Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1889-12-06

= ana their acuon excited the Captain An
mate to n terrible degree The former ha
a revolver in his pocket. and when II
crew refused to go forward he fired at an
wounded one Of them This brought on
fight, in which both officers and one of tn
: sailors were killed. 1t was rebellion-nc
mutiny. The sole idea OF the crew was I
protect me from further cruelty. In carry
ing this out murder was done and all wer
liable to the gallows. The dead bodie
We're lying on deck when I recovered con
sciousness, while the men had congre
gated in the waist of the brig for consulta
tion. The second mate, whose name wa
Chapman, had sympathized with the crew
although he had no hand in the fight. IL
was now asked TO take command of th
brig until it could be determined wha
should be done, and he did so. The three
dead men were prepared for burial in tn,
usual way and launched over the side with
out service, and an hour after the fight no,
Il trace of it was LETT
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 n signal of distress, but of course
nothing Of the sort was done. Under the
| law he houla head r04 tue nearest port
and there surrender brig and crew, bur III
course he had no thought of this. While
he had not melted the crew to resistance,
| he hal not come to the aid ot the officers.
| Ii would have been easy 10 prove his sym
pathy for me, and that would have made
| him the accessory of the crew. II was re-
allied that all had Outlawed themselves,
and the question was where to go and
what To do with the brig. IL 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 over 450 miles out of Sid
| ncy when the murders occurred We
therefore had voyage of quite ! 500 miles
before W..
For the first week the 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 occasions we were passed
so closely that we had to signal our num-
her and report all well. On the third day
a man-oi-war exchanged signals with us,
aud through some bungling on our part hls
| suspicious seemed to have been aroused,
and he would perhaps have boarded us had
not change in the weather occurred.
After about a week, however, the men be-
gan to get independent and to bring for
ward new plans. and there was no longer
any harmony among the crew. While
Chapman was the only one who could nav.
| igate 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 pirate, and Others wanted to run into
some port aud sell brig and cargo and di-
vide the money. This was hooted at by
the more intelligent and gave rise to fur
| thcr illfeeling.
| Tho 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, n 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 u
and sonetifhcf glhltt chs .leeG2!aptlg.- -9ecareds
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 satisii-
ed them that he was holding to the course
originally agreed upon, and he was honest
in what he said. After run oi some
twenty five days he announced that we
were approaching the Solomon Islands,
and the men ut once made ready to carry
out their further plans.
One hundred miles southwest of San
| Christoval, which is the easternmost island
of the group, is smaller group called the
| Little Solomons. 1t was this group we
were approaching, and ut that date no
white man had set foot upon them. They
were inhabited by fierce and blood thirsty
natives who combined piracy, wrecking
and fishing, and the mate was for making
for the other group. He was overruled III
this, and when the brig hauled in until the
land could be seen from the deck, tho long
boat was got over and loaded. The mer
intended to play the part of eastaways, and
had u 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. Al
noon, after working all the morning. they
had loaded the boat with whatever suited
them, divided up the sum of 81, $50 fount
on board, and were ready to bore holes il
the briggs bottom.
For two days had been i'll of fever ant
confined To my bunk. ] knew from thu
conversation around me what was gcinl
on, and at noon, when one of the mel
brought me 4 cup of Cruel, he said w
should soon be off Half an hour later thu
brig became so quiet that | grew airaiC
and, with great effort, crawled ON deck
The long boat was mile away, with every
man in IL. About four miles To the west
coming up under a light breeze, was
British man-of- war All sail had beer
taken off the brig, so that she was simply
drifting. It was the sight of the man-of
war which had hurried our crew off 80 sud
denly. In about an hour she came up
and after Il crew had been put aboard boil
vessels stood in and came TO anchor in
bay, and then boats were sent out for the
mutineers. Not even sight of them wa
ever obtained. Ten years later il wa
known that they made landing on one o
the small islands, were secreted by tn
natives until the ship sailed, and every on
of them was then knocked on the head 10
the sake of the plunder.
was taken back to Sydney and later oi
to England, and as | was the only survive
nv story was told and re- told in the court
and press until the whole world had tn
details.
A Good Opportunity.
Fond Lover-"Is your pa in, Adder
Gentle Maiden - ayes; but you ma.