The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1899-03-09

twenties. thirties,. forties and ffties Of
this century, the las; years Of the whal
ing industry. whaleships operating in
the Indian and West Pacific oceans used
frequently TO recruit their crews in the
Malay islands. These recruits. princi
pally drawn from Timor, che eastern.
most island Of the .Iavan archipela.
go. because that island lay In the track
Of whalers passing from one ocean to
the other through the stats of New
Guinea and its Coupang, etc
were the best in that part of the
world ~
''The Malay Of TimoF has long been
noted as the most perfect specimen of
his race, physically and mentally, and
he Is the best seaman OF any race not
Caucasian Early in the tbirties the
whaleship Phoenix Of Nantucket, Cap
tain Gardner. having spent a season in
the Indian ocean, ran up through the mar.
row seas of New Guinea, bound for the
Japan whaling ground. The crew being
reduced by sickness, Captain Gardner
touched at Coupang and shipped nine
Malays, most Of whom had already sail
ed in American or English whalers
"They soon proved to be an excep
tionally hard lot. one in particular be.
ing almost constantly refractory Final.
ly, one day the first mate, William
Starbuck of Nantucket, chastised this
Malay with ropes end Well aware
of the treacherous and Tevengeful char
acteT of his customer, StarbuCk kept
his weather eye on the man. One day
not long afterward. while the first
mates watch was washing down decks
after cutting in sperm whale, the
Malay, seeing Starbuck's attention di
rected to something aloft whipped a
short creese knife from his shirt and
darted stab ut the mates back The
knife found its mark. but glanced along
rib without penetrating the body
Quicker than thought Starbuck whirled
around, seized the Malay's right wrist
with one hand and his shoulder with
the other and threw him to the deck
"Starbuck had two loaded pistols in
his belt and might easily have blown
the Malay's brains out But he knew
the breed too well for that To kill him
in that manner would only invite venge.
ance from the other Malays II was
necessary to give him something that
in the Malay estimation would be more
horrible than sudden death. So Bill
Starbuck, giant in strength, took the
Malay's right arm. placed HE knee
against the elbow and deliberately broke
it backward. the bones and tendons,
says the old scrapbook, of the doomed
limb swapping like so many pine twigs
as the joint yielded to the Samsonlike
strength of the pitiless mate With one
long howl of rage and anguish the Ma
lay quivered convulsively and tainted
Rising to his feet Starbuck ordered q
couple Of buckets of water thrown over
the quivering wretch and walked away.
remarking, 1.-The mud colored devil
will have to stab left handed here
after
The Malay came to out Of his faint,
pursues the old book. but he never re-.
covered An attempt was made to
straighten the arm and put it in splints
but the torn flesh and broken bones and
proved too much for the victim q sys.
tenn and gangrene soon set in The
wretched Malay fingered for about four
weeks in horrible agony and then died
1t was fearful discipline, but nothing
short of it would have sutliced During
the rest Of the voyage, about IA months
the other eight Malays were as docile
as rabbits None of them wanted their
elbows broken across Bill Starbuck' 3
kueeI
"The lesson of this anecdote is of his
torical value just now Unlike General
Otis. Bill Starbuck understood the ma
tives. He knew how to conciliate them
though his method was doubtless rad
ically different from that contemplated
by our president The reason why the
other eight Malays in the Phenix's
crew were conciliated was because Bill
Starbuck, from their point of view
was a fercer and crueler savage than
any Malay ever dared be, and because
his exhibition of physical prowess had
stricken them with awe and terror.
1.-The prospect of dealing with such
savages in the hope Of educating them
up to the point at which they may
comprehend the meaning of government
by the consent of the governed is not
an inviting one At present they have
no conception of any meaning to the
word government except az syno-
nym Of organized plunder or systemat.
ic rapine. In dealing with such race
it is much easier to take mp the white
mans burden at the wrong end than
ut the right end "-Philadelphia Press