The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1898-03-17
eARTHoLEMY The PIRATE.
win . rev Men He Captured Great
Spanish Treasure Ship.


Mr.. Frank r. Stockton in his series
OF narrative sketches, 1.-THE Buc-
cancers of Our Coast" tells in st.
Nicholas of the adventures of Bar
tholenly. the famous pirate. Bar
tholemy, after his escape from San
Francisco. in Campeachy. got from
his buccaneer friends small vessel
and crew of 30 men. Then he set
out for revenge.
To do daring and astounding deeds
is part of the business of a pirate,
and, although 1t was an uncommon
y bold enterprise that Bartholemy
contemplated. he secured his vessel
and his men, and away he sailed.
After a voyage of about eight days
he came in sight of the little seaport
town, and. sailing slowly along the
coast, he waited until nightfall be-
fore entering the harbor.
Anchored at a considerable dis
tance from shore was the great
Spanish ship on which he had been
a prisoner The sight of the vessel
filled his soul with savage eager
ness to revenge himself.
AS the little vessel slowly ap-
preached the great ship the people
on board the latter thought it was
trading vessel from shore and al
lowed it TO come alongside, such
small craft seldom coming from the
Nea. But the moment Bartholemy
reached the ship he scrambled up its
side almost as rapidly as he had
jumped down from il with his two
wine jars few weeks before, and
every one of his crew, leaving their
own vessel to take care Of itself,
scrambled up after him.
Nobody on board was prepared to
defend the ship. 1t was the same
old story. Resting quietly in
peaceful harbor. what danger had
they to expect? AS usual, the pi-
rates had everything their own way.
They were ready to fight, and the
others were not, and they were led
by a man who was determined to
take that ship without giving even
a thought to the. ordinary alterna-
tive of dying in the attempt The
resistance was not worth mention
ing, for there were people on board
who did not know what was taking
place until the vessel had been cap
tured.
AS soon as Bartholemy was mas
ter of the great vessel he gave or
ders to slip the cable and hoist the
sails, for he was anxious to get out
of that harbor as quickly as possi-
BILE The fight had apparently at
tracted no attention in the town,
but there we're ships in the port
whose company the bold buocaneer
did not desire
Now indeed was Bartholemy tri-
umphant The ship he had captur-
ed was finer one and richer one
than that other vessel which had
been taken from him. 1t was load
ed with valuable merchandise. and
we may hear remark that, for some
reason or other. all Spanish vessels
OF that day which were taken by
pirates seemed to be richly laden.
II our bold pirate had sung wild
pirate songs with his crew in the
cabin of the Spanish vessel he had
first captured. he now sang wilder
songs. If Bartholemy could have
communicated his great, good for
tune to the other buccaneers in the
West Indies, there would have beer
q boom in piracy which would have
threatened great danger to the hon
esty and integrity of the seafarine
men of that region. But nobody
not even a pirate, has any way OF
finding out what is going to happer
next, and if Bartholemy had had al
idea of the fluctuations which were
about to occur in the market il
which he had made his investment
he would have been in a great hurry
TO sell all his stock very much be
low par.
The fluctuations referred to occur
red on the ocean, near the island o
Pines, and came in the shape O
great storm waves, which blew tn
Spanish vessel. with all its ricl
cargo and its triumphant pirat
crew. high up on the cruel rock
and wrecked it absolutely and Vi
terly Bartholemy and his me
barely managed to get into littl
boat and row themselves away.
All the wealth and treasure whic
had come to them with the captur
of that great Spanish vessel. all th
power which. the possession of thu
vessel gave. them and all the vii
10Y which came to them with richt
and power were lost in as short
space Of time as 1t had taken to gal
them.