Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-01-28

things into the boat, and the last articles
taken aboard were meat, flour, beans, tea
and other provisions from the lazarette
1t was about 10 o'clock when Mrs. Will
Jams took her seat in the yawl and cast off
from the schooner. and the tide at once
drifted her out OF the bay to the north.
The only thing of consequence she had
forgotten was a chart of the Java sea,
which she could have put her hand on at
minutes notice, and it was the want of this
which made her a Crusoe for several years.
As the yawl went to sea after its own fash
ion, Mrs. Williams lost the points of the
compass at once Indeed, had she kept
them in mind, IL would have been of no
benefit just then, as she had not studied
the chart, and could not have told which
way to steer to reach another group or the
main land. She heard nothing whatever
from the natives, but several years later il
was ascertained that they did not board
the schooner until midnight. The men.
all OF whom were still drunk and asleep.
were stripped and tossed overheard to
drown, and then the absence of the woman
and her money was discovered Five or
SIX native crafts were at once sent in pur-
suit, while the people who remained looted
the schooner of everything of value to
them, and then towed her out to deep wa
ter and scuttled her to hide the evidences
of their crime
After drifting three or four miles out to
sea the yawl got n light breeze, and after
few trials the woman learned how to man
age the sail and lay a course. She had no
idea which way she was healing, but ran
Off before the breeze, and kept going all
night and until mid afternoon the next day.
She must have passed the island of Up
nong i'll the early morning, but so far to
the westward that she could not see it,
The wind hauling at mid forenoon altered
her course by several points and the north
ernmost island of the group, named Po-
lilo, was thus brought in line The
island is seven miles long by three in
width at its widest part, and well wooded
and watered. The woman landed on the
| east side at the mouth of creek which
forms a snug little harbor. She was con-
WINGED that this was one of the islands of
the kinderoon group, but she did not
know that it was the most northerly one
BY consulting the compass she got the
cardinal points, but not having studied
the chart she could not say in what direc-
ton any other land lay. She had seen the
sails of two traders that morning, but as
they were native crafts she had every wish
to avoid them. The boats which were
sent in pursuit of her must have taken an
other course, as she saw nothing of them
When Mrs. Williams landed on the
Island she had no IDEA of stopping there
for more than day or two, or until she
could decide on some plan. She had scarce
ly gone ashore when gale came up which
lasted about thirty hours. during which
the yawl was so damaged that she must
undergo repairs. She uCloaded her goods
on the shore, covered them from the
weather and then set ont to explore the
island, pretty well satisfied that il was in
| habited, and hoping, if it was, that her
money might secure assistance Before
| night she was satisfied that she was all
alone, and she made shelter out of the
blankets, and slept the night away as
| peacefully a. if in her cabin on the schoon-
er. Next day she exchanged her apparel
for mans suit and began the erection of
hut. In grove about 200 feet from the
beach she erected a shelter, l0x2O feet,
which withstood the storms of almost four
years. While the sides consisted of canvas
and poles, the roof was matched with a
| long grass which she found on the island
| in abundance
1t took the woman about a week to con
| struct her hut and move her stores into it,
| and this had scarcely been done when her
| boat, owing to carelessness on her part,
| was carried off by the sea and she now
realized that she was prisoner until such
| time as the crew of some trading vessel
! might land and discover her After her
| house was completed she made a more
| thorough exploration of her island home
| There were parrots ard other birds, snakes
| OF n harmless variety, Borneo rats, and "A
| drove of about 300 Java pigs, which are
about the size of the American peccarv.
! but are wild instead of fierce
! The woman had clothing to last her five
or six years, but the provisions she had
brought from the schooner would not sup
| ply her needs more than a few months.
| While hoping and expecting to be taken
of almost any day she wisely prepared for
| long stay. She had fshhooks and lines
| in her outfit, and with fish from the sea-
! meat from the woods and bananas and
| wild fruits from the groves she had va
| riety and a plenty. Six months after she
| landed native craft put in about a mile
! from her hut, but creeping through the
woods she saw that all were Malays, and
so savage in appearance that she did not
| dare make herself known. Seven months
| later a second craft sent men ashore to fill
two water casks, but she was also afraid
| of these. She lived very quietly from that
time until near Y two years after her land
ing, having remarkably good health all the
time, but naturally lonely and cast down
| at times.
| One afternoon, as she was in the forest
| about half a mile from home, having he1
shotgun with her, a Borneo sailor suddenly
confronted her. He was entirely alone,
and whether he had been marooned or cast
| away she never learned. As she was
| dressed in mans suit he naturally took
her for man, but his first movement was
hostile one. He advanced upon the WON.
an with a club in his hand and utterins
shouts of menace, and to save her own life
she was compelled to shoot him.
Now and then, all through her stay,
trading vessels were sighted in the offing,
and sometimes craft known to be
manned by Englishmen, but signals made
to the latter by means of smoke were never
needed Her main hope was that the loss
| of the schooner would in some way reach
her friends at Singapore, and that a search
ing party might be sent out to her rescue.