The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 16, 1898, Page 21

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JANUARY 16, 1898. HOW 500 WERE CAPTURED AND ich took place the Germans rcchau the dis- > who sub- a fc lead- the 1 price set haged to 1 recent skir man marines ackson, who t wiped out f the pi- and the A 2 G G LAST STAND or 1500 nish the boats and I will furnish the men on land, and you must promise to catch Lun Tai alive for me so 1 can pagne were more plentiful than hard-| tack. According to my log book it was on April 29, just after we had finished | dinner were singing ° My that a Chinese hing slid alongside of us. The crew gave us to understand ey had a ‘white devil' ve E board. We lowered. the ropes. ippeared at first sight to be dead. w only after the ship surgeon worked over him for could tell us th that had thrown him into the the Chinese fishermen. “Emaciated and c! d through his sufferings we hardly recognized him as a Mr. Moss, who but a few days be- fore had left Hongkong in a brig load- ed with valuable n randise, hu\}m]‘ had hours that he strange circums “SHOOT THAT FELLOW \ent figure he cut in the inces- ssaults on English commerce in a It was one of Lun s that led to a combina- n the English war v se regular soldi t the m mad Tai, . most daring and ng of pirates that s merchants along r the famous D tes’ stronghold arefully examined, vas sprung T es within the their mud forts Lun ived v ning from some of iinese that the British had 1ad rec y Ct 1s the cleverest and big- mong that punk-smell- crew of heathen nd plundered from 1 work. Many’s the 10thered between tilential stinkpots, v's r fellow that has mself a worse death by simply g overboard to drown. Jim Moss t, but he came out all right, if 18 nearly dead for a time, and it was his escape, I guess, that led to the hot tz on Lun Tai and his fiends, ir p 16 poo; t that X under 1 e some 1500 that T nd in their junks and r anx- ruins of their the dally papers iation and the son of the year 1 brir fon. Whe i in the dispatches ly we all t, I won- d been killed T'd ac- that he was ition that he with the pi- then. They n the dare- ame to the . If he ught sight fight »ve been true outh to s way: H. M. | s an officer, guardship at any loss of i ed the , B rdered nto tk ich sz g v 5 ventured outside, oop down and loot | uld sw “As we were paid a big bounty for every junk captured, money and cham- d, front and brains | was not among | day stubborn fight cornered pirates, of their des- uggles to nmed in and of the out 400 i afterward by the | “aptain Jackson | blot it out forever. shamming. | | for Japan. The brig w sixteen as good sailo: | the ropes, and we kne case of ‘pirates.” | “The cunning devils, as usual, had waited until the brig was well out of Hongkong and just off Ninepin Rocks. On the mastheads of the junks the pi- rates had stationed men with baskets filled with stinkpots, a chemical com- position of suffocating properties which they put into bags, light with a fuse and throw on the decks of the ves- they are attacking. The chemical ases that arise kill any one who in- manned with ever climbed v that it was a one the sailors fell as the rained the stinkpots on the of the brig. Moss, the supercargo, the only one who had not fallen emed to be protected by somc E providence. With a last lo at his dead companions, he leaped ir the water, preferring death in way. In an instant the pirates saw him. Yelling with rage, they threw their spears at him. Just then a vessel hove in sight, and without waiting to loot the brig the pirates hoisted sail and disappeared as suddenly as they had come. “Moss was a strong swimmer, and though he was badly wounded, by superhuman efforts he managed to \ke the seven miles to Ninepin Rocks. Near there he was picked up by the Chinese fisherman. He fell uncon- scious as soon as they laid hands on hi e “When Moss told his story our com- mander, with a mighty thump on the table, said: ‘“This kind of work by those devils must stop right here. We've got to clear this part of the seas of them!' ordered up the officers and began out- lining plans for a vigorous campaign against the sea robbers. “Early next morning we set off to hunt up the brig and her sixteen dead sailors. The brutality about it all had the earmarks of Lun Tal’'s work. We came upon her toward noon. What a fearful sight it was! I wish I could The blood-stained ks and the sailors lying in heaps or des de. “Well, we took the brig back to port and. buried the boys with pray came straight from the heart.. W were a been through, put standing by r graves we'd made up our minds il up to Pirates’ Bay and wipe »ne of the miserable rascals from “Our ship, Pearl, was of too heavy t to use against the pirates’ which could wallow into very water, but lying alongside of the Firm, the Haughty and the Cock- chafer. We held another discussion and Captain John Borlaise asked the men whether they would go up in the | three gunboats and fight ‘until there | You | sn't a pig-tailed pirate left.” should have heard the ‘Aye, aye, sir! It woke half of Hongkong up. was the last ‘aye, aye' of some of the poor fellows ““The Pearl, commanding the squad- ron, with the three gunboats alongside, sailed up to Swatow. There Captain Borlaise saw the mayor, Tas Tai, who assured him that he was as anxious as we were to see the pirates exterminat- ed, but ‘ what can I do?" he said. ‘I have no boats. That pig Lun Tai laughs at me. But I tell you. You fur- That | lars in the pass of the hills back of the pirates’ stronghold, so that those at- tempting to escape that way could be chop off his head and hang it on the assault with the deadly stinkpots. A | wall.” pirate at the junk's masthead lifted | that three of his fingers were uho(‘ “So he sent out his spies, who re- but before it could be thrown we | away. 2 turned with a description of the pi- at them with a stream of boiling | ‘““We realized that defeat meant some ra stronghold, which was twenty- | water. zain and again they attempt- | horrible death, and we fought desper- five miles to the northwest of Swatow. | ed to hurl them, always tc be met by | ately to escape it. | It consisted of several fortifications, | the hot water which put out the fuse “According to my log book we finally | mud forts, and breastworks, armed | and made the Stinkpot harmless. At drove those pirates who escaped from | with odds and eds of cannon, bought, | length they saw the fruitlessness of | the disabled junks onto the shore. We stolen and looted. it, ar 1 and cursing like de- lost ten men and several more were | “Tas Tal, according to his promise, | mons, th ed a savage fire on us | mortally wounded. As near as we couid | | placed a large force of Chinese regu- | from the earthworks on shore and | make out not more than 500 pirates | captured. IN THE MASTHEAD!” that | And without more ado he | rs that | ty well cut up from the experience | | “I know now that one of these spies DESPERATE CHINESE | Once I heard some bne say ‘My God!’ {and I saw the man back of me trying awkwardly to pull the trigger of his gun, and for the first time he noticed a tremendous rate, for this it was be- lieved would insure them success. “We were prepared for their first ever reached the shore. “On the third morning, under cover of constant firing from the gunboats, we lowered launches armed with ma- rines and made for the shore on lhel showered the gingals from the junks. We got at them hot and heavy, and for a time it was give and take, hot work, too, for they far outnumbered us and fought like madmen. All day long the sent out ¥ , Lun 1 paring for him. But we then, and we set about 4 S0 as to capture eve 1500 pirates. The ferc boats numbered about “The hour the land blockade the hills back nest we sailed up the co the junks. proached the bay southeast the P anchor, the wate “The pirates were rez thirty junks of all si merable flags set up a ¢ ing of gongs. They cla Six Tas Tai warned that old i, of the trap we we: r sver awing th sun was just rising as we ap- miles to the contest but our superior arms | threw | b & leather and inflicting torturous wounds on the fe Had we not escaped this trap the day would undoubtedly have cred than the ringing of th show the hopeful spirit that animated | them. gone against us. “At break of day we were at it again. “We were now about evenly matched How the rascals fought! They hurled | in numbers, and the pirates were still their ars and gurgals with the|as determined to win as we were, but strength of demons r a time it | their small swords and iron headed 1 a bit ticklish for us. They | spears were their only weapons. t so stubbornly I began to think | “It was now a hand to hand fight. they would'nt quit till every man jack | The pirates called into play every cun- f them was cut to pleces. “Twice men | ning trick at their command. I jumped standing next to me fell over a seemingly dead pirate only to wounded. | | THE FIVE HUNDRED PIRATES WERE ALL LED OUT ON THE PLAIN AND BEHEADED. A reel with a sharp thrust from his spear | outbreaks are in my side. Undoubtedly he would have killed me before I could have turned, for I never suspected the trick, but a marine several paces behind us saw his act and bayoneted the wily fellow before he could jib me again. PIRATES “When neither cunning tricks nor the | began to give way in selves, we drove them from their stock- | ade and up the hills. ing them out of the frying pan into the | fire, for on the brow of the hill the Chi- | nese regulars were drawn up waiting | fortunately, no lives were lost. Majesty’s Theater was burned on De- cember 6, 1867, and the Oxford Music Hall suffered the same fate some two months later. for them. wounded had to be carried to the gun- ‘ boats and then every vestige of the\ ORDERED THE CAPTAIN. THEN WE ALL JUMPED nightfall we | were expecting us to land in front | stroyed. They net we knew | our benefit. hose = finish | of six pointed highly seasoned pleces of | in it. mboo, sharper than a needle’s point, | ral houses. ble of penetrating the toughest | .water and except for a bad burning es- | | | | i | | | together. | pirates who before that used to period- | | feally raid that region. | his ugly | protection of the gunboats for some | weeks. But Lun Tai kept away. | I guess the quick and clean | “‘But our own work was not over. Our! In razing their fortifications | | where they had strewm ‘crowsfeet’ for | our first lieutenant set fire to & house. | These ‘crowsfeet’ consist | Fe did not know gunpowder was stored He was blown clear over seve- He landed in a pond of | caped all right. We took all the flags and gongs in sight and then sank all the junks. | “A big reward had been offered for Lun Tai, dead or alive, but as I said before, we did not catch him. When | we boarded our own vessels we had hopes that the Chinese regulars would capture him. TUnder orders of their major they. were specially anxious to | catch.the cunning villain. | “We got back to the harbor of Swa- | tow in time to see the captured pirates | marched in, all dragging heavy chains; | they were battered, ragged and covered | with blood, they looked the fighting | devils they were. | “Tas Tai, the Mayor, summoned all the inhabitants of his district on the | plain before the town and ali the cap- | tured pirates, about 450, were beheaded | as a warning to all sea robbers. | “I never expect to see such a scene | again. ‘“Men chosen for the purpose gath- ered up the severed heads of the pi- rates, and placed them at equal dis- tances around the walls of Swatow, where they hung for three days. It was horrible, but from that time pi- rates ceased their depredations in that | locality. ““Tas Tal ought to have been satisfled, but he was not. After looking at the | long rows of heads upon the walls he declared that he would rather have Lun Tai's head than all the others put He was fearful that that scheming marauder would raid Swa- tow and take a terrible vengeance, and he begged our officers to give him the work we made of that pirate strong- hold was a wholesome lesson to him, as it certainly was to the migrato We never saw face again anywhere near Hopgkong, and I guess the rumor was | trué that he and his junk full of dare- | devils drifted Tonquinward in search | of booty. “If the Germans nailed him by acci- dent or otherwise in Kiaochau they have done a work that every merchant on the coast of China wanted to see dcne many years ago.” —_——— GREAT LONDON FIRES. Ever since the “Great Fire” of 1666 London has been the scene of many terrible conflagrations, and it is not going too far to state that it is owing to her well-equipped and efficient fire brigade, with its sixty-one stations spread over the Metropolitan area, that she has not been visited with a similar catastrophe. That historic fire de- stroyed some eighty-eight churches | and 13,200 houses, burning old St. Paul’s, the Royal Exchange, the custom house, and other notable buildings. A glance from that period down- ward till the last great fire which has Just occurred in the neighborhood of Aldersgate street, many memorable HOW LUN TAI, THE WILY ONE, ESCAPED. recorded. The great Tooley street fire probably stands pre- eminent. ‘Wharf on June 22, | burning for a month. | the then chief of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, debris, : absolute disregard of death could keep || B pomcnr twenty perdons them they bunches and, well nigh exhausted our- It broke out at Cotton’s 1861, and continued Mr. Braidwood, was killed by some falling ost their lives. The damage was es- timated at more than £2,000,000. On New Year’s Day, 186§, another That was shov- | riverside fire broke out at St. Kathar- ine’s docks. control without much difficulty, though, This was not got under Her FOR THE JUNK. right, thus flanking the pirates, who | stronghold of the pirates had to be de- | The year 1882 has been described as “‘the vear of fires.” During this period the fire brigade had their hands full, and they had to tackle no fewer than seven conflagrations which threatened to be of a serious nature. The Wood street fire which broke out on Decem- ber 18 was probably the biggest of all. It burned for torty-eight hours, in which time property to the value of more than two million pounds sterling was destroyed. Whiteley’s in West- bourne Grove was the scene of two fires, one occurring on November 17, involving a destruction of £100,000 worth of property, and the other, which broke out on Boxing Day, also did great havoc. Two theaters were destroyed in this year, the Philhar- monic Theater at Islington in Septem- ber, and the Alhambra Theater on De- cember 17, at which latter three per- sons lost their lives. On the 17th of the same month St. jokn's Church, Forest Hill, was totally destroyed. Others could be menticned, but the foregoing show what the fire brigade had to face in that “year of fire: The next great outbreak was the famous Paternoster Row fire, whichoc- curred on April 2, 1884. The fire spread with great rapidity, and those who wit- nessed it will remember how the dome of St. Paul's was brilliantly illumin- ated. More than a dozen warehouses were destroyed, including the extensive premises of Faudel and Fhillip, Wil- liams, and Smith Brothers. A fire which occurred in the early morning of April 24, 1885, at 194 Union street, Borough, and known as the “Borough fire,” is rendered memorable through the herolc conduct of a serv- ant girl. This brave young woman saved the lives of her master’s three children, but was dreadfully burned in doing so. She died three days later. She was literally besieged with lette.s and telegrams of inquiry and condol- ence from all parts of the TUnited Kingdom, one coming from the Queen and another from the Princess of Wales. It is believed she received more than 3000 such letters. Three memorable outbreaks occurred in 1889; the Milton street fire, on May 6, doing damage to the extent of £250, 000; the Charterhouse Square fire; and the Forest Gate Industrial School sad catastrophe, at which twenty lads lost their lives. The Queen Victoria street fire, which broke out on December 30, 1890, differed from all those that preceded it. The weather was of Arctic severity, and the firemen became incased from hel- mets to boots in coats of glass-like mail, the sprays from the nozzles quickly turning to ice. Captain Shaw looked like a veritable Santa Claus go- ing about with thousands of icicles clinging to his hair and beard. Next morning the ruins presented a most picturesque appearance, being coated with millions of icicles. Following close on this fire was the St. Mary Axe outbreak of July, 1893, when dam- age was done to the extent of a quar- ter of a million sterling. e e L Nickel is a modern metal. It was not in use nor known of tiil 1715. It has now largely taken the place of silver in plated ware, and as an alloy with steel it is superior to any other metal, for it is not only non-corrodible itself, but it transfers the same quality to steel; even when combined as low as 5 per cent it prevents oxidation.