The daily gazette., 1877-08-06
Adventure with Bourbon Pirates
RY G. SYLVANUS.

upon the larbored bow. / knew it to be
the Bourbon Island. The wind was
very light, and the ship not making more
than three knots with the royals and
studding-sails. About the middle of the
forenoon we saw long quiac-built boat
or rather vessel-come out from one of
the coves OF the island. l leveled my
glass upon the craft, and found it to be
full of men. Thkre were seventy-five at
least.
"Captain, what is she?" asked Savage,
approaching the spot where stood.
81 think there is not much danger in
setting her down fora pirate" 81 replied.
81 have heard that there were a nest of
pirates on the Bourbon Island, and !
think we are lk ely to find ii true"
"Pirates!' uttered Savage, turning pale
"They will be likely to be ugly custo-
mers, won't they?"
"Of course they will. Certainly they
outnumber us three to one, and are
in all probability, all of them stout and
reckless fellows"
"But you don't think they will follow
the rule of putting all their prisoners to
death do you?"
"You can judge of that as well as 1 can
was my reply; and then 1 turned to the
men.
Icould see that Savage was much fri
ghtened, and, in fact, nearly all were
startled by the appearance of the suspi.
cious boat. The presence of pirate is
not pleasant theme for any one, and more
especially these land pirates, for they
generally make 1t practice to put theil
Il RNns nnrfs IN hot t1,o;,, -
may not be exposed.
We had no carriage-gun, but there
were cutlasses and pistols enough on
board for the crew, and lost no time in
arming my men. All told, we mustered
forty one men. The ships crew, includ-
ing 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
a pistol, and that was something. BY the
time had made these arrangements, the
quiac was within two cables lengths oi
us, and we could see that there were
nearly eighty men on board of her-not
so great odds as we had at first supposed
but still two to one against us. We could
see, too, that they were all of them power
ful-looking fellows, and of all shades and
comprehension some of them white, some
red, some brown and some black.
L arranged the men close to the bull
wark, with what muskets we could mus
i Grand then turned to seelif Legrand wa.
upon deck. he stood by the cabin com
panion-way with a sword in his hand,
and with two superbly mounted pistols
stuck in his belt. The sword had no
looo,, hacora on1 Of nonrSa ;,,doad bof a
must be his own. 1t was broad anC
heavy, of the most exquisite polish, and
mounted in hilt of gold and preciou,
stones. was for the moment chained
to the, scene. The youth looked mos
strangely, His face was yet pale and
calm, but its expression was changed
wonderfully changed The fire of hi:
eyes was deep and intense, and the usua
sedate, melancholy expression had giver
place to sort of exultant, smiling salts
faction. did not speak to him. l saw
that be stood over the place where hi
mother had found refuge. ,-...
BY this this time the quisc was nea
Iy alongside. waited until the m,
ment for pistol, shooting came ant
then gave the order to fire. Their
was loud wild yell from the boat ant
} on the next moment she struck ou
side and the pirates began to clambe
up our rigging. Our shot had not don
much execution for nearly all who ha,
eat in the quiac leaped for the ship
We beat them back as well as we coul,
but they began to gain upon us, and a
length my men gave way. i urget
them all could but the bloody pi
rates came on in such wild fury tha
to stay Them seemed impossible.
Savage fell back to the poop and hi
companions followed him. The pirate
struck down three of my men, and tn
rest fell back to the opposite side q
the deck. BY hasty count made ou
that there were about seventy of tn
, enemy, and We had thirty eight lef
For u few moments there was muuts
suspension of hostilities. The pirate
had all gained the deck-all that wer
alive and their chieftain stepped OF
10 front of them He was a Spaniar
q but spoke English we'll.
4 "Doyou surrender your ship?" b
asked.
'Of course we surrender" spok
Savage seeing that hesitated, wv