"Fortunately the engineers crowd stuck to their work and we rapidly neared the north shore, I ran to my stateroom to get my wife forward and get some clothing, but I had no sooner got my wife out on the deck wrapped in some blankets, than the flames burst through the upper deck and the whole after part of the ship was enveloped and became 3 veritable furnace. The speed with which the fire spread was marvellous and most terrifying. All the foreigners and the crew gathered on the fore part of the deck, and rope's ends were thrown over the side and made fast to the rails to give everyone a chance to climb down into shallow water, but more and more of the Chinese pas-sangers jumped overboard and many of them were drowned, but we saw many others strike cub for the shore which was drawing very near. last her bow struck the mud and as she was running full speed' she trailed through the soft mud a good distance before she came to rest about fifty feet from shore. By this time the fire was rapidly way forward, and it hands and when I reached dry land I Inid about me with the bamboo and kept the savages at bay until the other foreigners, who were close behind me, came to my aid, and we soon managed to clear the foreshore (I may mention here that the narrator was a big and powerful man, who could certainly give @ good account of himself in a tight place).
"We did all we could to help the unfortunate passengers to reach the shore, but many were drowned almost within reach of land, no doubt benumbed by the ico cold water. Many harrowing scenes were enacted before our very eyes, crazy men struggling frantically to reach the shore and leaving their helpless women folk behind with their little ones, shrieking despairingly and finding a watery grave in spite of all the frantic efforte of the foreigners to save them. There were 10 many of them, and there were 80 few of us that all our efforts had but small results, By this time the whole ship was one mass of flames from stem to stern and she burned right down to her iron framework. Some poate came along in the meantime, and the boatmen drove a hard bargin to take me and my wife and one of the officers to Chinkiang, and here Iam. I have lost every: thing I possessed, except this dispatch box, and now I must telegraph the information to my Consul at Shanghai."
harrowing tale, indeed, for fine Christmas morn. ing! Over 200 of the Chinese were drowned or burnt, how many of the latter was never known. A few days later the wreck was taken in tow by one of Butterfield & Swire's steamers and brought down to Chinkiang, where she lay for a couple of days on the north shore. I went off in a boat to have a closer look at her, but we had to keep at respectful distance as the fire was still' smouldering, and the horrible smell of burning flesh was too
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.