The escape of the Belgian and Italian railway engineers from the town of Pao-ting-fu--Attempt to reach Tientsin by boat--M. Ketels’ relief expedition--The first refugees--In a sad plight--The journey by water--Terrible experiences--A fatal attempt to retreat to Pao-ting-fu--A junk attacked by Boxers--A fearful night.

An interesting chapter in the history of the Chinese War of 1900 was the escape of the Belgian and Italian railway engineers from the town of Pao-ting-fu.

Towards the end of May, the Belgian Consul in Tientsin received news that the railway between Shang-sin-tien and Pao-ting-fu had been utterly destroyed, and that, moreover, the engineers and their families were besieged by Boxers in Shang-sin-tien. A hurriedly-got up expedition of nine or ten men, British, Belgian, and German, started at once from Tientsin to their rescue, but when, after some considerable opposition, they reached Shang-sin-tien, they found the place absolutely destroyed, and learned that the people had fled towards Pekin.

Of those Europeans employed in the railway at Pao-ting-fu, news reached Pekin that they had obtained some boats, on which they were attempting to reach Tientsin by river. They were anxiously awaited, but days went by, and much concern was felt over their fate by the residents in Tientsin. On Friday, June 8, three Chinese who were interpreters to the engineers came weeping into the Belgian Consulate, saying the Boxers had attacked their masters, and that if immediate relief were not sent they feared all would be massacred.

M. Ketels, the Belgian Consul, who had the welfare of his countrymen much at heart, there and then organised an expedition of volunteers to go to their rescue, but time was short, and the relief party counted altogether no more than thirty horsemen and ten men on foot, armed with Winchester, Mannlicher and Martini rifles. Among these men were Britishers, Belgians, French and Germans. They were divided into two columns, a party of horsemen ahead acting as scouts, the other horsemen and those on foot behind, carrying with them several cartloads of provisions and clothes for the people to be rescued, as well as for themselves.

Insulted and yelled at by a threatening mob of Chinese, they traversed Tientsin native city. One of the Chinese interpreters had volunteered to return with them to the rescue of his superiors and to act as guide.

Soon after leaving the city wall, however, the first batch of engineers were found straggling in a pitiable condition towards the settlement. They were three Belgians, who, hardly able to speak from weakness and starvation, pointed out that more were coming behind. In fact, there presently arrived quite a number--about thirty in all--of men, women, and children, barefooted and bleeding, their clothes torn and ragged, and some of the women with nothing more than a shirt or a rag to cover them. Everything had been torn from their backs. There were ten women among the refugees, of whom two were in the family way--one of them seven months. Another woman, half-naked, carried tight to her breast a little baby three years old. After the severe strain, many of them, finding that they were now practically safe, collapsed with nervous prostration. They were fed and clothed and brought into the concession.

[Sidenote: ATTACK ON THE BOATS]

The escaping party had left Pao-ting-fu in several junks, with Mr. Sun, the Chinese director of the railways, at their head. They were not bodily hurt in Pao-ting-fu itself, where a crowd of over ten thousand people had assembled to witness their departure, merely showering insults upon them. As they proceeded down river, repeated signs of hostility on the part of the natives were encountered, stones were thrown at them, and shots fired.

Sun and Mr. Ossant’s interpreter, another Chinese, fearing that the worst had not yet come, tried to screen the Europeans by closing the sides of the cabin in the junk. It was an anxious time for those boxed inside, for they could see nothing, but they heard the yells of the angry mob following the junks on both sides of the narrow river, and stones and bullets were pelting on the roof and sides of the cabin. Having rounded a bend in the river, they were now approaching a village. The roaring sound of a gong was fast collecting a threatening crowd of villagers, who rushed towards the river bank as the junk drifted down with the current. A terrific fusillade was opened on the first boats that arrived, and even old cannon firing mitraille were used by the Chinese in order to sink the boats. The Europeans, many of them badly wounded, were compelled to rush out of the cabins, and desperate endeavours were made to land on the opposite side of the river. Only one junk--the last, occupied by the engineer-in-chief, Mr. Ossant, his sister, and the two Italian engineers, Cadei and Penzaro--turned back, and strove to steer towards Pao-ting-fu. The attempt was fatal. The junk went some little distance, a fanatical crowd of Boxers following, brandishing their tridents, swords and guns, and firing from close quarters. Those who had landed, regardless of the danger to themselves, were watching with swollen hearts the desperate attempts of the crew that was going up stream. The junk stopped; it must have become stuck in the mud. The Chinese rushed into the water. In a moment there were swarms of them all round the boat, kept at bay by the brave men inside, but the number of assailants grew and grew. The Europeans who had landed endeavoured to go to the assistance of their friends, but they too were hard pressed and could do nothing.

Night came. The distant yells of the Boxers attacking the boat ceased. Some of the Europeans, screened by the darkness of the night, crept along the river bank and went to look for their friends. The junk was no more, and they feared--doubtless with but too much truth, since nothing was heard of them later--that Ossant and all the others had perished, massacred by the merciless Chinese. The body of a European woman, swollen and ripped open, was seen floating down the river--and was presumably that of Ossant’s sister.