It appeared that the best thing the half dozen officers could do was to turn round and go back to Chinkiang for assistance. The pirates were too numerous, and too well armed, to be tackled by so few with success in the dark; and besides they were so mixed up with the native passengers that, were any shooting done, a number of innocent people might have been killed. But, when the pirates became aware they were going back they sent word to say that if the ship did not continue her course they would set it on fire, but if no trouble was made they would leave quietly at Eching. Under these circumstances it was thought wisest to go on, and to leave the pirates unmolested as long as they did not invade the upper deck where the foreigners were. Only one man made an effort to come up and he received a shot in the jaw which satisfied his ambition for fighting.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.