Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1892-02-03
THE RAJAH MUTINY.

1HL hAJAll MU1H \ .
 It was at West Hartlepooi that Vt
 shipped them. and pledge you ths
 honest worl of an old sea dog that 6 g,eener set of galoots never before
 walked the decks of the clipper silir Rajah of Cochin. that famous cld East Indiaman. The ship had beeu
 loaded with cast iron ''sleepers" for
 the great Jehanfin low Juldee rail-
 way and was forced to ship her crew
 at that port. They had, it is true.
 passed through a little maritime ex-
 perience in the collier brigs that piled
 between London and the ports on the
 northeast coast of England, but they
 were utterly ignorant of everything
 appertaining to Time juicer," as
 ships going deep sea voyages were
 then called.
 T shall have a lot of trouble with
 that crowd of lubbers. said the chief mate as the awkward gang tumbled over the side and went into the top gallant forecastie with their dun mage.
 The Rajah was a big vessel of about 2.000 tons. She carried three skysail yards aloft and her stunvail gear took up big portion of the fore peak. Her captain was a devil to drive her and the harder it blew the better he liked it, so long. of course, as the wind was any way fair.
 l was third mate of her and was busy on the poop experimenting some repairs to the wheel chains when the crew arrived from tEe ship ping office. They were in charge of a gang of boariing house runners who had cashed their advance notes of @ los. each and were bound to see than they left port in the vessel The skipper stood at the break of the poop taking in the spectacle. There were thirty-fve of them, and out of all fhsse only one-the boatswain- had Tossef ths line. They seernel to have . Tsa.cfisE fas,inaton for the wko Tsgarde.i them as a cat would a colony of young mice. know Ing we'll that when they were plump snough and ripe enough, in the regu- ar way of business, they would come nto his clutches. After he had got 'very man jack of them classified in lis minds eye he walked aft and sat lown on the wheel grating, chuck ing almost impercephbly and show ! magnificent set of teeth. white and as the grinders of a blood ,ound.
 The skipper was gentleman by firth and education- He had served D the royal navy and been dismissed rom the service because he fought a luel with his superior officer, the ,ause of the quarrel being a lovely
 Creole girl of Jamaica, who was be- owed by both. The barbed arrow of iisgrace seemed to have pierced his soul. His disposition. once amiable, became cruel and malevolent. He lost all sympathy with the human race. and his only chum was Satan, . pet niongoose that he had picked up It Masulipatam.
 After leaving the navy he had no trouble in becoming the commander of an East India clipper, for he was m expert navigator and the best sea- man ever sailed with. But God have mercy on the linen draper's ap- prentice who shipped under the false 1 Dretense that he was a sailor man, 'or the skipper had none. He would | make his life a hell upon sea, and l rive him to assertion. or perhaps | 'uicide.
 I am talking of the time when a | 'ea captain had some real power. be- ore Samuel Plimson and the English | ,oard of trade took up the British | sailor's side of the question and pam | 'ered and petted him till now he is l leither useful nor ornamental. Il ave always had to work hard for ny living at sea, and like my old cap aims. now dead and gone, had no with sea lawyers or inn 'ostors of that ilk. But now, being n my old age and somewhat mel owed by religion and rheumatism, I m free to confess that the s'old nen' l sailed with were perhaps 6 rec bit too severe with their crews.
 After bringing himself to an an- hor on the grating and meditating mischief for awhile, the skipper alled an apprentice to him.
 Boy Jack, go and tell the mate l rant him"