The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-08-29
AN ODD EXPERIENCE.
THE STORY OF A STRANGE MISSION
y. TO A DESERT ISLAND.

Colin and Dead Chinese Manda-
rim Who May Not Have Been = Dead
Chinaman After All.
1--WE spent q good many years round
these islands," said the night watch on
yacht in the Santa Barbara channel,
"and I've had some singular experiences.
Last winter l spent in Santa Barbara,
only coming to the island occasionally.
One day Chinaman came to my lodg-
ings and asked me II j knew San Nico-
las, the bleakest and tkldiest of all the
California islands l said l did.
"'You know mandalin? he asked.
Lung KOw alice samee mandalin; he go
San Nicolas; alice samee dead man. You
sabeT
"In short, the Chinaman was repre-
sentative Of the Six Companies of San
Francisco, and the mandarin, Lung kow,
had taken trip for his health to the
island with party Of abalone hunters
and had died on the desolate spot. He
was big zuaz. and so delegation Of
Cinnamon had been ssnt to Santa Bar
bara to charter a vessel to go to San
Nicolas to bring him to mainland. We
soon struck bargain and set sail. The
island lies well out to sea, where 1t blows
half gale nearly all the time, and there
are no safe harbors. My schooner was a
little fore and after, with a small cock
pit and cabin, which just about held the
four Cinnamon, while cross deck, amid
ships, they slowed bronze coffin. The
men, as near as could make out, seemed
to be priests of rank and went on regular
watch duty from the time they started.
They crowded into the cabin and lit their
pipes and kept them going all the way
over. As soon as we got under sail one
of them threw lot of paper into the air,
repeating something in Chinese This was
to give the vessel good luck The others
burned punk in the cabin.
"We reached the island one night when
it was blowing furiously, and we lay on
the edge of the kelp till morning. The
landing was through q channel about
90 feet wide, with wall of rock on each
side. When you got in it was all right,
as there was a cove and sandy beach.
The Cinnamon had brought one Of their
boats, n clumsy affair, and we all put off
in her with the heavy coffin dashed to
the seats. The sea was still high, and
while we rowed the Cinnamon threw pa
per and waved their punk sticks. l was
looking for trouble, and just as we
reached the narrow channel the sea drop
ped away from the bow, the stern few
up in the air, and big wave struck the
fiat bottom of the boat, sending her stern
over bow-into the cove, and spilling every
one into the water. When the China
men recovered from their fright they
rushed for the boat. and, hauling her up,
unfastened the coffin and laid it on the
beach. The abalone hunters met us, and
there was more bowling and more punk
burned, and then the men took the coffin
on their shoulders and we followed the
abalonc hunters.
Well, my partner and took turns at
carrying the coffin with the Cinnamon,
and for several miles followed the aba
lone men over the hills and sand to n re-
mote spot where the grave was pointed
| out. Now came the funny part of it.
Naturally you would think they would do
| all the work of taking up the body, but
| they indicated that they expected us to
do it, and as we had been paid to do the
work there was no backing out. The
Cinnamon thrust lighted punk in the
sand all about and went through many
gcsticulatons while we dug. The Man
DARN had simply been laid in the sand
with his robes about him and his red
buttoncd hat on. We got him up. put
him in the coffin and bolted it down.
| Then the Cinnamon threw handfuls of
papers in the air. uttering cries and bow
| ing to the body, to the east and west.
| 1--WE finally got the coffin triced to two
long poles and began the march back.
! I've taken some hard and curious tramps
in my time, but that discounted them all.
The Cinnamon were thoroughly frighten-
ed-you know they think the wind is a
living thing, and when it began to howl
and roar and fill the air with stones and
dirt they would stop and point at the
black fog bank that looked like a big
dragon, then start off again, blowing
through the drifting sand, sometimes al
most losing sight of the guide ahead.
Finally we reached the beach. The yacht
was lying on the edge of the kelp, about
200 yards off shore and riding on n pretty
good swell that set in from the west, but
the junkboat came in all right and we
hauled her up, high and dry.
Remembering their experience, the
Cinnamon wanted us to wait until the
sea went down; but we explained that
there was always sen running, so they
consented to try it. They evidently were
determined to take no chances, as they
first placed the heavy coffin, now heavier
than ever, amidships, and dashed it in,
then put my partner and me at the oars,
while the dead Chinaman took his place
in the boat with his hand on the coffin.
After much excitement we got the cot
fin in the falls and landed it on deck.
putting it across the house. That night
the only dry place was the coffin, 50
piled my blankets on top of it and was
fast asleep on top of the Mandarin when
| felt some one pulling at me and found
the whole party about me. They had a
sort of hourly service and had formed in
u procession in the cockpit, and, when
they reached the coffin, were Mortified
to find me there. Their peculiar rites
were kept up during the entire trip, and
it was months before we got rid of the
smell Of opium and punk. The body was
shipped to San Francisco under the same
guard"
And that was the last of Lung
Kow?" asked one of the yachtsmcn.
Il don't know about that" replied the
sailor. "Thc next week we saw in q
San Francisco paper that n lot of snug
glcd opium had been captured in coffin
and we began to think that the Mandarin
was just an ordinary dummy Chinaman
packed with opium cases, which hat
been landed at San Nicolas and taker
away by US. 1t looked that way."-Cin
cinnati Commercial Tribune.
Time For Action.
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