The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1897-11-23
THE DEADLY CREESE.
IT WAS IN THE HAND OF THE MALAY
SAILOR WHO RAN AMUCk.

Gin four voyages to the East Indies,
two of them to Malay ports, have seen
but one instance Of that native perform
ance called running amuck. Fortunate
ly I saw it from position of perfect
safety, but the sight was enough to
make me 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 in deep
water ships 'It 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 were lying at anchor in the roads
off Madras, unloading our middle deck
cargo into lighters, and 100 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 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 sit
ting on the capstan sung out:
Hi, mates, just look over to the
lime juioerl They're having some kind
Of rumpus there. See 'em going. be-
lieve it's one of those Malays running
amuck.
1--WE all 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 I could see all
that was going on on the deck of the
British ship. Amidships lascar, 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 the rigging. On the
quarter deck the captain was hurTying
two ladies down the com panionway into
the cabin, supporting in his arms one
of them who had tainted. AS the officer
bounded past him, following three sail
ors who had run aft, along the port
gangway, upon the poop. AS he ran he
swung before him long, slender knife,
| It's crooked blade curving in and out
like the writings Of a snake. He over
took the rearmost 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
remaining on board, and the third man
ran across the quarter deck and up into
| the mizzen rigging like 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 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 the
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 the mainmast. The
| Malay kept on up to the topgallant
crosstrees and began to follow the man
| down the stay.
"There 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
a 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 clutohed the weapon. Ho
chung to the stay by one hand and his
feet and kept on down 1t almost as fast
as before. A fifth and sixth shot, and at
the last the Malay stopped still, then
fell like lump of putty to the deck,
full 40 feet below. Whether he was
| dead 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 a handspike and made sure work
of the fellow before he could rise Then
the lascars 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 if 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 the
affair from the captain of the Mahratta
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
ed to dinner he had gone into the fore
castle, got the creese from some place
where he had it concealed and had fu-
riously attacked his mates without a
word. They raised the cry 'Amuck,
amuckP 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 I 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.