Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President, Transmitted to Congress December 2, 1895, Part I
Mr. Denby to Mr. Olney.
Peking, August 22, 1895. (Received Oct. 8.)
Sir: I have the honor to inclose a clipping from the North-China News of Monday, the 12th instant, containing an account of the Kutien massacre.
I have, etc.,
the kucheng1 massacre.
[From the Rev. George B. Smyth, Foochow.]
The story of this appalling massacre can he briefly told. Whasang is a mountain about 12 miles from the city of Kucheng, which is 90 miles distant from Foochow. The English Church mission had built two small houses there as sanitaria for its missionaries in the Kucheng district. There were there at the time of the massacre the Rev. R. W. and Mrs. Stewart, their five children and nurse, Miss Nellie and Miss Topsy Saunders, in one house; and Miss Gordon, Miss Newcombe, Miss Marshall, Miss Stewart, and Miss Codrington in another. Mr. Phillips, of the same mission, was stopping at a native house about five minutes away, and Miss Mabel C. Hartford, of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, was in a native house at the foot of a little incline about two minutes away. The evening before the massacre all were planning a picnic for the next day in honor of the sixth birthday of little Herbert Stewart. No one dreamt of the possibility of the terrible events of the morrow.
About 6.30 next morning, Thursday, the 1st of August, Mildred and Kathleen Stewart, aged 12 and 11 years, respectively, were out picking flowers for their little brother. Suddenly they saw a number of men approaching, but they thought they were only laborers. In a moment they rushed upon them, and one of them caught Kathleen by the hair, dragged her along the ground, and stabbed her in two or three places on the thigh. Mildred ran into the house, and in some way Kathleen broke from the wretch who held her, rushed into the house into her parents’ room, and cried out: “The Vegetarians are coming.” Her mother rushed to the door, saw the murderers, closed the door, and Kathleen never saw her again. The two girls then ran to their own room; Mildred threw herself on her bed, and Kathleen lay under hers. Some of the Vegetarians followed and struck Mildred on the knee, cutting the joint and inflicting a wound which may prove fatal. Another band of ruffians attacked the house in which most of the young ladies were living, seized five of them, dragged them out, and said they were going to carry them away. The ladies begged for their umbrellas to shade themselves from the sun, but their captors refused. While they were standing there an old Whasang man came and stood between the ruffians and their captors and pleaded for the ladies’ lives. Some of the murderers seemed disposed to spare them, but at that moment the leader approached, carrying a red flag, and called out, “You know your orders, kill outright;” whereupon they surrounded the ladies and killed them instantly. The heads of two were nearly severed from their bodies. They were all frightfully gashed and hacked.
Miss Codrington was terribly cut about the face, but with rare presence of mind when she fell she feigned death, and this saved her. Her would be murderer struck her on the head after she fell and left her for dead. That last blow, however, broke her skull, but did not kill her. In the mountain Miss Hartford was attacked. Hearing the noise she rushed out of her house, and was seen by one Vegetarian, who cried out in Chinese, “Ah, here’s a foreign woman,” and immediately rushed at her with a great three-pronged spear, pointed at her chest. She seized it and turned it aside, the spear grazing her cheek and inflicting a slight wound behind her ear. The ruffian then knocked her down and struck her with the wooden handle of the spear. Fortunately at that moment her servant, who had come up only the night before, rushed to her rescue, seized the brute, and told her to run. She arose, ran down an embankment, and tried to enter a native house, but the owners would not let her. She ran on, therefore, and in a moment met another servant, who assisted her to run up the opposite hill and find in the brushwood a place of safety. There she lay for over an hour, not knowing when the murderers would look for and find her. After hiding there about an hour she sent the servant to see how matters were, and in half an hour he returned, saying that the Vegetarians had gone and the five ladies were killed. She went back as speedily as possible and found it only too true. What had become of Mr. Phillips? When he heard the shouting he ran out of his house, but was stopped by villagers who told him the Vegetarians had come and would kill him. He broke from them and ran toward the two English houses, but seeing a murderous crowd about them he crept up a hill and hid behind two trees about 20 yards back of the houses, from which he could see without being seen.
Not seeing any foreigners, he thought they had escaped, and knowing that to go down would be certain death, he remained where he was. In about fifteen minutes the murderers set fire to the houses and went off, saying loud enough for him to hear, “Now, we have killed all the foreigners.” Then he knew what had happened, and ran down to find nearly all the happy company of the previous evening dead. Four ladies were lying dead in one place. Miss Newcombe he found dead at the foot of an embankment. Her head was nearly severed from the body. After killing her the murderers threw her down the slope. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart’s ashes he found in what had been their bedroom; they were burned beyond recognition. In the nursery he [Page 115] found the remains of Miss Nellie Saunders and the nurse, burned almost beyond recognition.
Where were the children? The story of their escape shows the extraordinary heroism of a girl only 11 years old. Kathleen Stewart, as I have already said, hid under her bed. After she had lain there for some time she heard a sound, as she described it, “as of rushing water,” and crying out “this house is on fire,” came from her hiding place and found her sister Mildred on the bed terribly wounded. She helped her out of the house and looked for the other children. In the nursery she found the baby lying under the dead body of the nurse. She found her brother Herbert with a deep wound on the right side of the neck 4 inches long, one on the crown of the head which chipped off the external table of the skull, one on the back part of the head 4 inches long, which clove the skull, exposing the brain, and another circular scalp wound on the left side. A still younger brother, Ewan, she found with a stab wound on the left thigh and several bruises. The baby had been stabbed in the right eye, which penetrated to the brain. All these this brave girl carried out of the burning building, and, with the help of a villager whom she pressed into service, succeeded in carrying them to the house at which Miss Hartford had been stopping. So far as she knew then, there was no other foreigner in Whasang alive except Miss Codrington, who, in spite of her terrible wounds, succeeded, by creeping and walking, in reaching Miss Hartford’s house. When Miss Hartford returned from her hiding place she found all these there.
Mr. Phillips sent a letter to Dr. J. J. Gregory, of the Methodist Episcopal mission at Kucheng, as soon as he could find a man to take it. Not a Whasang man would go. On receiving the news the doctor immediately hastened to the Yamên, secured an escort, and started for the scene of the massacre. He arrived there in the evening and did all that was in his power to care for the wounded. By daylight he, with Miss Hartford and Mr. Phillips, had the bodies in coffins, and the ashes of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, and the nurse and Miss Nellie Saunders in two little boxes. It was impossible, however, to find bearers. Not a man at Whasang would do anything. Fortunately, however, an official arrived with a few soldiers and after some pressure from Dr. Gregory he impressed into service a number of villagers sufficient to carry the remains to Suikou, a place on the Min River 60 miles from Foochow.
Everything possible thus being done the sad procession started at 3 p.m. on the weary march. On the way little Herbert Stewart died, and after getting a coffin and laying the little body in it, they resumed the journey and arrived at Suikou at 8 o’clock on Saturday morning. There the local officials provided boats. On the way down they were met by a steam launch sent up with a few friends to meet them. At 2.30 p.m. on Sunday they reached Foochow and the wounded were taken to one of the hospitals where they now are receiving the best medical care. The bodies arrived here on Monday, and at 5.30 o’clock this morning they were laid to rest. This is the simple story of the most terrible massacre of foreigners that has ever taken place in China. More were killed at Tientsin on that awful day, the 20th of June, 1870. But that was a riot rather than a massacre; this was a murder deliberately planned, and deliberately carried out.
It is too soon to say what the consuls will do at this appalling time. Suffice it to say that they have secured evidence which may bring many of the guilty to the punishment they deserve. As to the larger question of what the foreign governments may do, my opinion would be worthless. I can not refrain from adding, however, that I trust they will not be satisfied with a money indemnity. It is this wretched policy, pursued in so many cases in the past, that is responsible for most of these massacres and riots. Nearly all of them could have been avoided by firmness on the part of the home governments. Let them but make China feel that occurrences of this kind will be terrible in their results to her and they will cease. If they do not act with firmness now the foreigners will soon find it impossible to live anywhere outside the treaty ports.
It is painful to have to record the brutal inhumanity of the villagers of Whasang. According to the Chinese custom they are deserving of severe punishment, but with the exception of one old man they did not lift a hand to stop it. Even after the murderers had left they would give no help, but proceeded to rob, and took away everything of value in the burning houses. They ought to be severely punished. If they are it will go far to prevent similar outrages in the future. The servants ran almost to a man. Out above this brutal and despicable crowd stand conspicuous the heroic Christian servant of Miss Hartford, who, at the risk of his own life, saved hers, and a Christian woman, the wife of her teacher, who, when she was thrown down, ran to her aid and begged her would-be murderer to spare her. For answer the brutal wretch kicked her. It is pleasant to write of this heroism in the midst of all this infamy.
A word as to the cause of the massacre. What the purposes of the Vegetarian Society are is not known to outsiders. By some they are regarded as robbers, by others as rebels. They have given the officials a great deal of trouble in the Kucheng [Page 116] district during the past year. They have attacked Christians and non-Christians alike, and they hated the foreigners because they were foreigners, not because they were missionaries. They had become so violent that on the 24th of July 300 soldiers were sent up from Foochow to hold them in check if possible. Their leaders attributed their coming to the influence of the foreigners, and it is believed that then they determined to exterminate them. They immediately began to assemble at a certain village whose name is now known, and their threats against the churches became bolder than ever. On the night before the massacre a letter was received by a certain pastor saying the foreigners would be killed on the morrow. He wrote a letter to Mr. Stewart warning him, but unfortunately did not send it till daylight, and; when the messenger was within two miles of Whasang he met a man who told him that all was over, that the foreigners were killed. What an awful result of a few hours’ delay. The Vegetarians planned the murder carefully, and the reason seems to have been to take vengeance on the foreigners for having, as they supposed, brought the troops to Kucheng. I trust that the investigation, which ought to be made by a foreign official on the ground, will be so thorough as to reveal the real causes, bring the perpetrators to justice, and result in the adoption of such measures by the foreign powers concerned, as will make forever impossible the occurrence of so terrible a massacre in the future.
- Kutien.↩