Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1888-06-16

report tnat ! had been shaken into the
| sea and drowned No boat would be sent
| out after the storm abated. and no boat
would coast Penang island on the chance
of my having reached il The ship would
proceed on her way as soon as possible,
and whatever was done for me must be
done by myself
About II o'clock that night the storm
abated, the sky cleared up, and light
| wind came out of the northwest to help
the ship on her way through the straits
| distinctly heard them weighing the
anchor and but for fear of sharks would
have swan out to her She was too far
off to make my voice heard. even had
dared to raise it As soon as the rain I'D
wind ceased heard voices plainly enough
all around me- and shout or two from
me would certainly have resulted in my
discovery Bedraggled. chilly and discon
solate, ! wore the night away, and at the
| first signs of dawn | crawled further back
into the woods. The island today is
mostly cleared. having been burned over
several times, but at that date il was a
solid forest. The tropical vegetation was
needed by the pirates as a cover They
had erected several barracks and store
houses. and these were in natural open
ing about half mile below the spot where
! was washed ashore At that spot was
an opening in the reef, with natural
harbor Before moving looked for the
ship and found her gone, and then knew
that | must depend solely upon myself to
get out of the scrape.
| went back into the dense woods for q
mile before coming to a halt There were
parrots. monkeys and snakes in plenty,
and the vegetation was so dense that ]
could hardly penetrate it saw from the
first that there was an abundance of wild
fruits and cocoanuts. and in going the
mile came across two fine springs No
matter how many people there were on
the island | stood good chance of es
Gaping them as long as held to the woods.
for there We're no beaten paths and the
tameness of the birds and monkeys was
proof that they had not been much dis
turbed The sun came out hot after
while and dried my clothes, and when
had picked up a breakfast | sat down to
plan. had been through the straits sew
eral times. and knew that the narrowest
part was at least 200 miles below me
There. opposite the islands of the north
coast of Sumatra, the straits were not
over twenty miles wide. and the channel
ran within 1--WE miles of the Malay coast
If was to get of by way of a ship,
must find and steal craft of some sort,
and either put to sea or reach the main
land and follow the coast down how
ever. failed to settle fully on any plan.
and finally went to sleep. and though
the monkeys and parrots chattered
in my ears. and a dozen snakes
may have crawled over me, slept like
a log for many hours. and awoke to find
the day nearly gone therefore hunted
about for supper, hid myself away in
lot of vines, and put in another night
Next morning had narrow escape |
was moving about in search of breakfast,
being now very sharp set, and had climbed
tree to get at some wild fruit. when ]
heard person making his way through
the forest, and soon thereafter a Malay
passed directly beneath me He was
fancifully dressed. heavily armed. and
without doubt one of the pirates He
was moving cautiously. but not like one
in search of anybody. and after a minute
dismissed the fear which had arisen at
sight of him had not been seen, and 1t
was hardly possible that my presence on
the island was suspected As may be
supposed. kept very quiet until the fel
lOW ilstu p1sStu Out OI nearing " nat
troubled me most was the fact that he
disappeared in the direction intended to
take. thereby giving rise to the fear that
there were settlements on both sides Of
me However, after about an hour !
headed down the island. and when had
gone couple of miles and found no break
in the forest ! was somewhat reassured.
The country soon became very rough
and stony. and. although this rid ne Of
the thickets. ! had to cross some ravines
which tried my legs exceedingly When
| had crossed two descended into third,
and. as it seemed to trend to the east,
which was very nearly my direction, |
followed it instead of clambering out.
At the bottom was a rivulet, which prob,
ably became river after long spell Of
wet weather | kept a sharp lookout
around me- but there was not the slight
est evidence that any one had ever passed
that way before After walk of half q
mile the ravine bore off to the left, and
selected spot to climb out. 1t was
right among the thick bushes. in order
that the noise | should make would
frighten away any lurking serpents, and
| had drawn myself up about fifteen feet,
when bowlder on which ! stepped sank
under my feet into the earth, and as i
went over backward heard a smothered
yell from the earth. | was terribly scared
for moment, and as picked myself up |
listened for a minute or two to see If the
sounds would be repeated. All was quiet,
however. and | seized bush and pulled
myself up to where the stone had sunk
There was a hole in the earth as large as
a bushel basket. and | saw that a cave of
some sort existed below. 1t took five min
utes of looking around to find it. as the
mouth was cunningly hidden by vines, but
as soon as found it knew that human
beings had been there. 1t was a hole
about twenty five feet long, and at the
spot where the cave was it was twenty
feet high could enter the mouth only
on hands and knees, and did not go far
in until the light which came down as
sured me that it was vacant And yet il
was not As crept in to where the rock
had crushed through found that it had
fallen upon a man-very probably the
native had seen early in the morning
He had been sitting down. and the big
stone had fallen upon his head and crushed
him ont of shape The yell ! heard was
his death cry | was ready to crawl out
and take to my heels as | made this dis
covery. but another detained me. The fall
OF rock anu ulrt nad hnockeu over u uorcn
which the man had lighted. and now bit
of flame dared up all of q sudden to show
me that the cave contained boxes and
baskets. dug out the torch, blew up the
flame. and became dumb with astonish
ment. II was a treasure cave-the recep
tacle Of the pirates plunder.
have been told by Malavs, who have
been Penang pirates that uider the rules
which bound those rascals together q
treasurer was chosen for every gang
Everything of value was turned over to
him to care for. and once in about every
two years he made a division of the spoils
This treasure had to be zeaiously guarded.
and in this instance 1t was so carefully
hidden that no one but the treasurer could
have found it He had come in advance
of mo IN add fraSh DIupdar IN the rraaf