A Narrative of the Mutiny, on Board the Ship Globe, of Nantucket, in the Pacific Ocean, Jan. 1824: And the journal of a residence of two years on the Mulgrave; Islands; with observations on the manners and customs of; the inhabitantsLay, William
History
A Narrative of the Mutiny, on Board the Ship Globe, of Nantucket, in the Pacific Ocean, Jan. 1824: And the journal of a residence of two years on the Mulgrave; Islands; with observations on the manners and customs of; the inhabitants
Lay, William
Globe Mutiny, 1824; Mili Atoll (Marshall Islands)
The natives now began to help themselves to whatever articles suited
them, and when some of them began to pull the tent down, an old man
and his wife took hold of me, and after conducting me a few rods from
the tent, sat down, keeping fast hold of my hands. Under the most
fearful apprehensions I endeavoured to get from them, but they
insisted upon detaining me. I endeavoured to console myself with the
idea, that gratitude had prompted them to take care of me, as I had
frequently taken the part of this old woman, when she had been teased
by others; but alas! the reflection followed, that if this was the
case, there was a probability that not only my bosom friend, was about
to be sacrificed, but I should be left alone to drag out a weary
existence, with beings, strangers to the endearing ties which bind the
hearts of civilized man.
Whether Payne and his associates offered any resistance to the course
now pursued by the natives or not, I do not know. Suffice it to say,
that all at once my ears were astounded with the most terrifying
whoops and yells; when a massacre commenced but little exceeded by the
one perpetrated on board the Globe. Our men fled in all directions,
but met a foe at every turn. Lilliston and Joe Brown (the Sandwich
Islander,) fell within six feet of me, and as soon as down, the
natives macerated their heads with large stones. The first whom I saw
killed, was Columbus Worth. An old woman, apparently sixty years of
age, ran him through with a spear, and finished him with stones!
My protectors, for now they were truly so, shut out the scene by
laying down upon the top of me, to hide me from the view of the
merciless foe! I was however discovered, and one of the natives
attempted to get a blow at me with a handspike, which was prevented by
them; when, after a few words, he hurried away.
As soon as the work of death had been completed, the old man took me
by the hand and hurried me along towards the village. My feet were
very much laccerated in passing over the _causeways_ of sharp coral
rock, but my conductor fearing we might be pursued, hurried me onward
to the village, where we arrived about noon. In a few minutes the
wigwam or hut of the old man, was surrounded, and all seeming to talk
at once, and with great excitement, I anticipated death every moment.
Believing myself the sole survivor, the reader must pardon any attempt
to describe my feelings, when I saw a number of the natives
approaching the hut, and in the midst, Cyrus M. Hussey, conducted with
great apparent kindness.
Notwithstanding we had both been preserved much after the same manner,
we could not divest ourselves of the apprehension, that we perhaps had
been preserved, for a short time, to suffer some lingering death.
Our interview was only long enough to satisfy each other that we alone
survived the massacre, when we were separated; Hussey being taken
away, and it seemed quite uncertain, even if our lives were spared,
whether we ever saw each other again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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