Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-08-10

tainted away, and what took place while
was unconscious was new clearly related
to me-
The crew had determinetf1o interfere, and
their action excited the captain and mate to
terrible degree. The former had a revolver
In his pocket, and when the crew refused to
60 forward he fired at and wounded one of
them. This brought on a fight, in which both
officers and one of the sailors were killed. It
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 / re-
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 IL could be determined what should be
done, and he did so. The three dead men
we're prepared for burial in the usual way,
and launched over the side without service,
and an hour after the fight not a 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 II
was the first duty of the mate to set a 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. 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 450 miles
out of Sydney when the murders occurred
We therefore had a voyage of !, 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-
cd 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 a change In the
weather occurred. After about a 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 was the only one who could
navigate a 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
VNtV- fA aud rlnr- "a
port and sell brig and cargo and divide the
money. This was booted at by the more in
telligent, and gave rise to further ill feeling
The brig had light or contrary winds and
made slow progress, and at the end of two
weeks the situation on board could not have
been much worse. There were nine of us.
including the cook, a black man, and each
man of them seemed determined to do as he
pleased. All messed in the cabin and all
had access to the liquor, and as conse-
quence fights frequently occurred, and there
we're times when the brig had close shaves
from being made a 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 10 the course orig
inally agreed upon, and he was honest IN
what he said. After run of some twenty-five
days he announced that we were 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 the easternmost island in the
group Is 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
for. a,,1 a 81
binsd 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 was 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
whatever suited them, divided up the sum of
81, $50 found on board, and werS ready to
bore holes in the briggs bottom
For two days had been i'll of fever and |
confined to my bunk. | knew from the CON |
around me what was going on. and |
at noon, when one of the men brought me a |
cup Of Cruel, he 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 a British man-of-war. All sail |
had been taken off the brig, so that she was |
SIMPLY drifting 1t was the sight of the man |
of-war which had hurried our crew off so |
suddenly. In about an hour she came up, |
and, after a crew had been put aboard both
vessels stood in and came to anchor in a bay.
and then boats were sent out for the mutt
neers. Not even a sight of them was ever
obtained. Ten years later it was known that
they made landing on one of the small
Islands, were secreted 10y the natives until the
ship sailed, and every one of them was then
knocked on the head for the sake of the
plunder.
was taken back to Sydney, and later ON to
England, and as | was the only survivor nv
story was told and retold in the courts and
press until the whole world had the details
New York Sun