The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1923-10-19
A EARS ADVENTURES
A. D. 1912

A thousand adventures are taking
place every day. all at once in the sew
eral continents and the many seas. A
few are reported. many of them are
noted in the private journals of adven-
turerS, most of them are just taken
as a matter of course in the days work,
but nobody has ever attempted to make
q picture of all the worlds adventures
for a day or a year.
Let us make magic. Any date will
do, or any year. Here for instance is a
date-the twelfth of September, 1912
that will serve our purpose as well
SIS any other.
In ~AfghaniStan a British force of
t~wenty-six thousand people had per-
ished, an army of vengeance had
marched TO the rescue of Major Pottin-
ger, Lady Sale, Lady McNaughton and
other captives held by the Afghan
chiefs. On September twelfth they
were rescued.
In China the people had refused to
buy Indian opium, so the English care
fully and ~methodically bombarded all
Chinese seaports until she consented
10 open them to foreign trade. Then
Major POttinger's uncle, Sir Henry,
made a treaty which the Chinese en-
peror signed on September eighth.
In the Malacca straits Captain Hen
ry keppel of H. NJ. S. Dido was busy
smashing up pirates.
In Tahiti poor little Queen Pomare,
being in childbed, was so bullied by
the French admiral that she surren-
dered her kingdom to France on Sep
TENDER ninth. Next morning her child
was born, but her kingdom was gone
forever.
In South Africa Captain Smith made
a d~isgraceful attack Upon the Beers
at Port Natal, and on June twenty
sixth they got a tremendous thrashing
which put an n to the republic of
Natalia. In September they began to
settle down as British subjects, not at
all content.
Norfolk island is a scrap of paradise,
about six miles by four, lying nine
hundred miles from Sydney, in Aus
&, tralia. In 1912 it was a convict settle
ment, and on June twenty-first the brig
Governor Philip was to sail for Sgd
ney, having landed her stores at the
island. During the night she stood off
and on, and two prisoners coming on
deck at dawn for a breath of air, no.
ticed that discipline seemed slack, al
though a couple of drowsy sentries
guarded their hatchway. Within a few
minutes the prisoners were all on deck.
Ono sentry was disarmed, the other
thro~ nverboard. Two soldiers off
duty ~ scuffle with the mutineers,
but one TOOK refuge in the main chains,
while the other was drowned trying to
swim ashore. The sergeant in charge
ran on deck and shot a mutineer be-
fore he was knocked over, stunned.
AS to the seamen, they ran into the
forecastle.
The prisoners had now control Of the
ship, but none of them knew how to
handle their prize, so they loosed a
couple of sailors and made them help.
Wolfe, one Of the convicts, then res
Sutu a SolulSI VIII was
alongside. The officers and soldiers
aft were firing through the grated
matches and wounded several cOnvictS,
until they were alfayed with a kettle
of boiling water. So far the mutiny
had gone off very nicely, but now the
captain, perched On the cabin table,
fired through the woodwork at a point
where he thought a man was standing.
BY luck the bullet went through the
ringleader's mouth and blew out the
back of his head, ~whereupon a panic
seized the mutineers, who fled below
the matches. The sailor at the wheel
released the captain, and the after
guard recaptured the ship. One mu-
tineer had his head blown off, and the
rest surrendered. The whole deck, was
Uttered with the wounded and the dy-
ing and the dead, and there were not
many convicts left. In the trial at
Sydney, Wheelan, who proved limo
cent. was spared, also Wolfe for saw
ing a soldiers life, but four were
hanged, meeting their fate like men.
1t was in August that the sultan Of
Borneo confirmed Mr.. James Brooke
as rajah of Sarawak, and the new king
was extremely busy executing robbers,
rescuing shipwrecked mariners from
slavery, reopening old mines for dia-
monds, gold. and manganese. II
breathe peace and comfort to all who
obey so he wrote to his mother, land
wrath and fury to the evildoer."
Captain Ross was in the Antarctic,
coasting the great ice barrier. Last
year he had given TO two tall volcanoes
the names of his sLips, the Erebus and
Terror. This year on March twelfth
in a terrific gale, with binding nov
at midnight, the two ships tried to get
shelter under the lee of ali iceberg, but
the Terror rammed the Erebus So that
her bowsprit. fore topmast and Q lot
of smaller spars were carried awsy.
and she vas jaramed against the wall
Of the berg totally disabled. She could
not make sail and had no room to wear
round, so she sailed out backward, one
OF the. grandest feats of s~eamanship on
record; then. clear OF the danger,
steered between two bergs, her yard
arms almost scraping both of them,
until she gained the smoother water