78
ROBIN MCLACHLAN
It may not have been Orlando's intention to alarm the gentler members of his family, but the receipt of such accounts must have been the occasion for much apprehension for his safety and well-being. In October, he wrote from the island of Chusan where, he told his sister, there was the danger of being kidnapped by the "dreadfully treacherous" Chinese.
Yesterday, Shadwell had a most narrow escape of being kidnapped. Since the peace we have been perhaps rather incautious in walking too far into the country, and almost unarmed, but now we have had a warning. Shadwell was walking in the country with Cap. Wellsley and after about getting five miles they returned, when within three quarters of a mile of the city they were suddenly attacked by about ten men from behind. Shadwell was pinioned and gagged and Wellsley after breaking one man's head with his stick, saw there was no chance against so many and having also broken his stick, took to his heels and alarmed the guard, but he had to run a mile.5
In the meantime, Shadwell was trussed up by his Chinese captors, who were already dragging him off when the guard arrived on the scene and rescued him from an unpleasant fate.
But such danger and excitement were rare during Orlando's stay in China; more common were his complaints of boredom and homesickness. Within weeks of arriving in China, he confessed a longing for home with the lament:
Oh for the joys of England again, all those joys, alas so long vanished, and with so small a chance of seeing them again for a long time, ... I would rather break stones by the roadside in England than undergo what I have done since I have been in the East.6
By Christmas, he was not only homesick for England, and an English Christmas ("There is no place like England for it."), but quite bored with life in China.
Monotony generally makes time fly very quickly, but I do not ever remember anything so tedious as the time has been since my embarkation.7
5 The two persons mentioned in the letter were brother officers of the 98th.
78
ROBIN MCLACHLAN
It may not have been Orlando's intention to alarm the gentler members of his family, but the receipt of such accounts must have been the occasion for much apprehension for his safety and well- being. In October, he wrote from the island of Chusan where, he told his sister, there was the danger of being kidnapped by the "dreadfully treacherous" Chinese.
Yesterday, Shadwell had a most narrow escape of being kid- napped. Since the peace we have been perhaps rather uncau- tious in walking too far into the country, and almost unarmed, but now we have had a warning. Shadwell was walking in the country with Cap. Wellsley and after about getting five miles they returned, when within three quarters of a mile of the city they were suddenly attacked by about ten men from behind. Shadwell was pinioned and gagged and Wellsley after breaking one man's head with his stick, saw there was no chance against so many and having also broken his stick, took to his heels and alarmed the guard, but he had to run a mile.5*
In the meantime, Shadwell was trussed up by his Chinese captors, who were already dragging him off when the guard arrived on the scene and rescued him from an unpleasant fate.
But such danger and excitement were rare during Orlando's stay in China; more common were his complaints of boredom and home- sickness. Within weeks of arriving in China, he confessed a longing for home with the lament:
Oh for the joys of England again. all those joys, alas so long vanished, and with so small a chance of seeing them again for a long time, ... I would rather break stones by the roadside in England than undergo what I have done since I have been in the East.6
By Christmas, he was not only homesick for England, and an English Christmas ("There is no place like England for it."), but quite bored with life in China.
Monotony generally makes time fly very quickly, but I do not ever remember anything so tedious as the time has been since my embarkation.7
* The two persons mentioned in the letter were brother officers of the 98th.
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