It was too dark to see the result of that discharge, but we heard quite enough yelling to convince us it had proved sufficiently destructive to both vessels. The pirates, after a confusion in which it would have been easy to carry them had we had any men to board with, hauled off, and crowded on all sail to escape. This they might not have been permitted to do so easily; but while following them to bestow a few parting shots, the vessel I was on board ran bang ashore. This at once put an end to further pursuit; besides, the Ti-mungs could float in less than half the water we could, by reason of their flat and shallow build. I warned off our other two vessels, and both instantly lowered their sails and anchored while they could. Running a line out to one of them, we soon hove off the bank; as we were getting amongst the Lang-shan shoals, the only thing to be done was to remain at anchor quietly till daylight. We came out of the action with a loss of only one man killed,—his head had been smashed with a round shot,—one wounded by a splinter, one with a grape-shot lodged in his seat of honour, and a pet monkey, belonging to the captain of the vessel I was on board, missing. The loss of the pirates must have been heavy, especially from the salvo of grape and canister at close quarters.
The engagement had barely lasted half an hour, and upon its favourable termination we spent the remainder of the night, or rather morning, in glorification, winding up with a well-spread morning supper. We might fairly have expected we had had enough of pirates for one voyage, yet it was not so, and we were to see more of them before reaching Shanghae.
The morning broke dim and foggy, so thick, in fact, that we were unable to weigh anchor and proceed till late in the day. In consequence of the thick weather, we chose the north channel to pass the Lang-shan crossing, as there we could find good soundings to steer by. We had been following this for some time, and the day had become one of that unsettled changeable kind, leaving us at one moment in the centre of a dense fog, and anon in the midst of a perfectly clear spot surrounded by thick banks, when, during a momentary glimpse of clear weather, a large fleet of Chinese trading junks passed us on their way up the river from Shanghae.
These junks reported that they had been attacked by pirates only a mile or so below, and that two of their number had been captured; the pirates, they said, were in long low boats, imperceptible in the fog until right alongside. This put us upon the qui vive; Philip and myself still remained on board the armed vessels, and sending my schooner on ahead, we followed her, one on each quarter. The fog again closed in upon us, and we had progressed but a very short distance when we heard a tremendous outcry from on board the schooner just ahead: it was so thick, that we were unable to discern anything, but we could plainly hear the Chinamen yelling out that they were attacked by "Jen-dow."
I was just about ordering a gun to be fired to frighten the pirates off, when, before I could give the order, we heard a splashing of oars, and the next minute bang went a gun within half a dozen yards, and a charge of grape or canister hissed and hurtled about our ears. I had barely time to jump off the gun I was sitting upon, depress it to the lowest limit, and fire it off with the cigar in my hand, when the long narrow boat I had laid the gun for—just issuing from the dense fog into the space of a few feet, within which anything could be distinguished—crashed alongside, full of the dead and dying. Every man in that boat seemed stricken, but we had no time for observation, for the instant she touched our side—probably torn to pieces by the grape and langridge—she turned over and sank. From the noise of oars all round us, it appeared as though many boats were rapidly pulling away; only one more came in sight, just sufficiently to receive a dose from the foremost pivot gun, after which she disappeared in the mist. In a few minutes the fog considerably lifted, and there in the distance we saw a squadron of the Imperialist gunboats—of the smallest size—pulling inshore as fast as they could. If instead of employing British gunboats against the Ti-pings, the British authorities had sent them against these, they might have rendered a real service, for many a poor fellow has lost the number of his mess, slaughtered by these murderous wretches, who subsequently became the comrades of British officers and sailors in the waters of both Ningpo and Shanghae. The fog clearing, without further adventure or mishap, we safely reached our destination.
FOOTNOTE:
[16] An earthenware jar filled with a suffocating combustible, forming a very formidable weapon. It is thrown as a hand grenade.