A Lady's Captivity among Chinese Pirates in the Chinese Seas Part 7

From Singapore to Penang takes but three days more, and here the steamer delays eight hours for the mails. These eight hours are, however, sufficient to enable a pa.s.ser-by to judge of the infinite beauty of the place. It is verdant and luxuriant as a corner of paradise, and the most delicious fruits abound in every part.

Eight days after this, we touched at Point de Galle, in the island of Ceylon, where all the pa.s.sengers were put on sh.o.r.e. The luggage was then transferred to another steamer, and the "Malta" continued her journey to Bombay. The number of travellers by this route is seldom large. We were but thirty-two, and consisted of English, Portuguese, and French. We all breakfasted together at a cottage-restaurateur's in the Jardin Canella, which is the public promenade of the place.

Embarking, towards evening, on board the "Bentinck," another steamer belonging to the same company, we started for Suez, and after ten days' travelling touched at Aden, for the purpose of taking in coals.

It is a wretched spot--arid and desolate, and inhabited by a race of hideous and miserable human beings. Seven days on the Red Sea brought us to Suez, where I landed with real delight. We crossed the Isthmus in omnibuses, and our luggage was transported by a troop of camels.

The camel-drivers were half of them blind, or nearly blind; for their eyes, during the transit across the desert, are perpetually attacked by myriads of flies.

Two refreshment-stations have been established along this route, for the benefit of travellers journeying between Cairo and Suez.

Cairo, as has been truly said many and many a time before, is a city taken from the pages of the "Thousand and One Nights." I shall not attempt to describe it here, for it has been described well and often, and I have nothing new to tell. I spent three days there, dreaming and wondering, strolling through bazaars and marketplaces, and visiting all that is most curious and surprising in the city and its neighbourhood. As for the Pyramids, although I saw them from afar in my pa.s.sage down the Nile, I cannot say that I experienced any special delight or enthusiasm at the sight. Cairo, and Cairo alone, usurped all my admiration, and, far as I have travelled, and much as I have seen, I may truly a.s.sert that no spot I ever beheld could compare with it for novelty and magnificence.

From Cairo we proceeded by steamer down the Nile to Boulac, and at Boulac took the railway to Alexandria. Excepting a glimpse of the distant pyramids, and the sight of those quaint little mud-coloured Egyptian villages which lie scattered along the banks of the great river, this journey afforded no objects of interest by the way. At Alexandria I remained three days, waiting the arrival of my luggage.

This city, unlike Cairo, is neither picturesque nor splendid. The bazaars are dirty, the population is scanty, and (being chiefly inhabited by Europeans) the oriental costume is but rarely seen. I visited the palace of the viceroy, Pompey's Pillar, and Cleopatra's Needle; but my heart was full of France and home, and I cared little for either modern palaces, or vestiges of a remote antiquity. How happy I was when I at length embarked on board the "Valetta," and knew that in six days more I should tread French ground! On the fourth day, we touched at Malta, but no one went on sh.o.r.e; and on the 26th of December, 1854, the "Valetta" cast anchor at Ma.r.s.eilles.

On the 30th I was in Paris, and read the following announcement in the columns of _La Presse_:--

"Mademoiselle f.a.n.n.y Loviot, who was taken prisoner not long since by pirates in the Chinese seas, has just returned to France in the 'Valetta,' via Ma.r.s.eilles."

Oh, the happiness of once more dwelling in the midst of those dear ones who had so often lamented me with tears, and believed me lost for ever! Oh, the delights of home, after the sufferings and dangers of a journey round the world! I went to seek my fortune, and found only misfortune. Still, with all their troubles, my weary wanderings had not been wholly profitless. I had beheld Nature, bountiful and beautiful Nature, under her most varied aspects; and if I had endured fatigue, privation, and even disease, I had, at least, lived that life of peril which hath its own peculiar charm for the imaginative and the young.

I have never yet regretted my journey, or its adventures. May the indulgent reader, who has followed me thus far in my narrative, as little regret the trouble of perusal!

CORROBORATIVE EXTRACTS FROM THE FRENCH PRESS.

"La Presse," December 20th, 1854.

"The _Moniteur de la Flotte_ publishes the following pa.s.sage, extracted from a letter dated Hong-Kong, October, 27th, which contains some interesting details respecting a little '_drame maritime_:'--

"'The Chilian s.h.i.+p "Caldera" left Hong-Kong on the 4th of October for San Francisco, having two pa.s.sengers on board, one a young Parisian lady, named Mademoiselle F. Loviot, and the other a Chinese. Overtaken, two days after, by a frightful tempest, the captain anch.o.r.ed in a bay among some islets of the Chinese seas, whither his vessel had been driven by the storm. He hoped to return to Hong-Kong and refit, but was a.s.sailed during the night by three Chinese junks, and plundered without mercy. For two days these robbers remained in possession of the s.h.i.+p; but fled on the third day before a flotilla of fresh junks which came up to dispute the prize. On the 11th of October, the pirates belonging to one of the newly arrived junks proposed to conduct the captain, the Chinese, and the lady-pa.s.senger to Hong-Kong, there to treat for a ransom; but when the lady and the Chinese had got into the boat which was to transport them to a junk close by, the rowers pushed off, and left the captain behind. He, however, succeeded shortly after in procuring a boat, and returned to Hong-Kong. In the meantime the pirates carried off the young lady and the Chinese, and confined them in a little den on board one of the junks. "We were obliged," writes this young lady, in her account, "to keep ourselves bent almost double, for want of room, and were watched narrowly. In the evenings we were permitted to leave our prison for a quarter of an hour; but whenever the pirates saw other vessels approaching, they made us return thither immediately. When they took their own meals, they gave us food, and told us that, should our captain not forward our ransom very shortly, they would transfer us to the hands of other pirates. We remained thus till the morning of the 18th, when the Chinese, who was my companion in misfortune, heard the pirates calling to one another that a steamer was in sight and they must save themselves by land. They did so, accordingly, and left us on board the junk, free and unharmed. While we were imprisoned on board this vessel, the pirates one night attacked a Chinese merchantman, and sold the booty next day to pirate traders.

From our dungeon on board we could distinctly hear the goods pa.s.sed from one s.h.i.+p to another, and the purchase money counted overhead."

"'The steamer which rescued this young lady and the Chinese, then proceeded to cruise round the coasts, and destroyed three pirate villages. It is supposed that an expedition will soon be fitted out against these a.s.sa.s.sins and their haunts.'"

"La Presse," December 30th, 1854.

"Mademoiselle f.a.n.n.y Loviot, who was lately taken prisoner by pirates in the Chinese seas, has just returned to France in the 'Valetta,' _via_ Ma.r.s.eilles."

"Moniteur," January 20th, 1855.

"His Excellency Lord Cowley has just forwarded communications to the imperial government, respecting a despatch addressed to the Board of Admiralty, by Vice-Admiral Sir James Sterling, commander of the British naval station in the Indian and Chinese seas. Also a report dated October 20th, 1854, in which Sir William Hoste, captain of the 'Sparta,' gives account of an expedition lately undertaken against the pirates of the isle of Symoug, near Macao.

"The pirates had pillaged and run aground the Portuguese bark 'Caldera,' carrying off a French lady, who was among the pa.s.sengers. The British cruiser 'Lady Mary Wood,' having vainly pursued them, the vice-consul of France at Hong-Kong asked the captain of the 'Sparta,' to send a detachment on board the steamer 'Ann,' which the insurers of the bark proposed despatching on a second trial.

"On the 17th of last October, according to the orders of Sir William Hoste, Lieutenant Palisser embarked with eighty-five men in three long boats. He anch.o.r.ed near the wreck of the 'Caldera.' The morning after, having perceived some junks of suspicious appearance, the lieutenant gave chase with the three boats, the water not being deep enough to allow of the steamer approaching the coast. These junks made at once for the land, where their crews took refuge, after throwing their weapons into the sea. On board the first junk were found the young French lady and the Chinese dealer.

"They sent both on board the 'Ann,' and burnt the junk as well as two other boats. They then sailed on to the village of Kou-Cheoumi, where the pirates had fired on the English s.h.i.+ps two days before, and where they knew the stolen cargo was concealed. They discovered there one hundred and fifty-three sacks of sugar, and forty chests of tea, which they took away. They then burnt two villages. Having now discovered a third village, defended by a battery of four cannons and eight field pieces, the lieutenant forced his way through a thick copse, and attacked it. After firing a volley, which wounded no one, he seized the battery, dispersed and killed the gunners, burnt the village and the boats that were lying on the beach, spiked most of the cannons, and carried six away as trophies.

"Sir William Hoste, in his despatch, praises the gallantry and good conduct of the crews which were sent on this expedition, and which laboured twelve hours per diem, all the time beneath a burning sun. He also speaks highly of Lieutenant Palisser, who has, within the s.p.a.ce of five months, conducted five successful expeditions of a similar nature, and taken seventeen pieces of cannon."

"La Patrie," February 12th, 1855.

"Macao, _December 6_.

"On the 4th of October last, a Chilian s.h.i.+p, called the 'Caldera,' sailed from the port of Hong-Kong and was grounded by stress of weather amid a group of islets lying to the south-west of Macao. One Mademoiselle f.a.n.n.y Loviot, a young French lady, happened to be on board. The pirates took her prisoner, as well as a Chinese merchant, who was her fellow-pa.s.senger, and sent on the captain to Hong-Kong, to treat for a double ransom.

"Informed of these facts by the captain of the 'Caldera,'

the French vice-consul applied to Sir W. Hoste, then commandant of the English station, and requested, as all the French forces were just then absent, that he would a.s.sist in fitting out an expedition for the rescue of Mademoiselle Loviot. Sir W. Hoste acceded instantly, and despatched eighty of his own crew, under command of Lieutenant Palisser. They took the steamer called the 'Lady Mary Wood,'

and were accompanied by several of the consignees of the 'Caldera,' who were anxious to save whatever might yet be found of the cargo of that vessel.

"A detachment of English marines, in the steamer 'Ann,'

shortly after encountered the pirates, burnt a large village to which they were in the habit of retreating, killed twenty men, and took several pieces of cannon. Having discovered the junk wherein the prisoners were confined, they sacked and attacked all the pirate villages along that coast, and returned to Hong-Kong on the morning of the 19th inst. The young Frenchwoman had been twelve days at the mercy of these monsters; but, thanks to their expectations of a ransom, had escaped without insult or ill-usage."

THE END.