A medical gentleman at one time resident in China furnishes the
following notes of interesting incidents within his knowledge. Though
roughly put together, they may amuse our readers and be relied on as
true.
In the month of January 1869, at about half-past seven P.M., I was
sitting at dinner in my house in Swatow, when a sailor from the small
gun-boat at that time in Swatow Harbour came running breathless and
hatless, asking me to come down without any delay to the hospital,
which I had built in the Chinese town on the side of the river opposite
my own house. This man said there were thirteen sailors and the captain
of the gun-boat badly wounded by an unprovoked attack of the Chinese.
This looked serious indeed; so putting up instruments, lint, &c. I
hastened down with the sailor. On reaching the hospital, the unwounded
men of the gun-boat were still carrying into the hospital their injured
comrades. I never saw a set of men so severely wounded without any
being fatally so. I set to work, and extracted fifteen bullets from
the men; but some were too deeply imbedded to get at that night. One
man had one ear shot off, a second two fingers, a third was hit in
the eye, a fourth shot in the breast, and I afterwards extracted the
bullet at his back. The captain of the gun-boat had on a very thick
shaggy pilot-coat, double on the breast; a bullet had cut right across
his chest; and on examination I found the skin just raised where it
had passed. A very singular wound was that of a young officer, whose
two front teeth were knocked in by a bullet, that then disappeared
somewhere in his palate. I never could find this bullet whilst he was
under my care; but it seemed not to have done him much harm. He left
Swatow; and I saw him three or four years later, and he said the lead
had never appeared, and he had suffered no inconvenience from it. I
believe it must have worked itself somewhere into the muscles at the
back of his neck.
The cause of this raid of the Chinese was this: the captain of the
gun-boat had merely taken out twenty-five men to exercise by rowing one
of his boats up the river Han, on which Swatow is situated. This river
is very wide at the mouth, and abounds in large creeks; on the banks of
one of the largest of these, next to Swatow, are built three fortified
walled-in villages, or what we should call _towns_, from their large
population. The inhabitants of these towns were well known as being
particularly lawless, not having paid taxes for many years, and setting
the mandarins at defiance. Seeing the foreigners (whom they detest)
rowing up the creek, 'the Braves' (as they call themselves) rushed out
in hundreds and fired into the gun-boat from each side of the river;
and were it not for the nature of their guns, or as the Chinese call
them 'gingals,' which are old-fashioned and of short range, none of
the boat's crew would have returned alive; as it was, fourteen men
were well riddled; and the boat, which I saw afterwards, had as many
holes in it as a colander. The sailors rowed away for their lives, and
escaped.
Our settlement, on hearing this story, was in great and just alarm.
These people detest the foreigners; and having put to flight their
supposed enemies in a crippled state, it was very likely they might
follow this up by an attack on the settlers; and had they only
sufficient courage, their numbers were so great, that our fate would
have soon been decided by pillage and murder. The British consul,
Mr Alabaster Challoner, saw the danger; and being a man of decided
character and great energy, without any delay sent a merchant-ship that
was in the harbour under high steam-pressure to Hong-kong to inform the
Admiral of what had happened. The reply was prompt and satisfactory;
for a few hours brought Admiral Keppel, Lord Charles M. Scott (son of
the Duke of Buccleuch), two frigates, and seven gun-boats into Swatow
Harbour, to the great satisfaction of the foreign settlers and of Mr
Challoner. This gentleman was a small delicate-looking man, whose neck
being a little crooked, made him hold his head on one side; but such
was his courage, determination, and inflexible sense of justice, that
the stoutest Chinese officials trembled at his look; and they all
declared they would rather face a tiger than meet the glare of 'His
Excellency the Devil's' eyes when displeased. The Admiral immediately
told off five hundred marines and blue-jackets, fully armed and
supplied with two small cannon, to punish the offenders. The friendly
natives of Swatow averred loudly that these men were going to certain
destruction; that not one would return, as the tribe in question
was invincible; and most of the foreign merchants were sufficiently
alarmed by these assertions to send all their most valuable possessions
on board the vessels in the harbour. Fortunately the result was not
what they dreaded. On approaching the first town, the troops saw 'the
Braves' in vast numbers on the walls, shouting, waving flags, jumping
up and down, and calling on them to come on and be killed. The tars
replied by blowing open the gates with gunpowder, and falling on the
heroes, who instantly gave way and fled precipitately. They then set
fire to the place, sparing all who did not resist. They treated the
other towns similarly, and returned victorious. The excellent effect
of this prompt action was to produce a complete tranquillity in the
neighbourhood of Swatow, which has remained undisturbed ever since
(eight years), and a feeling of security which never before existed;
yet the Admiral was reproved by the British government at that time for
having acted without 'home orders!'
* * * * *
In the winter of 1873 a very unseaworthy merchant sailing-vessel (a
Siamese), the _Tye Wat_, set out from the north of China to Siam with
a cargo of beancake, &c. The weather became excessively stormy, and
at last the old vessel actually went to pieces many miles from land in
the Gulf of Pe-che-le. The crew consisted of eight Malays, who worked
the ship; the captain, an Englishman; and in addition was one Chinese
woman. They had no boats on board, no time to make a raft or means of
doing so; and as the vessel was rapidly sinking, the wretched people
looked round in despair; when a hope of escape struck one of them as
his eye lighted on a very large wooden water-tank which was on deck.
This tank was strongly made, about six feet long, five feet across, and
five feet high, with a large hole at the top into which a man could
squeeze, and a tight-fitting cover. There was not a moment to lose: a
hole was bored in the bottom, to let out what water it contained, then
quickly plugged; and all ten squeezed themselves in hurriedly, put on
the lid, and awaited their fate. In a quarter of an hour after they
were thus packed, the ship sunk under them. They first whirled round,
and then floated off freely, and felt themselves rolling and tossing
about frightfully on a stormy sea. The weather was intensely cold, so
much so that icicles had hung from the rigging of the sunken ship the
day before; and being so tightly packed, perhaps it was fortunate the
weather _was_ so cold. In their haste to save life, they had brought
only part of a ham which the captain had snatched up, and a bottle of
brandy; and thus these poor creatures were tossed about from day to
day, hungry and thirsty, jostled like potatoes shaken in a barrel; now
and then, when they dared, letting in a little air by raising the lid.
Their situation strongly reminds one of Gulliver in his box when the
eagle carried him out to sea from the land of the Brobdingnags.
On the fifth day the Malays said they must kill and eat the English
captain; but the poor Chinese woman (to the credit of her sex)
vehemently opposed them, and succeeded in saving him for that day. On
the sixth day the Malays said they _must_ eat her; but the captain
in turn saved _her_ for that day. It is difficult to imagine a more
horrible situation than that of this poor Englishman surrounded by
eight starving men determined to eat him, which they certainly would
have done had not an English vessel rescued them on the seventh day.
It happened thus: the captain of that vessel sighted a large box
tossing on the waters, and at first never thought of minding it, only
supposing it part of some wreck, as the weather was so bad; but as he
looked, to his utter surprise a head popped up through the hole in the
centre, and then vanished, to be followed by another figure, making
frantic gesticulations. With much difficulty this strange box was got
alongside, hauled up, and its poor inmates dragged out to light barely
alive, and emaciated fearfully, finding the man-hole easier to pass
out of than to get into; which was reversing the fable of the weasel
who got into the barn. The captain of the rescuing vessel was a kind
Englishman, and did all in his power to restore his guests. They were
still in the Gulf of Pe-che-le; and did not reach the port of Swatow
sooner than six days, where a doctor was called in to visit these
liberated 'Jacks-in-a-box.' He said they were a singular proof of how
much human beings can endure. All lived, and recovered perfectly.
Certainly they were all _young_ people. The Malays went home. The
English captain went to Singapore, and shewed himself really grateful
to the poor Chinese woman who had saved him from the jaws of the Malays.