The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-10-28
A MALAY,S DEADLY CREESE.
Five Men Killed and Two Badly Hurt
in Ten Minutes When lie Ran
Amuck.

From the Sun.
I'm four voyages to the East Indies,
two of them to Malay ports, I have
seen but one instance of that native
performance called running amuck.
Fortunately l saw it from a position
of perfect safety. but the sight was
enough to make me steer clear Of all
Malays afterward, and any vessel that
has them on board" said ErdX Deer
ing, who as boy and man sailed many
seas in deep-water ships. 1T was in
1865, when / was a boy, on my first
voyage, on the shin Harry Warren,
which sailed from Boston to India with
a cargo of ice. We were lying at
anchor in the roads off Madras, un-
loading our middle-deck cargo into
lighters, and a hundred vessels of all
nations were anchored about us, dis
charging or taking on board their car
goes. The ship nearest us, about two
cable lengths away, was the British
ship Mahratta which had come from
Singapore in ballast with a crew of
Malay Lascars. IT was one day at
noon that, as our crew lay round under
the awning in the forecastle waiting
for the order to turn to. one of the
sailors sitting on the capstan sung out:
Hi, mates! Just look over to the
ime-juicer! They're having some kind
of a rumpus there! See 'em going! l
believe it's one of those MalayS run
ming amuck!
I'VE all jumped to our feet and looked
at the Mahratta, and some of us ran
up into the rigging to get a better
view. From the topsail yard [ could
see all that was going on on the deck
of the British ship. Amidships a Las
car, naked to the waist, was slashing
and stabbing at a European officer who
had tried to grapple with him, while
everybody else in sight on the ship was
running fore or aft or taking to the
rigging. On the quarterback the cap
tain was hurrying two ladies down the
companionway into the cabin, support
ing in his arms one Of them who had
tainted. AS the officer fell lifeless TO
the deck, the Malay bounded past him
following three sailors who had run
aft, along the port gangway, upon the
poop. As he ran he swung before him
a long, slender knife. its crooked blade
curving in and out like the writings
of a snake. He overlook the rearmost
man on the poop and cut and stabbed
him, as he had done with the officer.
until the man fell. Meantime the sec
ond man leaped overheard, preferring
to take his chances with the sharks
and water serpents to remaining on
board, and the third man ran across
the quarter deck and up into the miz-
zen rigging like a cat. The man in
the water swan for our ship, and some
natives in a lighter picked him up
ahead of the sharks.
THE Malay left the man he had
killed and looked around as if for fresh
victims, but he himself was the only
living person in view on the decks. He
no one. and he tried the cabin door,
but it was closed fast. Then he went
to the mizzen rigging and started up
the ratlines after the man who had
taken refuge there. When the Malay
had got as far up as the mizzen top
the man he was after took to the top
gallant fore -and-aft stay and began to
go down it, hand over hand, toward
the mainmast. The Malay kept on up
to the topgallant cross-trees, and be-
gan to follow the man down the stay.
"There was something frightful i'm
the relentlessness of his pursuit. He
had got about ten feet down the stay
when the captain appeared on the poop
with a revolver and began firing at
him. One, two, three shots he fired
and the Makay kept on down the stay.
He was two-thirds of the way to the
foot when, at the fourth shot, the arm