A TERRIBLE MUTINY.

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 43, 20 February 1886, Page 4

A TERRIBLE MUTINY.

How a Band of Black Flags Behaved

on Board a Transport.

A Dublin correspondent telegraphs tho par- • ticulars of a mutiny and somo terrible < scenes which occurred some weeks ago on a ship belonging ro the British mercantile ( marine, which hos been doing duty as' a \ Chinese transport in the Chinese seas, Our • .correspondent says: The story is contained in a long letter to a Dublin gentleman which arrived yesterday. The writer ia steward on tho vessel on which the mutiny occurred; but as every effort has been made by the authoritiep in China to prevent the affair from becoming known, ho deßires his name and that' of the ship not to be given. Hb, however, is a highly respectable man, and the truth of the remarkable story ho tells cannot be doubted. The writer states that the steamer was chartered by the Chinese for £2,000 to take to Hankow from Amoy, six hundred mites, 2,500 Black Flag troops who had been disbanded from the Tonquin war. On their march to Amoy they had committed fearful murders and atrocities, and the Government was very anxious to get them from Amoy, whero they were a terror. At tbe embarkation about 1,000 were disarmed, but thoy crowded on board too fast, and the work of disarming had to be abandoned. Many of them were drunk, and carried liquor with them, and were fit for any mischief. Tho ship waa crowded to excess, the bridge, poop forecastle, betweon-decke, and lower holds being packed._ After getting undor way with great difficulty, tho Black Flags commonced gambling, having plenty of money about them, and woro all night quarrelling, fighting and murdering each other. Numbers were thrown overboard, alivO or dead. Somo were stabbed, others wore strangled, and not one of the Bhip's company dared interfere. The writer himself saw three murdered men pitched over board during the night. When morning came doze_s of dend bodios were thrown overboard, some , of them having been smothered, squeezed to death, or having died from want of water. A party of Black Flags seized tho , water on board and guarded it, refusing i any to the crew. A fearful crash followed , on the other Black Flags trying to get at , the wator. Tho beat was fearful, and i many died from thirst. The Black Flags i destroyed all tho food, threw tho rice over-. . board with the cooking apparatus, and . threatened to kill the cooks. They eveni tuolly began to, drink sea water. The i sailors,who were fearfully parched, crawled [ down to the engine-room and got condensed I water and drank it, though it was quite , hot. Things bocomo still more serious, i and the Black Flags threatened to kill the , crew, drawing kniveS across their own , throats to convey to the sailors their meanI ing. They succeeded in getting hold oi i the captain by the beard, and held knife at , his throat. Eventually the vessel was put , back Amoy, where a British warship was , anchored. The commander of the latter i prepared to sweep the vessel's deck with his , Oatlings, and eventually boarded her. i The mutineers were then standing on deck i with black flags hoisted on spears. Two , Chinese gunboats subsequently arrived and . took off the Flags, thoso refusing to leave . being thrown overboard and left to get to , land as they could. Six of the mutineers ■ were at once beheaded and 100 bastinadoed. , Five dend mutineers were afterward found

in the lower hold, having boen crushed to death.