The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1888-06-16

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ter of small schooner plying between the
Spice Islands and Singapore, in the inter
est of an American trader. l do not think
1 made single trip without seeing from
one to dozen of the horrible devil fish.
One day in the Banda Sea it fell dead
calm, and a current drifted us close in upon
an island to the north of the Lesser Timor.
We let 80 the anchor in little bay, and
when the schooner brought up she was in
twelve feet of water and within fifty feet of
the beach. The island was about three
miles long by one broad, and covered with
forest and underbrush. 1t was charted as
uninhabited, except occasionally by pearl
divers or wreckers, and as the weather
bade fair to hold pleasant no anchor was
set. As the weather was hot the sailors
slept on deck, there being one white man
and five natives. Everything passed off
quietly until just in the gray of the morn
ing, when terrible commotion on deck
routed me out. Ii seemed that an octopus
had crawled up the low side of the schoon-
er, perhaps to crafty its curiosity, but see
ing the sleeping men had, perhaps, also to
crafty its curiosity, flung feeler at one
of them and taken such hold of his hand
and arm that he awoke with shout of
pain. The others were also aroused, and
seeing what had happened they seized
whatever weapons were at hand and made
the octopus release its hold | came on
deck Just as it fell into the water alongside
and the splash was as heavy as if man
had fallen overheard A portion of the
feelers which had grasped the sailor had
been broken off by the blows. There were
three or four feet of it, and for time it
squirmed an twisted about on the deck like
a snake. 1t had touched the mans flesh
only in one spot, on the back of his hand,
but he made as much ado over it as one
would with bullet in the leg. 1t was a
horrible wound, however. The flesh was
puckered up and blistered, and the spot
where the cup had taken hold looked like
an erysipelas sore. 1t was long four
weeks before the wound healed, and the
scar left closely resembled that of burn.
had the sailor in the cabin dressing his
hand, and it was twenty minutes after we
had beaten off the octopus, when there was
another cry from the deck, and heard
the men run forward and tumble into the
forecastle and slide the cover. More from
instinct than any thought of danger | closed
the cabin door, then the skylight which
lighted the cabin. There was slide door
in the forecastle bulk-head communicating
with the hold, and also one from the cabin.
After two or three minutes the sailors
came climbing over the oargo-we being
about one-third full-and 1 let them into
the cabin. [ never saw a more frighten-
ed lot of men, and l could not at first be-
lieve the story told. They said that when
the octopus fell into the water he swan off
in the direction of rocky reef on our port
quarter, and distant about 200 feet. Af-
ter few minutes the men noticed con-
siderable commotion in the water, and this
gradually approached. All at once they
made out five or six octopuses at the YES
sells side, and before they drew back and
ran away the monsters were throwing their
feelers over the low bulwarks
There's one of EN-, sir there's one!"
shouted the mate at this moment, and we
turned our faces to the skylight, to see
three or four of the horrible feelers playing
over it. At the same moment the schoon-
er was canted to port with sudden pull all
of the three streaks, or with as much force
as strong pull of wind would have exer-
cishd in the open sea, At this movement
all the natives broke out in yell of alright
and, as 1 sternly rebuked them, one of them
exclaimed:
';Oh! captain, the devil fish have come
aboard, and not one of us can ESCAPED"
There was no longer any doubt that we
were beset by the creatures. There was
not second in which the feelers were not
playing over the skylight, and Others could
be heard fastening to and dragging things
about the deck. As the entire affair was
afterward put in writing, sworn to by every
man on board, and left with the represen-
tative of the British government at Sura-
baya, Island of Java, | shall not hesitate
here to state particulars. The noise on
deck might be likened to row between
four or five men. Everything movable
was being moved and flung about. My
skylight had a hard wood frame and heavy
glass, and the feelers found very little to
grasp. The noise made as the cups fasten-
ed to the glass by suction and let so again
was like the snap Of pair Of pincers.
Looking from the bull's-eye in the stern l
could see that the water was all in COM
motion, although there was not breath of
air outside.
1 had dozen muskets, as many pixies,
several cutlasses, and nine or ten hatchets
in the cabin. This was the schooner's reg
ular armament, for we were continually
among suspicious people. ] let the men
take their choice of weapons, and then di-
vided our force and sent half the number
back to the forecastle, from which they
could open the attack at a signal. Then l
carefully slid back the door of the compan-
ion to get look on deck. The sight was
one no man could ever forget. If there
was one octopus on the port rail there were