The consul, Mr. J. W. Tratman, calls attention to the following points in
the report which are especially worthy of notice:
This report and these comments thereon justify the contention that I have
always maintained with the Yamên, that if the local authorities chose to
prevent antiforeign riots they could do so.
The above-mentioned papers were kindly furnished me by Her Britannic
Majesty’s minister, Sir Nicholas R. O’Conor.
[Inclosure in No. 2284.]
Report of the missionaries.
Dear Sir: The property of all Protestant
and Roman Catholic missions in this city is completely destroyed.
All dwellings, chapels, hospitals, and schools are razed to the
ground. Some buildings were burned, others carried away piecemeal
till nothing remained but broken tiles. Several of our number had
very narrow escapes with their lives, but at the moment of writing
the eighteen Protestant missionaries of the city with eleven
children and two of the three Roman Catholics are
[Page 92]
safe in the Hwa Yang Hsien Yamên. With
the exception of one or two coolie loads, all hospital supplies and
household goods of every description were looted by the mob.
About 4 p.m. of May 28, the day of the Twan Yang [or Dragon Boat]
festival, rioting began at the premises of the Canadian Methodist
mission on the street called Sz Shen Tsz. Two cards were sent in
succession to the Hwa Yang Hsien Yamên, calling on the Pao-kia on
the way. Stones were thrown at the main gate of the mission compound
and a mob rapidly gathered. No show of resistance was offered until
the strong gates were battered down about 5 p.m. From that until
long after 6 o’clock the mob was held in check by three
missionaries, two carrying guns. The only assistance sent was a
force of about twelve men in civilian dress and three soldiers in
red, although between 5 and 6 o’clock our messengers had returned
from the Yamên with the word that a large body of men would be sent
at once. About 7 p.m. the four Canadian missionaries with four
children and one C. M. S. missionary escaped under cover of darkness
and fog to the city wall. They carried nothing but the clothes they
wore. The C. M. S. missionary, Mr. Jackson, found his way to the
China Inland mission alone. The other four left the city wall in
chairs about midnight for the same compound. By midnight three
dwellings, chapel, two large hospital buildings, and school
buildings of the Canadian mission were completely destroyed with all
their contents. During the evening a few Yamên runners were deputed
to protect two of the mission compounds.
At daybreak of May 29 anything remaining of the wrecked compound was
carried away, and by 6 a.m. the mob had re-formed in full force and
turned its attention to another compound of the same mission
directly across the street. So far as we know, no attempt whatever
was made by the officials to scatter the mob or to protect this
compound. In an hour or two the newly erected brick bungalow was in
flames as well as every other building on the place. Mrs. Hart well
had escaped early in the morning to the U sha kai compound, while
Mr. Hart well climbed the wall and found refuge in the compound of a
friendly native.
About 9 a.m. the two young ladies of the U sha kai compound (Canadian
mission) together with Mrs. Hartwell arrived in chairs at the China
Inland mission. They had escaped over their back wall. A few minutes
later the big U sha kai compound was completely leveled to the
ground, part of it having been burned.
There were then gathered in the China Inland compound one Church
Missionary Society, three China Inland, and seven Canadian
missionaries—in all eleven. The streets at that hour were, in the
neighborhood of the China Inland mission, still comparatively quiet.
The decision was made to go in chairs at once to the Hwa Yang Hsien
Yamên. But the chief of police arrived just then with a retinue of
twenty-six men and guaranteed protection if they would stay right
there. By 10.30 the mob was growing larger and more difficult to
control. Now the official advised removal to the Yamên. Six
missionaries got away safely, two by two. Then at 11 o’clock the
crisis came. Not a moment too soon the remaining five, with three
children, climbed the back wall and quickly concealed themselves in
a small mat house. Thirty taels handed over at once effectually shut
the mouths of the people and secured immunity from immediate
discovery. At 8 o’clock in the evening, covered by darkness, they
were conveyed, one by one, in chairs to the Hwa Yang Hsien Yamên,
where they joined the six previously arrived.
From 11 a.m. to about 2 p.m. these two men and three women, with
[Page 93]
three little children, sat
huddled together in a dark corner of a dark room, and were painfully
aware, by the continuous booming and crashing, of the work of
destruction proceeding just beyond a mud wall. By 2 p.m. China
Inland compound was a complete ruin.
While these things were in progress in this quarter, the Methodist
Episcopal mission near the south gate did not fare very differently.
In the evening of May 28 an urgent request for protection in case of
trouble was sent to the Lung Men Taotai. The reply was a refusal,
point blank, to have anything to do with the case. Before daylight
the six Methodist Episcopal missionaries with four children took
chairs, arriving just at daybreak of May 29 at the Hwa Tang Hsien
Yamên. They were asked to return to their own compound at Shan hi
kai, and guaranteed full protection. They accordingly returned home.
Early in the forenoon the people began to gather, and
notwithstanding the presence of a chief of police and twenty-two
men, at 10 o’clock a.m. the attack on the compound began. The
missionaries and their children, by invitation of an immediate
neighbor, jumped the wall of their compound and were at once
concealed in a small, dirty loft. Here they remained safely for
about twelve hours, unwilling witnesses of the spoiling of all they
possessed and the rapid demolition of all buildings of every
description on the mission compound. About midnight all six
Methodist Episcopal missionaries, with their four children, arrived
in chairs at the Hwa Yang Hsien Yamên. About the same time Mr.
Hartwell, Canadian missionary, arrived in a chair from the house of
the friendly native who had secreted him. This made the total of
eighteen Protestant missionaries in the city at the time of the
outbreak. Some time later in the night of May 29, two of the three
Roman Catholic missionaries of the city were brought safely into the
yamên.
Evil rumors against us have been growing in the city for a month
back. All three missions asked for proclamation against these rumors
from two to three weeks ago. Repeated requests for a proclamation
failed to secure one until yesterday afternoon, when about nine out
of eleven mission premises had been wrecked. Then a mild
proclamation was put out.
We have ample evidence that the officials openly connived at the work
of destruction yesterday. The only restriction placed in the way of
rioters was that, for obvious reasons, they should not set fire to
the buildings. The help asked for, if sent at all, was in every case
sent in a very dilatory manner, and when it arrived was ridiculously
insufficient and inefficient. Repeated requests for additional
protection met with no response.
At present writing (noon May 30) we are in cramped but fairly
comfortable quarters in this yamên. The Hsien tells us to remain
quietly for a few days, and the understanding is that as soon as
some of the excitement subsides throughout the city we are to be
escorted out of the city and started away, either by chairs or
boat.
All sorts of the vilest rumors are afloat that we killed a child, or
children, baking their bodies, using their eyes for medicines,
taking out their bones, etc. We hear now (2 p.m.) that a human head
human hand, and human eye have been nailed upon the wall of one of
the wrecked compounds. Red paint has been spattered on the walls and
exhibited as evidence of crimes committed by the missionaries. We
hear that bones are being dug from graves and shown at the
governor-general’s Yamên as further evidence of our guilt.
It is significant that one of the Roman Catholic priest’s residences
was within a stone’s throw of the governor-general’s Yamên. His
[Page 94]
repeated requests for
assistance from that yamên met with just as many refusals. His place
was wrecked and burned. Another rumor says the city gates, four in
number, are being guarded by soldiers lying in wait to cut off all
escape from the city.
Our message by telegraph was received at the office and we believe
was forwarded yesterday morning, 29th. This morning, 30th, our
telegram was met with the statement that the wires are down. This is
believed to be false.
Canadian Methodist Mission (
George E. Hartwell
,
wife, and two children,
Omar L. Kilborn
, wife, and
babe,
David W. Stevenson
, wife, and three
children); Methodist Episcopal Mission (
H. Olin
Cady
and wife,
H. L. Canright
, wife,
and two children,
J. F. Peat
, wife, and two
children); Church Missionary Society (
O. M.
Jackson
); China Inland Mission (
Joshua Vale, James
G. Cormack
, wife, and one child); total, 9 men, 9
women, 11 children.
