The morning news., 1897-04-04

were to get extra pay. 1 ordered a por-
ton of rum to be served all around, and
we drank to continued luck. Then I went
into my cabin to open my sealed orders,
and hardly had got the envelope in my
hands when there was a suspicious whiz
above deck, and two seconds later came
the report of big gun. Without opening
my orders l ran on deck, and there, less
than half mile to our stern, was a gun
boat. flying the English jack and fast
oVerhauling us. We ran up our coIors and
waited. The gunboat came to and lowered
a boat filled with jacktars, in command Of
lieutenant. We were not prepared to
make any resistance, though 1 suspected
that our Jig was up. The Englishman
boarded us and asked for our papers.
You know as much about them as
do" l said, "for we came here under
sealed orders, and here they are, un-
opened"
The lieutenant knew his business
however, and after looking our boat over
and noticing that we carried an unusual
quantity of provisions and a great manv
chains and shackles he said:
am sorry to have to trouble YOU.
captain, but you had better come aboard
WIN me and report to Capt. Greatjohn.
Bring your sealed orders with you"
When found myself on board the
gunboat, which proved to be the Sprite.
the captain ordered me to open nv orders
AS had suspected, we were instructed to
go to a certain place on the slave coast
and receive shipload of niggers. That
was contraband business, and l knew n
Capt. Greattohn talked the business over
with me. He told me that If 1 wanted TO
protest against the seizure of the Nancy
Bell l might protest and be damned. If
l did he would put me and my crew
ashore to walk home. If l was willing TO
submit and to acknowledge that the
Nancy Bell was chartered for the slave
trade and so save him a lot of trouble at
home he would see that we were all sent
back to the United States, and he would
give me one-fifth Of one-third of the prize
money coming from the Nancy Bell.
knew that my boat was lost, any way.
and / accepted his offer prize crew
was placed on board the Nancy Bell, and.
guarded by the Sprite we sailed for Idv-
erpool. To bind our bargain the captain
wrote this agreement on a leaf of his
Bible. When we reached Liverpool / didn't
want to wait until the Nancy Bell was
sold, and the English government paid
my way back to New York The Nancy
Bell has since been sold, and although /
have written for my share of the money
have had no answer. / can't get another
ship just now, and l want you to collect
my money"
The mans story interested me and a
rev questions convinced me that he was
telling the truth. l had nothing 10 40
and as pure speculation l took his case
He left with me the Bibe-leaf agree
ment and told me that he would call again
in two month. l looked up all the law
that 1 could find bearing on the case
and there wasn't a great deal, and then I
filed the claim with the English govern
ment l received word that the claim
would be investigated, and the replv con-
vinced me that no attempt would be made
to dispute the main points Of Cant.
Barnes story The captain called on
me two months later, looking a little rust
fer. ! couldn't give him much encourage
ment, however, so he went on a short
cruise south, and came TO see me araln
when he returned. In the meantime 7
had been carrying on lively correspond
ence with the English government but
there seemed 10 be no way to hurry The
case along. Capt Barnes came into see
me at regular intervals, and time passed
without any new developments until tae
war broke out. had picked up a little |
practice, and I was Interested in othor
things than the captains suit.
The breaking out OF the war made in
ternational cases such as this one dian !
cult 20 settle. Capt. Barnes crulsed |
around, and whenever he was I'm New |
York he came In 10 see how his case was !