The Tupelo journal., 1904-07-15
CONQUEST OF THE KETTLES
Tale Of a Former Naval Officer Who Is
Lording It in the Com
orc Isles.

The reported volcanic eruption in the
Comoro islands, off the coast of NADIA
gascar, serves to recall the only occa-
sion when the government Of the Unit
ed States took an interest in the group,
says the New York Sun.
About Is years ago a small vessel OF
the navy was ordered to call at one OF
the islands of this group and tt take
possession of an American merchant
vessel which had been seized by it's own
crew and was reported to be engaged
in the slave trade.
The expedition was one of the oldest
that the navy ever undertook, and its
developments were quite beyond any
thing save the stories of romance.
When the little man-of-war reached
the island the commander discovered
that the supposed slave dealer was no
other than a former officer of the navy,
who had obtained a rich plantation and
enjoyed the good will of the neighbor-
ing sultan, an extremely dark p~otentate,
with slaves by the hundred and power
unlimited.
So serious seemed the errand that a
scouting party was sent ashore, and
the house of the planter was approached
with the utmost care. In the end, all
the precautions proved unnecessary, for
the vessel was not at the island, and
the former naval officer was delighted
to see his warlike fellow-countrymen.
What the officers found was a swarthy
gentleman in tropical garments, living
luxuriously in a big, comfortable. one
story bungalow, with a vast plantation
cultivated by slaves, over which he was
reputed to exercise power of life and
death. Along with the luxuries of the
tropics he enjoyed many of the conven-
fences of civilization.
He was his own pOStman, for once a
month he sent a little steamer some
hundreds of miles across the sea to the
nearest post Office and brought back
many pounds of mail matter. His
library table was stacked with American
magazines and European periodicals,
and he was acquainted with the news
of the day, or rather of the month be-
lOlC, III dll PAL % VI INC Nollu.
An ice machine enabled him to tenn
per the tropic heats of his island king
dom, and he served his naval guests
with excellent and very cold cocktails
of approved make.
He also gave them good meals so long
as they visited him, and convinced some
of them that he was physically better
off than those who follow the sea for a
living.
The planter discussed the case of the
missing merchant vessel without re-
serve. She had been an old whaler. AT
that moment she was in a French port
of a n~eighboring island and quite beyond
the reach of our man-of-War. He de-
MED that he had ever used the vessel in
the slave trade.
He was good enough to point out to
the captain of our ship a number of the
whaler's copper kettles which were used
on the island for boiling sugar, and it be-
came the unpleasant duty of the cap
tain to seize these kettles as part of the
property which he had been ordered to
rescue.
Accordingly, after having eaten the
planters dinners and drunk his cock
tails, the captain sent men ashore t
carry off the kettles by force. To all
this the amiable planter interposed no
serious objection, and the kettles were
brought back in triumph to the United
States. Doubtless they were duly re-
turned to the owner.
Since that time the planter has been
at least once on a visit to New York.