Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1889-10-18

'-A.'"Ns' bNthiNNt tiiut tuC
were up. Crawling to the cover of the
hatci | knocked on it and shouted. and
after little it was opened and l was
helped out. 1t was . o'clock on the
morning of the fourth day. The first
word from the Captain was curse, and
his first act was to swing me about the
oeck by the hair Then he called for a
rope and beat me until tainted away,
and while lying unconscious he and the
first mate kicked me several times
w hen came to was ordered forward
among the men. They gave me kind
words, satisfied my hunger and thirst,
and hoped that the worst was over. 1t
was not, however. At about noon I was
called aft, and after the Captain had in
tcrrogatcd me rs to my identity aud why
| had selected his vessel, he gave me
another Boating, and turned ne over to
the mate with the words:
''Iou can have him now, and 7 hope
you'll kill him before the week is out"
"Ayc, sir, leave that to me-" was the
reply. "Tll find dozen ways to make
him wisl, he'd never been born"
l had committed an offence, but moth
ing deserving such punishment; us re-
ccivcd for the next three days. l was
logged, kicked. cuifcd and maltrcatcd in
every way Captain and mate could think
Of, and WAS more than once rendered in
sensible by their cruelty. l heard the
men cursing the officers for their con
duct, and encouraging each other to in
tcrfcrc, but was passive. Indeed, after
beating or two. | WAS so harricd that |
| rnllI Sf,Irf.nlt. ,,I,
On the afternoon of the fourth dav, soon
after dinner, while was forward with the
watch and assisting the saimakcr to re-
pair Il sail, the first mate called me aft
The wind WAS light and the sen smooth,
AMI few fGthDms astcrn of the BRIG was
an enormous shark. 1t had occurred to
the two brute: to have some fun with me
The mate nooscd rope and passed il
around my waist, and then, while
struggled and shr;ckcd and begged for
mercy. he carried me to the port quarter
and dropped me overheard for Shark
bait. The Shark made IL rush for me,
but WAS hauled up Just in advance OF
his jaws. The Captain and mate laughed
urr1ariouSly, and the latter had picked
me ny 10 drop me from the other quarter
when tue entire crew came running aft
| saw that much. and then tainted away.
and wha. too! place while I was mcon-
s"iou9 Was never clearly related to me.
The crew hal determined to interfere,
and their action excited the Captain and
mate to n terrible degree. Thi,c former
had Il revolver in Ills pocket, and when
the crew refused to 20 forward he fired ut
and wounded one OF them. This brough;
on fight, i'll which both officers aud one
OF III" sailors were killed Il was rebel
lioh-nnt mutiny. The sole idea Of the
crew WIS to protect me from further
cruelty. In carrying this o;,l murder was
done and NIL We're liable to the gaiiows.
The dead bodies were lying ON
~ deck when recovered con
seriousness while the men had congrcgat-
cd in the waist of the brig for consul..-
ton. The second msic whose name was
Chsnmsn, had sympa;hizcd with ;ir
crcH although he had no hand in the
fight. He was nov asked to take com
mnad Of the brig until il could b. deter
mined what should he done. ana he did
50. The three mon were prepared for
burial in the usual Way, and launched
over the side without service. and an
hour after the light not a trace of il was
left.
When the question Of what should he
done CANE up for discussion most of the
men were appalled, at the seriousness o:
the case. II WAS the first duty of the
mate to set Il signal of distress, but, OF
course, nothing of the sort was done.
Under the law lie should head for the
nearest port an'i 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. It would have
been easy To prove his sympathy for me,
and TIN, would have made him the acccs-
sorry OF the crew. 1t WAS realized tina.
all had outlawcd themselves. and the
question WA, where to go and what to do
with the brig. 1t WAS finally decided to
hnu! up for the Solomon Islands. The
brig was bound homc through Torres
Strait, as she had two ports of call TO
make before reaching the Cape of Good
Hope, and we were not over $50 miles
out OF Sidney when the ,nur.
dcrS occurred. We therefore had a vow
age Of quite 1900 miles before us.
For the first week men could not have
behaved more sensibly. The discipline
was good, and all were under proper re-
straint. We were sighting vessels daily,
and on several occasion we were passed
so closely that we had to signal our num-
Der and report all well. On the third
day man -of-war exchanged signals with
MS, and through some bungling on our
par. his suspicious seemed to have been
aroused, and lie would perhaps have
boarded lis had not change in the
weather occurred. After about a week,
however, the men began TO get indcpend-
ent and to bring forward new plans.
and there was no longer any harmony
among the crew While Chapman was
the only one vino could navigate Il ship,
and while he 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 di-
vide the money. This was hootcd at by