The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-06-10
Up.to-D Date Pirates.

fest the coasts of North America or
roam through the caribbean sea, are
nevertheless far from being as obso-
lete and out of date as is imagined by
those good people who are accustomed
to associate them with seventeenth
and eighteenth century stories of the
Spanish Main. The attack made the
other day upon Mr.. Walkers we'll
known yacht, the Ailsa, by Rifian pi-
rates while she was hugging the coast
of Morocco on her way back from
Nice to the Solent is by no NEAR an
isolated case. It was but a short time
ago that a sailing vessel was brought
into Gibralter by a steamship which
had found her drifting off the West
ern coast of North Africa with not a
soul on board, the decks and cabins
stained with blood, and displaying I'M
m~istakable signs Of the fact that the
craft had been the scene of a terrible
struggle before being ~plundered by pi-
rates. And within the last three
weeks the Tangier and Gibralter news
papers have published accounts Of
how a small English coaster, trading
between the various Spanish ports and
the African coast, was captured and
run ashore by Rifian pirates, those of
the crew who escaped death being car
ried off into the interior of Morocco to
slavery. One Of them: a mere boy,
managed to get away, and presented
himself at the British consulate at
Tangiers, where. for the first time, the
fate Of his ship and his messmates
was made known. Pirates are like
wise to be found in Malay waters, on
the huge rivers Of Cochin China, and,
abave all, along the Chinese coast.
Repeated endeavors have been made
by American and European cruisers to
wipe these corsairs of the far East of
Asia off the face of the globe. But
no practical results have been attained
in this direction, and today there is
not a single sailing vessel frequenting
that does not include an attack by pi-
rates among the risks which she is
called upon to face. Sometimes the
pirates will come on board the ship at
Hong Kong, at Shanghai, Annoy, Sal
gon and Singapore in the guise Of in
nocent and guileless Chinese passen-
gers; and then, when the vessel is two
or three days out, there will be a sud
den outbreak among the deck and
steerage passengers at night, the crew
and captain will be taken by surprise,
and before morning not a white man
will be left on board to tell the tale,
no trace of their fate existing save in
the blood stains marking the spot
where their Threats had been cut with
those murderous curved creeses or
knives which are to the seafariDg men
Of the far East Of Asia what the ma
chete is to the Cuban.
The only really successful campaign
that has ever been Waged against these
pirates was by the captain Of an old
American man-of-war, the name of
which I forget. She was little better
than a tug-one Of those old-fashioned
wooden ships with a large rumber of
guns, but with no speed whatsoever.
The captain, knowing he could never
succeed in catching up with the iunks
before they reached land, was wont to
use ruse. He would have the sides of
his ship covered with tarpaulin paint
ed in such a manner as to make them
resemble those Of some merchantmen.
Then he would slacken all the ropes,
halyard and rigging, so as to give the
ship a very slovenly aspect, and would
then drift along with DO one on deck,
so as to convey the impression that no
watch was being kept. The pirates,
of course, would think that they had
an easy prey within their grasp, and
scores of junks, each more frightful
looking than the others, would be seen
gliding stealthily but rapidly out from
shore. When they were within about
a hundred yards Of the cruiser, but
not before, the word would be given
by the captain. The tarpaulins would
| 20 up like like the curtain Of a thea
ire, and before the pirates had time to
recover from their surprise or to port
their helms, they would be raked by
an entire broadside of guns which
would send three quarters of their
number to the bottom and disable the
remainder.
In conclusion let me add that, ac-
cordiug to the government reports
which have just been brought before
the chamber of deputies at Paris, there
are at present in the hands of Tonkiug
pirates no fewer than a dozen promi-
nent French colonial officials, with
their wives and children, who were
captured at the mouth of the River
| Meinam by a feet of these corsairs,
who found no difficulty in mastering
| the little steamer on which the off.
| Gals in question were proceeding to
! their destination. From this it will
be seen that pirates are far from being
an extinct race, and that the world
| has by no means seen the last of the
black flag adorned with a skull and
cross-bones.