The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-06-04
BOLD CHINESE PIRATES.
PLY Their Trade Under the Eyes of
the British.

From the London Globe.
Although piracy upon a large scale
has ceased to exist upon the China
coast, it is stil1 carried on in a small
way, and that right under the nose of
the British authorities at Hong Kong,
and within shot of the fleet lying quiet
ly at anchor in the shadow of Victoria
Park. Only a few months ago a dar-
ing piracy took place in the waters of
Hong Kong harbor-at least, the first
part of the little drama was acted
there. ferry boat, a small steamer
of some thirty tons, plies between Hong
Kong and within shot of the fleet lying
opposite the mainland. The whole trip
only takes fifteen minutes, and all the
while the ferry is we'll in sight of the
fleet. One night the ferry left the Hong
Kong side at o'clock, and failed to
turn up at Yau-ma-ti, the suburb to
which it piled. Inquiries were made,
and nothing was heard of the craft un-
til couple of days afterward, when
she returned with her crew and pas
sengers, and a romantic tale of piracy
1t appears that when the launch was
in the middle of the harbor some of
the passengers drew revolverS and held
up't their fellow travellers and the crew.
They then forced the native engineers
" VII Tic eng lies, anu, having DdtI6n-
ed the rest of the crew and passengers
down below, headed for the Canton
river, where three or four large junks
were pirated one after another. The
pirates, having obtained sufficient loot
to satisfy them, ran the launch ashore
in small creek and abandoned her, the
crew taking possession once more, and
bringing her back to Hong Kong when
she f1oated with the rising tide.
On West River.
On the West river gangs of pirates
terrorize certain districts and levy
blackmail, which all boats have to pay
unless they carry sufficient force to
make a bold fight. 1t is no uncommon
thing to see heavily laden junk going
up or down stream flying as many as
three pirate flags as sign that she has
paid blackmail and received safe con-
duct The writer once saw a large
timber raft floating down which had
not only taken the precaution to hire
a special guard boat for its protection,
but had also hoisted flags belonging to
no fewer than four different pirate
chiefs. A guard boat as often as not
accompanies these large RATS, but they
are utterly useless, and are usually
only hired to appease the mandarins to
whom they belong.
1t is now some ten years since the
NdInO6 was plrdJeu OUTSIDE Hong
Kong, but her case shows that the Chi
nese pirate still has some of the pluck
of his ancestors. The Namoa left
Hong Kong, bound to Swatow, Annoy
and Foo-Chow, at about 9 o'clock one
morning. She had among her passen-
gers a large number of Cinnamon who
We're returning to their homes in Fo-
KEN province from California and the
Straits Settlements, and they were
bringing their accumulated savings
with them. 1t was also said that she
| had on board a considerable amount of
| specie, but this, it fortunately turned
| out, had not been shipped by her. All
went we'll until tiffin- time, when, in de-
| scending into the saloon to that meal
| one of the passengers, pointing to the
arm rack in the companionWay, asked
the captain why rifles were carried, and
| was laughingly told that they were rel
| les of the old days, when China coast
ers were won't to be held up by pirates
! The meal had hardly commenced when
it was interrupted by revolver shots
! fired down the skylight, while some
! stinkpots found their way into the sa-
| loon by the same entrance. Capt. Po-
| cock sprang from his seat and COM
| menced a parley with the pirates, who
| promised not TO harm him if he would
| come on deck and make terms with
them; but no sooner had he come up
the ladder than he was shot and NOR