The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1857-11-19

mands they were about to make . it seemed to me-,
and was also the opinion of my officers, that the time
of forbearance was past and the time for action had
come, though we fully expected bloodshed in under
taking to confne them.
l let the disturbance of the forenoon quiet away
until after tea, to allay any superstition they might
have Of my being about to act, when I proposed to
take them by stratagem, with hopes of finding them
unarmed during the dog-watch, and unprepared to
meet us. Nor was l deceived in my hopes, for their
slung-shots were not upon their persons at the time
of Imprisonment, but lying carelessly in their berths
where they had casually thrown them during the re-
taxation Of the usual hours of amusement. There
were three of the gang belonging to the watch on
deck, not including the ringleader. 1 therefore or
dered my mate and fifth mate to arm carefully, take
handouts in their pockets, and call two of the gang
along to do an errand from the sail-room, through
the Storage into the after lower cabin, where / pro-
posed to meet them from the upper cabin with the
second mate, and with the steerage door closed upon
them, we should have them to ourselves. The plan
succeeded admirably. The men seeing they were
taken at advantage, succumbed directly, and we con-
villain, merely remarked that it was not thefrst time
he had been in irons, and afterwards added that his
last term of imprisonment was for two hundred and
twenty days.
The two confined, l requested the mate to order the
third one into the cabin, as 1 sent him from the helm,
and we took him by surprise something after the
above manner ; though upon his giving me insolence
and delaying to go down stairs into the after cabin,
as l directed, l struck him a blow with the side of
my pistol, which l had presented to all upon the oc-
casion of taking them into custody, indicating that if
arg effort was made to resist us with weapons, l
should not hesitate to use it.
The three secured, We now proposed to take the
leader, from whom we had no doubt there would
emanate much trouble. I sent the steward to quietly
call him into the main cabin, with word that / wished
to see him, directing the mate and fifth mate (my
only two energetic oficers) to follow close upon his
footsteps as he entered the cabin, closing the door
after them, while / met the man from the opposite
side, when we would take him at any hazard. lie
came without his suspicion being excited, when 1
presented my pistol and told him my object, firmly
telling him the certain and instant result of his re-
sistance. He coolly told me,-embellished by much
low, sneering slang, pertaining to his class, to pull
away on that d-n thing, as he had used those tools
before, and didn't fear them, sc. But upon our
gathering theoretically around him, he Invested him
self of his keenly-sharpened knife, throwing it upon
the table in company with his skullcap, and held out
his hands for the manacles, remarking that he was
Iy 'H~h w hs1 81 h"1A
into the lower cabin, where we were about to confne
him with the other three, as if, when coming SO unex-
pectedly into the presence of three of his gang, he
wished to show himself the leader he had promised
them to be, he turned fercely upon me as 1 came
down stairs at his back, and exclaimed in a loud rude
tone: Now, I'm going to know what in h-I'm
put in irons for =" L simply told him to be quiet, as
he had had the extent of his say on board my ship.
Whereupon he made a sudden step towards me, as if
(after a kicking custom he had among his mates)
with the intention of kicking me in the stomach, as
he exclaimed at the top of his voice 'No! I'll be
ID if l do my tongue is my own, and I'll use
it, When, seeing his foot drawn back in the very
act of kicking, under the mere instinct of self-defense,
l instantly struck him a blow across the head with
the fiat of my pistol, as | had done the last man con-
fined before him, when to my surprise, and the con-
sternation of my officers, four chargG@.n9V pistol
exploded simultaneously, making but one report, aneN
being at the time of ignition in contact with the
mans head, killed him instantly by its near concus-
sion to his brain, wrenching my arm in a painful
manner, and throwing the chambers from the pistol
to the floor, from the absence of the revolving rod.
This happened in the presence of my mate, I'd and
9th officers, and the three prisoners. The mate di-
rectly exclaimed, "I believe you have shot him." I
said, "No, certainly not"
The man was instantly raised up, his head placed
upon the Bonded knee of the mate, to examine his
hurt, when I ordered water brought to wash his
wound, and brought restoratives from the medicine
chest myself to reanimate him, under the supposition
that he was only stunned /; but we found him dead.
Upon the further examination of his head and per-
son, which 1 directly ordered by two of my officers,
in the presence of the I'd officer, three prisoners, and
myself, we found his wound to consist simply of a
slight confusion on the left temple, caused by the
blow of the pistol, and blackened by the burning of
the powder in proximity with his head, the skull not
being injured, nor any wound from the balls what
soever, either upon his head or person.
We then examined the pistol, to account for the
ouadruple explosion. 1t is n German imitation of
Colts revolver, containing five chambers. We found
that four out of the five charges had ignited, the fifth
remaining in its department unexploded that the
revolving rod, upon which the chambers traversed,
had droppd out upon my striking the prisoner pre-
viously confined, for it was there and then found
upon the floor of the upper cabin, near where one of
the balls was afterwards picked up by the steward !;
that two of the balls had dropped out Of the cham
bers sometime previous to the explosion, for they
were picked up on the floor where the accident oc-
CURED, uninjured, by one of the prisoners, and
handed to the mate while searching for the place of
their deposit ; and that the fourth ball was in the
pistol at the time of its discharge, for it was lodged in
the hole from whence the revolving rod had fallen !;
which accounted fully and clearly for all the balls.
Moreover, that one or more of the caps upon the pis-
tol must have received sufficient jar to ignite its per-
cussion when the blow was given, and that, as the
powder of the other three chambers was lying loose
at the mouths of their respective muzzles, after the
three balls had fallen out, it took fire simultaneously
with the first charge that ignited. Furthermore,
had a ball gone out of its legitimate passage-the
barrel-by design or otherwise, it could not have
harmed the person struck, for the length of the bar
rel would have projected the muzzle far beyond the
head in the act Of striking a blow.
After we had got somewhat over our surprise at
the singular accident and sudden death of the man
Harry Sheppard; and had laid his person out upon
one of my chests in the lower cabin, we imprisoned