The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-11-26
TALE OF A HooDoo SHIP.
The Misfortunes That Followed the
Shaver Juniata.
(From the Philadelphia Times.)

oioi uilu culture the idea OF human deS-
tlnies being controlled by blind chance
Known as "luck' seems absurd. All
the same great minds have been influenced
by such belief The first Napoleon
believed lin his star, and Nathan, the
founder of the Rothschld dynasty, di-
Vlued men into two classes-fortunate
and otherwise-and refrained from doing
business with people he regarded as un.
lucky.
In 1888 there was built at Portland,
| Me-, topsail schooner, christcned the
JunIata. From the internal fittings in
the hold, it was evident that she was
intended for a SLAYER y man named
| Stoever, of rather shaky reputation, was
appointed captain. The day she sailed
for Havana sailor dropped tail block
from aloft. 1t struck the captain and
he never spoke again; same day the haw.
ser broke and crippled the pilot, and the
| vessel left the wharf with the reputation
| of being hoOdoo When she arrived at
Havana new name came out on her
| stern and as the AIaiek Adel her reputn-
ton became cosmopolitan.
The iirst voyage was to old Calabnr
| River, coast of Africa, for slaves. A
cargo was secured and the Malek Abel
was of like swordlish for Cuba. for she
| was very fast sailor. Inside of three
days mostovirulent..,,fever brokea out
among the slaves, and three of the crew
| caught it and died in IL few hours. Mad
| with fear the men urged the captain to
! throw the slaves overheard and have n
clean ship. He refused and shot one of
the petitioners. That night the crew
rose in mutiny, killed all the officers and
threw their helpless cargo overheard,
men, women and children, in number
wv. They agreed to make the Malek
Abel pirate. They had seven guns and
an abundance of small arms. So they
ran back to the Calabar River ana can
tured the Spanish SLAYER, Golconda. with
! $50, 900 on board. Several of the slayer.s
crew Joined the pirates, and the schooner
started for East India, hoping to take n
treasure ship. n landing was made on
the South coast off Madagascar, and a
| division of the spoils called for. OF
| course there was Il quarrel and mutual
| slaughter Thirteen of the survivors rot
aboard of the vessel, set sail and next
day was overhauled by the British cor.
vette' Grampus, and, with the exception
of the negro cook. Lundy, all were hung
at Cape Town few weeks after A claim
was made by the Spanish owners. and
after years delay they got back their
vessel, the evidence that she had been II
| SLAYER not being sufficient to condemn
| her.
After sailing on several successful
| slave ventures her owners sold her To n
| Chlllan EngliShman named Groves and
here the history of the NTalek Abel be
| comes almost as mysterious as that of
| the Flying Dutchman. w hen the South
American republics were fighting Spain
they issued letters of marQue, and these
were taken advantage of by privateers
that IN effect were only pirates and plum
dered all alike, and the La Elites disap-
peared under flag of this character
One of these vessels known as the Con-
dor, sailed under Chilian comm ission
commanded by a desperate Englishman
named Garry, with crew to match
many of them Americans. Rich prizes
were made in the Indian Ocean, and
finally the Condor turned her PROV east
ward with supposititious millions on
board.
One thing is known-the Condor stop
| ped for water at one of the Palliser Is
lands, and here the crew and officers
fought until there were only few left
Six weeks after Il vessel came ashore in
Talcahuana Bay about 1Sl0 This was
on the west coast of South America, near
the City of Conception. Three wounded
men and a mad woman We're the crew
The woman and two of the men died. tell
was more communicative and gave the
log of the Condor, and this the authori-
ties kept TO themselves and sent vessel
after the treasure But while finding
abundant proof of the truth of the sur
vivor's story they failed, rs many others
have done, to locate the treasure. This
was beyond doubt the inspiration of Ste
venson's "Lost Tsland.'
In 1919 II Gillian naval officer named
Ramiro got at the information held
back by the authorities and went to Aca-
pulco and chartered the NIalek Abel.
Then, rs now, the scamen of all national
tiles that are to be found in South Amer
lean ports are u bad lot, and shipmasters
avoid them if possible, but Ramiro made
up his crew among them and sailed for
the islands. -Four months later Il ships
launch came into Valparaiso with two men
nearly dead with hunger and wounds,
and they told this story: The Malak Abel
got to its destination and beyond doubt
found some of the treasure-enough any
way to set the ruflianly crew wild They
rose in mutiny. The officers fortified
themselves in the cabin, and there was n
mutual killing, until one of the mutt
neers got into the hold and putting n keg
of powder underneath blew up the cabin,
and the men in the launch, who were the
sailing master and the steward, alone es-
capped.
The Gillian government sent well
armed vessel to look for the mutineers.
There were, according to the natives,
twenty one left, and half of these were
cut off by war party that landed by
night from the NIarquisas and attacked
the crew while sleeping. The others
fitted up their long boat and sailed for
the Sandwich Islands. They were never
heard of again. That some of the buried
spells came into the natives hands is true,
for years afterwards n magnificent dia-
mond and ruby ring was bought from {,
woman by whacr