Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1890-11-21
CAPTURED BY MALAYS.

saw in Singapore paper the other
day the statement that no less than five
trading vessels hailing from that port
were long overdue from the Java Sea,
and that there were grave reasons to fear
they had fallen into the hands of the
A1alays. Such a statement has an odd
sound to the reader who is not we'll posted
in the locality and its surroundings. The
Java Sea, which separates Borneo from
Java, contains over a thousand islands,
great and small. Macassar Straits, to
the east of Borneo, contains almost as
many more. From Batavia, looking
north, the Chinese Sea is studded with
islands for 1000 miles. 1t is an old say
ing among sailors:
when nature created Borneo she
meant that every man who ever lived on
the island should be pirate"
That four-ffths of the coast people
have for the last 200 years been engaged
IN this business, no one doubts. The
Malays hold the sea front, while the
Dyaks and other tribes hold the interior.
While piracy by organized fleets no
longer exists, every Malay craft stands
ready to do business on its own hook. l
was captured by a single craft, and
small one at that, and will now give you
the particulars.
The English firm of Warner & Hill, at
Batavia, employed three or four small
trading schooners to cruise among the
islands after fine woods, furs, shells,
hides, roots, dyestuffs, etc. I was left
in Batavia off an English steamer, my
father having died on the voyage, and
the firm spoken of gave me berth on
the Orient, one of their schooners. She
Captain, mate, cook, two foremost
hands and boy. The Captain stood his
watch turn and turn about, and the cook
was on call as a sailor. This gave us
three hands to a watch, which made
handling the craft an easy matter. We
took out axes, hatchets, powder. lead,
hoes, seeds, shoes, and various trinkets,
and more or less money, and as an arma-
ment we had seven or eight good mus
kets. This was my third trip, and we
left Batavia for an island called Anello
This is situated about forty miles south
Of the southeast point of Borneo, and at
that time was an island containing about
1900 people. We reached it after a
pleasant run, and for the next week were
anchored IN a bay on the north side.
In this time we had secured about half
cargo, and at the end of the week were
ready to up anchor and sail for another
island to the south.
The King of Anello wanted to prove
his friendship for us, and therefore made
a banquet to which all were invited. No
doubt all would have gone, but that
afternoon [ accidentally cut my foot,
and it panied me so much that I begged
to remain aboard as shipkeeper All
others went ashore at shutdown. We lay
within 200 feet of the beach, and the
village was right there. Several large
fires were built, and could see and hear
most everything. It was a warm, balmy
night, and after a while I lay down on
deck, and, despite the noise on shore,
went to sleep. When l opened NY eyes
again some one was tying my wrists,
having already neatly performed that job
on my ankles. As l tried to sit up re-
ceived smart tap on the, head from a
club, and voice which knew belonged
to Malay warned me to be quiet. had
picked up enough of the lingo to under
stand what he meant, and as I caught
sight of five or six other figures on deck,
and also realized that the schooner was
IN motion, lay back and kept quiet.