Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 525

508

Capture of Captain Anstruther at Tinghae.

SEP.

The reader will be pleased to learn that the two sons of this unfor- tunate old Lascar are the pensioners of captain A., and are now at school. He says again :

"I now saw that attempt at flight was useless, and expecting a fate similar to that of my Lascar, I set to work to make the rascals pay for it, and fought my best. Numbers of course prevailed, and I was sent down. Instead of dashing out my brains they set to work, bound my hands behind me, and my ankles together, and tied a large gag in my mouth.

mouth. Then quietly taking a large bamboo, they ham- mered my knees, just over the knee-cap, to prevent the possibility of escape. I was then put into a palanquin, which was evidently kept ready for some such contingency, and hurried off to the northwest, and thence by a circuitous course round to the southwest angle of the island of Chusan, to a village about ten miles west of Sapper's Point. Here we waited till night-fall, my conductors comforting me by re- peating the word Ningpo, and by drawing their hands across their throats."

After many turnings and windings, with barbarous treatment added to the wounds and bruises already received, the prisoner arrived at his new quarters in Ningpo next day, about 3 o'clock, P. M. There he was immediately brought before the magistrate of the district, and examined as to the number of ships, men, &c., at Chusan, a compra- dor, who had been seized about a fortnight after their landing at Tinghae, acting as interpreter. He was then fed and sent to a pri- son, which was prepared for him by the removal of four officers who had been confined by the emperor's orders for allowing the English to land at Chusan. He ascertained also that by the first broadside of the Wellesley the naval officer of the station was mortally wound- ed, and the chief officer of the island killed by the first shell fired on shore. These two deaths struck great terror into the officers every- where, as they believed the English aimed at them.

In the jail, the prisoner was forced to get into a cage with wooden bars, one yard long, one yard high, and two feet wide outside the bars! An iron ring was put round his neck, his hands put into hand- cuffs locked to a stick about one foot long which was fastened to the ring on his neck. Very heavy leg irons had been put on him when at the magistrate's. These irons, he supposed, weighed 18lbs., and were worn for four weeks. In the cage, a chain was locked to his leg irons, and by night the jailor, with a light, slept close by him. Next day he went again to the office of the magistrate, who inquired about the steamers. The prisoner offered to draw one, which he did

Page 525Page 526