WITH GHINESE PIRATES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 217, 13 September 1930, Page 6 (Supplement)

WITH GHINESE PIRATES.

DARING EXPLOITS OF A FEMALE BUCCANEER.

(By ALEKO E. LILIUS.)

(Conclusion.)

By and by I got rather friendly with a couple of them, and even the captain became more talkative. The business must have been unusually brisk the day before, because he seemed happy and contented. Only madame squatted mummy -like on her box, occasionally drawing a few whiffs from the- community pipe on her board. Slowly, but surely "this Chinaman" told me all I wanted to know about this dual business of piracy and "inspecting."

He confirmed in general what the Customs official had told me. He also stated that they had nothing in common with the deadly Bias Bay pirates, although several of the families were closely related and the crew very often recruited among men from the villages in the Bias Bay district. The Bias Bay pirates specialised in high-sea piracies against coast steamers and kidnapping rich Chinese merchants among the passengers. The profits, when the cargo was precious metals or specie, were, of course, enormous! >\ A One-sided Engagement.' The Uacao pirates were less ambitious. They ouly charged the fishing fleets for "protection" and did a little kidnapping as measures of reprisals. Lai-Choi-San's fleet of armoured junks was to-day the strongest, but lately there have been rumours of a proposed consolidation of smaller fleets into one stronger, and thus put the madame out of business as "inspector" and freebooter. Being a good general, she had decided to look into these matters without delay and to pay a personal call to a couple of villages to "talk matters over." And, indeed, within a few hours I became the unwilling witness to madame's methods of parley, and very convincing they were. At- about two o'clock in the afternoon' we crept up to an island, .and, it, we saw a wide bay, Avitli three junks riding at anchor. As soon as they sighted" us they all set sail. The captain rushed over to me. "You go down." It was an order to go below deck. I refused, but ; a few of those husky-look-ing, slant-eyed gentlemen closed up on me and pushed me, not too gently, in the direction of the'-open .hatch,' just to emphasise the captain's . unquestionable authority. So below.deck I went, and had the pleasure-of seeing Moon thrown down to keep me company. Those boys most assuredly meant business. The cabin; was dark, but a few rays of light! found!their way through a crack in the hatch. We 'could hear the men run upland down the deck, and there was a lot'of shouting. . \v. '"Moon, what do you think is going to happen?"

"No savvy, master." Just as he said' it the whole junk shook: from a salvo from one or several of our guns. The, noise had been strong enough to deafen an elephant. ' '•■■'. '' '.'- Boom! There went another.. : Aml -a third, fourth, fifth and sixth;. A regular bombardment. But there- was no reply shpts. The "enemy",', probably never got a chance to fire bade. It was, indeed, a rather- one-sided affair. The

nauseous smell of burnt black powder reached us down below. Then we heard more shouting and a few rifle- shots fired, apparently by our own people. I tried hard 'to listen, for any rifle : shots from the attacked, party/ figuring .out where to find the test protection against any stray . bullets. Also, I had an uncanny, feeling of being trapped like the proverbial, mouse should, for any reason, our.ship founder.- But, to my great surprise, the hatch was opaned within the next half-hour and I was allowed to come up on beck. The first thing I saw was two men on deck bound hand and foot, and at a distance the sinking hull of a junk. Without asking for permission, my camera went into vigorous action. To my <r re at surprise I saw that madame, and°also her amah, wore cartridge belts and held a rifle in their hands. To my still greater surprise they, agreed to pose for me in this purely piratical uniform. Oh, you inconsistent women!

We were now very near the shore. We heaved to, anchored, and the dinghy was lowered. There was not a soul to be seen on the beach, although there were a few houses standing. Three men took the prisoners in the dinghy and rowed away, the captain in command. I wanted to go with them, but was not allowed. They stayed for a whole hour, and returned without the prisoners, but the captain looked satisfied, and so" did the crew. The "business" must have been transacted to the "mutual satisfaction" of all concerned. ■

We anchored that night leeward of the cape which divided Mirta Bay from Bias Bay. For reasons of hie own the captain had all lights extinguished, and the food was cooked over charcoale below deck. Nest morning, about half-an-hour before sunrise, we again set sail,' and cruised up this ill-fated Bias Bay. The country around was Lilly • and unfriendly! The weather was - stormy, with rain-squalls. A few junks could be eceri near the -shore, and a small village to the right. The bay is very shallow, and the anchor went-a mile or so from the shore. I had expressed the desire to pay the villages of Fan-wo-Kong a visit, and the captain told me that this was as far as he could go. He would let me have as many men as I wished as a bodyguard, and I suggested that I should take five, three to go with me and two to watch the boat.

The Notorious Bias Bay. The dinghy went overboard, and "'the men rowed m, Moon and me. for a little while, but soon the water became too shallow, and they all jumped overboard and dragged the boat along. In the mean-' time I had a chance to study a sketched niap given to me by a native member of. the Hongkong police: force Who had once been m Bias Bay as a spy . I wanted very badly to photograph a house where all the prisoners were supposed to have been kept before they were released upon payment of ransom. Here many of them had been tortured and murdered when the ransom was not forthcoming. It was, according, to. the sketch, a comparatively small house on the other side of the village, not very far from the "main street." I would try to find it.

We had landed near a group of emaU houses, and were met by a few old men, v in on and children. My men went into ;■ :-!)u?e and two of them came dragging with them a little boy holding a baby in hi.* arms. I protested against molesting niiy of the children, and to my surprise they let the frightened, crying youngstere go.

Tliis overture was not at all to my Pking. It would give the inhabitants (!•" wrong idna that our intentions were

! I was disappointed in Bias Bay. I had heard so much.about it as the Nest, and it looked like any other Chinese village, with huts and houses, and walls around the gardens, and* the usual domestic zoo taking up .every inch of the road. And there were, of course, the children. Many a mother on seeing our approach rushed bravely out on the road to run for safety with her child. Some women, behind window-bare and doorways, heaped curses on our heads. They saw me, a foreigner, enter the village surrounded by etrange-looking armed.men, and they took me for a British official or policeman, and they had reason to hate the British, the only people who dared to stop them in their alleged trade rights as pirates, inherited from time immemorial.

. We walked straight up to the house 1 wanted to .set a picture of; it rained and the light was bad, but I took a few shots when a man opened a eide-door and ordered us angrily away. He had not seen my armed companions, and he backed speedily into the house when he saw them.

This was, after all, Bias Bay. According to all official documents it was here these feared pirates of the Chinese Seas lived. Near by were a few ruins to be seen after the punitive visit of the British in March, 1927. People stared at me in an unfriendly fashion, and called me and my men names. I then made a complete round about the village and decided to turn shorewards. On the open place, where the road reaches the village, had gathered a crowd, and there were also groups of men and women coming along the road from the village we had • visited on our way up. I felt very uncomfortable; here we would yet have to pay the piper. ; ..We passed the nearest group— and 'nothing happened. I saw my men take a firm hold on their rifles, and they closed upon me. There were murmurs, unfriendly, sarcastic questions thrown at us. But something was bound to happen. It! was in the air. It had to. . I eaw a stone come flying and hit the man nearest to me on the shoulder. With a roar the infuriated man lifted his rifle, and the crowd fell howling in all directions. I heard the c'.ick, followed by a Chinese oath. The rifle had missed fire. .Thank God! ' ; ,• , . ,

VVe did not give the man a chance to reload hie rifle, buf dragged him along to the beach. I heard a lot of eliouts, but the ■■ crowd kept at a distance. We reached the' boat arid we all pulled it through tlie'shallow water. Then we heard a few shots iflred, but the bullets did not drop anywhere near us. .It-was not without a grateful feeling oif eafet'y that J again tramped the deck of our •freebooter. For me the trip wns over.—(Anglo-American N.S. Copyright.)

hostile, an impression I would not. for anything in the world care to make. I hastened to give to the still sobbing boy a few silver coins, and then we inarched off for the village, about a mile from the shore. This was also the village the British had partly destroyed after an especially atrocious piracy. They demolished over one hundred houses, blew up or burned about forty junks— only to put, to their chagrin, within less than two months, a new piracy on record, and many more before the end of the year.