The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-07-14
GOLD, BUT NO FOOD.

Experience OF an Amateur Pirate on
the Chinese Coast.
1t has surely fallen TO the lot of few men
to come near starving to death in land OF
plenty, with over 5000 in gold in their
pocket-nay. by reason of that very fact
| had shipned ct Rangoon on board a
steamer bound for Shanghai, says writer
in the London Standard. When / signed
she was flying Jardine's flag at the main,
but / believe she carried the ensign of
every nation and half the house flags of
the world in her signal locker. An opium
smuggler l was prepared to find her, but
that her chief business on the waters was
piracy of the vilest sort and unredeemed
by CLINT of romance came upon me GER
tainly as a revelation.
We attacked no ships as far as know,
but handled with marvellous skill and
knowledge OF the intricate coast naviga-
ton, she would run in after nightfall
among the rocks and banks where one
would expect a sampan TO take the bot.
tom, while shrieks, flames, the report of
firearms and clash of steel would testify to
the descent of my delectable shipmates
upon one or another of the numerous fish
ing villages which fringe the shores of the
China seas.
! After four months duress I struck a
blow for liberty. My little hoard of NOR
phia-lealously guarded toward this even
tuality- deepened the narcotism in which
the whole crew lay stepped after a CHASTITY
debauch as We rode at anchor and, for.
saking all my goods and chattels and
Selling in lieu such moneys as ! cond find,
l dropped into the dingey and pulled off,
shoeless, hatless, arrayed only in a shirt,
trousers and belt containing the above
named sum (close on f200), hoping TO
reach German gunboat which had been
sighted in the otfing 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 alternative but to
Land. Day was breaking and l lay till
next morning in a tomb cut above the
road in the hillside and for the next three
weeks | nearly persisted for lack of nour-
| ishment, not daring to exhibit q gold
piece, for had no weapon and would GER
| tainly have been robbed and murdered.
L would gladly have thrown away all but
bne piece, but there was no single small
coin in the sum total, and the result would
have been the same. Though a good
walker at that age q had made record OF
twenty miles not long before and could
cover 300 week without blister) l &C
| mplished no more than 200 miles in
TWENTY-FIVE days, travelling 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 concealment hove in
sight.
With paddy and plantains snatched pre-
cariously here and there ] managed to
exist during those awful weeks. Chan
| Chan is not regarded as terrestrial para
disc by those Europeans whom fate malign
has compelled to sojourn there, but Wal
halla was never hailed with greater ecstacv
| by the world-worn pilgrim than was that
! Celestial sink by myself. Toward the
twentieth day the smell of meat cooking
absolutely overcame me one morning and
at the peril of my life l emerged into the
| light of day and laid felonious hands and
teeth on what l believed was part OF a
baked cat, in the temporary absence of the
legitimate landlord thereof.