Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1898-04-22

IDENTIFY took Us fOr what we pretended
TO le. end we vcro pipod to breakfast
feeling that our russo would succeed.
About 8 o'clock, with the wind
brec2ing up lively, three native sail
craft nut out for US. A man aloft with
a glass repoFtcd that each craft was
crowccd with natives, aud it was now
orr plan to weigh anchor and make a
little sail and pretend 70 be standing
away FROM thcm as il alarmed. The OBJ
jcct was 70 draw .tell rs far away
from shore as possible, and we had
added o mile or more TO the distance
when the foremost toat came within
hail. She hadn't q gun Of any sort in
SIGHT, hut she lad l3 desperate looking
villains in plain view and every Il of
them had g cutlass and pistol. While
her captain was hailing us in a Ian
gunge no one could understand she was
slowly edging along down our starboard
quarter. At the alne time a second
craft was drawing ahead on the port
side, AID the third kept in u wake.
Only seven or eight men were in sight
on our decks, and tie natives seemed to
have no suspicion OF "a trick. The breeze
was n little bit too strong for their
manouyoring at lrft, hut after we were
about tx mics of shore the two sud
dealy closed IN to beard rs. Our cap
tain had been closely watching them
and waiting Tor this move, and OF q
sudden the dram beat to quarters and
our decks were alive with men.
] was captain OF no. 3 gun crew ana
had tho honor Of firing the first shot.
Il was a solid ball, and it struck the
craft ON her port bow and went clean
through her and dropped into he sea
beyond. This opened the fight. The ma
tivos instantly realized that they had
caught a tartar, and they saw, too, that
their only means Of escape lay in cap
turing the ship. Therefore, Instead Of
running away, as we bad looked for,
each craft lore down en- us TO board.
They vera handled ns easily as an In
dian a canoe, and it wasn't
five minutes after the first gun was fred
ere they were IA u quarters like
wolves seeking to hamstring a deer. l
fred another solid shot and then loaded
with grape, and this last charge was
fired right into % mass of natives wait
ing to clan-ter up the side. Tho gun
next to &c l.cd a solid shot, which
tore through her bottom, and two min
utes later sire %foundorod right alongside
of Ms. Tho second craft got near enough
to ErGpple, but tho irons were thrown
off and two guns played solid shot into
her hull until she went down stern fore
NEST, leaving 80 men struggling in the
waves.
The third craft had forged ahead,
sailing five feet to our one, and would
have boarded us at the bows but for the
sudden destruction of the others. Their
fate frightened her off, but she had
scarcely laid her head for the island
than il was brought around, as if heI
crew had made some desperate resolve
Now occurred a curious thing. She hac
about 30 men on beard, and she cam
down on Us with every one Of then
shouting and screaming and tried 60 Ia!
us aboard. We could have sunk he.
with ore gun even, or we could nav
picked Of the whole crow with on.
muskets before they had crossed tn
rail. Word was passed to give her
full broadside at command, and whcl
the smoke cleared away she was no
to be seen. There were over 20 Of tb
pirates hanging to the wreckage arount
us, however, and a boat was lowered t
} pick them up. You can judge Of thei
desperation when l tell you that ever.
) one of them fought like a tiger agains
being rescued and that We got only fy
out Of tho lot. The others We had t
} kill as they 1oated about, with th
! sharks swapping at them. Two Of TIA
| five leaped out of the boat after bein
, pulled in ard were seen no more, AL
tho others gave us so much trouble tina
the captain swung them up to the var
, arm.
} Thus not one single man Of the 10
| or moro who came out to attack us e'
capped with his life. ! was in n Of th
boats afterward sent ashore to see wha
: sort of a lair the pirates had made fc
3 themselves. The only human being
l ashore were an old native woman, a on
; armed Japanese and a white boy abor
: IL years of age. The boy was OF q
? English trader captured a year befor
and had been held prisoner ever since
He said there were 107 men in the gani
and we found enough plumber on ii
island to load our ship.
They had captured about q doze
different vessels, large and small, an
D in every case had %plundered and sun
r them. They did not always kill all tn
crew. Soon after the boy was capture
they brought in an American sailor o
a spice trader. The lad knew him onl
by the name of William, but remen
, bered that his home was in Boston.
turned out that they had spared his III
t to make use Of him as a blacksmith, bI
7 when they found he had no knowlodf
of that work he was put to death wit
great cruelty. by order of the chief
! was hung in chains on a tree about
quarter Of a mile from the village an
d was five OF six days in dying. The be
went with us and showed us his bone
still hanging.
d The one armed man and tho old W
10 man, assisted by the boy, were the cool
n for the gang. They at first seemed vel
much alarmed and protested their inn
cence Of any completely in the crimes