THE KUCHENG MASSACRE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 212, 5 September 1895, Page 9

THE KUCHENG MASSACRE.

A SURVIVOR'S ACCOUNT,

LADIES HACKED AND SPEARED.

THE STEWARTS BURNED TO

DEATH.

Brisbane, September 4. News from China gives details, of the Kuchong massacre.

One of the survivors, Rev. Mr Phillips, states thab he found Mr Stewart's eldest daughter, Mildred, with a serious wound on her kneo, and after dressing ib he attended bo Herbert, her brother, who had been stabbed all over the body. Ho found Miss Codrington in a foartul condition, and after staunching the bleeding went to the assistance of the others.

The revorend gentleman says he discovered tho bodies of Mice T. Saunders, Miss Stewart, and. Messrs Gordon and Marshall. The latter had been awfully cut about the head, which was almost severed from tho body. Miss Newcombe's body was at the foot of a bill in front of the house, where it had evidently been thrown.

Ho also learnt from Miss Csdrington that five ladieß attached to the Zenana mission, who lived in tho lower of two houses which formed the Kucbeng sanatorium, after a futile attempt to escape, were surrounded by tho Vegotarians. Tho ladiee pleaded for their lives, and some of the men saemed touched by thoir pleadings, and asked their fellow members to gpare their lives, bub tho leader ordered them to bo killed. Had the ladies been able to cscapo into the brushwood at the back of the house, there seems but little doubt their lives' would havo been saved.

When the attack was made Mr and Mrs Stewart were not dressed.

Lena, the Irish nurse, was killed while protecting Mr Stewart's infant. The latter waß injured in the eye. Nellie Saunders was knocked down at the nursery door, while giving assistance to tho children. " We," says Mr Phillips, " afterwards found the remains of a burnt body, and had little doubt it was hers."

For a long timo it waa thought the Stewarts had escaped, but subsequently their ashes wero found among the ruins in a bedroom.

Dr. Gregory states that Miss Marshall's throat was frightfully hacked about. On Miss Stewart ho failed to find a wound, and thinks she died from shock. Miss Gordon received spear wounds in the neck. Topsy Saunders' death was caused by a spear wound in the right eye, the woapon penetrating the brain.

Apparently there had been no attempt at mutilation of the bodies.

No one in or near Kucheng had any warning of tho danger, and the entire time occupied in committing tho massacre did not exceed 30 miuutes.