Semi=weekly graphic., 1897-11-27

| Who Was an Eyewitness.
In four voyages to the East Indies,
two of them to Malay ports, 1 have seen
but one instance Of that native perform
anoe called running amuck. Fortunate
ly saw 1t from position of perfect
safety, but the sight was enough to
make mo steer clear of all Malays after
ward and any vessel that has them on
board, . said Erdix Deering, who as
boy and man sailed many seas Ia deep
water ships 1T was in 1865, when
was boy, ON my first voyage, on the
ship Harry Warren, which sailed from
Boston to India with cargo of ice
We We're lying at anchor I'm the roads
off Madras, unloading our middle deck
cargo into lighters, and 100 vessels Of
all nations We're 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 q crew Of
Malay lascars 1t was one day ut noon
that, as our crew lay round under the
awning in the forecastle waiting for the
order to turn to, one of the sailors sit
ting ON the capstan sung out:
Hi, mates, just look over to the
lime juioerl They're having some kind
OF rumpus there. SEQ 'em going. be-
lieve it's one of those Malays running
amuelz
Weall jumped to our feet and looked
at the Mahratta, and some of us ran up
into the rigging to get better view.
From the topsail yard l could see all
that was going on ON the deck of the
British ship Amidships a lasear, naked
to the waist. was slashing and stabbing
at 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 tho rigging On the
quarter deck the captain was hurrying
two ladies down the companionway into
the cabin, supporting in bis arms one
of them who had tainted. As the officer
fell lifeless to tho deck the Malay
bounded past him, following three sail.
ors who had run aft, along the port
gangway, upon the poop AS ne ran he
swung before him n long, slender knife,
Its crooked blade eurving in and out
like the writings of snake He over
took the rearmest man on the poop and
cut and stabbed him, as he had done
with the officer, until the man fell
Meantime the second man leaped over.
board, preferring TO take his chances
with the sharks and water serpents to
/ St,4, Al IL
ran across the quarter deck and up into
the mizzen rigging like cat The man
In tho water swan for our ship and
some natives in a lighter picked him
up ahead of tho sharks.
1.-THE Malay left the man he had killed
and looked around as if for fresh vic
Tins, but he himself was the only liv-
ing person in view ON the decks He ran
fore and aft, searching, but found no
one, and he tried the cabin door, but it
was closed fast Then he went to tho
mizzen rigging and started up the rat
lines after the man who had taken
refuge there. When the Malay had got
as far as the mizzen top, the man he
was after took to the topgallant fore and
aft stay and began to go down it hand
over hand toward tho mainmast The
Malay kept on up to tho topgallant
crosstrees and began to follow tho man
down the stay.
"Thcre was something frightful in
the relentlessness of his pursuit He had
got about ten feet down the stay when
the captain appeared on the poop with
revolver and began firing at him. One,
two, three shots he fired, and the Malay
kept on down the stay He was two
thirds of the way to the foot when at
the fourth shot the arm that held the
creese fell helpless by his side, though
his hand still clutched the weapon He
chung to the stay by one hand and his
feet and kept on down it almost as fast
as before. A fifth and sixth shot, and at
tho last the Malay stopped still, then
fell like lump OF putty to the deck,
full 40 feet below. Whether he was
lead when he struck the deck do not
know, but the mate, who must have
been watching from his room, ran out
from the cabin to where the Malay was
with handspilse and made sure work
of the fellow before he could rise Then
the lasoars came running from the fore
castle and down the rigging. and with
capstan bars, Delaying pins and knives
struck and thrust at the dead Malay un.
til II he had had dozen lives in him
they would have been hammered out Of
his body before the officers could re
strain the excited sailors
"Our captain got the full story of tn,
affair from the captain of the Mahratts
the next day The Malay had been
brooding and sullen for days before,
though no one knew what his grievance
was On this day as the men were pip
cd to dinner he had gone into the fore
castle. got the creese from some place
where he had 1t concealed and had fu
riously attacked his mates without
word They raised the cry 'Amuck,
hmuckP and scattered, but not until
three of them had been killed or NOR
tally wounded and two more of them
seriously cut by the creese. Running
forward, he had encountered the second
mate, and the rest Of the affair saw
Five men dead and two badly hurt by
the Malay and himself killed at the
end was the record of ten minutes
business in running amuck Malays in
mine after this? No. thank you. New
York Sun