Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1905-12-06
ELEVEN LITTLE
BLACK PIGS.
By G. A. Stephens.

There were but six passengers on
the Pacific Mail steamer on that
trip from Panama up to San Fran
cisco. So we were all at the cap
tain's table. There was a good cook,
and one night we had roast Panama
pig. The purser alone refused it.
None of it for me, thank you," said
he, and he told the following story:
Thirteen years ago l was at Ma
zatlan, out of cash and out Of a JOB.
Mazatlan is not a pleasure resort. |
fought fleas and greasers there for
eight or nine days.. and then, to get
away, signed on a fishing vessel. 1t
was a tight, heavy-canvased little
schooner, called the Lark, and the
skipper was a Mobile man, named
Timmons.
Il had been SO anxious TO get away
from Mazatlan that did not ask many
questions, and it was not until we
were at sea, bound UP the coast, that
learned what they were going to fish
Tor. They had dredge of peculiar
construction, instead of hooks and
lines, and the fish they hoped to
catch lived inside of shells.
In short, the Lark was pearl
fisher and, not to pick words, pearl
poacher. She was making for Costa
Rican waters, where the government
then claimed and tried to enforce a
monopoly of pearl-fishing. In the way
Of a coast patrol there was a wheezy,
six-mile-an-hour little harbor steamer
with an old brass howitzer at the
bows. This was the navy Skipper
Timmons held it in disdain.
Unlawful enterprises are not to
my liking, but after we were at sea
there was not much that / could say.
had to go along and do my part.
There is little inlet down in those
waters, called Montuosa. The word
Stself means mountainous. The island
is of no more than fifty acres extent,
but rises at the center in a rocky
peak two hundred feet in height. All
round Montuosa there is good pearl
fishing, and Skipper TimmOns used to
lie in the lee Of the islet and keep a
man ashore on the peak to watch for
the 'gunboat.' If it was sighted, the
lookout's instructions were to soho
down to the Lark, and by signs to in.
dictate which side of Montuosa the
'warship' was heading for.
1.-THE skipper then got out the boat
and slowly towed the Lark round to
the other side just fast enough to keep
her out OF sight behind the cliffs. Ii
the gunboat changed it's COURSE, the
vancouver was reversed. Timmons
had actually played this game sue
cessfully.
GAS l had had little experience pearl
fishing, the skipper put me ashore as
lookout. 1t was not a bad berth. The
sun was hot up there, but a fresh
breeze blew nearly all the time.
carried up a sun upbrella the second
day, and sat under that, having moth
Ing to do but scan the distant head
lands of Central America.
1--WE were not really expecting to be
molested; but a little before noon of
the third day / saw a steamers smoke
some fifteen miles up the coast, and
with my glass soon made sure that
1t was indeed the enemy bearing
down on Montuosa.
II sohoed, and the skipper got out
his boat to play the game of dodge.
But this time the Costa Ricans were
too bright for him. They bore down
on the islet to come round on the
coastwise side OF it, but let down an
armed boat to row round on the ocean
side. In considerable excitement
signaled this new vancouver down to
the Lark; and the skipper hoisted all
sail and put to sea-.
"As soon as the boats crew sighted
the schooner, they hailed and fired
their rifles after her; and when the
gunboat came round from the other
side it gave chase.
For several miles the two craft
seemed to have about equal speed. IN
gunboat doomed away with its brass
gun, and for time it was very excit-
Ing. The range was too great, how