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

soldier to the tips of his fingers, highly edu-
Gated PROFESSIONALISM rare thing then--and
a man of great GOODNESS and presence of mind.
He fell near me in action few months after
ward, when the queen lost one of her most
faithful servants and lost the best friend /
had in the army.
When the Transit struck he was writing in
his cabin on the main deck. The men were
on the point Of rushing up the ladders when
he appeared'suddenly among them, and hold
ing up his hand TO attract attention said, in
his usual clear, calm voice, Its all right,
men; sit down where you are"
The result was instantaneous Men on the
point of panic sat down and stayed there
as quietly and obediently as if on parade.
The officers were all at once ordered down to
stay with their men.
During the voyage one company took it in
turns, week about, to live in a forward COM
partment on the lower deck 1t was a horri-
BILE place, into which no daylight and ex-
tremely little fresh air could penetrate and
the only light was from two or three wretch
edly poor candle lanterns.
1t was my company's week in this horrible
len. ran as hard as could to get down to
it, and as scampered along the main deck
/ could see that the stokers, who were en-
gagged in trying to draw the fires" were
already padding about in water over their
| ankles.
l do not know how long I was kept In that
| dark prison with my men, but l do know
| that they were quite cool and obeyed orders
| as promptly and as cheerfully as if we had
been steering safely on an even keel into
some well known harbor
The ship had struck pointed coral reef,
| which had entered her bottom somewhere
| about the forward part of the engine room.
| All round her was deep water, and the dam
ger was that, as her stern sank and her bow
| rose correspondingly out of the water. she
| would suddenly slip off the coral spike that
| had transfixed her and so disappear alto
gether.
AS stood in that dark compartment, so
| dark that could barely distinguish the mems
faces and felt the de,lk every moment assume
| greater angle with the horizon, l thought
| of this disagreeable fate. cannot say why,
| but the idea of being drowned in a confined
| and dark space struck me at the moment as
something most diabolically and peculiarly
| horrible felt an almost irrepressible long
| ing, not so much for life, but that if l were
to be drowned, the operation shout. take
| place in the open air and in daylight rather
than in a sort of dungeon like trap.
have no doubt this same notion passed
through many a mans brain there as it did
through mine, but not even when at last the
| angle of the deck became steep that the
men had to hold on to the ships sides, or to any
thing they could claw at, was there the least
| grumble or sound of discomfort from any one
Such is the result of military discipline upon
| the mind; the victory Of mechanical obedi-
ence over all doubts or questionings of rea-
son, even over all the natural impulses of the
mind and body together.
| While we were thus cooped up the captain
and his crew had not been idle. All ranks
had shown the greatest presence of mind.
| There was no confusion, and although every
| thing was done with the utmost quickneSS,
there was no hurry
| The boats had been got out and the soldiers,
a company at a time, were taken off to a low
| lying reef about $500 yards from the ship,
| and which was between the ship and the Isl
and of Banca. The reef on which We had
struck was consequently about three and a
| half miles from that shore.
| These seas were then little known and the
| reef, whose acquaintance we had made so
| diSagreeably, was not even marked on our
| very defective charts. 1t was the old story
of being wrecked upon Charybdis, through
| giving Scylla too wide berth. Our master
| had taken extra care to avoid a long coral
| reef, which the chart showed to stretch out
| from Sumatra far into the straits, and in so
| doing he had run us upon the unknown reef
near the opposite shore.
| Our men landed in full uniform, with their
| arms and accouterments and as much am
munition as we could collect. Those local.
ties had then very bad reputation for pi-
| rates and it was deemed desirable that we
should have the means of defending ourselves
| in case of any trouble with them.
| Few prisoners ever hailed an order for
| their release with greater relief and satisfac-
ton than my company did the order for us
| to go on deck.
| How pleasant the fresh air was when we
| got therel Below everything was death like,
the men not being allowed to speak and there
| was nothing we could do. On deck, when we
| reached it, all was hustle and excitement, all
| hands not employed in the boats being busy
| in striving to get up fresh water, food and
| ammunition from below. Nothing was known
| of the Island of BanCa, and we had no idea
whether we should find any fresh water near
the part upon which we were destined to
land From the ship the shore seemed tan
| gled mass of Jungle with no sign of human
habitation anywhere.
Before shutdown we were all, soldiers and
sailors, established in a pleasant bivouac I'M
der wide spreading india rubber trees, to the
surprise and apparent annoyance of the hun
dreds of great balloons, who jabbered round
| us.
| There were two points connected with the
wreck which must not be passed over with