Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-05-20
A Sailors Strange Story.

TALES OF ADVENTURE THAT READ LIKE A
CHAPTER FROM CAPTAIN MARYATT.
From the Philadelphia Press.
81 have had pretty tough experience since
was last in this port" said Robert r. Jeffrey,
first mate of the brig Charles Purves, which ar
rived at Almond street wharf yesterday from
Cuba. 81 have been fighting natives in Pata-
gonia and working silver mines illegally.
have been captured by an Argentine man-of-
war and set at liberty all within the last two
years. It happened in this way: About two
acquaintance, Captain CullOm. He told me he
had just purchased the brig Eliza Thompson
mines which he had discovered about a year
before. He asked me to join him. / knew
where the mines were located and went into
the scheme without much cOaXing. He was
then loading the vessel with iron consigned to
parties in Rosario, Brazil We left New York
the next week with crew of seven men, for
every one of whom we had rifles and a brace of
revoivers, with which to fight the natives. We
reached Rosario without incident and dis
charged our cargo. Five men We're added to
yer mines with a crew of twelve men, captain
and mate.
and ten of us, including the captain, started Off
to work the mines. They were found to be full
of silver. The men went to work with WILL
the rich Jumps of ore seemed TO impart new
life to all of us and we began to imagine our
selves millionaires. After we had been there
about a week band of natives discovered us
Every man seized his rifle and we sent one vol
ley at the savages, which killed two of their
number and put the others to flight. From
that time on there were Scrimmages daily be-
tween our men and the Patagonians. Mingled
with the silver we found great quantity of
nitre in the mines, and, after working them for
about two months, We started for Montevideo
with 300 tons of silver ore and 800 tons of nitre
The captain disposed of his cargo at that place
and cleared ZOO over all expenses, including
the cost of the brig.
"After lying in port for several weeks and
stocking the vessel with provisions, we started
on a second expedition. In this We were not so
fortunate. We had been at the mines only two
days when squad of about thirty natives sur
prised u.s. Before we could reach our guns two
of the sailors, Dutchman and a Swede, both
of whom had shipped at Rosario, were pierced
by the poisoned arrows. We had sharp fight
after that and killed number of the natives
before we could drive them Off. We took our
wounded on board the brig, but they died in a
short time. The poison went all through them,
and their veins swelled to five times their natu-
raj size. After that day we had a man on guard
all the time, and did not lose any more men In
fights. About three weeks after we had landed
for our second cargo, an Argentine man-of-war
swooped down on US suddenly and took us all
prisoners. We were taken to Buenos Ayres and
placed in a fort. Capt. Cuiiom received permits
him he fixed matters somehow, and we were all
released the next day, which was the 18th of
January last. The Argentine government,
however, sold the brig and received "a 900 for
her.
"Capt. Cullom afterward learned that parties
In MOntevideo, who had seen us dispose OF the
cargo, had informed the government officials,
sailed for Cuba ON the first vessel out and
then shipped on the Puryes,"