The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-12-02
SAVED BY SEA SNAKES.

SLAl4 almost QuhAOWA 10 ll4uaL <A44AS&- cans even by name, I tried to cross the little strait known as Malampaya Sound, which separates two islands in the Mindoro sea. I was after big py- thons and had hired a Chinese boat to carry me there.
 Four miles within the entrance of this tropical strait is a bay that is marked down as Pirate bay in the British admiralty charts, and the pleasing character of the dwel.ers on those shores is best told by this little reference which found on the map:
 Caution. Merchant vessels entering Malampaya Sound in the early part ot the southwest moonsoon should be on their guard against pirates, for in Pi- rate bay the Royaist's gig was nearly cut off by a fleet of eight IllanOn proas on their annual marauding eXpedl- tion."
 I was thinking of this cheerful state men. when We opened Pirate bay off our starboard. It looked peaceable and pretty enolgh. with it's silver shore stretching in a gentle crescent and it's tall palms waving lazily in the scended wind. It was hard to imagine pirates living there. One would rather expect to find dream eyed. indolent, amlable lotus-eaters in that soft and sleepy land.
 But even while I was looking three tall sails uplifted behind a palm-rlad point. Swift and straight they came like the triangular fins Of n,rNs'' wished they had been sharks. It was most unlikely that the natives would come out in these big craft if they would come out In these big craft if they were bound on a peaceable mis- sion.
 Soon they cleared the point and with the. glass 1 saw that there was abun- dant reason to be apprehensive, for the decks of. the proas were full of armed men, I hurried below, loaded my four guns and disposed my ommNuition So that could get at it easily.
 In the brief time the proas had ap- preached near enough for the Chinese to see them and they turned stern at once and made for the open sea. The boat We had was a good one. having been built in Singapore by a New Bedford whaler. She was fast, and when che turned to run for the open she got the wind on her beam whicn was her best point of sailing.
 It was noon when We started to run. The beautiful tropical sunset burned the sea when at last the race was pect, hn nf inch, so that we knew that they would soon be able to run on top of us and board.
 During the whole long race not a sound had been uttered on the proas It was all done in grim, oppressive si- lence. My Chinese were not the timio type of coolie, but hard-faced fighting men, whose occupation, I supect, was the smuggling of opium. had been searching the sea all around with my glasses, hoping to spy a sail or smoke, but in vain. Nothing was. to be seen except the great level, lonely horizon. l knew that we would have to fight for our lives.
 I dropped below and came up with my guns and ammunition. The first weapon that I used was a seven shot repeater carrying a long forty-four caliber ball. The sea was smooth as glass. I had to, allow. merely for the very slow, steady roll. I threw the sights for two hundred yard e1eva- tion, which was the distance of the nearest proas and hailed the captain in Spanish, warning him to. sheer off. The reply was shot from an old-fash- toned riusket. It fell short. I motioned to my helmsman to~keep her steady and fired. The tall brown captain leaped spasmodically and tum- bled ba ckto the deck dead. The proa immediately fell away, and while her sail was Tapping I dropped the man who had fired the musket. Firing into that huddle on the deck of the proa was like firing into a target just in front of ones nose. It was terrible work and would have given anything if I could have escaped it. But there was nothing else to do, so I picked my shots and fired steadily till I had emp eied the magazine. And when I fired the last shot seven men lay on the L. proa.
 Meantime the other two vessels had come close and were being fought off | by the Chinamen, who were well armed themselves. But they were poor shots | like all Chinese, and wasted ammunI-
 ton frightfully
 | doaded again and got in four more shots, dropping a man each time, be- fore the proa drew away. Then I turned to the next one and fired three shots into 1t. But the end had come 1 The two proas boomed down on us
 with the wind and crashed into oul side. | Men began to pour on our decks. jumped up to fire point blank at them
 when a whirling spear drove at me and though it's point missed me, its
 shaft swung so powerfully at me thai
 it knocked me overheard.
 There was howl from the proas ant
 a rush to the side. knew what tha
 meant. They were waiting for men tt
 come up so that they could spear me Therefore I dived deep, came up under
 my vessels keel and hung by her rud
 der, where I could not be seen iron the deck.
 As I rose to the surface heard thu
 sharp, high-pitched vry of a China
 man. Others followed. I knew tha
 each meant the death of one of my crew, and then, when there were nc