March 23, 1908.]
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
the 12th of January, and I went to him to see stroke of his sword struck me on the nose, what was the matter. He said he was sick. At cutting the nasal artery. The blow brought meal-time I went along and saw him eating, and me to my knees, but he, not knowing what he I said to him, "If you are well enough to eat had done, rushed on. This gave me time to get you are well enough to work." He said the case off my rif. On going outsi le I found he would not work. 1 visited him several about 20 or 30 men Striking right and left times after that, and sometimes I would with the barrel of my rifle, they made find him chewing tobacco. Cn the for their boat, which was held alongside, 12th I told him 10 go into hospital. On reaching it a shot was fired in my face but where I could watch him and see that he did not hit me, whereupon I opened my Win- got no tobacco. Several times I passed by ohester and fired three shots into their boat, the door, and one time I looked in and They at once cat loose and L-knew from the saw he had tobacco in his month. Then 1 Ah ya! Ah ya! that was called out as they locked the doors to prevent tobacco being drift.d away that some one was hit, but just passed to him. At noon I unlocked the doors what damage was done we did not know. I at and gave him his dinner. The captain came once returned to the innor room, where Mrs. | along at that time, but he didn't say anything Fergusson and Florence, my daughter, were, to the captain about the heat or anything else. now quite werk from the loss of blood, for my On that day we were not inside the tropics: wound was bleeding profusely all the time. there was a six to eight knot breeze, and the Mrs. Fargusson soon got the wound washed and water was coming on ck-that was why bound up, Then she and Florence went aboard I had to lock the port-holes. I visited him at the boats which had come alongside, and so four o'clock and he asked for some water, were ready to drop down the river if they should which I gave him. He was lying in bed return in larger numbers, for we hardly knew with all his clothes on. As to this Macdonald what to expect, since on the shore in a semi- case, I asked Jennings the reason why circle around our boat were lights. The natives he did not go aloft and help clow the sails said they had a guard placed in case anyone and he said his shoulder was out of joint, shoul! swim asbore and escape to report. He had been working all that day with his | I think more likely it was to help to carry off shoulder out of joint. I told him to go aloft-the spoil they were waiting for. However, there that he was a loafer and imposing on his mates. were bout ten lights on the shore, but they Thereupon he said he would not go aloft. I went out or disappeared shortly after the boat bent forward and put my hand on his shoulder drifted off. Two shots were fired by the pirates and said to him, "Now, don't you give me any in all, but neither of them did any damage to of your lip." I was struck in the face by any of us. Not one of our boat crew moved out Jennings, and I hit him back, twice. He made of their beds all the time, and it was all over a noise and fell down on deck, aud Macdonald, before the captain and the others from the in the rigging, said, “Cut the heart out of back came out. Every one was frightened him." After the men came down from making half to death. Our boy, who was up lighting the sails fast I got my revolver and went up to the fire, was compelled not to speak, under the Macdonald, in doing which I had to pass through penalty of having his head cat off, and he the whole gang. I told him, "Now, if you want conclud d better our heads than his. so let to cut the beart out of me, do so I said
them come right in on us without warning. Draw your knife, and I'll pat daylight Next day we learned that they did not stick to through you." That's all, your Worship. their boat ve y long, and that all our fears of their returu were groundless; they had quite enough of it. We were sorry to hear of the sad fate that befel two of their number, and to feel that we had shed blood and, if the report was true, had taken life, for it is stated that wo of them were left in the boat, one shot through the neck the other through the shoulders, while two more were wounded. Yet it was a matter of life and death to us, and I did not fire until after I was fired on, and when they fired the shot I did not know how many more were to follow or what might be next.
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His Worship dismissed the Olsen summons, and fined the defendant $5 or 14 days on the Jennings summons. With regard to the Macdonald case the conditions of life on board ship were different from those on shore, and had the incident happened on shore he should have inflicted a heavy fine. As it was, the defendant would be cautioned and discharged.
PIRATES ATTACK A MISSIONARY BOAT.
TWO PIRATES SUPPOSED TO BE KILLED.
The following account of a piratica! attack on a missionary boat is given in the Shanghai
Mercury :-
Cheata, Ezechnen, 6th February. As you will no doubt have heard of our being attacked by pirates at Mo Tze-chang and of the result of the attack, I feel I ought to let you have a few lines stating the real facts. On the morning of the 21st of January about 4 a.m. we heard a boat rowing, and, thinking it was an early passenger boat, we paid no attention. But as we had arranged to have sarly breakfast to let the captain transfer some goods, as we were too heavy to get up the rapid, we called our boy to light the fire. The rowing consed, but by the time the fire was alight it commenced again. We, thinking it was another boat passing, paid no attention, but concluded it must be later than we had thought. Just then the boat caine crash alongside: a great row ensued, but we thought it was our boatmen quarrelling with the other boat for running into us. Before we had time to hear what was really the trouble three big, burly, well dressed fellows rushed into our sleeping apartment. Lifting the curtain. they stood not three feet from us. jumped out of bed, when the man nearest struok at me with a sword, but fortunately it caught in the curtain and he missed me. Before he had time to repeat, I seised my rifle and brought the barrel over his shoulders. The blow rather staggered him, and he made for the front room followed by his two companions. I followed too, plying my rifle over their heads and shoulders. On entering the front room I found five chaps awaiting me Ley stood for a second but finding the rifle barrel heavier than they had bargained for, made for the outer door. But on going out one of them with a backward
I at once
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I reported the matter at once to the Pan Chen and also to the Kiosingfu. On arrival he at once took the matter up and sent out soldiers, twenty in disguise and twenty armed, to hunt them out. I have not heard yet the result. Now my wound is almost well and I feel little the worse for it, and soon hope to have nothing more than a scar to remind me of the adven. ture. Mrs. Fergusson's nerves received alcon- siderable shock, but we trust the effect of it will soon pass away. Most people feel it will be some little time before they attack a boat with foreigners on again. I hope it has this result.
W. N. FERGUSSON.
THE COASTING TRADE IN THE FAR EAST.
209
pressed upon the market, all the more so that they are ran on much more economical condi- tions than British-owned strâmers are. These Danish and Norwegian vesels are caught up eagerly by charterers, because, in the charterers' interest, they make up their accounts in silver dollars and not, as the British captains do, in pounds sterling. Last year, compared with the year 190!, rates of freight were generally lower by 35 to 50 per cent. The competition among the Hongkong owners, the Consul says, is divided among three groups. The first of these comprises the large German lines, which are working with profitable results. Over against these stand the British firms, and the third group is formed by Japanese owners. In the secound goup may be especially mentioned the firms of Jardine, Matheson & Co. and Butter- fleld & wire, who at one time raled the market. The Japanese firms are very numerous, and the traffic with Formoss and the Philippines has been monopo'ised by them "to the prejudice of the British." The report adds that the unfavourable results of the coasting traffic here had the consequence of producing a heavy fall in shipping shares on the Hongkong Exchange. -Fairplay.
THE BANKNOTE FORGERIES AT SHANGHAI.
The N-Ç. Daily News in its editorial columns : of the 9th inst. says:-The detection of counter. feit notes of the Imperial Bank of China nd of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corpora tion has, as is well known, caused a great deal of uneasiness among the Chinese, and the sus- picion inevitably excited has now extended to the Raso-Chinese Bank, notes to the value of $50,000 or more having been taken to that bank for redemption in silver on Exturday morning. There is not, however, we are glad to say, any widely-extended scare among the Chinese. The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank was) kept open for the cashing of notes th whole of Saturday afternoon, bat notwith standing the larg
-
circulation its notes
It is
enjoy, the total amonat presented in the last three days of last week did not reach $300,000, and among them less than fifty counterfeits, all for $3, were discovered. The counterf it can be easily detected by rubbing them with a wetted finger, or by looking at the printers' name, which is mis-spelt. generally understood that, by some accident, the Japanese criminal code-and these counter- foit are Japanese-made-does not provide any penalty for this crime, au omission which, if it exists, reflects little credit on the foreign advisers who assisted in the compilation of the Japanese code. This omission will no doubt engage the attention of the new Diet as soon
as it meets.
It is reassuring to know that the scare has not become ser ous, and that trade is not likely to be so gravely affected as at one time seemed probable. Its effect would be very grave if it extended to South China, where foreign bank- notes are preferred to silver dollars, and are consequently much more largely used than they are here. The arrest on Eaturday of a Japanese with several counterfeit notes in his possession will, it is hoped, produce a good effect, for it does not appear that any large quantity of these forgeries has been put in circulation.
JELLION IN KWANGSI. Telegraphing on the 7th inst., the Peking correspondeat of the N.-C. Daily News says:-
H.E. Wang Chih-oh'an, Governór of Kwangsi, Las sent a secret telegram to HE. Yang Lu. Grand Secretary, stating that the irrepressibility of the rebels in his province is das to the ungovernable conduct of the Imperial troops commanded by Marshal Éa. Whenever the Imperial and rebel forces meet, it is impossible to distinguish which is which, as they not only communicate their military secrets to each other, but openly exchange their arms and ammunition (and probably their uniforms too). He therefore asks that Marshal du may be cashiered, and if this is done, he un krtakes to suppress the rebellion in two months,
Reporting upon the position and prospects of trade and navigation in Eastern Asiatic wators,
THF the French Consul at Hongkong says that the shipowners at that place connected with the traffic between China, Indo-China, Siam and the Philippines are in presence of a real crisis, the cause of which is, more than anything else, the greatincrease in the amount of available tonnage, for which there is no corresponding increase in the quantity of cargo offering for transport; a state of things which makes competition exceedingly sharp. The continual depreciation in the value of silver accentuates the evil, crippling the im- port trade and the transport of rice from Šiam and Indo-China. In the last eighteen months, the report says, thirty-five vessels have been added to the fleet attached to Hongkong and employed in the coasting trade. Besides this, owing to the slackness of business in the North Sea and the Baltic, a number of Danish and Norwegian ships were directed to Sings. 'pore, Bangkok, and Saigon, which farther
In its Notes on Native Affairs our Northern contemporary observes that although strange
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