On the morning of the 22nd October, between nine and ten, a lorcha was attacked of Winchew (a place said to be between 100 and 200 miles on the Hong Kong side of Ningpo), by five west-coast boats, containing about 40 men each, and three Ningpo boats, with 20 men in each. The master of the lorcha was killed by a grape-shot passing through his head before the pirates boarded; a European, Portuguese, jumped overboard, and was not seen afterwards; three Chinese were killed, and three others have died since their arrival at Hong Kong; while five or six more are lying in the Civil Hospital scorched by stinkpots.
An English corvette attacking a Chinese pirate junk. A 19th century book illustration.
As the pirates boarded, the crew ran below, but the Chinese master was called upon deck and flogged repeatedly, the crew all the time remaining below. The pirates took the lorcha to Mee-chow, where they fired a gun, as a signal apparently for some boats, which accordingly came out of the harbour, took in a portion of the cargo, and returned to the shore. After lying at Mee-chow for 36 hours, the pirates again got under weigh and came further down the coast. They anchored off King-how between five and six p.m. on Sunday the 28th of October, and took the guns out at once.
Nothing more was done for two or three days, after which they took out as much of the cargo of sugar as they seemed to want in one day, and then, at the request of one or two of the pirates who could speak English, allowed the lorcha to leave with about 200 people still on board. King-how is about 20 miles distant from Hong Kong in a regular piratical haunt.
Last year about this time two lorchas, sugar-laden, were captured by pirates, also off Winchew, while on a voyage from Amoy to Ningpo, and taken to Mee-chow, where their cargoes were sold, and the vessels were then set adrift with no one in them. One, it was afterwards reported, went right out to sea, and the other was dashed to pieces on the rocks, - at all events, nothing more was ever heard of them by their owner. On that occasion eight Chinese were killed.
China Mail, Oct 25. 1855.
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