Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1891-09-18


tragedy, and that he meant to
fight to the death to keep us from board
ing the ship. We we're more than full
handed on the brig, there being four
men who had paid the captain few dol
lars each and were working the balance
of their passage. II we found the ship
without crew enough to work her we
could take her in and claim pretty lump
of salvage. This fact had its influence
on our captain, no doubt. though | be-
lieve he would have stood by her until
the mystery was solved to satisfy his own
curiosity. 1t was now decided to send
out two boats, and after rummaging
around we armed ourselves with three old
muskets and a revolver-all the firearms
the brig could boast of. The first mate
took one boat with three men in it, and
l took the other with an equal number.
We planned to menance him, so that he
would fall into confusion, and we lay on
our oars and let the ship drift down to
us. / was to hook on to her bows, while
the first mate kept the sailors busy aft;
but we didn't know how much devil
there was in him. He divided his stock
of guns forward and aft, and his first
bullet killed man In the mates boat.
My boat had hooked on to the forechains,
and l was thinking we had q clear way
to the deck when he upset pail of boil
ing water over us from the rail, and all
of US were forced to leap into the sea to
ease our torments. The trio of us were
terribly scalded and one of the men en-
tirely lost the sight of his left eye.
We had not only made another failure,
but here was another dead man and more
wounded. Our crew was now for bearing
away and making no further attempt to
board the stranger, but the captain cried
out that he would stand by until he had
lost every man and his own life, 700, be-
fore he would be defeated by n single
man. We had to furl everything to keep
in company with the ship, and for three
almost within musket shot. Then we
were ready for another attack. We had
constructed three bullet-proof shelters
along the port rail, and the idea was to
run down alongside the ship and shoot
the Portuguese as we passed. We made
sail and ran down, but only to find that
the willy villain had himself constructed
a shelter and our bullets could not reach
him. He gave us three shots while
within range, and though he hit no one,
his shooting was uncomfortably close,
and proved that he was good marks
man.
There was but one other way to at-
tack him, and we put that off until late
in the afternoon. We wanted wind and
sea to 90 down and we had our wish.
Along about o'clock the breeze dropped
almost out of sight, while the sea
was without q white-cap. We had made
a heavy graphing iron, and the idea was
to lay the ship aboard. When all was
ready we bore down on her, and this was
a move the Portuguese could not check
mate. He had to remain behind his
shelter or expose himself to our bullets.
We ran alongside, cast our grapnel, and
the two crafts drifted side by side. Our
captain then gave the signal, and five of
us made q rush over the ships rail-. In
doing 80 we were exposed to the sailors
fire, and he shot the carpenter through
the heart. He had time to fire only
once, however, but when the four of us
piled INTO him we found him almost our
match. Had not help come verify be-
lieve he would have gained the victory.
He seemed endowed with the strength of
a giant, aud his ferceness was that of a
wounded tiger. While he was being
bound he got sailors finger between
his sharp teeth aud bit it clean off, and
not one of us escaped without bruises.
When we had finally secured our man
we began the work of clearing up the
mystery. Not a soul could we find aboard
the ship, nor could we at first account for
the absence Of the crew. Then one thing
and another was brought to light to tell
us the horrible story. She had left Sgd
ney with fourteen men. The fiend of
Portuguese had murdered each and every
man by means of poison in the rum. He
was the cook. A week out of port she
had met with heavy weather and been
obliged to lie to and ride it out. This
was how she came to have everything
snug alof. 1t was while she was riding
out the gale that the captain had some
trouble with the cook. just what 1t was
no one but the Portuguese knew. He
claimed to have been brutally assaulted
without cause, and to revenge himself he
poisoned demijohn of rum kept for the
captains use. Some of this rum he
claimed, was afterwards served out to all
hands without his knowledge and the
entire crew were thus killed off.
What the real facts were could never
be brought out. AS we found no blood
or other evidences of murder in the Or
dinary way, we had to accept the sailors
statement about the poison. He had
dragged every dead man on deck and
thrown him over, and when the gale
ceased the ship had taken her own way
to come about and go driving off. The
villain had no idea as to where she would
bring up, and he didn't care so long as
he was not overhauled.
After great deal of hard work we
got both crafts to Cape Town, and there
the wholesale murderer was turned over