The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-06

II blew Him to An Island Where
saVagcs Who Fired at the Vessels
with bullets of GoId-Then 1t Blew
Him Away-Hc Would Like to Find
That Island.
From the New York Sun.
NO" said the man. sitting nstlessly on
the pier. as he pulled away languidly
enough at a pipe OF peculiar shape. NO.
l amt got no heart to splice myself to
hope and 90 to the Klondike country. Nor
no other country, for that matter, except
1 git a JOB that takes me there and pays
me for IL by the month regular. Course,
I understand how a man might fall down
a well and come up with a bucketful of
gold, but 1 amt the man. That kind of
luck is meant for somebody else. Once,
though, there wasn't any kind of a snap
that 1 wouldn't undertake; but since the
setback we got in the Pacific ten years
ago next March 1 amt had no wind in
my sails to speak Of and I don't so much
as keep lookout now to see which way
we're goin'. If there's land ahead, all
right; and if there amt, all right just the
same"
The man sitting on bag Of peanuts ad-
joining the speaker asked question.
Didn't you ever hear of that?" said the
man in response. Il thought everybody
knowed what a blow / got out there. OF
course, I'll tell you if you'd like to hear
1t happened down in the Pacific somewhere
about $50 degrees west, 20 degrees south,
where the seas as full of islands as a
yeller dog is of f1eas and, as 1 said, just
ten years ago comes next March. l wasn't
in the sailor business exactly, being
trader on the seas instid of a navigator,
and, havin' a friend in Auckland, New
Zealand, who liked my style, he fixed me
up with sailing vessel and a crew of
ten men and a skipper, and we went sail
ing around among the islands of the archi-
pelago looking for bargains, as it were.
Il guess we'd been splashin around in
the water for five or six weeks or such q
matter. and dom like Riley did with the
hotel when one night the weather thick
ened on us, and by midnight there was a
wind a-blowin' that would take the hair off
of the head of a barrel, and we were skin
min before it like a 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
cur boat was maxim about forty miles
minute, and tearin' up the water worse
than a bull in a ohiny shop.
along in the afternoon the wind laid
down bit, and when we sighted an ISL
and off our weather bow we kind of beat
I'D to 1t, or whatever them sailor fellers
called H. 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 I,
chance, too, that we might find a bargain
in something layin' around waiting for our
arrival.
1T was dark by the time we got in and
We couldn't tell much what kind of place
it was. except that 1t was rocky and
mountainous with a smell like dead vol
cano, and it seemed to be big enough TO
accommodate a good many inhabitants.
We anchored 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
wanted 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 as we
got settled brought back not only fruit
and water but an animal that looked as
near ike one OF our rabbits as anything
could look, ard that tasted the same way.
We HAD about got ready to turn in saw
at 8 O'Clock that night, when we heard
queer language, that none of US under
stood. The people didn't seem to like us
bein' there, though, that was plain enough.
and we began to send word to them that
we were all right, and if they didn't wan1
ue we would get out a soon as the wealth.
er would permit 1t didn't sound that
way 10 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 moro
clothes than was needed, and that they
were armed with bows and arrows and
spears and n few old muskets like most
OF them native have. The sea was too
rough for them TO try to get at us II,
boats in the dark, so they took it out in
s,ingin' stump speeches at us from the
shore
That's what they slung at first. but
when we began to yell back a. the howlin'
devils they changed their tactics, and along
about 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
them the laugh on this, but pretty soon
they got the range, and the first thing we
got serious about was a shot that went
through our first mate and buried itself
in the foremost. They were ounce balls
that were comm our may over the waves
and every time one of them hit the shin
it sounded with a dull thud that meant
business ctean down 70 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 bull
let through them somewhere. 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 shin
headed around so 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 lob
lodging bullets and working ship, but we
managed somehow, and just as soon as
there was a bit Of light to show us how
to keep off the rocks We caught the wind
that was still blowing a gale and let her