The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1859-08-25
NOTES OF FIJI wEEK.

NOTES OF THE WEEhs
The "OREsrn'' MURDER CAsE-There was quite
an excitement about the town on Sunday last. COCA
stoned by the report that . seaman Of the bark Ores
fes, had been killed by the Captain Of that vessel.
Tho case being one Of much interest, we have pro-
bed from the records Of the Police Court, the follow
mk abstract of the examination Capt. Thomas
Mason, master of the bark Orestes. charged with the
murder of Joseph Watson, one of ne crew of that
vessel, was brought before Judge Davis of the Police
Court on Monday, the 22d instant, but owing to the
illness Of Mr.. Blair, who was to have acted for the
defendant, it was postponed to Tuesday. On Tues
day morning, Mr.. Blair continuing unwell, Mr.. Lee
acted as counsel for the prisoner and the case was
examined. Mr. Bates, District Attorney, acted in be-
half of the crown.
Mr.. Thomas Fitzgerald, I'd mate of the Orestes. was
the first witness called. Mr.. Fitzgerald testified in
substance that he was one of the party sailing in the
boat on Sunday afternoon. When outside the harbor,
q mile and a half 60 windward of the outer buoy,
pretty close in to the breakers, the Captain, (who
had had an alteration with Watson before, at che
time of the surveyors visit) began to handy words
with Watson. He asked him if he would 60 to Mel
bourne in the boat with him, and on Watson's reply
ing in the negative, declared that he would make
him go in the ship. Watson answered that he would
go in neither boat nor ship. The Captain then said
he had read a tract about "Poor Joe," and Watson
remarked that perhaps he meant "Poor Joe'' on
board the Orestes, living on bread and water. The
Captain told him to give him no more insolence, and
on Joe's replying that he was not insolent, he seized
the tiller, "a heavy oak stick, perhaps two inches
in d~iameter) and struck him on the left shoulder;
a second blow was warded off by witness, and the
third blow struck Watson on the right shoulder, and
Watson who had been bailing. sprang up. and ex-
claiming. Capt. Mason you must not kill me in the
boat leaped over the side, as if to seize the boom
some three or four feet from the quarter. He missed
the boom snd fell overheard, and though the Captain
endeavored to approach and save him, their efforts
were Intellectual, owing to the unwieldiness of the
boat and the want of rowlocks. Watson sustained
himself above water some eight or nine minutes, and
finally sank for the third time to rise no more. When
he sank, the boat was perhaps 80 fathoms distant.
Watson was a quiet man. He was q deck hand,
working his passage. Witness had never known him
to be insolent to the Captain, except on one occasion.
when he was in irons in this port.
VIM. Lamb, a seaman, testified substantially to the
same facts as were testified by Fitzgerald. He stated
that the Captain preceded the first blow with the
words. "Q-ny your soul, I'll knock you down with
this tiller if you give me any more of your insolenee''
According to Lambs account, it was the third blow
which Fitzgerald warded of, both first and second
blows having struck the man. Previous to the at
tack, Watson said to the Captain, "You dare not
strike me-"
Mr.. Clements, representative Of the owners of the
Oresfes, testified to some slight discrepancies between
the accounts of the two previous witnesses in the
court room, and the accounts which they had given
to him on board. The discrepancies, however, were
trifing. He said that Watson had been insolent at
times to Capt. Mason, and he hal always appeared
on board to be an unhappy and melancholy man.
Judge Davis ordered that the prisoner be commit
ted to trial for murder in the first degree. before a
jury, at the ensuing term of the Supreme Court. A
subsequent motion by Mr.. Montgomery, before the
Chief Justice in Chambers, that the prisoner be adj
to bail, was negatived, on the ground that bail
could not be taken for a person charged as in the
present case, with a capital offense.
In connection with this case, we would state that
and one of mansleughter. Under the charge of MUIR
der of the first degree. q jury can find the prisoner
guilty of either of the inferior degrees. The general
principle of law on which the charge is founded in
present case is embraced in the following two
lines from Russell on crimes - I" Forcing a person
to do an act which is likely to produce his death and
which does produce it, is murder"
BRASS TRUMPETs, TERRAPINs AND ARITHMETICs.
seems a pity that we haven some artist resident
among us, to ''take off, the Polynesian occasionally.
A cute artist would represent a three legged terrapin,
blind in one eye, running a race with a locomotive,
md blowing q split brass trumpet. The above de-
sign is suggested by reading the following in the last
ssue Of the government organ:
we molestly leave it to others to suggest tina. possibly the
under our management, is the ablest edited, the
best commercial and the truest journal of the two"
The public have a faint recollection of a little brag-
ring sheet issued in Honolulu once on q time called
he .New Era and Argus, which aved in "under OUR
and of another sol disant ''literary''
,~phemeral which met the same fate ..under OUR
management" To brag of what ''we'' can do witk
he public money is indeed rery modest while the
public remember we'll what 'we'' didn't do without
IS help, under similar circumstances, But for
'modesty's'' sake, with a corps of tuo editors, one
marine and one commercial reporter and halfa
lozen regular ''snappers- up" all feeding at the pub
c crib, like hungry cormorants, don't make up half
columns with a rehash of what appears in the
qdue rfiser from week tOweek. without ''modestly'
living credit for what you take.
WANTED "A Colburn's Arithmetic or a Multiplication Table
" the use of the Adutrtiser. $500 taels OF opium. at l Is
to l tael, make 4o3S 1-3 ounces and not $500 ounces.
erhaps that IS a misprnt; or there are more than one taei in
he world ?-Poiyaesian.
For heavens sake, when you try TO trip up the
CONNER cial in its bluuders. don't make worse ones
ourselves. with all the above editoriarand "snapper-
corps looking n--don't. "3,70O tnels Of
plum. at ! ! ounce to ! tael, make 1884 ounces
nd not 4O3SA, as the Polynesian nfirms. Per-
APPS that is a %misprint; or there are more than one
ael in the world % Figures will tell .'more than one
lie" sometimes. we know. The spare copy of the
Arithmetic wanted if left with the Polynesian
'rps. will no doubt be highly priced and often refer
ID to in future attempts to make it ''the truest jour-
al Of the two" Perhaps that will do for this week.
~ again, gentlemen sob de goose quill"
ALMOST A SELL-Sail-ho "a whaleship telegraph
land the beach for q while resembled a swarming
i've, every one alive to hear the first news from the
Boats were too few to accommodate all, and
steam tug was crowded with spectators eager to
e and hear the news. In the hurry, the quarter Of
ef, which of old used to be sent as q welcome to