Enclosure 4
320
Extract from the "China Mail"
of August 17, 1886.
C. O.
19711
REGR 1 NOV 860
News has lately come to the colony of the violent death of the great Triad Society centre in Hongkong, Li Fan. It will be remembered that some two months ago Li Fan was summoned to answer at the Supreme Court a charge of being a member of a Secret Society and of extorting money; and that when the day of trial came he was nowhere to be found, forfeiting thus a bail of $2,000. Since that time little has been heard of him.
A Chinese Mandarin watched the case when the former detective of the Hongkong Force was being tried at the Supreme Court, and it was generally thought that if the Chinese authorities came across him in his native land they would make pretty short work of him. And this it seems has been the case. Li Fan first retired to the Lo Fan hills beyond Canton, which abound in nunneries and temples and within the sacred surroundings of which the Chinese soldiers did not seek to touch him.
But the old leader of a secret society could not rest at ease in such a district and he hied him home to his native district of Tamshui, some two days journey from Kowloon City, there to mature his plans and plots afresh. But the myrmidons of the Chinese powers were not long in finding out his retreat. They seemed determined to suffer neither him nor his followers to live in peace, for, not long before, the security of Li Fan, on touching at the place, had to beat a hasty retreat with musket balls whizzing past his ear.
Li Fan, therefore, had not been long in his native village ere his house was surrounded by a hundred soldiers, who summoned him to surrender. This, notwithstanding the fearful odds against him, the intrepid revolutionary refused to do, and for some time he held the place against the 100 braves. Finally he retreated to the upper chamber of the house and from there fired on the soldiers who had come to take him, killing one and wounding several.
He was, however, disabled by two shots, one of which penetrated his right leg and the other his left side. The soldiers then rushed into the room and one of them ran his sword through the abdomen of the helpless man. They then threw him on a plank and bore him off towards the barracks. But he never reached this destination and avoided perhaps a more dreadful death by succumbing to his wounds en route.