Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-06-13

Voyage.
Copyright, 1892, by Charles B. Lewis.l
The brig in which | shipped to make
voyage from Jamaica to Pernambuco and
return, call ng at Georgetown en- route,
was called The Little Queen. She was a
trim, new craft, just out from England,
and was commanded by one of the oldest
mariners | ever saw in active service His
name was Eothsay, an Englishman, and
he was hale and hearty at seventy-two
years of age 1t may be recorded as a Curl
Gus thing that he was the only English
man aboard of an English craft Both
mates, cook and all foremost hands were
Americans, and three of the men were Cape
Codders. The explanation was that we
had been wrecked in a sugar vessel in the
Caribbean sec and picked up and carried
TO Jamaica BIZ British steamer There
We're nine of Us all told as the brig left the
island.
Georgetown as you will see by the map,
Is on the north coast of Brazil in the state
or province of Guiana. 4 strip of territory
800 miles long by 800 broad is divided up
among the British, Dutch and French, and
the two latter have established penal colo
MES there. We reached Georgetown in
due time and discharged Il part of our
cargo, and just as we were ready to sail
we were notified that ten convicts from
the French penal settlement of Cayenne
had got away to sea in the yawl of a French
merchantmen. Little attention was paid
TO this notice, rs such escapes were by no
means rare, ard when we began our run
down the coast the incident passed out of
our minds. One day at noon, when we
tN ha #
forty miles off he coast. man aloft dis
covered ships boat about two miles
away and heading down across our course.
As she was standing in from seward our
first impression was that she carried a
shipwrecked crew. | had just come on
watch when the boat was reported. As
soon as | leveled the glass at her detected
the clothing of French convicts and counted
an even ten men. The craft was under
sail, but the breeze was light and the sea
smooth. She was on our port quarter, and
if we held on she would intercept US.
As soon as tie captain was notified of
the discovery he ordered the brig kept off
four or five points, and then called the
crew aft and not fed them that if the con-
victs aboard they would not hesitate
at murder. Hall a dozen muskets would
have given US a powerful advantage, but
there was not even single barreled pis-
toll in the brig. If it came to fight we
could only arm ourselves with capstan
bars and Delaying pins. We had hopes
however, of getting off without coming to
close quarters. While the wind was light
we had all sail on the brig, and there was
no question but that we could outsail the
yawl. As soon as we shifted our helm the
yawl raised signal of distress and the
convicts shouted in chorus We paid no
attention Of course. and she swung into
our wake about quarter of n mile astern
They must have realized that we had es-
tablished their identity for half a dozen
OF them sprang NJ and shook their fists at
us and roared like wild beasts | got a
plain view of the visaoes of three or four
OF the lot under the glass. and more vii
| famous countenarces | never saw. We
| were rapidly leaving them behind and con
| graduating ourselves on the fact when the
| breeze began to puff and die and in the
! course Of a quarter of an hour it fell fiat
| When this occurred we heard a faint
| cheer from the couvicts, and they shortly
| doused their sail and put over two pairs of
| oars.
! 1t seems that we have got to fight for
! it after all, observed the captain after a
/ look through the z ass Mr. Lenox, YOU
| VIII arm the crew and hold them up to
| their work. The boat can only board Us at
| the bows. See that the cook has a supply
| of hot water ready. Give every man to
| understand that he must fight for his life"
| \ quarter of an hour later the yawl Law
| off our port quarter within speaking dis
| tance. Every man of the ten looked the
| villain. Only desperate men could have
| attacked and overpC wered the guard and
! escaped as they did. There was neither n
Il Il Co.,
were middle aged men. Some were in
full convict uniform, while others had
| thrown away their jackets. Their leader
| was n short, stout man. so dark COM
| pleXioned that he seemed to be a Spaniard.
| and as the boat drew near he stood up in
| the stern sheets and called out:
Hello, captain! Why you run away
! from poor, shipwrecked sailormen? Our
! ship go down off here Ito the east yester-
| day afternoon"
Il know you" shouted Captain Rothsay
| In reply. You are escaped convicts from
| Cayenne. If you attempt to board us you
will find us well prepared
They could not know how well or how
| poorly armed we Were, and we were nine
| to their ten.
Yes, captain, you speak truly said the
leader after brief consultation with his
men. We are convicts from Cayenne
but we are innocent men. We do not wish
to board youA We have neither food nor
drink, and weA ask You in the name of
humanity to supply us"
The captain consulted with me in regard
to it. They musteome alongside in order
to receive supplies; and when they had
once hooked on whoA could say what they
might attempt? Besides, we had little or
nothing to spare. They had been af1oat
five or six days and none of their faces ex-
hibted evidences of su fering.
II have nothing to spare, and l warn you
| to keep OFF, shouted the captain in answer
to the request.
We had seen no arms among Them and
had supposed them to be without weapons
of any sort. To our great surprise five
muskets, taken from the guard when they
escaped, were suddenly lifted into view,
while four oars dropped into the water and