The escape of the Belgian and Italian railway engineers from the
town of Pao-ting-fu--Attempt to reach Tientsin by boat--M. Ketels’
relief expedition--The first refugees--In a sad plight--The journey
by water--Terrible experiences--A fatal attempt to retreat to
Pao-ting-fu--A junk attacked by Boxers--A fearful night.
An interesting chapter in the history of the Chinese War of 1900 was
the escape of the Belgian and Italian railway engineers from the town
of Pao-ting-fu.
Towards the end of May, the Belgian Consul in Tientsin received
news that the railway between Shang-sin-tien and Pao-ting-fu had
been utterly destroyed, and that, moreover, the engineers and their
families were besieged by Boxers in Shang-sin-tien. A hurriedly-got up
expedition of nine or ten men, British, Belgian, and German, started at
once from Tientsin to their rescue, but when, after some considerable
opposition, they reached Shang-sin-tien, they found the place
absolutely destroyed, and learned that the people had fled towards
Pekin.
Of those Europeans employed in the railway at Pao-ting-fu, news reached
Pekin that they had obtained some boats, on which they were attempting
to reach Tientsin by river. They were anxiously awaited, but days went
by, and much concern was felt over their fate by the residents in
Tientsin. On Friday, June 8, three Chinese who were interpreters to the
engineers came weeping into the Belgian Consulate, saying the Boxers
had attacked their masters, and that if immediate relief were not sent
they feared all would be massacred.
M. Ketels, the Belgian Consul, who had the welfare of his countrymen
much at heart, there and then organised an expedition of volunteers to
go to their rescue, but time was short, and the relief party counted
altogether no more than thirty horsemen and ten men on foot, armed
with Winchester, Mannlicher and Martini rifles. Among these men were
Britishers, Belgians, French and Germans. They were divided into two
columns, a party of horsemen ahead acting as scouts, the other horsemen
and those on foot behind, carrying with them several cartloads of
provisions and clothes for the people to be rescued, as well as for
themselves.
Insulted and yelled at by a threatening mob of Chinese, they traversed
Tientsin native city. One of the Chinese interpreters had volunteered
to return with them to the rescue of his superiors and to act as guide.
[Illustration: THE PAGODA IN THE CENTRE OF TIENTSIN NATIVE CITY]
Soon after leaving the city wall, however, the first batch of engineers
were found straggling in a pitiable condition towards the settlement.
They were three Belgians, who, hardly able to speak from weakness and
starvation, pointed out that more were coming behind. In fact, there
presently arrived quite a number--about thirty in all--of men, women,
and children, barefooted and bleeding, their clothes torn and ragged,
and some of the women with nothing more than a shirt or a rag to cover
them. Everything had been torn from their backs. There were ten women
among the refugees, of whom two were in the family way--one of them
seven months. Another woman, half-naked, carried tight to her breast
a little baby three years old. After the severe strain, many of them,
finding that they were now practically safe, collapsed with nervous
prostration. They were fed and clothed and brought into the concession.
[Sidenote: ATTACK ON THE BOATS]
The escaping party had left Pao-ting-fu in several junks, with Mr. Sun,
the Chinese director of the railways, at their head. They were not
bodily hurt in Pao-ting-fu itself, where a crowd of over ten thousand
people had assembled to witness their departure, merely showering
insults upon them. As they proceeded down river, repeated signs of
hostility on the part of the natives were encountered, stones were
thrown at them, and shots fired.
Sun and Mr. Ossant’s interpreter, another Chinese, fearing that the
worst had not yet come, tried to screen the Europeans by closing the
sides of the cabin in the junk. It was an anxious time for those boxed
inside, for they could see nothing, but they heard the yells of the
angry mob following the junks on both sides of the narrow river, and
stones and bullets were pelting on the roof and sides of the cabin.
Having rounded a bend in the river, they were now approaching a
village. The roaring sound of a gong was fast collecting a threatening
crowd of villagers, who rushed towards the river bank as the junk
drifted down with the current. A terrific fusillade was opened on the
first boats that arrived, and even old cannon firing mitraille were
used by the Chinese in order to sink the boats. The Europeans, many
of them badly wounded, were compelled to rush out of the cabins, and
desperate endeavours were made to land on the opposite side of the
river. Only one junk--the last, occupied by the engineer-in-chief,
Mr. Ossant, his sister, and the two Italian engineers, Cadei and
Penzaro--turned back, and strove to steer towards Pao-ting-fu. The
attempt was fatal. The junk went some little distance, a fanatical
crowd of Boxers following, brandishing their tridents, swords and guns,
and firing from close quarters. Those who had landed, regardless of the
danger to themselves, were watching with swollen hearts the desperate
attempts of the crew that was going up stream. The junk stopped; it
must have become stuck in the mud. The Chinese rushed into the water.
In a moment there were swarms of them all round the boat, kept at bay
by the brave men inside, but the number of assailants grew and grew.
The Europeans who had landed endeavoured to go to the assistance of
their friends, but they too were hard pressed and could do nothing.
Night came. The distant yells of the Boxers attacking the boat ceased.
Some of the Europeans, screened by the darkness of the night, crept
along the river bank and went to look for their friends. The junk was
no more, and they feared--doubtless with but too much truth, since
nothing was heard of them later--that Ossant and all the others had
perished, massacred by the merciless Chinese. The body of a European
woman, swollen and ripped open, was seen floating down the river--and
was presumably that of Ossant’s sister.