THE PEKIN MASSACRE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 180, 31 July 1900, Page 4

THE PEKIN MASSACRE.

THE.ATTACK ON' THE LEGATIONS.

LONDON, July 4. . Couriers who arrived at the seats c* government of the southern Viceroys from their agencies in Peking give vivid but fragmentary pictures of what is being enacted in the capital. These couriers seemingly left Pekin a day or byo later than the messenger of Sir Robert Hart, the Inspector General of Customs, who started on the night o! June 24th. They report that the heads, of some, of the captured.legation guards were being borne through the streets at the tops of speers, followed by zealots chanting "Tai Yarn: Kuie Tse Tapi, Tapi" (kill the foreigrt devils, kill, kill). The city's millions have been roused to patri fie fervor, breaking out into, the wildest excess, while over half the city could.be heard fighting around the legations. -

Sir Robert Hart's runner, who was interviewed by the correspondent of the Associated Press at Shanghai; supplemented the tragic sentences of the dispatch he bore by a narrative ol some things he saw. rre says the'-foiv eigners were making a last stand in the extensive buildings and inclosnres of . the British Legation. They had many dead and wounded. Among them were some women and children. All were short of food, even of the commonest necessaries. The women were starving, as they gave a part of their small allowance to the children. The foreigners, nevertheless, were holding out under a terrible fire, upheld by the hourly expectation of relief. They knew they would not be abandoned, ■ and; that thte "armies, of their ' governments were advancing. Some times they thought they 'cornel hear artillery"in action beyond -the wall. :'■'.- i ■'.-'- •■ .■■■■. '. m

They were unable to return the fire of the Chinese; except at moments/ when'an assault seemed imminent. Then the machine guns and repeating rifles 'tore the storming1 parties to pieces. The messenger expressed the belief that it would be impossible for ; the foreigners to resist much longer, ias the Chinese were preparing to but- ■* ter down the walls of the courtyard ■ and the defenders' ammunition wad _i running low. Orderly were given by j Prince Tuan, the'messenger strict,' that : since some had been killed, not r£ another foreigner should be left alive: || The Chinese soldiers were exhorted ;to sacrifice their lives without hesitation, if in so doing they could help exterminate the "Yang Eu:e Tse." . Extreme precautions'had been taken to prevent the foreigners frpni communicatirig with any one ovnsi.de tie city, and a number of runners who had been sent out were killed by. the .> Chinese. "This messenger succ'eedM in „£ getting through" by smearing his "face r. and clothes with blood and joining in .. the'outcries-against the "foreign devils.'-' He passed!'the remains of foreigners of • Admiral Seymour's force '"■'''■' who had., beetf Skilled between Lang1 Fang and Li Fu. Their bodies had ( been cut to pieces and their heads car- ', ;i ried at the ends of bamboos'. > M A large army of Manchit Chinese imperial troops, with twenty guns, is reported to be advancing in the direc- ■ : tiou of Tientsin. Reliance is placed in Shanghai on most of the statements made by the /:., messenger, as he is known to be faithful to the foreigners. I ; ■-•■■ ■ ______ - . M