Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1903-09-24

or four water casks had rolled about
with the hull until demolished.
The door Of the cooks galley was
held open by its hook, and we looked in
to find pots and pans hanging up and
the stove in good condition. The Mag
net left Rio with sixty Adventures and
a crew of seventeen men. In the deck
house, where the crew was quartered,
we found bedding and clothing and sea
chests but nothing to show what had
been the fate Of the sailors The be-
tween decks had been fitted up for the
passengers. l at least expected to find
dead men down there, but no such
spectacle met our eyes, There We're
bedding, clothing, firearms, knives, to-
bacco boxes, bottles and jugs and other
stuff which the passengers wanted for
use on the long voyage or after they
had landed. In some of the hunks the
bedding was nicely arranged, but in
others it was rolled in a heap. The
lamps had been taken down and the
oil poured out of them. and we found
on q nail some wicks which had been
taken from candles. Neither here nor
in the deckhouse above could we find
so much as the heel of boot or shoe.
From between decks we proceeded
to the cabin. The first sight to greet
our eyes was that of human body
hanging by a rope around its neck
from a hook in the ceiling. There was
no odor emanating from It. The body
had simply shriveled up until It was
no more than a skeleton. On a table
Just beyond where the man was hang
ing was the ships log, and near it an
ink bottle and a pen. The captain took
the log on deck and very soon announc-
ed that it contained some particulars
of what had happened aboard We
then made a closer search and found
the ships papers, about 5000 tn gold
pieces and a bag containing $125 in sill
yer, together with several watches and
ships flag nor any charts We're to be
found, and not a compass, quadrant or
seXtant could be turned up. The en-
tries in the log book for the first two
weeks We're in the captains handwrit-
Ing. Then came an entry in q different
hand, reading:
We found out that they had Deceived US
| and sent them adrift in one Of the boats
Ten days later another entry in still
another hand referred to some Of the
people sailing away in the longboat
After that many weeks elapsed before
there was another entry. The man
now hanging by the neck and swing
ing to and fro like pendulum had
written in trembling hand.
have been all alone for the last ten
days, and for the last four have tasted
neither food nor drink.
| On the next day, or the next, he had
arranged the rope and put an end to
bis suffertngs. After the gold hunters
left the Rio they must have found out
that they had been deceived by the
originator Of the adventure, and per
haps blamed the captain and mate as
we'll and sent the three adrift After
that followed storm and the wreck
OF the people who left In the boats MOI
one was ever heard Of, and the only
one who refused to leave the hulh
remained but to commit suicide. We
left the wreck to drift whittier she
would, bearing the grewsome burden
in her cabin, and during the next three
months she was twice boarded by mer.
chant craft. They found the same
sight we did, and continued their way
and she may have drifted for months
later before she plunged to her doom
or went ashore on the sands of the
African coast NJ. QUAD.