IN THE HANDS OF PIRATES

Evening Star, Issue 20256, 17 August 1929, Page 10

IN THE HANDS OF PIRATES

A MISSIONARY IN CHINA The following letter, written on the high seas from a ship in the hands of Chinese pirates, hafs been received in London from Miss Monsen, an elderly Norwegian missionary : OFF THE COAST OF SHANTUNG. April 25.—0 n the morning of April 19 1 left the China Inland Mission at Tientsin to go to Hwang-hsien by steamer. One of the men on the ship consented to give me his cabin on board at twice the price he had paid for it. This man proved a real friend to me when he found that his -cabin •was not looted because 1 was in it. The crossing should take fifteen to seventeen hours, and 1 was going to rougn it for a night without bedding; but 1 stayed twenty-eight days on that ship. Unknown to us, we had robbers on board. Right from Tientsin, on the way down the river, I had been giving them tracts, believing those I saw in the second class to be ordinary business men.

Just before daybreak there was an awful yell, and the cabin doors were roughly opened by men with pistols in their hands, and 1 heard shots on all sides. All the passengers were commanded to leave their cabins and everything they had there at once. I just remained where I was. The steamer was stopped on* the high sens. The first robber that entered my cabin said; “ We are Governor Djang’s soldiers, and have come to take care of the ship.” I could not help laughing alond. “So I hear,” I answered. When he had got all the Information he wanted he left, saying: “Don’t be afraid.” “Do 1 look it?” I asked, y No,” ho admitted. The next visitor pointed at my watch and said: “Hide that somewhere, or it will be taken,” and left. I took the hint, little dream ing that the same man would come for ithvlien lie got a better opportunity. Then came a boy. He said he was eighteen, and pointed his pistol at me, saying: “Have you got a watch?” “Yes.” “Make a present of it to me and I will be your friend.” “ I don’t usually make friends in that way, nor do I need such friends. I am not used to giving such presents to people 1 do not know. Did your parents teach you to ask such presents _ of people?” He winced, and again pointed his pistol at me, while T quietly repeated; “No. You cannot possibly shoot me without special permission from God.” How often that sentence was repeated that day! Another man came and sent the boy off. The Lord protected my cabin door. I wish I bad counted the many, many times those men were going to enter my cabin and just passed by. GREEDY HANDS. The man who had asked me to hide my watch came again and asked for it. He examined it closely, and offered me money for it. I refused to sell, and he took it. Half an hour later came the first man that had entered my cabin, and this time I had a long talk with him. He said they could not make a proper living in the array any longer, so had had to find another means of livelihood. He asked if they had taken anything from me. “Yes. my watch,’’ “ Who took it? 1 will bring it back to you.” It reallyivas a surprise that ho did so. Before leaving again he whispered: “Don’t leave this cabin while we are on , board if you want to keep it and your other things. Tell anyone that 1 comes-along that the general does not- want you to be disturbed.” My things were left alone from that time, though many greedy eyes and fingers went over them again and again those twenty-three days they were on board. For a day and a night the ship did "toot move. On the second day a boat with a supply of ammunition came up with the snip. The ammunition was stored in the next cabin to mine.

During the next five or six days junks after junks were looted, and the ship was filled with loot. At different places junks came out from the shore to fetch the loot. All the fare on board was loot. 1 objected to eating loot, and told them plainly why. 1 happened to have an unusual supply of biscuits, apples, and chocolate, which, very economically used, lasted me ten days. The general’s room was next to mine, and 1 heard many a heated debate through the thin walls. Constantly I heard them debating about carrying me off with them. Once I heard a voice asking very impatiently why they could not loot me like the other passengers. '* Leave her alone,” said the general. May 3.—1 am still here, hidden behind my raincoat hung across the door. We have not moved since 1 last wrote. No one knows where the ship is. 1 understand they are demanding 200,000 dollars from the steamship company in ransom. Again and again I have been able to speak to these men heart to heart, even to the general. Thank God I have been kept entirely from fear all the time, even from impatience after freedom. I am a big puzzle to the pirates. The 200 passengers look worn and yellow, full of fear, as they are stuffed together down below. DELIVERANCE. May 11.—The last four days there has been an intense struggle going on between the powers of darkness and light. Somebody must bo on the ship’s track; the robbers’ spies are coming and going all the time. The pirates —there were twenty to begin ivith, and as many as fifty or sixty at times—are ready to leave the ship at a moment’s notice. They are on the watch all the time, and forty or fifty junks keep alongside the ship. They have been onthe point of leaving the ship several times, tak ing me with them. At the Jast moment something would stop them. Once a sudden hurricane drove the junks from the ship’s side. Another time I heard a man ordered to come and /fell me to - get ready to go into the boat with them. He opened my. door, and we stood looking at each other, but not one word was he allowed to say. He shut my door with a bang, and sajd: “I cannot say that to her; she is good, and it would be wr '■ g her a second time.” '3.—Yesterday • deliverance came. In two hours they were all gone. Thev suddenly saw something which made them go. All the ammunition was divided between them, and we heard the sound of a warship’s gun. We had' n race for two hours with the warship. By 5 in the afternoon the last robber had left the ship. - About twenty passengers were carried ' off, but left behind by the robbers in the junks when they ran for their lives. Up to the Inst the question of carrying me off was a problem to them. They needed a foreign face to protect them, so they said. In the end my refusal to eat"of their loot was my sal vation. A voice said; “No; she would only hinder us. She has not been eat inf anything for more than twenty days.” It was lovefv to see the joy of the passengers that night. “ l\ T e have had a sword through out hearts for twenty"'three "davs, hut now it has been taken out-” They had all been wanting to talk to me. Hut had not dared. . Some of them went, over next morning to > have wireless messages sent off from

the warship, and heard there that the warship had been in search of ns for a fortnight or more, unable to find any trace of ns. Onr hiding-place was a master stroke of the robbers.