Wichita eagle., 1889-08-25

Fight, and the sea smooth, ana few fatnoms
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 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
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 I saw that much and then
tainted away, and what took place while
was unconscious was never clearly related
to me-
The crew had determined to interfere, and
their action excited the captain and mate to
terrible degree. The former had revolver
in his pocket and when the crew refused to
go forward he fired at and wounded one of
them. This brought on fight, in which both
officers and one OF the Tors were killed. 1t
was rebellion-not mutiny. 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 I re-
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 it
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
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 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 It 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 40 miles
out of Sydney when the murders occurred.
We therefore had q voyage Of l 500 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
well On the third day man-of-war exchang
ed signals with us, and through some bung-
ling on our part his suspicious seemed to
have been aroused, and he would have per-
haps boarded us had not q change in the
weather occurred. After about week, how
ever, the men began to get independent and
to bring forward new plans, and there was
no longer any harmony among the crew
While Chapman wss the only one who could
navigate a ship, and while be had been put
In charge of the brig, the men finally 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 bad light or contrary winds and
made slow progress, and at the end Of two
weeks the s@uation on board could not have
been much worse. There were nine Of us,
including the cook, black man, aud each
manTof them seemed determined to do as he
pleased. All messed IN the cabin, and all
had access TO the liquor. and as a 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 he was holding to the course orig
inally agreed upon, and be was honest In
what he said. After run Of some twenty-five
days he announced that we we've approach
ing the Solomon Islands, and the men at
once made ready to carry out their further
plans.
One hundred miles southwest Of San Chris
toval, which is tie easternrost island in the
group, is q smaller group called the Little
Solomons 1t WAS this group we were APP
preaching, and at that date no white man
had set foot upon them. They were inhabited
by fierce and bloodthirsty natives, who COM
bined piracy, wrecking and fishing, and the
mate was for making for the other group.
He was overruled in this, and when the brig
had hauled IN until the land could be seen
from the deck the long boat Yves got over
and loaded The men Intended to play the
part of castaways, and had a story all fixed
up. They erased the name Of the boat, and
took nothing aboard which would betray the
identity of the brig, which they meant to
scuttle. At noon, after working all the
morning, they had loaded the boat with
81 $50 found on boarl, and were ready to
bore holes in the brig bottom.
For two days had been Ill Of fever and
confined to my bunk. knew from the con-
versation around NE what was going on, and
at noon, when one of the men brought me q
cup of Cruel be said we should soon be of.
Half an hour later the brig became so quiet
that | grew afraid and with great effort
crawled on deck. The long boat was a mile
away, with every man in it About four
miles to the west, coming up under light
breeze, was British man-of-war All sail
had been taken of the brig, so that she was
simply drifting 1t was the sight Of the man
of-war which had hurried our crew OF 50
suddenly In about an hour she came up,
and, after a crew had been put aboard both
vessels, stood in and came 70 anchor In a bay,
and then boats were sent out for the mutt
ueers- Not even q sight Of them was ever
obtained Ten years later It was known that
they made Landing on one Of the small
islands, were secreted by the natives until the
ship sailed, and every one Of them was then
Knocked on the bad for the sake Of the
plumber
Twas taken back 70 Sydney, and later or 70
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