The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-07-04

| didn't moan TO spare SOIL OF rs, and they
probably hoped for little shindy to make
matters moro exciting, They got it, sure
enough. At a given signal each ono Of
! their howitzers sent a solid ball whining
at us. Every man raised a yell, and the
| five prahns dashed forward to board Us
We let them come within quarter Of q
mile before we dropped the ports and run
out nine guns, loaded with short fuse shell
and grape, "Bang" "bsnsP' "bangP'
went gun after gun, the muzzle of each de-
| pressed for the short range, and, although
we could see nothing for the smoke, We
heard enough TO satisfy us that great havoc
/ had been wrought.
| While we waited for the smoke to lift
some object dashed against the brig, and
next moment we were being boarded by
about thirty Dyaks. They belonged TO a
prahn which had escaped injury, and you
can judge what manner of men they were.
! While they must have realized that they
had caught Tartar, and while our broad
side had sunk or disabled the other craft,
this solitary one hoped to carry Us by a
| dash. She'd have done it, 200, had we been
merchantmen, for she reached US under
cover of the smoke, and no sooner had we
felt the shock of contact than twenty-five
or thirty swarthy fellows were on the rail.
We opened on them with our pistols and
then sailed in with the steel, but before we
had overcome them they had cut down
three men and wounded two more. One
fellow, who seemed to be leader, kept six
of us away from him for four or five min
utes, and the way he handled his kris would
have done honor to fencing master
When those left in the prshn saw how
the fight wac going they backed her off,
but solid shot was clapped into one of the
guns, the muzzle depressed at the right
moment and the shot sank the craft Is if
she had been loaded with stone. Two of
the prahns were sneaking shoreward,
though badly battered, when Long Tom
was turned loose on them and finished the
job. A dozen sampans had come out at
the opening of the fight, some carrying one
and some two men and these picked up
few stragglers and took them to shore
AS was afterward known, the number of
warriors who came out was 149. OF these
only eleven escaped death at our hands
We had no sooner disposed of the prahns
than four boats were dropped, each filed
with twelve well armed men, and then we
pulled for the beach. The anchor was
lifted and the brig drifted in after our
soundings until she brought up in
four fathoms within musket shot of
the beach. Then we lay off for half an
hour while she piled the woods with
her shells, and when we landed it
was to meet with scene of devastation.
There had been good sized village just op-
posite the brig, and such of it as had not
been knocked TO pieces by her shells was
now on fire. We found about thirty dead
bodies, men, women and children, and in
the mouth of a small river were three
prahns and about twenty sampans. These
we destroyed, and after the brig had turned
her shells loose again as q good-by we went
on board. The forest was now on fire in
twenty places, and the flames were not ex-
tinguished until they had burned every
tree and bush over a space twenty-five
miles long by fifteen broad.
At about shutdown we got land breeze
and made an offing. We were not yet
through with the pirates. We had simply
dosed one batch of them. Standing to the
northward all night under q light breeze
brought us at daylight about opposite Ara
tora bay, on the coast Of this same island
We still held to our disguise, and as day
dawned we hoisted a flag of distress
This bay was known to be a piratical
stronghold, and it was soon plain enough
that we were going to bag more game A
man sent aloft with the glass reported
large village on the shore, with great
crowd of natives running about in great
excitement. We sailed in to within half
mile of the beach, and then dropped anchor
with a spring On the cable, We could make
out great feet of prahns riding at anchor
off the beach, but these pirates had more
tact and policy than those further down
the coast. They did not come rowing out
to give us battle the first thing, but a sam
pan in which were four men came out IN
til within easy hail, and then one of the
men hailed US with:
what you ship want here?"
He was informed that we had met with |
rough weather and lost four of our crew,
and was then asked if it were possible for
US to ship half a dozen natives to help work |
the brig across to Saigon. He replied that !
he would see, and the Sampan returned to |
the shore, After about an hour the same |
crew returned with the message that we |
should all come ashore In our boats and |
surrender as prisoners He said that they /
had six guns IN battery on shore trained |
upon the brig, and that If we did not obey |
the summons she would be sent to the bot
tom whore abe lay, Oar first lieutenant |
did all the talking for US, and now he an
swered back that we refused to surrender. /
The natives had perhaps expected this an |
swer, for at a signal from the spokesman /
in the sampan battery of six-pounderS /
did open on us at close range. Their gun
merry was so poor. however, that only one |
shot struck the brig in their half hours
We wanted to reply, b,ss the
orders were TO wait. Wait we did, and by
and by the battery stopped firing and four
big prahns and as many as thirty two man
came sweeping cut to US.
The fellows were yelling and screaming
and beating tamtouls, no doubt expecting
an easy victory, and they were within can
lister range when we dropped the ports and
began blazing away. Such men as were
net needed to work the guns used muskets,
and in ten minutes We had the crowd thor
oughly licked. 1t seemed rs if the surface
Of the sea for acres in extent was covered
with black heads and the wrecks Of their
prahns and sampaRs. Plenty of the fell
lows were shot as they drifted about or
swan to the shore, and when no one could
longer be seen IN she water the brig opened
her guns on the town and tbs island. For
two good hours she whaled away at them,
driving every living thing beyond reach Of
her guns. and when she went cat OF the
bay everything on land ssemed to beablaze.
Il was a knockout blow for the strong
hold, as the entire Acct and upward OF one
hundred men were destroyed, but what we
had thus fsr done was only 9 beginning.
Thore were dozen more colonies 20 be
.sol1ad after New York sun.
Some Odd 49,
A. W.-zars+e;, ~ 49, 4.