Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1891-09-25

with gestures of signify that they would
return to the shore for help. They
evidently took us for what we pretended
to be, aud we were piped to breakfast
feeling that our ruse would succeed.
About eight o'clock, with the wind
brcezing up lively. three native sail-craft
put out for us. A man aloft with a glass
reported that each craft was crowded
with natives, and it was now our plan to
weigh anchor and make little sail and
pretend to be standing away from them
as if alarmed. The object was to draw
them rs far away from shore as possible,
and we had added milo or more to the
distance when tho foremost boat came
WITHIN hail. She hadn't gun of any
sort in sight, but she had forty-eight
despcrate-looking villains in plain view,
and every one of them had cutlass and
pistol. While her captain was mailing
us in language no one could understand,
she was slowly edging along down upon
our starboard quarter. At the same time
a second craft was drawing ahead on the
port side, and the third kept in our
wake.
Only seven or eight men were in sight
on our decks, and the natives seemed to
have 70 suspicious of n trick. The
breeze was little bit too strong for their
manGuvring at first, but after we were
about six miles oil shore the two sudden
ly closed in to board us. Our captain
had been closely watching them and
waiting for this move, and of sudden
the drum beat to quarters and our decks
were alive with men. l was captain of
No. gun crew and had the honor of
firing the first shot. 1t was Il solid ball,
aud it struck the craft on her port bow
and went clean through her and dropped
into the sea beyond. This opened tho
light; the natives instantly realized that
they had caught Tartar, and they saw,
too, that their only means OF escape Law.
in capturing the ship. Therefore, in
stead OF running away, as we had looked
for, each craft bore down on us to board.
They were handled as easily n an Indian
manGuvres n canoe, and it wasn't five
minutes after the first gun was fired ere
they were on our quarters like wolves
seeking to hamstring deer. fired
another solid shot and then loaded with
grape, and this last charge was fired
right into n mass of natives waiting to
Chamber UP the side. The gun next to
me fired solid shot, which tore through
her bottom, and two minutes later she
foundered right along side of us. The
second craft got near enough to grapplc,
but the irons were thrown off, and two
guns played solid shot into her hull I'M
til she went down stern foremost, leay-
ing thirty men struggling in the waves.
The third craft had forged ahead,
smiling five feet to our one, and would
have boarded us Mt the bows but for the
sudden obstruction of the others. Their
fntc frightened her elf, but she had
scarcely laid her head for the island than
it was brought around as if the crew
had made some desperate resolve. Now
occurred n curious thing. She had about
thirty men on board, and she came down
on us with every one of them shouting
and screaming and tried to lay us aboard.
We could have sunk her with one gun
even, or we could have picked off the
whole crew with our muskcts before thcy
had crossed the rail. Word was passed
to give her full broadside ut the word.
and when the smoke cleared away she
was not to be. seen. There were over
twenty of the pirates hanging to the
wreckage around us, however, and boat
was lowered to pick them up. You can
judge OF their desperation when tell
you that every one Of them fought like
tiger against being picked up, and that
we got only five out of the lot. The
Others we had to kill MS they tloated
about with the sharks swapping at them.
Two OF the five leape1 out of the boat
after being pulled in and were seen no
more, and the others gave us so much
trouble that the captain swung them w
to the yard'arm. Thus not one single
man of the hundred or more who came
out to attack us escaped with his life. ]
was in one of the two boats afterwards
sent ashore to see what sort of a lair the
pirates had made for themselves. The
only human beings ashore were IN old
native woman, one-armed Japanese, and
white boy about fourteen years of age.
This boy was off an English trader, can.
tured the year before, and had been held
prisoners ever since. He said they were
Aoi hich III thc gang, ana we found
enough plumber on the island to load GU,
ship. They had captured about dozen
different vessels, large and small, and in
every case had plundered and sunk them.
They did not always kill all the crew.
Soon after the boy was captured they
brought in an American sailor off a
spice trader. The boy knew him only
by the name of William, but remembered
that his home was in Boston. 1t turned
out that they had spared his life to make
use of him as blacksmith, but when
they found that he had no knowledge OF
that work he was put to death. By
order of the chief he was hung in chain.
on tree about a quarter of mile away,
and was eleven days in dying. The bow
went with us and showed us his bone:
still hanging.
The one-armed man and the old wo.
man, assisted by the boy, were the
cooks for the gang. They at first seemed
very much alarmed, and protested their
Nf