The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1893-02-07
BEHEADED.
The Fate of Three South Sea
Pirates.

The remarkable piracy case OF the
Rodrigue brothers, two ex-convicts
who escaped from the penal colony
of New Caledonia several years ago
and went to Cape Town, Africa,
where they worked in the diamond
fields, afterward making their way
to Tahiti, at which point they laid
the boldest kind of plans for steal
ing Tahiti schooner and becoming
freebooters, must still be fresh in the
minds of orr readers. Particulars
of this wild story of the South Seas
were published last August, includ-
ing the fact that the pirates, after
shooting the captain and supercargo,
and HAVING the crew of four Tahiti
native sailors on the schooner pois-
oned by the cook, had been arrested
by officers of Spanish colonial rev.
enue cutter at Manila on complaint
of the native cook, Moloi, who made
confession intoxicating the Rod
rigue brothers. lis motive for tell
ing OF the crimes of his masters was
not a desire for justice, but one of
revenge inspired by the refusal of
the pirates to give him a share of
the S20,Ct0 of which they had come
into possession throrgh stealing the
schooner.
No further particulars have been
obteined regarding the fate of the
pirates until the steamer Rio de
Janeiro arrived at San Francisco Is
fe days ago. Among the passen-
gers was Miss L. J. Wyckof,
medical missionary OF Singapore,
wIo brings the information that the
pirates were executed at Manila dur
ing the last Of Augrst, the news
reaching Singapore before she lett.
Not or'y did the Rodrigue brothers
pay the penalty for their crimes, but
Ioloi, the native cook, who was
an accessory through threats against
his life and hisown desire to accum-
plate wealth, shared their fate. The
men we're executed in the native
way, by having their heads chopped |
off in the same manner that Chinese
pirates are beheaded at Kowloon |
city, opposite Hongkong.
The Rodrigue brothers were given
a full trial by the authorities at Ma
Mia, and were sentenced to death |
upon the testimony OF the cook, who,
in his anxiety to convict his masters,
so eDtangled himself that he was also |
sentenced to die.
On the morning of the execution
the three pirates were taken from the
gaol and led into the public square,
where the executioner stood ready
with long sword in his hands. The
cook was the first to suffer the death
penalty. With his hands bound be-
hind his back and his feet tied to-
gether he was compelled to kleel
before the executioner Moloi begged
and cried for mercy, but found no
one to intercede for him. The two
pirate brothers looked stoically on,
never moving a muscle and taking |
less interest in the tragic event than
the spectators. Soldiers were drawn
up in double lines in the form of a
square, and outside the populace
swarmed by thousands. attracted by
the expected scene of death. The
cook insisted upon keeping up his
cries and yells while a government
official was reading the death war
rants, and was only silenced by the
executioner stepping up to him as he
knelt on the ground and striking him
in the face, knocking him over. When
be was placed on his knees again
everything was in readiness. The
executioner put his left hand on the
mans head, bent it forward little
that the neck might be in the right
position, and stepping suddenly back
raised his sword and with clean
sweep cut the cooks head off. As
The head rolled several feet away the
dead body fell forward.
The Rodrigue brothers, both big,
powerful men, were then led to a
spot few feet from the dead cook
and compelled to kneel. Their thick,
necks were a little more
IF a job for the executioner. Each
pirate had two men holding him, a
mark was put on each neck and at
word from the executioner the two
of one of the brothers
umped back and the sword swept off |
he pirates head. Another word and |
he same sword had beheaded the |
asst Of these fends, pirates who had
hown such small regard for human
ife. Their offence was all the greater
rom the fact that they were highly
ducated, speaking dozen languages
8 we'll as South Sea island dialects,
we're men of splendid address, DOS
essed of a great deal of ability, and q
It one time moved in refined society.
AIoloi, the Tahiti cook, in his con-
ession to the Spanish authorities,
old story which, while highly in s
shox-c xubaf Ga111 - L. | I