Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1897-12-16
WOODBURY., n J, THURSDAY DECEMBER 16 1897.

make an investigation. Our captain
hailed them, and they replied with
gestures to signify that they would re-
turn to the shore for help. They evil
IDENTIFY took us for what we pretended
to be, and we were piped to breakfast
feeling that our ruse would succeed.
About s o'clock, with the wind
breezing up lively, three native sail
craft put out for us. A man aloft with
glass reported that each craft was
crowded with natives, and it was now
our plan to weigh anchor and make
little sail and pretend to be standing
away from them as if alarmed. The OBJ
ject was to draw them as far away
from shore as possible, and we had
added mile or more to the distance
when the foremost boat came within
hail. She hadn't gun Of any sort in
sight, but she had 48 desperate looking
villains in plain view and every one Of
them had cutlass and pistol. While
her captain was hailing US in Ian
guage no one could understand she was
slowly edging along down our starboard
quarter. At the same time a second
craft was drawing ahead on the port
side, and the third kept in our wake.
Only seven or eight men were in sight
on our decks, and the natives seemed to
have no suspicion of trick. The breeze
was little bit too strong for their
maneuvering at first, but after we were
about six miles off shore the two sud
denly closed in to board us. Our cap
tain had been closely watching them
and waiting for this move, and of a
sudden the drum beat to quarters and
our decks were alive with men.
. I was captain of No. 8 gun crew and
had the honor of firing the first shot.
1t was a solid ball, and it struck the
craft on her port bow and went clean
through her and dropped into the sea
beyond. This opened the fight. The ma
tives instantly realized that they had
caught a tartar, and they saw, too, that
their only means of escape lay in cap
turing the ship. Therefore, instead of
running away, as we had looked for,
each craft bore down on us to board.
They were handled as easily as an In
dian maneuvers a canoe, and it WASH
five minutes after the first gun was fired
ere they were on our quarters like
wolves seeking to hamstring deer.
fired another solid shot and then loaded
with grape, and this last charge was
fired right into a mass Of natives wait
ing to Chamber up the side. The gun
next to me fred solid shot, which
tore through her bottom, and two min
utes later she foundered right alongside
of u.s. The second craft got near enough
to grapple but the irons were thrown
off and two guns played solid shot into
her hull until she went down stern fore
most, leaving 80 men struggling in the
waves.
The third craft had forged ahead,
sailing five feet to our one, and would
have boarded us at the bows but for the
sudden destruction of the others. Their
fate frightened her off, but she had
scarcely laid her head for the island
than it was brought around, as if her
crew had made some desperate resolve.
Now occurred curious thing. She had
about 80 men on board, and she came
down on us with every one of them
shouting and screaming and tried to lay
us aboard. We could have sunk her
with one gun even, or we could have
picked off the whole crew with our
muskets before they had crossed the
rail. Word was passed to give her a
full broadside at command, and when
the smoke cleared away she was not
to be seen. There were over 30 of the
pirates hanging to the wreckage around
us, however, and a boat was lowered to
pick them up. You can judge of their
desperation when I tell you that every
one of them fought like tiger against
being rescued and that we got only five
out Of the lot The others we had TO
kill as they foated about, with the
sharks swapping at them. Two of the
five leaped out of the boat after being
pulled in and were seen no more, and
the others gave us so much trouble that
the captain swung them up to the yard
arm.
Thus not one single man of the 100
or more who came out to attack us es-
capped with his life. I was in one of the
boats afterward sent ashore to see what
sort of lair the pirates had made for
themselves. The only human beings
ashore were an old native woman, one
armed Japanese and a white boy about
IA years of age. The boy was off an
English trader captured a year before
and had been held prisoner ever since.
He said there were 107 men in the gang,
and we found enough plumber on the
island to load our ship.
They had captured about dozen
different vessels, large and small, and
in every case had plundered and sunk
them. They did not always kill all the
crew. Soon after the boy was captured
they brought in an American sailor off
a spice trader The lad knew him only
by the name of William, but rememt
bered that his home was in Boston. It
turned out that they had spared his life
to make use of him as blacksmith, but
when they found he had no knowledge
Of that work he was put to death with
great cruelty. By order of the chief he
was hung in chains on tree about a
quarter Of mile from the village and
was five Or six days in dying. The boy
went with us and showed us his bones,
still hanging.
The one armed man and the old wo-
man, assisted by the boy, were the cooks
for the gang. They at first seemed very
much alarmed and protested their inno-
cence Of any completely in the crimes Of
the pirates, but when they came to un-
derstand that all the villains had met
their fate and that we had come ashore
to clear the island of its last bale Of
plunder they suddenly ran into rude
storehouse, blocked up the doorway
with boxes and opened fire on us with
pistols We had two men wounded be-
fore we could dislodge them, and they
were then hanged to the same limb and
their bodies left to the birds. What
plunder we could not bring off we
burned on the island, and before leaving
we set the forest ON fire in a dozen
places, and the flames did not die out
until the whole length and breadth had
been swept clean Of vegetation.
Smoking Statistics.
Holland holds the first place in the
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