The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-10-31

while lying unconscious he and the
first mate kicked me several times.
When came to | was ordered forward
among the men. They gave me kind
words, satisfied my hunger and thirst,
and hoped the worst was over. 1t was
not. however. At about noon | was
called aft, and after the Captain had
interrogated me as to my identity and
why had selected his vessel, he gave
me another beating and turned me
over to the mate with the words:
''You can have him now, and hope
you Il kill him before the week is out y
"Aye, sir, leave that to me-" was
the reply, 'TH find dozen ways t .
make him wish he'd never been bor- Il. ~
had committed an offense, br e moth
ing deserving such punishmc. mt as I re-
ceived for the next three days. was
flogged,. kicked, csuffe1s,, and maltreated
in every way Captain and mate could
think of, and was more than once rem
dered lnsen sible by their cruelty. l
nearo- the men cursing the officers for
theT conduct, and encouraging each
o. sher to Interfere, but / was passive
Indeed, after a beating or two, was
so harrled that could scarcely rene m
Der my own name. On the afternoon
of the fourth day, soon after dinner.
while l was forward with the watch
and ssisting the sailmaker to repair
a SAIL the first mate called me aft. The
wind was light and the sea smooth
and few fathoms astern of the brio
was an enormous shark. 1t had oc-
CURED to the Swo brutes to have some
fun with me. The mate noosed a rope
and passed it around my waist and
then, while I struggled and shrieked
and begged for mercy, he carried me
TO the port quarter and dropped me
overheard for shark bait. The shark
made rush for me, but was hauled up
just In advance of his jaws. The Cae>
tain and mate laughed uproarieUsly,
and the latter had picked me up to
Z drop me from the other quarter when
the entire crew came running aft. |
saw that much and then tainted away,
and what took place while was un-
conscious was never clearly related to
me.
The crew had determined to inter-
fere, and their action excited the. Cap
tain and mate to a. terrible degree. The
former had a revolver in his pocket,
and when the crew refused to go for
ward he fired at and wounded one of
them. This brought on a fight. in
which both officers and one of the sailors
were killed. 1t was rebellion-not
m utiny. The sole idea of the crew was
to protect me from further cruelty. In
carrying this out murder was done and
all were liable to the gallows. The dead
bodies were lying on deck when [ re-
covered consciousness, while the men
had congregated in the waist of the
brig for consultation. The second mate,
whose name was Chapman, had sym-
pathized with the crew, although he
had no hand in the fight. He was now
asked to take command of the brig
until it could be determined what
should be done, and he did so. The
three dead men were prepared for
burial in the usual way, and launched
over the side without service, and an
hour after the fight not trace of it
was left.
When the question of what should
be done came up for discussion most
of the men were appalled, at the seri-
BUSINESS of the case, It was the first
duty of the mate to set signal of dis
tress, but, of course, nothing of the
sort was done. Under the law he
should head for the nearest port and
there surrender brig and crew, but, of
course he had no thought of this.
While he had not melted the crew to
! resistance, he had not come to the aid
of the officers. 1t would have been
easy to prove his sympathy for me, and
that would have made him the acces-
sorry of the crew, 1t was realized that
all had outlawed themselves, and the
question was, where to go and what to
do with the brig. It was finally deci-
ded to haul up for the Solomon
Islands. The brig was bound home
through Torres Strait, as she had two
ports of call to make before reaching
the Cape of Good Hope, and we were
not over 450 miles out of Sidney when
the murders occurred. We therefore
had voyage of quite 1,500 miles be-
fore us.
For the first week men could not
have behaved more sensibly. The dis
cipline was good, and all were under
proper restraint. We were sighting
vessels daily, and on several occasions
we were passed SO closely that we had
to signal our number and report all
well. On the third day man-of-war
exchanged signals with us, and through
some bungling or our part his suspic-
ions seemed to have been aroused, and
| he would perhaps have boarded US had
not change in the weather occurred.
After about week, however, the men
began to get independent and to bring
forward new plans. and there was no
longer any harmony among the crew