The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-04
MIX-UP WITH YELLOW PIRATES,
An Incident of Houseboat Journey 0

An Incident of Houseboat Journey on a Chinese River.
 c. A. Burckhardt, a sufferer from bull l let wounds inflicted by Chinese pirates l on the Canton river is at the Occidental Hotel. He is on his way to 1ndianapo- lis where he has relatives, to undergo surgical treatment for his injuries. Burckhardt though young man, has long been a resident of Canton, where he was employed as an inspector and special buyer of silks for a large Euro ! pean house.
 In July last he and three companions M, Spalinger, a Swiss; G. E. Hujigen. a Hollander, and V. Hogg, an English | man--were bound up the Canton river to Shun Tack in a houseboat owned by Burckhardt The Canton river house. boat is of peculiar construction. 1t is much like one of the sternwheel river steamers so familiar on the shallow streams of America, but the wheel. in- stead of being turned by a steam en- zine, is operated by crew of coolies, who stand watches turning series of cranks arranged after the manner of a treadmil For this work no Burck- ildIul ; Dudl crew ol elSHlctH SHiiiCSC was carried. They were in charge of a boatman, who acted as captain of the craft. Besides there were several ser wants. All went well until the second night of the journey. when the boat was about thirty miles above Canton and al most opposite San Young Kee. Burck- hardt and his guests had retired soon after midnight when they were awak- | ened by shot being fired. bullet passed through the side of the house on the boat and struck Burckhardt in the left foot as he lay in his bunk. An ar tery was cut and he bled profusely.
 All four men at once seized their rifles,
 but by that time bullets were flying about the boat
 T was fast losing strength from the wound and I tore strip from blan
 ltet and bound it up as best I could, said Burckhardt, in telling the story of the attack. Before I had my foot
 bound a stink pot had been thrown on the roof of the house, and it threatened to set fire to our craft. l climbed up to where it was, but as I reached the
 place l met the boatman. The fumes from the thing were awful, but we sue
 ceeded in extinguishing it. While we
 were at that work a bullet struck the
 boatman and he died few minutes
 later from the wound. l got down into
 the cabin, and in a minute or two later
 I was struck in the right leg. The pi- rates had boarded our boat and the bull lets were coming from all directions.
 One of the pirates got upon the bow of
 the boat and threw a bomb that came rolling along the deck the fuse burning steadily. I picked 1t up from the floor
 and hurled it through window. carry
 ing the glass and the sash with 1t. Just
 outside the window it exploded, and the side of the cabin was shattered with
 the force of the concussion. My two
 wounds were too much for me and fell!
 'As lay on the floor one of my com
 panions handed me revolver and I
 had the satisfaction of shooting two of
 the pirates as lay there, though I was
 hit by another bullet in the left shoul-
 der Luckily the last bullet made only
 slight flesh wound. Another bullet
 clipped piece out of my scalp. My
 companions did good work with their
 rifles, and after about half an hour they succeeded in driving our assailants
 off. Spalinger was shot through the
 left arm soon after the fight began.
 The bullet barely missed the bone, but
 he tied a handkerchief about it and
 kept in the fight to the last. The Chi
 nese of the crew jumped into the water.
 and most of them ciung to the paddles
 of the wheel After the pirates had
 been driven away they reappeared, and with their help we turned the boat back
 down the river, and about daylight an
 chored close to Chinese gunboat and asked for protection The crew of the
 vessel made no effort to pursue the pi-
 rates. The bodies of eight of the pi-
 rates were found in the river with bull
 let's in them from our rifles. We se- cured a launch from Chinese official
 that day, and in it we got to Canton, though we were ten hours on the jour
 ney There we got the services of a surgeon. l was two months in his pital there, and then was sent to a hos
 pital at Yokohama, where l remained about two months more.
 "The Chinese government paid MT. Spalinger and myself ten thousand dol lars each and also gave the others of
 the party some indemnity. They also gave the widow of the Chinese boat man that was killed pension San
 Francisco Chronicle