Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1891-04-30
A WOMAN CRUSOE.
Strange Adventures Of an English
Sailors Widow.
She Escapes from Doomed Ship an
Lives for Nearly Four Years Alone
on an Uninhabited Island in
the Java Sea.


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.l
Truth. For five years before the
schooner had belonged to and been
commanded by Capt Ezra Williams, ~
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 won-
an, whose maiden name was Danforth,
who had been a domestic in an Eng.
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 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 narra-
tive is to chronicle her adventures in
the interim, as l had them from her
own lips.
While it was bit queer to start on a
voyage with woman 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
a 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 Borneo. 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 E lawless set,
and a 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
notions, and where none of these were
wanted she paid cash.
On this trip the schooner worked to
northward and made her stop at the
island of Quewang, being the third one
from the northermost island of the
group. She met with cordial recep
ton, and at once began bartering fol-
and receiving cargo. She was an
chored in sheltered bay, within five
hundred feet of the beach, and ha6
been there five days before anything
occurred to arouse Mrs. Williams sus
picions that all was not right. She ther
observed that the entire crew were
drinking deeply of a native liquor
which the natives were supplying in q
liberal manner, and that some of the
fellows were 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 Gay
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