St. Landry democrat., 1891-12-05
Saved From Old Oceans Nav.

On the goth of January, 1885, the
schooner Alfred Vittery, Captain Boor,
was lying becalmed in the South Pacific
Ocean. She was eleven days out from
the Solomon Group and was bound for
marlborough, Queensland, Australia,
with ninety-seven Polynesians on board
that had contracted to work for term of
years on plantations. 1t was a glorious
day from an artists standpoint. A
marine painter might have drawn inspira-
ton from the deep, dark blue of the sky,
the translucent tints Of the ever-changing
sea and the radiant splendor of the sun
Captain Boor, however, was no marine
artist, but shrewd common-sense skip
per, who hated calm and had no appre-
citation of the beauties of Old Ocean at
rest. What he chiefly dotted on was a
piping breeze, especially when he had a
hundred hungry Polynesians on board, as
was then the case.
The skipper strobe the deck inpatient
ly. The sails tapped idly as the schooner
rose and fell in the gentle swell of the
Pacific. The Polynesians were clustered
in picturesque groups on deck, some of
them singing the low, monotonous and
barbaric chants of their race, others en-
gagged heart and soul in the calm delight
Of chewing betel. A queer lot they
seemed to the sailors, with their dark
copper colored skins, their heads we'll
matched with moss Of woolly hair and
their deep-sunk eyes and short noses.
During the eleven days that had passed
since they embarked on the schooner
from their crescent-shaped and beauti-
fully-carved canoes many malediction
had been hurled at their heads by the
seamen, who were unable to get any
sleep in their watch below owing to the
ceaseless singing and the perpetual
drumming ON bamboo drums much re-
sembling the tom-toms of India. Nobody
to look at them in their scanty but neat
ly fringed girdles-their sole attire
would imagine them to be cannibals,
whose highest ambition was to feast on
cold boiled baby. But such was the frozen
truth.
The spectators, however, were getting
avenged on them for many a missionary
murdered and digested. Those ninety
seven Polynesians were going into
slavery as pronounced and cruel as ever
existed on the island Of Cuba. The
plantations Of Queensland are noted for
their horrors, but the Government. winks
at them. The innocent islanders, men
and women, chewed betel, sang songs
and beat the drum as though there were
no such institutions in existence as the
misunderstanding thongs attached to the
whips of burly and brutal overseers.
They made their acquaintance later.
~ fear those copper-colored devils
will eat their heads off before we get to
marlborough, if this weather lasts" OBJ
served the captain to the mate. You
see he had contracted with the specula-
tors to carry them to their destination at
so much head, for each one delivered
alive, the ship supplying them with their
food, consisting chiefly Of rice and salt
fish.
The skipper was capital fellow. He
had no sympathy with the business in
which he was engaged, but his owners
had chartered the schooner, and he nat
urally wanted to make as much money as
possible. So all that golden afternoon
he was in rather bad temper, pacing
the quarterback impatiently and casting
his eyes all around the horizon in the
hope of seeing welcome catspaws indicat-
ing breeze.
Something all at once caught his eye.
Selling the telescope that was in its &C
customed place on the skylight, he
climbed halfway up the main rigging and
had look at an object broad on the
starboard beam. The sheets were hurled
aft on the port side and the vessel was
heading southwest. He remained aloft
about ten minutes and then came down.
He told the mate that there was a ships
boat in sight with sail set and appar-
emily in distress, and said that he was
going to see if there was anybody on
board Of her, if possible.
A faint breath of wind came along
from the northward, just sufficient to fill
the topsails and the main topmast stay
sail.
"Haul aft the main and fore sheets,
trim down the head sheets, huff all you
can," sang out the captain in one breath.
And so the schooner was headed as
close as possible for the boat, which was
not yet visible from the deck.
The presence Of SO small craft 100
miles from the nearest point Of land was
rather surprising, and all hands felt
anxious about her. She was now about
seven miles dead to windward, and the
schooner made number of short tacks
toward her. The wind was so light that
it was a long and tedious task to come up
with her.
At length, about 5 o'clock, she was
close alongside. An emaciated, haggard
man was steering her. His beard and
hair were long and shaggy, and to use a
homely smile, his eyes were like two
burnt holes in blanket. A line was
thrown to him as he passed under the
schoonor's stern. 1t was with the great
est difficulty that he managed to crawl
forward and take turn around cleat
with the line. Several Of the crew jumped
down into the boat and assisted the
man to climb aboard the schooner. As
soon as he reached the deck he tainted.
He was placed on the after hatch and
few drops Of rum were forced between
his lips. Under this potent influence he
rapidly revived.
Now, my lad, said the skipper, "don't