenchmen
and one italian among them, the others
being Belgians and SWISS The fugitives
on their arrival at Peking were in desti-
tute condition.
Details received by the empress of
China of the Boxer outrages on the
march of the rebels themselves toward
Peking and the horrors enacted by the
way fully confirm the stories of blood
shed and atrocious cruelties perpetrated
by the rebel hordes. Some of the unfor-
tunates who fell into the hands of the
Boxers We're tied to trees, with thumbs
and toes tied together, and, after being
horribly tortured, were disemboweled,
Native Christians suffered particularly
Village after village was ravaged, and
the natives known to be converts to the
foreign religions We're cruelty put to
leath.