In the account of the attack by pirates on the Elizabeth Childs, we gave the statement of the captain as to what occurred in the cabin where he concealed himself. Wo have been favoured by the chief officer with the following account of the occurrences on deck after the captain had gone below:—"On Sunday evening we were ten miles 8. 3 W. by compass from Mendoza Island, About seven o'clock I noticed two junks a short distance from us in shore. At half-past seven the vessel was going two knots, and the weather was hazy. I observed the nearest junk getting her oars out and also two men at her mainmast-head. She gradually drow up on our starboard quarter, when the captain hailed them and said, What do you want? Tf you foul us I will fire into you," or words to that effect. 'The people on the junk ceased pulling for a short time and then returned to their oars, As eight bells struck, the junk was nearly abeam of us, about half a ship's length off, and was' still closing on us. I gave orders to port the helm in order to avoid a collision and to pass ahead of the junk, when she suddenly bore off and sheered into our starboard bow. She then threw a grapnel on board and directly after I saw a light at her mainmast head and immediately a number of earthenware pots or jars, filled with some very explosive substance, were thrown on to our deck, where they exploded with a very loud report, At the sare instant about fifty muskets and revolvers were fired at us from the junk. Five shots passed through the stern and quarter of the starboard gig, which is close to the fore part of the poop, two shots struck the mizen mast, and several passed through the spanker. All the shots were apparently fired from the same level. At this time the captain, second officer, and myself were standing by the companion on the poop. In less than a minute after that volley had been fired, the pirates, about fifty in number and well armed, boarded our vessel by the main rigging and ran aft towards us. The captain and second officer went below. I went forward with the crew and we all returned aft armed with iron bars. The pirates on seeing us approaching them drove us forward again, firing at' us as we went, but fortunately none of the shots took effect of any moment. One of our crew received a graze on the stomach with a shot and a bul-Let singed the tail of my coat, but beyond this no personal injuries were done. Nine bullets lodged in the foreword deck-house and boat's skids. Some of us-were driven on to the forecastle-head, while the others took to the bowsprit. We were not further molested, but guard was kept over us. I heard one of the pirates say, in good English, Kil them, kill them!" 'A gang of them took off the after hatch, and we were then asked, also in English, if we were not bound to Shanghai, if we had any opium or money on board, and also whether we had a supercargo or any Chinese pas sengers. On our replying in the negative, the pirates began to curse and swear both in Chinese and English, They then went below and we could hear them ransacking the cargo about. The other junk, which We saw in company with the one that had grappled us, was lying about 300 yards off on our weather bow. The people on board of that junk gave a loud ery, which was repeated by the pirates. Those on board our vessel then ascended from below, took to their junk, and pulled and sailed towards Pinghoe. At the same time I observed to the windward of us the dim lights of a steamer bound north, The pirates left behind them the grapnel, a musket, and the shells of some pin-fire revolver ammunition."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.