The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1891-07-02
A WOMAN CRUSOE.
Strange Adventures Of an English
Sailors Widow.
6he Escapes from . Doomed Ship and
Lives for Nearly Four Years Alone
IN Unlnhabited- Island in ---
tho Java Sea.

On the goth Of October, A.. D., 1871,
the trading schooner Little King sailed
out Of the port of Singapore, bound for
the Kinderoon islands to the north, and
only one of her crew was ever again
met with, says the Toronto (Ont.)
Truth. For five years before the
schooner had belonged to and been
commanded by Capt. Ezra Williams, a
Canadian from Halifax. He traded be-
tween Singapore and Sumatra, Java,
Borneo and the smaller islands of the
Java sea, and in May, 1871, died at
Singapore of fever. He had been mar
ried for three years to an English wom-
an, whose maiden name was Danforth,
lish family in Singapore. She had ac-
companied him on all his voyages, and
had secured much experience and in
formation. AS she could not readily
dispose of the schooner she determined
to continue in the business, acting as
her own supercargo
Mrs. Williams secured an English
man named Parker as captain, another
named Hope as mate, and with three
Malays before the mast and a Chinese
cook, and with about fourteen hundred
pounds in specie in the cabin, she sailed
away on her first voyage, and it was
four years later before she was again
heard of. The purpose of this nara
tive is to chronicle her adventures in
the interim, as had them from her
own lips.
While it was bit queer to start On
voyage with a womsrn virtually in COM
mand of the craft, Mrs. Williams had
nothing to fear from the crew. The
officers were good navigators and the
men willing, and all were, anxious for
n profitable voyage. She had no COM
plants to make until the islands had
been reached. The group lies between
the Malay peninsula and the island of
Borneo, about one hundred miles off
the coast of the former, and from two
hundred and fifty to three hundred
miles from Bornco.@ There are nine
teen islands in the group, covering a
length Of one hundred and twenty miles
by about forty broad.
There are only seven or eight which
are inhabited, and the time of which /
write the people were lawless set,
and share of them out-and-out pirates.
The products were dried fish, sea shells,
cocoanuts, dye stuffs, various herbs and
roots for medicinal purposes, and sew
eral sorts of spices. The schooner had
been there once before and made profit
able trip of it. She had clothing, pow
der, shoes, axes, and great variety of
NO -
wanted she paid cash.
On this trip the schooner worked to
northward and made her stop at the
island of Qucwang, being the third one
, from the northermost island of the
group. She met with cordial recep-
ton, and at once began barteriDg for
and receiving cargo. She was an
chored in sheltered bay, within five
hundred feet of the beach, and had
been there five, days before anything
occurred to arouse Mrs Williams sus-
PIGEONS that all was not right, She then
observed that the entire crew were
drinking deeply OF native liquor
which the natives were supplying in a
liberal manner, and that some of the
fellows We're becoming impudently ia
miliar When the captain was spoken
to he laughed at her idea of trouble and
promised better things, but the drinking
continued.
On the afternoon of the seventh day
several women came off in the canoes.
One Of them who could speak English
pretty freely was presented with some
ornaments by Mrs. Williams, and in
turn she limited to her that it was the
intention of the natives to capture and
loot the schooner that night. They had
discovered that there was a large sum
Of money on board, and they had found
the crew an easy one to handle The
native woman hadn't time nor opportu-
nifty to say much. but no sooner had the
crowd Of natives left the schooner al
& dusk, as was their custom, than Mrs.
Williams set ont to sound the alarm.
Imagine her feelings when. she dis
covered that every single man on board
from captain to cook, was SO much nm
der the influence Of liquor MS to be I'M
able 10 comprehend her words Shs
douksl them with sea water and pound
4 4% N 15.i1sS fs