CORROBORATIVE EXTRACTS FROM THE FRENCH PRESS.[ToC]
"La Presse," December 20th, 1854.
"The Moniteur de la Flotte publishes the following passage, extracted from a letter dated Hong-Kong, October, 27th, which contains some interesting details respecting a little 'drame maritime:'—
"'The Chilian ship "Caldera" left Hong-Kong on the 4th of October for San Francisco, having two passengers 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 anchored 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 assailed during the night by three Chinese junks, and plundered without mercy. For two days these robbers remained in possession of the ship; 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-passenger 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 passed from one ship 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 assassins and their haunts.'"
"La Presse," December 30th, 1854.
"Mademoiselle Fanny Loviot, who was lately taken prisoner by pirates in the Chinese seas, has just returned to France in the 'Valetta,' via Marseilles."