Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1897-01-30

are black c1ough."
ed. The excitement Of the situation
kept her fever going, and we had been
anchored in the bay just week, when
one night she breathed her last almost
without warning. 1t was shock to all
of Us and hard blow to husband and
children. We made her coffin out OF
the best material at hand, and while
two of us stood guard on the shore with
our rifles the others buried her in q
grave just above high water mark.
The almost immediate result Of this
sad event was written communication
from all the passengers, which was a
protest and an appeal combined. They
wanted the captain to abandon the bark,
take to the boats and seek to reach Ade-
laide. He answered it by calling us all
together in the cabin and pointing out,
first, that owing to the bad weather the
voyage would be one Of such exposure
and peril that he would not undertake
it except as a last resort; second, to
abandon the bark as she stood simply
meant to, turn her over to the mutineers,
who would pursue and destroy u.s.;
third, if she was scuttled or set on fire,
he and ! lost every dollar we had in the
world, and, under the circumstances, it
was doubtful if insurance or charter
would hold good. Itcould not be shown
we were in sufficient peril to justify
such proceedings, and he should respect
fully but firmly decline to accede to the
wishes of The passengers.
There was bitter disappointment and
some strong talk, but in the course OF
"a hours better feeling prevailed. In
talking it over among themselves they
had come to get clearer view OF the
ins and outs Of the situation. 1t would
have been a very bad move to abandon
the craft and take to the boats, not only
as to what the government and insur-
ance companies and owners of the lump
Of cargo in the lower hold might say,
but there would not have been one
chance in five Of bringing the boats safe
into harbor. There was steady west
erly gale, with showers at intervals,
and a single day CT exposure would have
done for the women and children.
The mutineers kept wonderfully quiet
after playing their cards as described
above. The fact Of the matter, as you
can plainly see, was that they had no
show whatever to get possession of the
bark. Except for about half an hour at
low tide, the sharks patrolled the bay
as if they had an understanding with
Us, and we took care to encourage them
in this by feeding them at intervals.
No one could swim off to US, and, as for
building a raft, the mutineers would
have had to labor right under the muz.
zles of our guns. They had no weapons
to fire on us; none Of us ever went
ashore. And so what could they dop We
did not relax our vigilance, however.
Kno wing that we had desperate lot to
deal with, we took no chances. Every
hour of the day, rain or shine, man
was aloft with glass to survey the is
land, and in this way we kept quite fairly
posted as to the movements of the mu-
tineers. Two or three days after the
death of Mrs. Saunders it was discovered
that the two parties had reunited under
the leadership of Ben Johnson, and that
they had given more attention to the
comforts of their camp. 1t was further
discovered that they had erected tall
signal staff on the west side of the island
and were flying flag from it. Their
hope was to entice some craft which
might have strayed into these waters to
sending boat ashore in answer to that
signal. If they could get possession of a
boat, they would try hard to get posses.
sion of the ship which sent it ashore.
That we might checkmate them in this
we watched the sea as we'll as the land.
If help came to US, it would he from the
south, while their hope lay in the ar
rival of some whaler or coaster making
course along the coast.