James Allan

“ It was surrounded by crowds of Japanese soldiers, who had driven large numbers of the fugitives into the water, and were firing on them from every side, and driving back with the bayonet those who attempted to struggle out. The dead floated on the water, which was reddened with blood. The soldiers, yelling and laughing with vengeful glee, seemed to gloat over the agonies of their victims. ”

“ All had gone well, and we were fast approaching the entrance to the Gulf of Pechili, when we encountered one of those tempests which are only to be met with in the Eastern seas—pitch-black darkness, rain in one sheeted flood, like a second Deluge, blinding flashes of forked lightning more terrific than the gloom, and an almost [13] uninterrupted crash of thunder amidst which the uproar of a pitched field would be inaudible. ”

“ On one occasion when a steamer suspiciously like a Japanese cruiser hove in sight, they tied red rags to their antique guns, or gin-galls, and with this consecration on their defensive arrangements, seemed to feel perfectly secure. I suppose the English-trained crews of their navy must have been persuaded out of these amazing notions, and taught the European compass, but the ideas of Sam-Sing and his merry men were as old as their vessel. ”

“ It was fearful to see those gory forms struggling in the agitated water, those who still lived endeavouring to extricate themselves from the mass of corpses, falling fast, but often rising again with their last energies, streaming with water and blood, and uttering piteous cries and appeals for mercy, which were mocked by the fiends around them. Many women were amongst them; one I noticed carrying a little child, which, struggling forward, she held up to the soldiers as if in appeal. ”

“ The chief man in the place when I was there was the Taotai, or governor, Kung, a brother, I have heard, of the Ambassador to England. His office, I believe, is civil; the military chiefs were Generals Tsung and Ju. The soldiers, who appeared to range about everywhere pretty much at their own discretion, were an uncouth, rough lot, with very little of the smartness of dress and bearing which we associate with the military character. Everywhere was a most portentous display of banners, as if the sacrilegious foot of a foeman could not be set on any spot rendered sacred by the dragon flag. ”

“ Though so long acquainted with the compass, the Chinese have always been as unenterprising in sailoring as in everything else, and seldom lose sight of the land, if they can help it. Their fondness for hugging the coast was very noticeable to me, and, unused to the constant vigilance and care which a long sea voyage demands, their system of duty was very lax and careless. There were no proper watches; at nightfall the Ty Kong used quietly to lower about three reefs of the main-sail and the whole of the mizzen. All the crew would then go to their cabin, leaving the helmsmen alone on deck. ”

“ I was vastly amused, during my voyage in the King-Shing, by the superstitions of her crew. Their devotion to their idols was indeed truly edifying. A religious man, according to his lights, was Sam-Sing, and rigidly punctual in the daily observance of incense-burning, gong-banging, and other rites supposed to be propitiatory of the deity. ”

“ My blood boiled as I surveyed the scene of desolation and massacre, where lately I had witnessed happiness and cheerful industry, and I felt that I could willingly have died myself on the spot to obtain vengeance on the murderers.
In one of the upper rooms there was a bamboo ladder and trap leading on the roof, which was flat, and it occurred to me to ascend and look round. It was quite dark, and there was little to be seen beyond the limits of the street. Distant illuminations marked the positions of the forts on the surrounding heights. ”

“ A junk lay stranded in the shallows. It was literally full of dead bodies, and many lay on the adjacent shore. The unfortunates had evidently been pursued down to where the junk lay, and slaughtered before they could get it off. It struck me that what we were looking for, a boat, might in all probability be found on board the fatal vessel. It lay heeled over broadside to the beach, and I waded out to it through the shallow water. I gained the upper deck with some difficulty and stood amidst the mass of carnage. Rifle-balls had done the work of death. Many of the bodies were in army uniforms. ”

“ Excited crowds filled the streets, which blazed with great coloured paper lanterns, of which nearly every individual carried one; indeed, the person who is seen outside without a lantern after dark becomes an object of suspicion to the police watch.
I determined to see, if possible, something of the fighting next day. All the ground around Port Arthur is, as I have before remarked, very hilly. Outside the town, and between it and the north-western forts, is a lofty elevation named White Boulders, for an obvious reason—the ground is full of chalk. ”

“ The pavilion itself is a splendid structure, adorned with the most gaudy and brilliant colours, and covered with Chinese characters beautifully worked in gold. The consultation lasted for at least three hours. I had only a distant view of Kung over the heads of the soldiers. The fighting outside continued, and on the next day more Japanese corpses had been brought in by the vengeful soldiery, and left for the rabble to amuse themselves with. I do not think that any Japanese was brought into the town alive. ”

“ When let down to its greatest depth it required occasionally the strength of fifteen men to move the large tiller.
On ascending to the next deck, one passed under a covering made of oyster-shells, similar to that over the entrance to the saloon; under this hung a flag which had been borne before the Emperor on one of the most solemn religious processions. On a piece of wood near one of the windlasses was inscribed—"May the sea never wash over this junk." Close by was the sailors' Joss-house, containing the deity of the sea with her two attendants, each with a red scarf. ”

“ No artificial means are resorted to for any bends; a tree or branch of a tree is found with the requisite natural curvature. There is not in the building, rigging, or fitting-up of a Chinese junk one single thing which is similar to what we see on board a European vessel. Everything is different; the mode of construction; the absence of keel, bowsprit, and shrouds; the materials employed; the mast, the sails, the yard, the rudder, the compass, the anchor—all are dissimilar.
The vessel in which I now found myself, the King-Shing, was of about seven hundred tons. ”

“ The presence of death, in its most fearful shapes, seemed palpable to the senses, and we, crouching in the gloom on the roof, to which as the safest place we had returned, had before our mental vision the mutilated bodies in the rooms close below us, with the ghastly probability, almost the certainty, that another hour or two would join us in their horrid fate. ”

“ Heaps of dead and spectacles of murder were continually presenting themselves. In one place I saw some ten or twelve soldiers with a number of unfortunates whom they had tied back to back in a batch. With volley after volley they despatched them, and proceeded to mutilate their bodies in the usual horrible fashion. Nobody was spared, man, woman, or child, that I could see. The Chinese appeared to offer no resistance. Many of them prostrated themselves on the ground before the butchers with abject submission, and were shot or stabbed in that posture. ”

“ In the seaward forts above us we could discern no signs of activity, and only a light here and there, far out on the misty expanse of waters, showed the position of the Japanese war-vessels, which had an easy job of it as far as Port Arthur was concerned. ”

“ Industry was completely suspended in the dockyard, the whole of which had been converted into barracks. In returning from the wharves with Chung, I witnessed a specimen of military punishment. Passing the open gate of an enclosure near the clearing-house, I perceived a group which at once riveted my attention. A number of soldiers were standing round one who, stripped to the waist, was kneeling with his forehead stooped almost to the ground, and his hands tied behind, the thongs that bound them being held by a man standing close in his rear. ”

“ Shortly after casting anchor in the West Port, I lowered a boat to take Lin Wong ashore. In the dockyard he ascertained that a fast steam launch was to leave for Tientsin with despatches within two days, and he arranged to take advantage of her departure to regain that port, from which, it will be remembered, he had come on board the Columbia. As he seemed well acquainted with Port Arthur, I got him to take me round, and show me as much of the place as could be seen in the two or three hours of leisure at my disposal, for the Columbia was to trip her anchor again in the evening. ”

“ She was the Itsuku gunboat of about five hundred tons, on a cruise of observation in the Gulf, along with two or three consorts, whom she had lost in the fog. There was not a soul on board who could speak a word of English, but by a few Chinese was sufficiently understood, and a gunnery officer could speak tolerable French, a knowledge of which tongue I shall probably be recollected to have mentioned as being the major portion of the inadequate exchange for my eighty thousand pounds. ”

“ On the 19th the enemy were close upon the forts, and everything was bustle and commotion. Business was suspended nearly everywhere, and the movements of the troops were the chief attraction. Great crowds gathered in the vicinity of the general's pavilion overlooking the parade-ground, where a council was held in the afternoon. A strong armed force held back the mob. All the principal military officers arrived from their posts at the head of their staffs one by one. The Taotai was brought from his residence in a magnificent sedan-chair, carried by ten or twelve bearers. ”

“ Strongly as the massacre by the Japanese troops in Port Arthur is to be condemned, there is not the slightest doubt in the world that the Chinese brought it on themselves by their own vindictive savagery towards their enemies. The attacking armies, advancing down the Peninsula in touch with the fleet, were now within a day or two's march of the inland forts. Bodies of Chinese troops harassed and resisted them, and brushes between the opposing forces frequently took place. ”

“ As for myself, if my outward man were less open to reproach, my inward condition was nothing much to boast of, and truly the horrors which continually presented themselves, joined to the oppressive midnight shadow and stillness which hung over the place of doom, would have damaged the nerve of a football referee. ”

“ I may remark that the Chinese Navy is English trained, and the duty is carried on in English, owing to the intractable character of the Chinese language, the fact that officers and men have thus practically to learn a foreign tongue in order to work their ships being an obvious disadvantage. The transports were grouped together and the warships disposed in sections abreast and ahead, with the active torpedo-boats in the rear. Our destination was the estuary of the Yalu, the large river which divides China from the Corea. ”

“ A very queer craft is a Chinese junk. Few Europeans have any defined idea what they are like. They are of different sizes, most of them suited to the numerous rivers and canals which intersect the country in every part. The largest are of about one thousand tons burden. The whole mode of building is most peculiar. Instead of the timbers being first raised as with us, they are the last in their places, and the vessel is put together with immense spiked nails. ”

“ I had the place almost to myself, as the approach of the Japanese armies had not been favourable to custom, and the usual course of travel to and from the north had been suspended. Sen was anxious to learn from me whether I considered it advisable for residents and townspeople to leave the port. I replied, as I sincerely thought, that the Japanese, if they succeeded in taking the [63] place, would do no harm to non-combatants. I was, however, fatally mistaken.
The inn was a place of two storeys—few Chinese habitations have more. Most of the rooms opened round a partially covered courtyard. ”

“ Near the principal goddess was a piece of the wood from the first timber of the junk that was laid; this was taken to one of their principal temples, there consecrated, and then brought on board, and placed as symbolic of the whole vessel's being under the protection of the deity. A small earthen pot, containing sacred earth and rice, stood in front, in which Joss-sticks and other incense was burnt. A lighted lamp, too, was here always kept burning; if it had gone out during a voyage it would have been considered an omen of bad luck. ”

“ One night the wind, after veering all round the compass with vivid lightning and thunder, settled in the south-west and blew a perfect hurricane. All sails were lowered, except half the fore-sail, and twenty-five men were required at the mammoth rudder. We were obliged to start some eight tons of water out of the deck tanks, and everything on deck, fore and aft, was secured. The junk laboured heavily, but shipped no water. ”

“ Vessels of the cruiser type, fast, and with a heavy quick-firing armament, are best suited to cope with torpedo-boats, which would find it difficult to get to close quarters with such craft. Warships have lately been built with a considerable increase of length, which of course increases a torpedo's chance of striking by giving it a larger target. Moderate size, no overloading with armour, speed, good coal supply, and as many quick-firing guns as can be mounted—that is my idea of the best type of warship at present. ”

“ Once we sighted two Chinese gunboats not far from Chefoo, and the Japanese varied the day's drill and gun exercise by shelling them into Wei-hai-wei. They ran ignominiously and never made the least show of fight. Had the Itsuku been a faster vessel, she would undoubtedly have captured or destroyed one of them. Her maximum speed was under sixteen knots. On another occasion, off the western coast of the Liaotung, we came upon a fleet of junks, craft engaged in coast trade, I presume. ”