Connecticut western news., 1890-04-23
AMONG THE ARABS.

AMONG THE ARABS.
 was stout, active boy of 16 when shipped on small brig called the h. dian Prince for a voyage from the port of Gogho, in the Gulf of Cambria, to the port of Alden. in the gulf of that name While these waters are part of the Indian ocean, they are par ticularized as the Arabian sea- The brig was owned in Gogho, and her captain was well known to my father, who was an English merchant and factor there. My eyes had become weakened from hard study, and it was. decided that 1 should make a sea voyage in hopes to benefit them. l could have gone anywhere in those waters as a passenger, and by the very finest craft, but 1 preferred to go as a regular hand on the tight little brig and have full taste of sailors life. There were two boys of us, captain, mate, cook and two men. The other boy was the captains nephew, and was named Henry Williams. All but the cook were English. Williams was a year older than myself. and had made several voyages.
 We had 8 fair run about half way down the Arabian sea, when the weather suddenly changed and we got heavy gale from the north. As we had to lie to this drifted us long ways to the south, or out upon the In dian ocean; and it was while we were seeking to recover our lost ground, and in the darkness of night, that ship crashed into us and nearly lifted the brig out of water The ship struck us on the port bow, crushed in dozen blanks, and then raked us along the whole side and disappeared in the darkness astern almost before any one had raised his voice to give the alarm.
 It wasn't over twenty minutes from the time we were struck until the brig was at the bottom of the sea, and we were ahoat in yawl. We had breaker of water and 8 bag of biscuits. but nothing was saved from the brig. The watch below did not even save all the clothing they had thrown of on turning in, and the captain was with out a hat and the mate without 8 coat as we counted noses and compared notes.
 An observation taken by the captain at noon had given our position about thirty miles to the east of the island of SOcotra. This island IS 200 miles off the African coast peninsula which pushes out to make the gulf, and we were intending to run between the coast and this island to make our port Being without compass, our course had now to be laid by guess work. The yawl was pro vided with mast and sail, and after we had seen the last of the brig we sailed away to the west. It was the be- | ginning of a voyage of suffering and death. When morning came and the sun rose out of the waters it was seen that we had been steering wide of the course for several hours. A change was at once made, but the weather thickened up until one could not have seen a ship a mile away, the wind hauled to the west, and the island which we expected to see by o'clock | in the morning never greeted our vision. We passed it to the north, | by how many miles no one ever knew, and at the end of two days sailing the captain announced that our only hope was in being picked up by some of the craft voyaging up and | down the gulf
 l This gulf, between the island of So cotra and the Arabian coast, which is its widest part, IS not more than 250 miles wide Craft were numerous even at that day, and the chances seemed ten to one in our favor. On the morning of the fourth day, when | we must have been fairly in the gulf, | we sighted two sailing vessels, but | they were afar of. On this morning 1 the captain was found dead, though | up to 10 o'clock at night he had seemed to be all right and in good spirits He | had laid himself down in the bottom of the boat to sleep, and he must have died without word or a struggle. We were on short rations of biscuit and water, but there was no suffering, and on this morning, too, half an hour af
 ter we had placed the captains body in the bows and covered it with sail, the cook began to rave and curse and demand that he be allowed to eat and drink his fill. We realized that bis mind had given way under the men, tai strain alone. He was looked upon as harmless fellow, and even when
 we found him crazy we took no pre- cautions in his case. This was crim inal oversight on our part, as, about .alf an hour before noon, the sun ecating down very hot, he rose up, drew his knife and declared that he would kill any one who interfered with his eating and drinking He at- tempted to get possession of the water keg, which was in the stern sheets at the feet of the mate, and when re- pulsed he hurled himself upon tho of ficer and stabbed him to death before . hand could be raised to prevent. Then . new horror came upon us. re- sulting from the attempts of the sailors to secure the frenzied native. He re- treated to the bows, shouting and CUTS. ing and waving his bloody knife, and they attempted to beat him down with the oars. The result was that he stabbed one of them in the side, and
 then leaped overboard, and the wound
 ed man died within an hour.
 The sailor now in charge was named
 Johp Paul. He took the helm and
 held the boat as she had been going
 unti about mid-afternoon, and then fA |