The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-07-31
PIRATES in THE HILIPPINES.
Archipelago Fairly Swarms With Piraca Craft Mannep
By Fierce SuluS

desperadoes of every sort. With pirate
of this stamp, there is no taking of cap
tives, for in these days such prizes ar
too difficult to dispose Of
THE merchant vessels plundereC
| and scutteled, with everyone on boarC
sent where he Will tell no tales, the
! pirate proa becomes again the peace
| full trading or fishing craft. In the dis
! posal of their plumber and the huShins
| of inquiry there have been more thar
! hints of the connivance of men in higf
authority-gover of islands who, or
moderate salaries, nave gone back to
Spain rich.
Another form of piracy among the
islanders is sometimes practiced ir
cases where a, trading vessel has tc
take on a new crew. A gang of pirates
viii ship in body as lascars and wait
the first favorable time to murder the
officers and loot the ship. Many a YES
sci that has sailed from the Philippines
and failed ever to make her port might
be accounted for in this way.
Having sailed these waters for half
my life, I ought, by usual custom, to
be growing careless and think because
I have pulled through safe so far that
no harm will come to me from pirates
Many a good man has lost his ship and
his life from taking up with that idea
In my first trip among the Philippines,
20 odd years ago, 1 got a lesson, right
in this strait where we are sailing
now, that has lasted me ever since. 1
had shipped as quartermaster in an
old hulk, called the Liza Truesdell, a
whaling brig that had got too old to
stand the battering of the deep seas,
and had been bought by Chinese firm
in Annoy to send out trading among the
Malay islanders as long as her bones
should hold together. The crew were
lascars from everywhere.
OFFICERS A FINE LOT.
"The officers and quartermasters
were white men, of course, and they
We're a mixed lot even for a Chinese
ship The captain had lived too long in
China and he smoked the opium pipe
like a mandarin. The mate had an. eX-
ira chest in his room stocked with
brandy and SamShu, and with this and
grog rations he kept most of the time
in a condition where he did not care
which way the wind blew. The four
quartermasters, myself included-but 1
was a youngster remember-were such
men as are picked up adrift at a
Chinese treaty port-which is not high
praise. The one officer that we could
look to in case of trouble was the sec
ond mate, an American named Godfrey,
and he kept things aboard as nearly
let him.
1--WE were a fine outfit to go cruising
in waters like these. We had two nine
FOUNDER guns on board, but the pow
der was not put up in cartridges, and
the round shot were buried under bar
relS of beef and bags of rice in the
forehold. The muskets in the rack had
not been overhauled since the last voy-
age, and nobody, unless the skipper,
who did not care, knew where the am
munitiOn was, or the condition it was
in. We were trusting in luck, and we
got it-luck of the left-handed kind.
1T was a night as fine as this, and
the brig was coming eastward through
the strait in a course that took her
close to that high island you can see
looming ahead, two points off our port
bow. 1t was in the midnight watch,
and I was on deck waiting for four
bells to strike to take my trick at the
wheel. The mate on the poop had fall
len into a browse while trying to sing
Tom Bowling the lookout had come
down from the forecastle to get drink
of water, and had stayed; the lascars
were sitting about on the main hatch,
and nobody was minding anything ex-
cept the man at the wheel, with his
eyes on the compass. There was a
light, fair breeze, just enough to give
the brig Storage way.
LAS we were passing the island, so
near that it's shadow seemed to reach
halfway out to the brig, 1 was fooling
with Chinese puzzle, and 1 happened
to raise my eyes. A minute before the
sea was as lonely as if no other boat
than ours had ever stirred its waters.
Now five large proas had appeared
from the shadow of the land, each with
eight or ten oars on a side, and all
driving toward the brig. Between the |
rowers men were standing, and 1 saw
the CLEAN of steel amOAg them. There |