The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-10-29

| and the doctor were all that We IA
against us. Yet, safe as it was, we
determined to neglect no precautiou,
and to make our attack suddenly by
night. 1t came. however, more quick
ly than we expected and in this way.
e" One evening. about the third week
after our start, the doctor had come
down to see one of the prisoners who
was i'll, and, putting his hand down on
the bottom of his bunk he felt the out
! line of the pistols. II he had been
silent he might have blown the whole
| thing, but he was nervous little
| chap, SO he gave a cry of surprise.
and turned so pale that the man AloW
what was up in an instant and seized
/ him. He was gagged before he could
give the alarm. and tied down upon
the bed. He had unlocked the door that
| led to the deck. and we Were through
| il in rush The two SentrieS were
| shot down, and 50 was a corporal VINO
came running 10 see what was the mat
| ter. There were two more soldiers al
| the door of the staterOom. and their
| muskets seemed not to be loaded, for
they never fired upon US. aud they were
! shot while trying 10 fix their bayo-
nets. Then we rushed on into the cap
tain's room, but as we pushed open
| the door there was an explosion from
within. and there he lay with his brains
smeared over the chart of the Atlantic
! which was pinned upon the table, while
the chaplain stood with a smoking
pistol in his hand at his elbow. The
| two mates had both been seized by
the crew, and the whole business
seemed TO be settled
THE staterOom was next the cabin,
and We flOcked in there and f1ODDed
down on the settees, all speaking to-
gether, for we were free once more.
There were lockers all around, and
Wilson, the sham chaplain, knocked one
of them in, and pulled out a dozen OF
brown sherry. We cracked off the
necks of the bottles, Isured the stuff
ont into tumblers and were just toss
ing them off when in an instant with
out warning there came the roar Of
mUSkets in our ears. and the saloon
was so full of smoke that we could
not see across the table. When IL was
cleared again the place was a sham
bles. Wilson and eight others were
Wriggling on the top of each other Oh
the floor, and the blood and the brown
sherry on that table turn me sick now
when l think of il. We were so coWed
by the sight that l think NE should
have given the job up if il had not
been for Prendergast. He beloved like
bull and rushed for the door with
Out we ran, and there on the poop we're
the lieutenant and ten of his men
The swinging skylights above the saloon
table had been a bit open, and they
had fired on Us through the slit We
got on them before they could load. and
they stood to it like men; but we had
the upper hand of them. and in five
minutes it was all over. Ny God! was
there ever a slaughter house like thai
shin PTandaFuaGf
devil, and he picked the soldiers up as
II they had been children and threw
them overheard alive or dead. There
was one sergeant who was horribly
wounded and yet kept on swimming for
surprising time until some one in
mercy blew out his brains. When the
lighting was over there was no one
left of our enemies except just the war
dens. the mates and the doctor.
" 1t was over them tLat the great
quarrel arose. There were many of u
who were glad enough to win back our
freedom, and yet who who had no wish
TO have murder on our souls II was
one thing to knock the soldiers over
with their muskets in their hands. and
II was another to stand by while men
were being killed in cold blood Eight
of US, five conVicts and three sailors,
said that We would not see il done.
4
and those who We're with him. our
only chance of safety lay in making a
clean job Of il, said he. and he WOULD.
not leave tongue with power to Wsg
IL d witness box. 1t nearly came 40
our sharing the fate of the prisoners.
but at last he said that if we wished
We might take boat and go. We
jumped at the offer, for we were al
ready sick of these blOOdthirsty doings.
and We saw that there would be worse
before it was done. We were given a
suit of sailors toys each, a barrel Of
water, two casks one of junk and one
of biscuits, and a compass. Prender-
CAST threw US over a chart, told US that
We Were shipWTecked mariners whose
ship had fOundered in latitude 10 de-
Srees and> longitude % degrees west.
and then cut the painter and let us
go.
And now / come to the most sur
prising part of my story, my dear son.
The seamen had hauled the fore-yard
aback during the rising, but now az We
left them they brought it square again,
and as there was light wind from the
north and east the bark began to
draw slowly away from us. our boat
lay. rising and falling. upon the long.
smooth rollers. and Evans and /. who
were the most educated of the party.
were sitting in the sheets working out
our position and planning what coast
we should make for. 1t was a nice
question, for the Cape de Verdes We're
about five hundred miles TO the north
of us. and the African coast about
seven hundred TO the east. On the
whole, as the wind was coming round
TO the north. we thought that Sierra
Leone might be the best, and turned
our head i'm that direction the bark
being at that time nearly hull down
on our starbOard quarter. Suddenly as
We looked at her we saw q dense cloud
OF smoke shoot up from her, which
hung like a mOnstrOus tree upon the
sky line. a few seconds later a roar
like thunder burst upon our ears. and
as the smoke thinned away there was no
sign left of the Gloria Scott. In an in
slant we swept the boats head round
again and pulled with all our strength
for the place where the haze still trail
ing over the water marked the scene
of this catastrophe
1T was a long hour before We
reached it, and at first We feared that
we had come too late to save any
one. \ splintered boat and z number
of crates and fragments of spars ris-
ing and falling on the waves showed US
where the vessel had fOundered: but
Their was no sign OF life. and we had
turned way in despair when We heard
cry for help, and saw at some dis
tance a piece of Wreckage with a man
lying stretched across it. When we
pulled him aboard the boat he proved
to be a young seaman of the name OF
Hudson who was so burned and eX-
hausted that he could give US no ac-
count of what happened until the fol-
lowing morning.
1T seemed that after we had left
PrendeFgast and his gang had pro-
ceeded to put to death the five remain
ing prisoners. The two warders haC
hasO shot and thrown overheard aOC