The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1895-02-14

might cut the feet. Among our small
| arms the government had put aboard by
mistake 900 condemned swords. We
got the boxes out, and tho Blacksmith
broke the sword blades into small pieces.
and we finally had three or four bushels
Of the stuff.
When morning came, there was
scarce enough breeze to give the bark
steerage way. 1t was exactly the sort Of
weather the pirates hoped for. as their
craft had both sails and oars, bnt was
bad for Us. Rhodes was determined to
90 out nevertheless, but to hearten mp
the men he announced that there was
every hope Of the breeze freshening
within couple of hours. While the
Red Dragon was creeping out to sea the
material we had prepared was scattered
over the deck forward and supply OF
! gunpowder sprinkled over it. A dozen
blankets were put to soak, the magazine
opened, and we were as ready as we
could be when we got sight of the pirate
fleet, which came ont OF bay on the
! eastward side of the same island we had
! left behind <,IfsS n.
For "a hours we had been lying with
| in two miles of the pirates headqnar-
tiers and yet ha1 no suspicion OF his
presence Each craft was being propell-
ed by oars, and we stood at our stations
and watched them as they drew near.
| There wero ten Of the vessels, and the
glass proved that all were full Of men.
As was afterMard asCortalned, Whang-
Hoa-Ying had not stuck to his promise
about the number Of men, but had
brought out about 400 We made ready
with our big gun as soon as the first
craft was within range, but as she was
bows Oh ana offered but a small mark
several shots were wasted 1t was only
when the feet was within half a mile
and had divided to board us stem and
stern that we sunk one craft and badly
crippled second. On came the others,
and we gave them grape and canister
and bullets and killed 40 or 80 men,
but despite our best efforts six OF the
hunks got alongside. We could no lon-s
ger use the cannon, and but for the wet
blankets their stinkpots would have
driven us below. There wasn't man
among our crew who didn't fight like Q
hero, but the pirates boarded US from
four directions at once, and those who
couldn't get alongside fred their match.
locks and threw spears and stones. Our
crew had to divide into four groups to
repel boarders, and but for the broken
stuff on the bows we should have been
overwhelmed by sheer weight Of num-
bers. About 80 pirates boarded by the
forechains. but when they struck the
"spread" the fig ht was taken out OF
them. All were barefooted, and besides
the cuts inflicted the powder flashed up
to burn their legs. In three minutes all
were killed or driven overheard, and
then our men turned against the others.
The fight had lasted 20 minutes, and
we were barely holding our own and
had lost 20 men out of 60, when the
wind came all at once, and fortunately
from the right direction to fill our sails
The bark forged ahead, dragging the
junks with her, and the pirates became
panic stricken. r. st#
We raised cheer and rushed them
and two minutes later had got I'D OF the
last one AS they tumbled into their
craft they cut the cables, or we threw
off their grapnels, and presently all wac
clear. Then we went to our stations, re-
loaded the guns, and keeping between
the junks and the island to cut off es-
cape we hammered away until only two
craft out of the ten lodged US and got
clear away. The other eight went to the
bottom, and not man in one OF the
crews escaped with his life. We counted
81 dead pirates on our decks and along
side, and Whang-Hoa- Wing was among
them. Out of our crew only three men
escaped unhurt, while % were killed
outright We had a close shave from
being captured, but the fight turned our
way and resulted in breaking up piracy
on that coast for the next two years.