The Virginia star., 1881-04-30
Pirates Of the Ladrones.

LM0EO09Gs
With a gentle trade wind the clipper.
ship "Syren" was leisurely running across
the North Pacific ocean on her way to
Hong Kong. Leaving San Francisco w1,b
q stiff breeze from the north'ard, the
ssSyren" quickly struck the Grades" which
renamed fresh for some days, being as
strong as we wished to have them whilst
carrying all sail. Sixteen days out the ship
had accomplished half of her journey, and
at the time we write was approaching the
Ladrone islands. about eighteen hundred
miles distant from her destined port. After
the sixteenth day the wind fel, light and
our heading was necessarily retarded. In
fact we were making very slow progress,
and it looked as though we were gong to
make long passage in lieu of the very
short one which the early days of our Jour
ney had promised.
It was the year of 1854, when the Cri-
mean war was engaging the military talent
and skill of the three greatest European
| nations, and in the progress of which, the
Chinese government was, to great extent,
| more or less interested. The sympathies
| of the Mongolians were decidedly with the
Russians in the sanguinary contest and
the Chinese Mandarlns had secretefy issued
a proclamation that the gum of $25 would
be given to any one bringing an English
mans head to them. Now, this sum to q
Chinaman is a fortune; aud whilst the
Celestials ashore would. whenever they
could do so with impunity, kin white
man and cut off his head to take to the
Mandarins, their piratical iunks cruised
| far out In the Pacific ocean and away down
| the Chinese sea, to fall upon some unlucky
craft, murder the crew; cut off their heads;
plumber the vessel, and then set her ON fire
and destroy her. The junks would also
cruise in company, there seldom being less
| than four together; and when they would
plunder and murder as much as they
deemed fit, would sail for home with their
cargoes of theads, " it being considered that
every cran1um was that of an Englishman
so long as he was white-the black cooks
being murdered and lnceremoniously
thrown overheard.
Now, it was to provide against the casu-
atty of having our heads cut oil, that we
| in the s'Syren" had been making hostile
preparations ever since leaving the vicinity
of the Sandwich islands. We had on board
one dozen old flint-lock muskets half q
dozen condemned Harper's Ferry rifles; a
couple Of dozen short swords and two brass
twelve e-pounders-the latter very servicable
and decidedly useful, barring the fact that
there was neither solid shot nor shell On
board to fit the bore. But sailors are pie
thoric of ideas and several of us were en-
gagged for two weeks in preparing the dread
shot for our heavy armament. A small
board, foot square, In the centre of which
was cut hole the exact size of the bore of
our twelve-pounders, was fitted for the
purpose. Good, sound Irish potatoes were
used as the foundation, around which was
tightly balled long rope yarns until the
requisite diameter was obtained, when they
were tried in the bore of The board, and if
snugly fitting promo lnced all right and
thrown on the pile of balls, which in two
weeks had become quite formidable. Our
skipper took great interest in the making
If these balls and stood by nearly all the
time watching the work, giving directions,
sc. There were but two of us who had
been selected for the important trust, and
the sold man" explained to us that the
balls were only TO be fired at the hallIards<
of the juuK's sails, and that they were of
sufficient solidlty to carry away those ropes,
let the sails come down by the run and
thus prevent them from pursuing us, or
getting near enough to throw their ''stink-
pots'' on board. This information was de-
cidedly satisfactory, and whilst we would
have much preferred the solid iron shot,
yet, were, to great degree, content with
our rope yarn balls. Much time and wit
ticism were consumed over the making and
preparing, but finally the captain told us to
''knock off; that we had enough made"
/ was somewhat dubious about their being
enough. We had made about two hundred
and fifty; and Judging by some gunnery
practice we had had with the small arms, |
was satisfied that not more than five or six
of that number would ever strike the rope
for which they were intended and which
would materially lessen our chances of es-
cape. However, as we were now close up
to the Ladrone islands where we expected
to fall In with some of the piratical craft,
we had no time to make any more, but
kept a sharp lookout for strange sail.
Early one morning as day was about
breaking the lookout on the forecastle sang
out, Gland Ho!" on the starboard bow
few minutes later announcing the fact that
there were a couple of sail off the same
bow and in direct line with the land.
Our skipper was instantly called, and COM
ing on deck in his shirt sleeves, with his
nighs glass, endeavored to peer through
the darkness yet prevailing to discover the
character of the strange craft in sight.
After squint or two be sang out in great
trepidatlon, "They're iunks!"
s'Well |" replied the first mate, who was
standing by and to whom the remark was
addressed.
''Well!'' said the skipper, irritably; don't
you see they are pirates?"
sob +! no; not necessarily
"Why not?"
"Because these junks may be here trad
ing with some of the islands but wait for
daylight, and then perhaps we can tell
better
This was sensible advice, though the
skipper ordered the watch to be called and