Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1893-06-08

In fact, the most profitable portion of
our cargo was opium, which we had
taken in at Rangoon and intended to
work off at some of the northern ports
where we had safe customers, but as
both our captain and craft were well
known to the trade, we had to take ex-
ira precautions so as to avoid the pro-
hibitive people and keep clear of the
pirates as well, who infested these wa
ters.
Our ingenuity was taxed in order to
outwit the governmentp party, and many
pretty devices were hit upon, to conceal
this dangerous portion of our cargo,
which ! need not enumerate or describe
just at present. Our captain, having a
regular talent for mechanical con-
trivances, spent most of his spare time
inventing covers for the precious drug;
indeed often wondered why he wasted
his splendid gifts in this way when he
might have made fortune ashore by
taking out patents for his inventions
and serving grateful government in
stead of cheating it. But as he said
himself, he had once tried to pass
through the circumlocution offices in an
honest fashion, and preferred ever after
to devote his abilities to steering clear
of them as the most profitable and the
manlier game.
The pirates were a different consid-
Grafton, however, and kept us all lively
and anxious about the wind; with fair
breeze we were pretty safe, for our yes
sci was good sailer, and in a running
fight we could hold our own with our
deck-guns and small arms, as well as
other projectiles to keep off and swamp
the cut-throat boarders, but when the
wind fell, then also did our spirits, for
small mercy would the savage hordes
show to their captives once they got q
footing on board a ship.
We knew them of old, for many a
tussle we had had with them in the
past, so that their internal courage
and ferocity were not matter of mere
surmise on our part; and we did not re-
uuire to be kept to our duty of watch
ing, for each night we lay down with
our weapons ready, and little inclina-
ton for sleep, with the expectation of
being called up to action at any mo-
ment
l was acting as supercargo on board,
and this had been my third voyage to
Chefo, our furthest port of call, and
having gone through one fight already
could listen with the greater interest
to the tales told by those on board OF
more experience, for our men were most
.ly veterans in the illicit traffic, and
could spin yarns CORY enough to color
Cood-sized city.
Shi-Hwang- devil mandarin, and
his gang-was the vague impersonatlon
of all the piratical vices; whom we had
heard about, but as yet no one on board
had met.
His notorious name was common
enough theme and his qualities almost
supernatural in their vague atrocity, so
that he was properly regarded as the
dreaded scourgc of the sea. We had
met natives at different places who had
seen him and had come upon his traces
ashore villages laid waste and the IN
habitants massacred almost to man,
after being tortured in the most diabol-
ical way; but hitherto the ocean had
covered up his secrets, for it was said
that no one ever escaped his clutches
when afioat, and thus we could only
guess at his plan of action.
: We should know him when he came,
they all said, as we must know death;
a single experience not to be repeated
or spoken about afterward, for his COM
,nc was death and destruction.
This was the mythical parsonage VINO
occupied our thoughts morning noon
and night, after we left Foochow and
bore up toward the Yellow sea, ana
whom on this third voyage | wa fated
to meet. N..,,;
We were two days sail from Nagasaki
.rd at the most critical part OF our voy-
age when what we had dreaded came 70
nsss n Hitherto we had been favored
Nth a steady wind and an ocean per
fectly clear Of sails, wSacS caused "
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