The Cordova daily times., 1923-01-18
MISSIONARY IS CAPTURED
 BY MONCOLlAN OUTLAWS;
 RELATES HIS EXPERIENCES

tales of the experiences of American, 1 British, French, Italian and Danish ! missionaries at the hands of the l lawless bandits who are sweeping i interior China like swarms of locusts are reaching the outside world.
 The thrilling experiences of the Rev. H. E. N. Ledgard, of the China Inland Mission at Shanghai, who was captured by the Honan Province later, as related in his diary, give a colorful picture of the activities of the bandit hostilities, q l Kidnapping of foreign missionaries and the burning and footing of for. eign property have caused five for. eign powers to issue an ultimatum to the Chinese Government demand ing the release of the eight foreign 1 CTS still held by them.
 The following diary, the first in stallment of which is printed here with, was written by the Rev. H. E. 1 N. Ledgard, of the China Inland Mission:
 It was in the early morning of October 28 that my wife and l were awakened by the guns of the bandit army as it attacked the city of Shangtsai. At first we thought 1t was some purely local disturbance, but the burning buildings and con tinuous firing soon showed us that something much more serious was taking place.
 At 6 a. m. there was banging at our doors, but We would not open them, and the brigands went off. At ahout o'clock l heard the prisoners from the City Jail go by, with thelr chains clanking-they had just been set free and the jail burned. Suddenly, at about 9;30 O'CLOCK our doors were burst in, rifles, were lnveled at our heads, and we were commanded to stand still while ou' watches were taken from us De
 nauds were made for any guns o' silver we might have in the mousse , Then the bandits took compleC'
 nossession and helped themselves u
 anything that took their fancy, ever
 taking my wife's wedding ring,
 The bandits remained in the nous
 oil Saturday and part Of sunday On Sunday they demanded that m wife play the organ and amuse the" , hv singing hymns. While this Wa eoino on we could hear the groah of mon who were being beaten Il tho inn next door, interminglap "l'l tho sacred music. The robbers "er +r1,ino to force the men next doo to tell them where their silver h" : been hidden. Two Others Captured !: On Sunday two American Luther an missionaries-the Rev. Luhuee' !: ond Rev Foresberg-were brough oround to see us. We eagerly ques tion them as to how they hau oee'
 captured and they told us they ha'
 heen captured at YuchoW, m LII
 northwest of the province, tw
 weeks previously The mission prem
 ises had been completely footed, tne'
 said. their wives had been takei
 with them at first, but later sen
 hack, We also learned from then
 that there were two French fallWa'
 men with the bandits who had peer captured 70 days before
 Hoped for Freedom
 Nv wife and I had hoped until tn last that they would not take an of us with them, but at 2:3O o'cloc on Sunday afternoon one Of tn bandits ordered me to go. My WI 5 n,eaded with them, but all i'll vail had just time to snatch a pocketft of hiscuits and my Bible and giV few parting instructions to my VII before I was forced to mount horse and hurried off. We traVele
 hard all that night, resting only
 take food and feed our horses. b
 the time I reached Siangcheng tn
 next morning it had already bee
 taken and burned
 Cities Are Burned
 Sengchciuhsien and lngchowfu' l
 Anhwei province, were also take
 and burned during the next feV
 days. At Sengchiuhsien I saw Mrs
 and Miss Soderstrom for few mn
 utes and learned from them that ou
 mission premises had been cantured
 They had been without food TO
 some time and were glad or th'
 few peanuts and scraps of food tha
 had in my pocket.
 From IngchoWfu the robber army