The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-10-01 00:00:00

THE PERILS OF THE GUANO TRADE.

Captain Northwood has published a narrative of the
capture and destruction, by the Moors, of a portion of
the crews of the ships Margaret and Courier, both be-
longing to the port of London, while in search of guano,
at the island of Arguin, on the coast of Africa.
The Margaret sailed from Gravesend last April, and in
the following month reached Arguin. Landed, but found
no guano. Visited other islands with like success; and,
while in the boat, was, with part of the crew, captured
by- some Arabs. "As soon as they got me into their
boat," he says, " they almo,t pulled me to pieces, one
dragging my watch out, oth( r 3 my pockets, and one pul-
ling at my stock, which was buckled. Samuel Phillips,
John Ward, Geo. Horsborn, James Litchfield, and my-
self, were saved ; John Sims was shot ; and William
Fransham drowned. Ido not know how we got into the
island, in the middle of the night, for we were all very
bad, and all complained of their limbs, it was so very
cold."
They were in hopes that the men in the vessel would
ransome them ; and their hopes were further raised by
the arrival of a second vessel, which greatly alarmed the
Arabs, as they feared she was a man-of-war. The two
vessels, however, sailed away. In a few days the ship
Courier appeared, and the captain sent a boat with men
to the shore with presents. " Mr. Wilson landed with
some of his men, and I kept calling to them to keep
their boats off. I got to the beach and spoke to a man
named Griffiths, and begged of him to go back to his boat
and get on board. He said it was of no use going on
board, as they had brought every thing they had got in
the brig. He went to the boats, while I kept begging of
him to shove off, but he paid no attention, and said to
them, " Give me the captain, and I will give you all."
Mr. Wilson then ordered the sails, tobacco, cloths, and
every thing else to be handed out of the gig, and ordered
the longboat to haul in. The Arabs at once got bold of
the longboat's bowsprit, and two of them took hold of
my wrist. The muskets belonging to the brig were lying
at the bottom of the boats. A signal was gii en by the
Arabs, and firing commenced. Mr. Wilson was shot
through the breast, face, and head. William Penny,
George Jones, and the carpenter were also shot dead.
William Hunney was badly wounded. John M'Donald,
Peter M'Kenzie, George Griffiths, George Pilkington,
and Mr. Deane, second mate, swam towards the brig—
supposed to be wounded. Edward Balcomb and John
Coston, when the carpenter feil against them dead, got
under the oars, and escaped unhurt. They dragged me
and George Griffiths through a piece of water that was
behind them, holding clubs and spears over us. Griffiths
not moving quick enough, they ran a spear into his back,
and beat him about the head with clubs. I found it was
of no use resenting, and escaped unhurt. This was all
over in a few minutes, and not a gun was fired by the
brig's crew, as they could not fire►. without injuring us.
The Arabs stripped the dead and threw the bodies over-
board, and also William Hunney, who they thought was
dead ; he had two balls in his left arm close up to the
shoulder; the poor fellow came from the crowd bleeding
and quite naked, and I covered him over with the rest of
the wounded."

" June 2, at 8 a. m., the brig got under weigh and left
us. The wounded wished to see me, and one of the chief
men came and led toe to them. They wished to have
their wcunds dressed, and asked if 1 thought they would
recover. They were in a deplorable state, in a little hut,
lying on sea weeds, and complained of the cold very much.
I made the chief understand that they wanted their wounds
dressed, and after I left they got little bows, and made
them make water into their wounds. Next day they
scraped their wounds, and burnt them round with a large
nail.head made hot, and gave them dried fish and water.
Wm. Hunney had two balls in his left shoulder, and the
bone was badly fractured. Two days after he had been
there they probed the balls out with a brass rod, scraped
his wounds and burnt them round. They bathed them
with fish oil some days after, and they smelt very bad.
They also cut from one hole where one of the halls went
in to the other with a common rough knife. I,l'hen dres
sing him they had him held dowp, and his cries were hor-
rible, and they were a long tuns), about it, the Arabs
always laughing all the time. When I left him he had

been 42 days under their hands,- and looked shockingly
ill. The wounds had got through the arm into his breast,
and they sponged them with reeds bound round with
oakum. I was afraid of mortific .tion taking place. He
was ruptured, and they took his truss away, for the sake
of the spring, and would not let him bind himself up,
although he suffered very much. John M'Donald had
three balls in the abdomen, and one above the left knee
through the thigh and groin. He had the same kind of
treatment as Hunney ; but when I left he was doing well.
George Pilkington was shot in the left arm and back, and
had a severe cut above the foot on the shin, the leader of
the great toe being cut. He was doing well, and could
walk a little. These three men were left behind. Pete
M'Kenzie had two very bad sabre cuts in the head, and
his scull was fractured. They scraped his head and skull
twice a—day very roughly, and stuffed it with powder like
the bark of a tree. They would not allow him to keep
anything on his head. George Griffiths was lanced in the
back, and they cut another bole with a knife a-breast of
it, burnt round it, and scraped and stuffed it twice a-day.
He recovered. The Arabs now stated that a Captain
Leunty, meaning a captain over all the captains and land,
was coming to take us to the Canary vessels, to see if he
could get anything for us. This I doubted, as I knew
they were very much afraid of the Canary vessels, they
being well manned and armed." He did come, and ulti-
mately they reached Gambia, where Captain Isemonger,
of the Africanus, received them kindly. He had heard
of their captivity, and arranged with an Arab chief for
their liberation. Of the three poor fellows behind, no-
thing has been heard.
Captain Northwood and his companions had, for eleven
weeks, nothing to eat but dried fish and water.