River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1912-05-30


IL ~ September l. 1870, had three
4 .lzAm6 ships busy with honest cargoes,
but did not get chance to do
IL any contraband running until
just before it's close. Under fire
of the guns at Trieste / ran out
a cargo of guns, which 1 delivered to the COM
mittee Of safety at Bordeaux only few days
before the battle Of Sedan Shortly after this
l placed the Leckwith and my other ships in
the hands Of Nickel & Co. for chartar and
! sailed for New York.
! The first word that reached ny arri-
! val was that my wife, who had sailed ahead
| Of me, seriously i'll at her old home in Hi
nois. l went to her at once and remained
at her side until the end, three weeks later.
When / returned to New York after the flu
neral l was greatly depressed and was in a
mood for anything that offered excitement A
! few days later l met Frank (Francis Lay) Nor
| ton. Knowing each other by reputation
soon became friends. Later we became part
ners in some of the most gloriousy exciting
exploits in which 1 have been fortunate enough
to participate. Norton a natural born pi-
rate, and he looked the part.
When first met him he was wild about the
China sea, where he had spent several thrill
! ing years and made several fortunes, but
heard so much of Venezuela and of Guzman
fBlanco that my heart was set on going there
| before / undertook to explore any other
| strange ldnUS. Inc upSnOC OIL our many us
cussions was that | sent Norton to London
to take command of the Leckwith until I was
ready to join him, when it was agreed we
should go out in the yacht to his beloved
| China sea.
After Nortons departure 1 bought the small
fore-and-aft schooner-yacht Juiette, fitted her
out at New London Conn, for six months
cruise and started for Bermuda to test her sea-
worthiness, with Lars Lorensen as sailing mas
for Of a
and loyal Norseman. Guzman Blanco was not
at ST. Thomas, SO we went on to Curacao,
always a revolutionary rendezvous, and there,
in the latter part of December, I met Guzman
and General Pulgar, his chief of staff Guz-
man, after many exciting political and mill
tary ups and downs, was planning an invasion
of Venezuela against the Monagas faction,
then in power.
After he had studied me- asked all sorts of
questions and apparently satisfied himself
that could be relied on, Guzman told me, in
a general way of his plans and asked me to
secure for him 5000 old Remington rifles and
100000 cartridges and deliver them as quickly
as possible at Curacao.
Some two months later / arrived at Curacao,
where instead of Guzman Blanco, I found
General Ortega, who was with Guzman when
first met him and seemed to be fully in his
confidence Ortega handed me a note, bear
ing what purported to be the signature of Guz-
man, which directed me to deliver the cargo
at place to be indicated by Ortega, and
stated that payment for it would be made on
my cabin table. ] showed the signature to
two men who knew GuZman well, and both
pronounced it genuine. had no suspicion
that anything was wrong and took this pre-
caution simply a matter of ordinary bust
ness sense.
Ortega directed me to deliver the cargo at
Tucacas point about one hundred miles west of
La Guayra, and, on arriving, Ortega went
ashore and returned with a request that I
order off the matches and start the unloading.
of the cargo in my boats and then go ashore
with him and get my money. This was not
in accord with my contract with GuZman or
with the note Ortega had handed me, but l
had great confidence in Guzman and did not
wish TO offend him. AS soon as the unloading
was we'll under way 1 went ashore with Or
tega. We climbed the bluff and walked half
mile inland to a mud-thatched hut before
which a sentry was pacing. Ortega gave the
countersign and we stepped inside, to find
General Pulgar, who was chief of staff for Guz-
man when l was introduced to him, wrapped
in chinchora and smoking in a hammock.
He explained evasively that he there in
stead of Guzman, but when | asked him for
my money he smiled and Strengthened up.
81 told Ortega to deliver that message to
you," he said but there is no use mincing
words and l may well tell you that you
are my prisoner. Your cargo is being taken
care of and will be put to very different pur-
| pose from that which you expected. AS
have said you are my prisoner, but have an
offer to make you 1t can't make much differ
ence to you whether you serve Guzman or
me. If you will join my forces | will make
/ you colonel and give you command of a
| battalion, and when the revolution is over l
will pay you for your rifles, just as Guzman
| agreed to do
again inquired where Guzman was, but
| a shrug of the shoulders the only answer
1 could get to questioning along that line. Not
knowing much about Venezuelan revolu-
/ tons then as l did later, could not fathom
/ this strange situation to my entire satisfac-
/ ton, but it was my guess that in some way
/ Pulgar had become arrayed against Guzman,
and it turned out that was right.
/ 1 told Pulgar that would give him an an
i swer in the morning, and spent the night with
| Ortega under guard l tried to draw him out,
/ but, evidently according to ORDERS he would
! not even talk about the weather.