Butte record. (Bidwell, Butte County, Cal.) 1853-1858, 1855-06-23

l say command nefe' ana you VIII %
wise if you obey
'And suppose I do not choose to
obey ~
az think it viii be an uncomfortsble
experiment for you to try" was the re-
ply.
Now lowe to dame nature some thanks
for having given me frlme more pow
erful in lis physical mould than she or
diaarlly bestows upon her mortal chill
llen, and long command of turbulent
spirits in the shape OF refractory seamen,
had given me rot only decision of char
acter, but had written the facts pretty
plainly on my countenance. Savage
looked at me a moment, and then he said, =,
with rather chop-fsllen expression Q.
countenanee
90, very well. You are captain, and
/ [ suppose it would be open mutlny to
resist And with that he walked away
Now to tell the truth, hoped the fell
low would have shown some more resist
ance. for l made up my mind to knock
him down and put him in irons, but l
was disappointed though, upon more
/ calm reflections, of course was glad at
e,;r- mod - they did
This event cast sort Of cloud over
the spirits of the passengers for several
days, and though Savage refrained from
most Of his profanity, yet | could see
that not only he, but others, looked upon
Walter Legraud as coward. The
Young man himself seemed to notice It.,
for he was taciturn and sedate, and l
often noticed that his eyes droped before
the gaze of others, and that his bps
trembled.
Early one morning llnd was reported
un,n the larboard bow. | knew it to be
the Bourbon Island The wind vas very
light, the ship was not making more than
three knots with her royal and studdlng
sails. About the middle Of the forenoon
we saw long quiac built boat or vessel
come out from one Of the coves OF the
island. | Ievelled my glass upon the
craft and found it to be full Of men,-
There W. s seventy FIVE at least.
eCapMin, what is she:' asked Savage
approaching the spot where l stood.
4 think there is not much danger in
setting her down for pirate, replied
4 have heard that there was nest Of
pirates on the Bourbon sand, and l
think we are likely to find il true
/ pirates !! uttered Savage, turning
de. They will be likely to be ugly
Gus tomers, won't they
sOf course they will. They certainly
outpun. Der us three to one, aad are, in
all probability, all of them stout, reck-
less fellows
But you don't think they vii follow
the rule of putting all their prisoners TO
death, do you ?
you can Judge Of that as well as [
can, was my rep!J and then l returned
to the men.
I could see that Savage was much
frightened and, in fact, nearly all were
startled by the appearance OF the sus-
,.cious boat. The presence OF a pirate
Is not pleasant theme for any one, and
especially these land pirates, for they
generally make it a practice TO put their
prisoners to death, 50 that their haunts
may not be exposed
We had no carriage gun, but there
were cu;lasses and pistols enough on
board for the crew, aud last no time
in arminr my men. All told we mu.>
tered forty-oue men. The ships crew,
including myself, made twenty-nine, and
there were twelve Of the passengers,
though / knew not whether to count upon
Walter Legrand or not. However, he
could fire pistol and that was some
thing.
Bv the time had made these arrange
ments, the quiac was within two cables
length of US ; and We could gee that
there were nearly eighty men on board Of
her-not so great an odds. as We had at
first supposed, but still two to one a
against us. We could see, too, that they
were all of them powerful looking fell
lows. and of all shades and ccmplexions
some of them white, some red, some
brown and some black
! arranged the men close to the bull
wark with what muskeis We could mus
ter, and then turned to see if Lsgrand
was upon deck. He stood by the cabin
eomparior way With sw.id in his hand