San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-09-17

cuffed and maltreated in every way captain
and mate could think Of, and was more than
once rendered insensible by their cruelty. l
heard the men cursing the officers for their
conduct, and encouraging each other TO in
terfere. but | was passive. Indeed, after
heating or two, | was so harried that could
scarcely remember my own name. On the
afternoon of the fourth day, soon after din
ner. while | was forward with the watch
and assisting the sail maker to repair sail,
the first mate called me aft The wind was
light and the sea smooth, and few fathoms
astern of the brig was an enormous shark.
1t had occurred to the two brutes to have
some fun with me. The mate noOsed rope
and passed it around my waist, and then,
while | struggled and shrieled 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
captain and mate laughed uproariOusly, and
the latter had picked me up to 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 l
was unconscious was never clearly related
to me
The crew had determined to interfere, and
their action excited the captain and mate to
a terrible degree The former had a revolver
in his pocket, and when the crew refused to
90 forward he fired at and wounded one Of
them. This brought on fight, in which both
officers and one of the sailors were killed. IL
was rebellion-nOt mutlny. 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
1 L. L., l,-, l1fly | 70
covered consciousness, while the men had
congregated in the waist of the brig for con-
sultation The second mate, whose name was
Chapman, had sympathized 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 ii
was left.
When the question of what should be done
came up for discussion most of the men were
appalled, at the seriousness of the case. 1t
was the first duty of the mate to set signal
of distress, but, of course, nothing of the
sort was done Under the law he should
head for the nearest port and there surrender
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 accessory 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. 1t was
finally decided 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 more than $50 miles
out of Sydney when the murders occurred.
We therefore had voyage of |, 800 miles be-
fore us.
For the first week men could not have be-
haved more sensibly. The discipline was
good, and all were under proper restraint.
We were sighting vessels daily, and on sew
eral occasions we were passed so closely that
we had to signal our number and report all
we'll On the third day man-of-war exchang-
ed signals with us, nd through some bung-
ling on our part his suspicious seemed to
have been aroused, and he would have per
haps boarded US had not a change in the
weather Occsrred. After about week, how
ever, the men began to get independent and
no longer any harmony among the crew.
While Chapman was the only one who could
navigate a ship and while he had been put
in charge of the brig, the men f2ally refused
to do any work beyond that of sailing the
| craft. Some openly advocated that we turn
| pirate, and others wanted to run into some
| port and sell brig and cargo and divide the
money. This was hooted at by the more in
! telligent, and gave rise to further i'll feeling
/ The brig had light or contrary winds and
made slow progress, aud at the end of two
! weeks the situation on board could Mt have
| been much worse. There were nine of us,
! including the cook, black man, and each
man Of them seemed determined to do as he
! pleased. All messed IL the cabin, and all
! had access to the liquor, and q conse,
| quence fights frequently occurred, and there
were times when the brig had close shaves
! from being made wreck. On one occasion
! the men charged the mate with playing
them false and with planning to deliver
them up to justice, but he somehow satisfied
them that be was holding o the course orig,
| mally agreed upon, and he was honest IN
! what he said After run Of som" twenty-five
| days he announced that W Wery a.u."oa"h-
in the Solomon Islands, and .ha .rru 81
once made ready t. carry out their f.rrhrr
plans
On, hundred miles southwest Of San Chris
tova!, which Is lie easternmost island in the
group, is a s:aailr group called the Little
Solomons. 1t was this group we were APP
preaching, and at that date no white man
had set foot u,on them. They were inhabited
by fierce and hIooItLusty natives who com
bined piracy, wreo&tns and fishing, and the
mato was for making for the other group.