Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1887 — PIRATES IN CHINESE SEAS. [ARTICLE]

PIRATES IN CHINESE SEAS.

Where the Business of Robbery on the Water Is a Flourishing One. Piracy on the high seas is now, fortunately, a crime long since dead among European nations. We must go back to the early period of Marryatt and Cooper, says Alt the Year Hound , if we desire to know of the atrocities and iniquities committed by the hordes of lawless ruffians who used to infest the seas at the beginning of the present century and cairy on the r merciless business of butchery and plunder. Our brethren in the Celestial empire, however, are slow to remove evils, and piracy with them seems to die hard, rfeports occasionally reach this country of some European vessel being attacked in Chinese waters by the natives, but, fortunately, owing to the extreme cowardice usually displayed by the attacking party, these attempted depred itions do not often lead to any serious result. The China Sea is, principally, the happy hunting ground of these dasttardlv pirates, and nature seems to have adapted it specially for that particular purpose. The China Sea is, in many places, exceedingly shallow; strong currents sweep along its course, while numerous islands, with wooded creeks, dotted here and thero, afford capital shelter and points of observation for piratical junks to lie in ambush until some unsuspecting merchantman shall heave in sight. Vessels in traversing these seas have often to contend against dead head winds or calms that last for days and days. During these periods sailing ships have frequently, if in proximity to land, to cast anchor to prevent being carried ashore by the various swift and conflicting currents, and at such times present capital opportunities for the marauders of the seas to carry out their nefarious designs. Although as the Chinese pirate is, as a rule, a most abject coward where Europeans are concerned, he is, at least, capable of striking terror into the hearts of his countrymen; and a couple of pirate junks, mounting but a two-pounder gun between them, have been known to blockade a port of 4,000 inhabitants and to plunder every ship that passed. In another case a pirate gang of 500, who had yielded to a rush of twenty or thirty blue jackets, had previously defied a native force of 1,500 troops and forty war junks. Directly, however, a small gunboat, manned by Europeans, appeared upon the scene, their career was at an end. Chinese piracy is, at times, almost a business. A pirate merchant in the wholesale way will infest certain villages on the seaboard or islands. He will keep fifteen or twenty junks with a corresponding retinue of ruffians, and when he has secured his plunder he stores it in safety. A pirate in a small way of business, having once made a good haul, will divide the spoil, and then his followers immediately disperse for fear of an attack from another gang. The old saying of “dog eat dog” applies with striking force to the transactions of these plunderers of the China Sea.