The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-02-24
PORTUGUESE PIRATE
HOW BARTHOLEMY CAPTURED A
HUGE SPANISH MERCHANTMEN.

Then Lay Within Short Range, and With
Rifles the Spanish Force Was Reduced
and Finally Conquered.
A series of sketches by Frank r.
Stockton on 1.-THE Buccaneers of Our
Coast" is one of the features Of st.
Nicholas. Mr.. Stockton tells of the ad-
ventures Of Bsrtholemy Portuguez,
who, with small crew in small yes.
sci, captured huge Spanish merchant
man in the Caribbean sea. Mr.. Stockton
says: The little pirate sailed boldly to-
ward the big Spaniard, and the latter
vessel, utterly astonished at the audac-
ity of this attack-for the pirates flag
was fying--lay to, head to the wind,
and waited, the gunners, standing by
their cannon. When the pirates had
come near enough to see and understand
the size and power Of the vessel they
had thought Of attacking, they did not,
as might have been expected, put about
and sail away ut the best of their yes.
sells speed, but they kept straight on
their course, as if they were about to
fall upon great, unwieldy merchant
man manned by common sailors.
Perceiving tho foolhardiness Of the
little vessel, the Spanish commander
determined to give it lesson which
would teach it's captain to understand
better the relative power of great ves-
sells and little ones, SO as soon as the
pirates vessel was near enough he Or
dered a broadside fired upon it. The
Spanish ship had great many people
on board. 1t had crew Of 20 men, and
besides these there were some passen-
gers and regular marines, and, know
ing that the captain had determined to
fire upon the approaching vessel every-d
body lad gathered on deck to see the
little pirate ship so down.
But the ten great cannon balls which
were shot out at Bartholcmy's littlo
craft all missed their aim, and before the
guns could be reloaded or the great ship
be got around go as to deliver her other
broadside the pirate vessel was along
side Of her. Bartholemy had fired none
Va AiAo SAi'hpd' kJtol SGl5 "tlt uSGlbbb
against SO huge foe. What he was aft
er was hand to hand combat on the
deck of the Spanish ship.
The pirates were all ready for hot
work. They had thrown aside their
coats and shirts, as if each Of them were
going into prizefight, and with their
cutlasses in their hands and thor pis.
tolls and knives in their belts they
scrambled like monkeys up the sides of
the great ship But Spaniards are brave
men and good fghters-there were moro
than twice as many Of them as there
were of the pirates-and it was not
long before the latter found out thas
they could not capture that vessel by
boarding it. So over the side they tum.
bled as fast as they could go, leaving
behind them. They jumped! into their
own vessel, and then they put off to a
sho,. distance to take breath and get
ready for ditfere;..tt kind Of fight. Tho
triumphant Spaniards now !. enared io
get rid Of this boatload of half na...sd
wild beasts, which they could easily do
II they took better aim with their can.
non than they had done before.
But to their amazement they soon
found that they could do nothing with
the guns, nor were they able to work
their ship so as to get it into position
for ef1ectual shots. Bartholemy and his
men laid aside their cutasses and their
pistols and took up muskets with which
they were well provided. Their vessel
lay within very short range of the SPAN
ish ship, and whenever a man could be
seen through the portfolios or showed
himself in the rigging or anywhere else
where it was necessary to 60 in order
to work the ship he made himself a tar
get for tho good aim of the pirates. The
pirate vessel could move about as it
pleased, for it required but few men
TO manage it, and so it kept out of !
the way Of tho Spanish guns, and its
best marksmen, crouching close to the
leck, fired and fired whenever a SPAN
sh head was to be seen.
For five long hours this unequal con-
est was kept up. 1t might have re-
minded one of man with slender rod
md long, delicate limo who had
locked big salmon. The man could
not pull in the salmon, but on tho other
land. the salmon could not hurt the
nan, and in the course of time the big
ISL would DO tired out and tho man
would get ont his landing net and scoon