Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-09-13
THE CALIFORNIANS,
By JULES VERNE.
Copyright 1891 by the Authors Alliance.

It was from this point that Capt. Willis made his first report to Mrs. Allaire, but as all his labors had pro- duc,,d no results it was resolved to con- tinue the search further west.
 On the second day of December the Molly's Hope reached the Philippines, seven hundred miles to the westward of the Caroline group. These islands were discovered by Magellan in 1521 and are the most important of the Malaysian archipelago. Capt. Willis did not touch at any point on the coast of Luzon island. How could it be pos sible that the Dreadnaught ever got so far north in the China sea when she was sailing for Singapore? For this reason Willis preferred to make the island of Mindanao the center of his operations, which island, lying in the southern part of the archipelago, must necessarily have been passed by Capt John in order to reach the Java sea.
 Molly's steamer was now anchored in the port of Zamboanga, the residence of the governor, to whom and to whose subordinates Capt. Willis first applied for information of any vessel wrecked on the coast of Mindanao, but so far as  they reported that no such disaster had taken place within five years.
 But these reports did not cover the independent portions of the island in- habited by savages against whom the charge of cannibalism had been sub stantiated and who would naturally make every effort to conceal the facts of any such disaster on their coast. fo1 1, tion of corsairs, and arc ready to pursue any luckless merchantman driven into their waters to escape the gales. Whom they capture they destroy, and whether such had been the terrible fate of Capt. John and his companions was some thing which would never come to the ear of the governor. Capt. Willis didn't hesitate to penetrate into these won- derful forests of tamarind, bamboo, mangrove, ebony, mahogany and iron wood in order to reach the interior vil- lages in the hope of finding some bit or shred of proof that the Dreadnaught had gone to pieces on these reefs or that some one or more of her crew had fallen into the hands of these islanders.
 The exploration of the Philippine archipelago lasted two months and a half, after which Willis made a search through the Bassilan group to the south of Zamboanga, and then sailed for the Sooloo archipelago, which he reached February 25, 1880.
 This is a veritable nest of pirates, and the jungles of the many islands lying between Mindanao and Borneo are alive with savages. But one port is ever ire | quented by vessels crossing the China sea and Malaysian basins, and that is the port of Bevoan. Here the Molly's Hope cast anchor. Willis scattered presents with lavish hand among the inhab- l itants of these islands, but nothing that was brought to light served in the slightest to clear up the mystery of the Dreadnaught. Although the steamer had coaled at Mindanao, yet at the end | of this cruise her bunkers were pretty well emptied. However. there was ap- | parently enough left to <enable her to cross the Celebes sea and make the port | of Banjermassin in the southern part | of Borneo.
 In spite of the fact that the Celebes sea is shut in like lake, it is visited by terrible wind storms, and in the night l of February 29 to 29 gale of great i'm petuosity overlook the steamer, rolling up violent sea and emptying hundreds of tons of water upon her deck and flooding her hold, but her compart- ments resisted the strain and kept the | water from reaching her engine rooms, | piece of great good fortune, for her fires once extinguished and screw rem dered useless she would have been pow erless to make head against the gale.
 Neither captain or crew lost their self-possession for a moment during the long hours of this terrible night. On the morning of March 9 the staunch steamer, Molly's Hope, sighted the Mar atoubas islands off the coast of Borneo.
 A fortnight was devoted to ransacl1- ing these waters for some proof that the Dreadnaught had perished in just , such gale as had overtaken the steam CT; but although rich presents were dis
 tributed among the chiefs nothing was forthcoming.
 "It is very possible" said Capt. Willis
 to his mate one day, "that the destruc-
 ton of the Dreadnaught was due to a
 sudden attack of number of piratical
 craft, and this would account for oul
 not having been able to discover any
 trace of her. These pirates make nc
 boast of their exploits, and when a yes
 sel disappears they have but to lay it tC
 the fury of the gale"
 "You are right, captain," replied th' : mate. "These waters swarm witl
 pirates, and we must redouble our wig
 ilance in passing through Macassal
 strait
 Every true," answered Willis, ''bu
 there's no chance of their being able t.
 overtal<e us. Not so a sailing vessel
 With irregular and shifting winds
 sailing vessel is more or less at thei F mercy. But so long as our engines ar n in working order we shall have nothing
 to fear. Still we can't be too careful.
 For two months, from March 15 t. May 15, Capt. Willis busied himsel
 making close search of the easterl = coast of Celebes island. The fantasti
 outlines of this island have led som
 geographers to compare it to hug tarantula, but the very fact of this ben ], and twisted coast line makes it a favor
 ite refuge for pirates