Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1873-05-29
kind of half choked whisper: 'sur

4 OId every OlIC SlSG LudI uesITO HlllI. L Ills
was just at the close of the war between
Brazil and Buenos Ayres; and the eastern
| coast was swarming with ex-privateers
who had been thrown out of work by the
| peace, and didn't care whom they attacked
so losg as there was anything to be got by
1t. For one moment we thought of show
ing fight; but that idea wouldn't hold wa
| ter. Not a cutlasS nor pike was there on
| board, let alone firearms; and our crew were
the most innocent set you can imagine;
| quiet easy-going Westland Scotchmen
mostly married men, with broad good-na-
tured, simple faces, like the villagers in
pantomime. The very sight Of them would
| have been enough to re assure any pirate
on earth, and the only thing left to be
done was to try Stratagem. So the cap
tain gave orders to rig up as many dunn
mics as possible, with spars and old jack
cts, to look as if we mustered pretty
| strong; every one began to conceal their
valuables; put my gold watch (this very
one) among the grounds of the coffee pot,
| the surgeon slipped his case Of instruments
under loose plank, and our skipper hid
the chTonometer. Meanwhile the pirate
for there could be no mistake about her
now was coming down upon us like a vul-
ture; she ran across our bows (to do her
justice she was beautifully handled), came
about like flash, and lay to within easy
hail, so that we could see every face on
board Of her. And rare sight they were!
| There seemed to be no discipline among
them-neither captain or officers; all were
dressed alike. in coarse Guernsey frocks,
taken, no doubt, from some ship which
| they had plundered. There were men of
all nations, Sallow Spaniards and red
faced Englishmen; lean, olivered- coored
Portuguese and brawny, yellow haired Ger
mans; gaunt, hatchet-faced Yankees and
vicious-looking mulattoes. but upon each
and all was that nameless stamp which
marks the man which some great crime has
cut off from his feIlows-the kind of look
that l (and You, too, I..dare say) have seen
many time among the worst class of con-
victS.
1t is always difficult for man to tell
beforehand how he will feel when sud
denly. brought face to face with deadly
peril. l have seen man whose life was
hanging by hair, watch curiously the
NOV ements of spider on his window l,
myself, in the crisis of the deadiest scrape
I ever was in, found leisure to note the pc
culiar shape of cloud in the sky. l re-
member as if it were yesterday, that my
feeling at sight of the pirates was one Of
rage-a kind of angry disgust at the idea
OF such mean-lOoking Tascals daring to at
tack us at all. But had little time to think
of it, for just as the y ran alongside of US,
our skipper, to my astonishment coolly
hailed them. Ship ahoy! What's your
name?
There was pause before they answer
ed-giving some Spanish name, which
forget. Our skipper left them no time to
think about it, but went on: What's your
cargo? Qt's guild to hae first word, Mais-.
ter K-.')
Fish,
That's lee, and big one, SIR said the
captain to me in a Whisper nae fishing YES
sci wad hae less than fowre boats, and yon
Draft has but two. Whaur do you come
frae?' he added aloud.
From the Falkland Isles
How many days"
Nine -=z--z
THAT'S another lee. Master K. nae
vessel could do it In less than sixteen.
Aloud Whaur are you bound for?
'Pernambuco'
Then came pause. We were at the
end Of our questions, and now the pirates
must have their turn. In that terrible in
teryal with the worst of all death staring
US in the face, there came the strangest
wierdest mingling of broad fun with the
black horror that encompassed US. Our
good, simple hearted crew had obeycd the
Captains orders to rig up 'dummis,' by
sticking up lot of spars close together as
the rails of palisade, with old hats and
jackets Tapping upon them like scarecrows
while on the round house itself appeared
an enormous Kilmarnock bonnet, as if
some giant had suddenly risen up through
the very coof. This last absurdity made
the cup of the shippers patience overflow
DlA
ed under his breath, do you think ony mon
wud put his held through room hoose? or
that the blackgeards can be frightened like
craws in a. field? It's enough to make
them board us at once for daurin' to max
| fules o. themh
Ship ahoy! what's your name?
The sharp, stern call fell across his NUT
terings like the cut of sword. The cap
tain started and answered:
The Carron, from Glasgow
What's your cargo?
Goals. CIhere's nae guild tellin' them,
Master k, that we haze Manchester
guilds aboard; they wud cut oor throtts for
the half Of them.)
Where are you bound for?'
Rio de Jaueiro.'
| There was another pause; and then
came searching question: Do you reckon
| by a chronometor or by time"
BY time.'
Then ensued deep silence; and in that
dead hush of expectation 1 could almost
hear the beating of my own heart. The
Captains face looked pinched and drawn
like three days corpse; and the surgeon,
who was standing near me, bit his lip till
the blood ran down. 1t was not the thought
of being killed that troubled us; but to die
butchered like sheep without chance of
resistance, was more than we could bear
We could see that there was hot discus
sion going on among the pirates, and that
many of them We're for boarding US at
once. Hands were pointed at us again and