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BATTLE OF KUHLAN - (cont.)
junks were captured, "officers and men vieing with each other for the post of danger and of honour".
The pirate chief's junk, after being shelled by one of the launches,
"The chief himself, Lee was boarded, and the chief's flag secured. Afye, a principal leader of the hampao 'patriots', was shot down by an English marine who had jumped on deck from the Powhatan's launch; and
On this junk four women threw themselves overboard and were drowned. alone were found about 100 kegs of gunpowder, besides stinkpots and cartridges.
The fight, however, still raged. Casualties began to grow serious amongst the attacking force, and their experience of the ancient form of gas attack was not pleasant. This is what happened to the Rattler's cutter:
"Several stinkpots thrown at them missed, but at last one, hove from the raised poop of the pirate by a woman with a child slung to her back, fell into the boat and being followed by others, the crew were compelled to jump overboard, where two were speared, and a third was wounded and drowned." A brave Amazon of Cathay, even though she helped an evil cause!
The Chinese also threw mats over the naval men who happened to fall into the water, and one marine, wounded by a spear thrust, was drowned in this way.
The first instalment was published yesterday of the narrative dealing with the combined attack on the Kuhlan desperadoes by British and American naval men in 1855. We have seen how the attackers, owing to the shallowness of the water, had to take to boats, in which howitzers had been mounted, and getting in among the pirate junks the naval men with muskets and cutlasses fought a hand-to-hand engagement, suffering several casualties but inflicting heavy losses on the pirate crews. A stink-pot thrown into one of the boats resulted in some of the Britons and Americans losing their lives.
Another serious accident that befell the attackers was the blowing up of a junk which had just been captured.
In the words of the narrative "Either a train had been laid before the crew left, or some determined scoundrel fired the junk, for she blew up with a tremendous explosion, and both officers and men were hurled into the water. Three of the men were killed, and several others frightfully scorched, one of them died the same night but the others miraculously escaped."
In this junk was an immense quantity of treasure, said to amount to $200,000, and when it was boarded the crew had resisted in fierce hand-to-hand encounter. Meanwhile, as the larger junks were being overcome, sixteen smaller ones succeeded in slipping away beyond pursuit.
Altogether ten junks were destroyed, five of which more than ordinarily deserved notice, states the chronicle. "They were built of the most substantial materials, evidently for war purposes, as they differed in many respects from the common trading junks. They carried very large guns, 32, 24 and 12 pounders, and a sixty-eight pounder was found in one of them. Another had no less than 21 guns mounted, the weight of one of which, carrying only an 18-pound shot, was estimated at no less than 50 cwt."
The expedition had further difficulties to face. "Two lorchas and seven junks that had been detained by the pirates were released; two of which, however, had to be burnt to prevent their falling again into the hands of the piratical junks which escaped; time and an adverse wind and tide not allowing them to be brought away."
Nevertheless, the attack had proved a great success, for: "the officers employed estimate the number of guns taken at 200 large and small, and the pirates at 1,000, of whom 500 were killed."