San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-07-11
A JUST RETRIBUTION.

l was busy among my maps and charts at
| the cabin table when dull, heavy sound,
twice repeated, came through the open win
dows. Dropping everything hurried up on
deck.
The marines were gathered along the rail,
looking off to the right bank of the creek.
WAS that firing heardg" | inquired ea-
gerly.
II think it was the report of a gun, cap
tain" said Lieut. Osborne. 1T came from
the shore, and at distance of scarcely half
a mile"
All listened intently for moment, and
then came a repetition of the sound, and min
gled with it we seemed ID hear a cry
hestated what course to pursue. An in
vestigation ought to be made; and yet to ven
ture off into the forest with handful of
men seemed very risky proceeding, for
these Arab slave dealers are no mean fight
ers and this firing evidently could portend
nothing else than that they were about.
| was in command of a gunboat attached
to the man-of-war Racer, which was sta
toned ON the East African coast, some miles
north of Zanzibar, and which was engaged
in the slave blockade, had been dispatched
some fifty miles up Vannas creek to investi-
gate a rumor that the Arabs had a slave sta
ton near the head waters somewhere.
Up to this time had met with no sue
| cess. The country seemed TO be deserted. OF
course we could not reconnoiter far from the
banks, for our force was small, and suffi-
Gent guard must always be left in charge of
the gunboat
For these reasons hesitated to advance
into the jungle; but two more shots in rapid
succession removed all doubts and | ordered
boat to be lowered instantly.
l landed my little force-a dozen trusty
marines-in a small cove, and we plunged at
once into the forest.
We moved with great caution, and soon
struck rude path that bore traces of recent
travel We continued along this in a south
erly direction, and had marched nearly a
mile when the two men whom | had sent
forward as an advance guard hurried back
at full speed and reported that number of
natives and two white men were only a few
rods distant and creating a considerable dis
turbance.
This information staggered me- What
white men could be doing here was more
than | could understand
We advanced slowly, with rifles in readi-
ness Before us was a break in the forest,
and without any difficulty we gained the
edge of the bush and obtained clear view
of the open.
Some fifty or sixty stalwart negroes were
dancing about and making strange gestures
while few yards away, at the base of a
small hillock, stood two swarthy men. They
were on the defensive, evidently, for they
held rifles in their hands, and three dead ne
groes lay PROSTATE on the ground in front of
them.
Then | saw something else, for in the cen.
ter of the open lay one great mass of glitter
ing white ivory, tossed carelessly in a heap.
1t was an ivory caravan from the interior;
for these negroes belonged to no coast tribes.
What the dispute was about / could not
even guess nor did have time to do so, for
of Il sudden the negroes dashed forward with
a fierce shout The men must have been over
powered in spite of their incessant and deadly
fire, but just at the critical moment we
swept out from the bushes, and the negroes
fell back in amaZement.
The rescued men came forward with out
stretched hands, and | saw on closer view
,hat they were Portuguese.
Senior you have saved our lives" said the
leader, in tolerablY good English. He was
an intelligent looking man Of thirty or thirty
five These scoundrelS were determined to
kill us. My name is Torres" he continued,
and this" pointing to his companion, lis
my friend, CASTILLO. We are ivory traders.
and have brought these natives from the in
terror at great cost. We pledged ourselves
to send them home in safety, but the fools
suddenly made up their minds that we pro
posed selling them to the Arabs, and mad
with rage, they made this sudden attack on
US"
| never did put much faith in Portuguese,
though this man was of better type than
many had met. Still, he might bespeaking
the truth.
hesitated, not knowing what course to
pursue. The negroes were grouped together
at a little distance, sullenly watching our
movements, but making no hostile demon
stTations.
Suddenly one of them came forward, bic,
stalwart fellow, with a leopard skin about
his waist, and stopped in front of me-
He began to jabber out a mixture of bad
English and native African, and, more from
his gestures than from his speech, compre-
hended what lie said. He declared that the
Portuguese intended to sell them into slavery,
and affirmed that he had seen Torres lurking
behind on the previous day to talk to an Arab
that had come out of the forest
He told me that his name was Zuba that
he was a head man in his tribe, and that he
had picked up his Englislrat Zanzibar, where
he had been on several occasions. He knew
that | was English, and that the English
hated the Arabs, so he hoped that would
protect his friends from the Portuguese and
the slave hunters.
Torres swarthy face grew darker as Zuba
poured out his appeal
Ia,