News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-03-15
MORROTINNEE.
Death of a once Famous Pirate who
Lived Alone on an Island.

A vessel, just in from Honolulu,
brings the news of the death of man
whose history is as thrilling as that of
any pirate king of yellow-covered liter
ature. Twenty-Five years ago he was o
pirate king as brave and as wicked as
pirate kings always are. Since then he
has been Il hermit. In the days of his
wickedneas and power he commanded a
vessel called the Red Cloud, stanch, I'M
usually fast and furnished with perfect
guns. Periodically this carmine red
craft disappeared from the sea, and in
her place would come another, all in
sombre black and named the Black
Cloud. This piece of theatrical effect
which cost nothing moe than little
paint, had its expected influence upon
the superstitious minds of the sailors
who were sometimes sent in pursuit of
the vessel. Most of them fully believed
that there was something uncanny about
the craft and that her captain had su-
pernatural help. In those days he was
the terror of the South Pacific seas, and
the British Government set big price
upon his head. Hundreds of attempts
were made to capture him by fair fight
and by traps, and by every means that
could be devised. But he eluded all
the traps, came out victorious in all the
fights, and i'll every case sailed away
with the traditional scornful laugh of
the pirate king. He had o Spanish
name which nobody remembers now,
and he was supposed to belong TO that
nationality, although he spoke Spanish,
English, French and German with equal
huency.
At last young English nobleman,
loving adventure and desirous of the re-
ward, untertook to capture him. After
cruising around in the Pacific for some
time he came, late one afternoon, di-
rectly upon the Red Cloud. The buc-
cancer spoke to the Englishman, asking
where she was bound and what she had
on board. The reply was that they were
looking for the pirate, that they knew
they were talking to him and that he
had better give himself up at once.
In an instant bright lights appeared
all over the Red Cloud, and the captain
answered in good English, 81 will see
you in Tophet first" Then a cannon
ball whizzed through the air, but it was
aimed too high and passed above the
vessel. 'T will see you there" " shouted
back the Englishman, and a broadside
from his guns, aimed low, sent the Red
Cloud to the bottom of the sea. But the
buccaneer escaped, and not long after
wards he and two of his crew appeared
in a rowboat on the barren Island of
Molokani, which is near the East Mani
Islands of the Hawaiian group. 1t is a
small, barren, rocky place, uninhablted.
There his two companions even left him,
and there he lived alone for twenty-five
years. Since his landing there he was
called only Morrotinnee, the native
name for the island. A sailor who has
been going to and fro from the Sandwich
Islands for ten or twelve years learned
all he could about Morrotinnee, and
says that he was mnch liked and feared
by the natives. They carried to him all
the delicacies to be found in the king
dom and enabled him to lead life of
ease and luxury. They said he was a
tall man, big and commanding, with a
voice ike thunder SO powerful that they
firmly believed that he caused the vino vino
would not allow white men to go neal
the island if they could help it, because
they had been commanded by him, ano
when he died they buried him near the
place where he had lived, with muct
mourning over his departure.