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said also that many of them were robbed of various amounts of gold
and cash; and that mixed up with the crowd of rioters were numbers
of women and children all actively engaged in plundering the
property of the runaways of everything valuable, or convertible, prior
to carrying the remainder to enormous fires that were kept up with
such kind of fuel. In the meantime, the band, placed in a
conspicuous position, enlivened the scene by playing spirit-stirring
airs, to an accompaniment of yells and shouts that would have done
credit to a New Zealand war dance. Excited with their triumph,
heated with their violence towards unresisting captives, and
possibly thirsting for plunder, of which this last attack had given
them a taste, a wild and savage yell of joy was raised, when
someone suggested Back Creek as the next spot to visit. Shouting,
firing (for guns were now pretty generally produced), singing,
laughing, and cheering, the body of rioters moved off towards Back
Creek, a locality about six miles from where they then were, and
where it was known that there were several hundreds of Chinese at
work. Information of the projected attack was, however, taken over
to the Chinese in this locality, who, hastily packing up the most
valuable and portable portions of their property, hurriedly made off
from the spot. The rioters were not long behind them, and on
coming up, a savage yell of disappointment rose up from the mob
when they found that their prey had escaped. The tents, goods, &c.,
left behind were fired, after having been carefully looked over for
plunder; and such articles as would not burn were destroyed by
being broken with axes. Whilst this had been going on, a number of
the rioters, who were mounted on horseback, galloped forward on
the track of the retreating Mongols, overtook them not much more
than a mile away, headed them, and rounded them up in the same
way as a shepherd-dog would do a flock of sheep. Information of
the surround was sent off to those behind, who, eager for their prey,
were already on the road. Here ensued a scene such as, thank
heaven!, it seldom falls the lot of a British journalist to record.
Unarmed, defenceless, and unresisting Chinese were struck down
in the most brutal manner by bludgeons provided for the occasion,
and by pick handles. The previous excitement had done its work,
and now the wretched Mongols were openly and unblushingly
searched for valuables, and robbery was committed without the
slightest attempt at concealment. Very few of the poor creatures
here attached escaped with their pigtails, none of them without
injury of some kind, whilst every article of the property they had
endeavoured to take with them was plundered of all that was
valuable, and then burnt. Some of the acts of barbarism said to
have been committed here were such, that Englishmen can scarcely
be brought to credit that their countrymen could be guilty of them ­
for who amongst the British people could ever believe that men of
their own country - Britons, would take the Chinese pigtails with the
scalp attached. That this was done in more than one instance there
can be no doubt, since the possessors of these trophies made no