Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1898-02-25
A HOT FIGHT.
BY CHARLES u. LEWIS.

From the year 1868 to that OF 1867
there were no less than seven British,
French, German and American cruisers
constantly cruising in the waters of the
China and Java seas after pirates. Dur.
ing this time over 100 piratical craft
were captured, dozen or 10 strong
holds broken up and at least 1000
BLACK flags were killed offhand or
sent ashore to be hung The cruisers
thought they had finished their work,
but in 1869 several traders which had
been fitted out at Bantam, Batavia and
Singapore were overhauled by pirates
and their crews butchered. When we
arrived at Singapore in 1870 in the
British gun brig Vixen. nest of pi.
rates had been located on one Of the is
lands off the west coast Of Java, and we
had orders to proceed to the spot and
clean them out. We overhauled our
armament, took in lot OF ammunition
and strengthened our crew by ID men
before sailing These men were drafted
out Of IA crew belonging to a man of
war which had been wrecked on the
Malay coast, and all were old hands
The captain got his bearings from some
source unknown to us, and when we
left Singapore the brig was headed to
the east We logged along down the
coast of Sumatra for week without
any unusual incident, and though we
spoke score Of craft mono Of them had
any information about the pirate. The
crew had begun to ridicule the idea
when something occurred to open our
eyes very wide.
One morning, about an hour after
daylight, we came up with a Dutch
trader, which was taking care of her
self All her sails had been cut away,
ropes were flying in every direction,
and she was so low in the water that
we wondered why she didn't go down.
When boat pulled off to her, il was to
find the captain mortally wounded and
his wife and two sailors, stiff and dead
and horribly mutilated, ON the deck be-
side him. We got him off, but had no
time to give the bodies burial before
the little craft went down. The captain
was u man about 40 years Of age. and,
though hardly alive when we found
him, he rallied enough to tell his story.
The trader had been trafIicking along
the Java coast and had finally completed
his cargo and headed for Singapore.
Just at sunset on tho previous evening
no had been overhauled by native
craft, carrying about 40 men, He was
then about ten miles off the coast and
about five miles south Of an island
known as Queens Bower. He had no
suspicion whatever OF tho natives, and
the first thing he knew they boarded his
craft and began to cut and slash. When
they had finished the crew, they began
to plumber and strip the vessel and were
with her until midnight. Before leaving
they bored her full OF holes, and we had
reached her just IN time to rescue the
captain. The first craft was joined by
two others later on, ana tho three car
rled at least 100 desperate fellows. Tho
captain heard and understood enough to
satisfy him that they were an organized
gang of pirates and that they were also
well equipped for their bloody business
The island mentioned was not over
20 miles away, and AZ tho Java sea was
and IL II great highway 1t did not seem
possible that men would take such
risk AZ those pirates had The trader
said that no less than three friendly
sails were IN sight when no was at
tackled, but all too FAR away to signal
even II ne had been warned IN time 10
do something owing to the shoals sur
rounding the iSiaiid our craft could not
approach near enough 10 use her guns
ana SMELL LllB IDllOWB OuJ, anu No WeTO