The age-herald., 1898-01-09
GUNS LOADED WITH GOLD Strange Adventures of a South
 Sea Sailorman. LOOKING FOR THE ISLAND The Old Sailor Wants No KIondke in His But Would Like to Swap Few Trim
 kets For Nuggets
From the New York Sun.

1 AOhl tAc ANGW 1Oih Ioun
 ! ''No,' said the man, sitting listessly on i the pier, as he puffed away languidly enough at pipe of peculiar shape. NO. ain't got no heart to splice myself to i hope and go to the Klondike country. Nor no other country, for that matter, except l git job that takes me there and pays me for it by the month regular. Course, l understand how a man might fall down a well and come up with bucketfull of gold, but l aint the man. That kind of luck is meant for somebody else Once, though, there wasn't any kind of snap that 1 wouldn't undertakes; but since the setback we got in the Pacific ten years ago next March l aint had no wind in my sails to speak of, and l don't much as keep lookout now to see which way we're go- in. II there's land ahead, all right; and if there aint, all right just the same"
 The man sitting bag of peanuts ad- joining the speaker asked a question:
 Didn't you never hear of that?" said the man in response. '1 thought every body knowed what a blow got out there. It happened down in the Pacific somewhere about 150 degrees west, 20 degrees south, i where the seas as full of islands as a yal- Ter dog is of 1eas, and as I said, just ten years ago come next March. l wasn't in the sailor business exactly, being trader on the instid of navigator, and, hav-' in friend in Auckland, New Zealand, who liked my style, he fixed me up with a sail ing vessel and crew of ten men and skipper, and we went around among the is- lands of the archipelago looking for bar gains, as it were
 ''I guess we'd been splashin' around in the water for five six weeks or such matter, and doin' like Riley did with the hotel when one night the weather thick ened on Us, and by midnight there was wind a-bloWin' that would take the hair off the head of a barrel and we were skin min before it like scared dog. By morn- ing there wasn't any land in sight, some thing that don't happen often among all them islands scattered everywhere, and our boat was maxim about forty miles min ute, but she was gon' around in circles mostly and tearin' up the water worse than a bull in a cfiny shop
 "Along in the afternoon the wind laid down a bit, and when sighted an island off our weather bow we kind of beat up to it, or whatever them sailor fellers called it, and we got in under the lee of it and found a little harbor that looked like it might afford us enough protection to make some repairs after the wind had got done having fun with us. There was a chance too, that we might find a bargain in some thing layin around waiting for our arrival.
 'It was dark by the time we got in and we couldn't tell much what kind of place it was except that it was rocky and moun- tainous with smell like a dead volcano, and it seemed to be big enough to accom- modate a good many inhabitants We an- chored about 800 yards from shore and though there was still more wind than We cared to have, it was not so bad but that we could keep the schooner where we want ed her.
 "There wasn't any signs of life on the island that we could see, but there was plenty of good water and nice fruit and the boat that we sent off as soon we got set tied brought back not only fruit and water but animal that looked near like one of our rabbits as anything could look and that tasted the same way We had about got ready to turn in, say at o'clock that night, when we heard voices of people on shore yelling in some queer language that none of us understood The people didn't seem to like us bein' there. though, that was plain enough, and we begun to send word to them that we were all right, and if they didn't want us we would get out as soon as the weather would permit. It didn't sound that way to them, likely, for at midnight they had filled the shore and had fires burning all along. We could see they were black and that they didn't wear any more clothes than was needed, and that they were armed with bows and ar rows and spears, and few old muskets like most of them natives have. The sea was too rough for them to try to get at in boats in the dark, so they took 1t out in slingin' stump speeches at us from the shore.
 That's what they slung at first. but when we began to yell back at the howlfn' about 8 o'clock in the morning they let off one or two of their old muskets with a roar that sounded like war times. We give i them the laugh on this, but pretty soon we got serious about a shot that went through our first mate and buried itself in the fore mast. They were ounce balls that were comin' our way over the waves, and every time of them hit the ship it sounded wi h dulf thud that meant business clean down to the bottom of the sea. After the first fifteen or twenty shots, I don't think they ever missed our boat again, hitting either in the hull or the rigging, and six of our men got a bullet through them some where. We got out on deck with our guns and banged away ten shots to their one but they had the whole island to hide in, while our boat was the only thing they could hit except wind and water, so they counted more than we did.
 ''All the time the shooting was going on our skipper was trying to get the ship headed around sos we could escape as soon as light came, for we would soon be in the soup, we knew, if them natives ever got their boats out and surrounded us. Our crew was crippled, and it was a hard job lodging bullets and working ship, but we there was bit of light to show us how to keep off the rocks we caught the wind right out to the open We went like light ming, too, and the gale got to be a hurri- cane, and we lost three men trying to do something with the sails, and then we lost " so did four more of the crew and that got us down to hard pan and the wind still a-blowin' the stuffin' out of the sea and scatterin' it all over the ship and the sky and the bosom of us wouldn't ever see any, thing like it again. Two days later everY thing on deck had been blowed to the four corners of the compass and there wasn't anybody left but the skipper and me and the cook Chinaman just ornery enough to be the only man not to get hurt
 "The third day we sighted a ship, and when we put up our signals for help the ship bore down on us There wasn't any, thing to be done but for us to get out our lifeboat then and pull over to the vessel that was there to save us, and we done so as soon a we could. But 1t was unIuclSy day for the skipper, for as he got into the hot he lest hrs balance and went head foremost into the water. I tried to make tho Chinaman go in after him, but the heathen wouldn't, and as I couldn't swim I dasen't, so the poor skipper was lost. Thet loft the Chinaman and me, and we got