El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-10-24
and shriveIed until they were of the

4
size and weight Of boy.
In the forecastle and cabin we found
otbers-enoueh to make up n crew OF
4 Il. There were II dead men and not a
living thing aboard of the Santa Maria.
On the cabin table there were the re-
mains OF breakfast, and in the fore
castle were the kids with food still in
| them Whatever had occurred was in
conjunction with the morning meal.
AS there was no fever smell aboard the
derelict. our captain came over to-
try bis hand ut solving the mystery.
The ships papers and log were soon
found. We got her manifest and port
and date OF sailing. and the last entry
on the log had been made five days be-
fore. At that time all was well. The
bodies in cabin and forecastle were OF
course in better state OF preservation,
and after an inspection the captain
gave 1t as his opinion that the entire
crew had been poisoned. The attitude
OF each and every man went TO prove
II. Their eyes were open and rolled
back. their fingers clutched and their
knees drawn up.
That derelict was n great find for us.
Her manifest showed a cargo valued
at over $4,000. 900. and the ship was all
right above deck. AS to the water in
her hold. we manned the pumps and
had it out to the last pint i'm two hours.
Then we made an investigation to find
the leak. and we soon discovered that
a single auger hole had been bored in
her bottom. The orifice had become
more or less clogged with seaweed.
and it would have taken another three
or four days to have filed the ship.
We argued that the man in the boat
must have come from the ship. As he
had got away alone and had provision
ed the boat, IL must have been after
the others We're dead. He 1t was. then.
who had brought about the wholesale
death Of the crew, and he must have
had n strong motive. That motive was
discovered when some of the boxes of
treasure were hoisted out OF the laza-
rette and broken Open Aside from
one or two boxes, the whole treasure
business was n fake. Lead had been
substituted for silver and gold. The
furs were a cheat and a fraud. and
the value of the dyestuffs was not
one-quarter of the sum they were in
sured for. A second and closer search
of the stateroom evidently occupied by
the supercargo gave us the key to I'M
lock the whole mystery. He had left
behind him n letter of instruction sign
ed by Alvarez at the City of Mexico,
and from that we learned that the
name of the dead man was Prado.
That letter, written in Spanish, was Of
no aid to US except as far as the two
names went. but later on. when trans
lated into English, its contents were of
nature to make man turn pale.
The instructions were to do just what
had been done. After the Santa Maria
had reached n certain position he was
to poison the crew with a certain drug
prepared and then scuttle the ship and
take his leave in a small boat. 1t was
doubtless figured that II not picked up
he could easily reach the coast of Chile;
but. as i have told you, we found him
dead in his boat. How his death came !
about / cannot say. as he had food and |
water and had not encountered any !
bad weather. / have always believed. |
however, that in his remorse for the |
awful deco he had done. coupled with |
the terrors of his lonely situation, he |
deliberately drank of the poison which !
had laid the others low. 1t was before |
the crew became too i'll to move about |
that sail was taken off and she was |
made snug against the weather.
With the augcr hole plugged and n |
part of our crew on board the Santa !
Maria. we laid our course for the port |
OF Valdivia, and in due time both |
craft arrived there in good shape. |
The dead had been given burial, OF |
course. but there was no lack of other |
proofs. AS soon as the plot was I'M |
rayeled steps were taken for the ar !
rest of Alvarez in Mexico. and our |
claim for salvage was also filed. Gov
ernments move slowly in international /
matters. 1t was months before they |
got ready to arrest the man who had /
plotted this sea tragedy He had /
meanwhile continued his career of dis |
sipation and extravaganza, depending |
upon his insurance money to make ev-
erything good. News got to him some
how from Valdivia of the derelict be-
ing towed in. and he left Mexico and
hid away I'm Bolivia. There he was at
last found, but he cheated the hang
man by committing suicide. Years
later the crew of the Homeward got a
few dollars apiece as salvage money.
The ship herself was lost at sea with n
full crew. You may ask why Prado
did not make n thorough job of scut-
Ting the Santa Maria while he was ut
it. He must have been alone at the
time, except for the dead around him.
and he had a sharp anger to work
with. Had he bored half a dozen holes
instead of one the ship would have
gone down before being overhauled.
and in that case we could have made
nothing over finding his corpse in the
boat. The fact would have been en-
hn nm