The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1896-11-24
GOLD Bur NO -FooD.
Experience of an Amateur Pirate ON the
Chinese Coast.

ExperIence of an Amateur Pirate on tho
Chinese Coast.
1t has surely fallen to the lot of few
men to come near starving to death in
a land of plenty, with over $500 in gold
in their pocket-nay, by reason of that
very fact. 1 had shipped ct Eau;Hoon
on board steamer bound for St.;,i,5 hal,
says a writer. When L signed she was
flying Jardine's flag at the main, but
believed she carried the ensign of every
nation and half the house flags of the
world in her signal locker. An opium
smuggler 1 was prepared to find her;
that her chief business on the waters
was piracy of the vilest sort and unre-
deemed by Il CLINT of romance came
upon me certainly as revelation.
We attacked no ships, as far as L
know, but, handled with marvellous
skill and knowledge of the intricate
coast navigation, she would run in after
nightfall among the rocks and banks
where one would expect saInpan to
take the bottom. while shriehs, flames,
the report of firearms and clash of steel
would testify to the descent of my de
lectable shipmates upon one or another
of the numerous fishing villages which
fringe the shores of the China sea:
After four months duress 1 struck a
blow for liberty. My little hoard of
morphia-jealously guarded toward
this eventuality-deep the marco
tism in which the whole crew lay
stepped after CHASTITY debauch as we
rode at anchor, and, forsalzing all my
| goods and chattels and seizing in lieu
.such moneys as could find, 1 dropped
| into the dingey and pulled off, shoeless,
hatless, arrayed only in shirt, trousers
and belt containing the above named
sum (closc on e 2O0), hoping to reach a
German gunboat which had been sight
ed in the offing earlier in the day.
But the night was thick and in less
than an hour L found myself close in
shore. The question of what to do was
speedily settled by the boat capsizing
among the breakers, leaving me no al
Tentative but to land. Day was break
| ing and lay till next morning in a tomb
| cutabove the road in the hillside, and for
the next three weeks nearly perished
for lack of nourishment, not daring to
exhibit a gold piece, for l had no weap-
on and would certainly have been
robbed and murdered.
I would gladly have thrown away all
but one piece, but there was no single
small coin in the sum total, and the re-
suit would have been the same. Though
a good walker at that age Il had made
a record of 20 miles not long before and
could cover 800 week without blis-
teri L accomplished no more than 200
miles in % days-traveling only by
night and hiding in tombs or bitches
all day, often rushing back to my last
deserted lair in terror of the advancing
sun when no suitable place of conceal
ment hove in sight.
With paddy and plantains snatched
precariously here and there managed
to exist during those awful weeks
Chan-Chan is not regarded as a terres-
trial paradise by those Europeans
whom fate malign has compelled 10
sojourn there, but Walhalla was never
hailed with greater ecstacy by the
world-worn pilgrim than was that ce-
lestial sink by myself. Toward the
Goth day the smell of meat cooking alb
solutely overcame me one morning, and
at the peril of my life, I emerged into
the light of day. and laid felonious
hands and teeth on what 1 believed
was part of a baked cat, in the tempo
rary absence of the legitimate landlord
thereof.-London Standard.