THE CHINESE REBELLION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 266, 19 September 1864, Page 6

THE CHINESE REBELLION.

The following horrible nanativo of the sufferings of the Chinese is taken from tlio Shanghai Mtijijiing List :■ — A correspondent writing from Gordon's headquarters, on the way to Chanchow, mentions that the slaughter among the rebels, alter thu capture of llwo-soo, which we recorded in our paper of the Kith instant, was terrible. Upwards of 0,000 were taken prisoners; and of these, it is estimated that (<,OOO were killed or drowned : principally by the Imperialists. They were all old rebels and richly deseived their fate lor the diabolical cruelties they had practised during their present raid. In onevillage inly, eighty inhabitants were butcliercd — because they had pulled away wooden bridges which the rebels happened to require. During the pursuit, the bedies ol villagers, whoso throats had been cut bccause they were unable to keep up with their captors, were touiul at frequent intervals. The villagers followed up the imperialist troops and leireted out rebels who hail escaped notice by hiding, stripped them and bamboocd them, after which they were allowed to go free. Outside the north and east gates of Chanchow, 'about half a milo from the city, are ranges of huts, amidst which, seeking what they can pick up Irom the 3mperialists, ale liundicds of gaunt, wietched people, dying of hunger and disease, horrible and loathsome to lo( k upon. The living aie too weak and indifferent to bury the dead, the bodies remain where they tall, and decompose in the loads unless eaten by the dogs. "Wo cannot describe the horrors that meet the eye at every step, better than by quoting the words of our correspondent.

"It is horrible to rela te, horrible to witness. To read that j)C-t>iilo mc eating human llesh, is one thing; to see the bodies from which that ilesh has been cut is another. one can eat a meal here without a certain degree of loathing. The poor wretelu s have a wolfish look about them that is indescribable, and they haunt eno's boat in. v hoals, in the hope of getting s-ome sciaps of fuotl ; their lamentations and moans completely take away any appetite which the horrors one lias witm ssed might have left one. 1 ought to be tolerably (allows by this time; but no one could witness, unmoved, such scenes as these."

Our coi respondent concludes by expressing an earnest hope that tiio merchants of (shanghai will send some lieu to relieve the starving inhabitants, and palliate, to* some extent their misery. As they are literally starving and living on human flesh, no description of iuotl can be too inferior. liicu so damaged as to be considered worthless will be only too welcome at Chaugehow and } ihsaing, both of which places are in an equally horrible condition. 'J he rebcis have evidently made a last sweej) of a country already desolated by their depredations, and have left the unfortunate inhabitants to starve. Fven within sight of the walls of Changchow starvation and lannibali.-m prevail, unrelieved by the friends who have been the cause of so much misery, ft is to be regretted that a few of those individuals who make a ptacliec of periodically protesting in parhamt nt against the aid we give the Imperialists, cannot lie led over some of tlie districts lecently recovered from their opponents. They could hardly fail to be converted, anil to wish devoutly for lhe extinction of the rebellion, by any means, in order that such horrors may be put an end to. Our correspondent'® description of the misery of the inhabitants is the most powerful support that can be given to his appeal to the foreign ami native merchants of Shanghai to send food to relieve them, ami we are confident that it will be responded to.