The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1898-09-22
FIELDS OF ADVENTURE.
THRILLING INCIDENTS AND DARING
DEEDS ON LAND AND SEA.

q port in Cuba, after capturing prize
containing about SS0,000 IN money
and rich merchandise. On weighing
anchor, three Spaniards hove in sight
and captured him easily. Barthelemy
was carried TO Campeachy, where he
was Immediately recognized, and the
captain who had taken him required
to surrender him to justice. The
captain had taken fancy to the
prisoner, and would have retained
him, but the Spaniards thronged the
narbor, crying:
eve have caught Barthelemy, the
Portuguese, the most wicked rascal il
the world, who has done more harm
to Spanish commerce than all the
other pirates put together. We must
hang him at once"
His capture was an event of national
Importance.
Heavily ironed and surrounded by q
strong force of men, armed to the
teeth, the captive buccaneer was
transferred from the deck of the
friendly captain to another vessel. II
was judged unnecessary to go through
the form of trial. A gibbet was all
that was needed. A Spanish sailor
whether from humanity or brutality,
we know not-let Barthelemy know
that the scaffold was nearly ready and
the rope noosed. There was no time
to be lost. He could neither elude
the vigilance of his sentinel nor swim
the distance which separated him
from the shore; but he was not dis,
couraged
Freed from his irons. he called the
sentinel to him, and with a single
blow, skillfully directed, laid the man
dead without groan. Then, corking
two empty wine-iars, he tied them
under his arm-pits, and let himself
down into the water by the main
chains. The greatest danger to be
apprehended was from sharks.
Fortune favored him, however, and
he foated to land. Even then-such
was the training of the Spanish blood
hounds-escape seemed impossible.
There was only one way of battling
these wonderful hunters, and that
was by lying in stream of running
water. Barthelemy had read of
fugitives escaping them in this way.
He chose a running stream, half
choked by fallen trees, and lay there
for several days, listening to the bay
ing of the hounds and the shouts Of
the men in pursuit of him, support,
ing life by gnawing the roots which
grew on the edge of the stream.
At length he ventured to fly. With
one last look at the gibbet intended
for him, now plainly marked in relief
on the evening sky, he set out at
nightfall for the Colo Tristi, his only
baggage a calabash of water.
Incredible as had been his former
sufferings, he underwent greater ones
now. His food was the shellfsh thrown
up on the beack, often putrid and
poisonous. Sometimes the shore was
so thickly overgrown with trees that
he could not advance except by swing
ing in the air from branch to branch.
At other times his path was intersec-
ted by deep streams filled with cay
mans; and his only resource was to
try to frighten them away by throw
ing stones into the water, then dash
in and endeavor to cross before they
had recovered their courage.
One large river he crossed on a raft,
the branches for which he cut down
with a knife made out of rusty nail
he found on the way.
Indians, Spaniards and jaugars were
on his track. To add to all, the heat
was overpowering. Yet he surmount-
ed all; and on the fourteenth day
the distance was over one hundred
miles-he had the delight Eof behold
ing buccaneer ship careening.
He was received with transports by
his old friends, and Immediately Of
fered to lead them against prize
worthy of them--nothing less than
the very snip In which ne had been
prisoner in Campeachy. He soon
found volun teers to accompany him,
and a day or two afterward, at the
dead of night, noiselessly boarded the
Spaniard. The sentinel challenged
him.
"We are Sailors" said Barthelemy,
returning from shore with goods that
have paid no duty"
The faithful sentinel muttered a
hope that he would not be forgotten,
but the next moment he was killed
and the vessel taken. ee
Where Barthelemy came from, or
how he ended, no one knows. He
first loomed up as the captain of a
small buccaneer craft, carrying four
three-pounders and a crew OF thirty
men.