The pirates own book : $b authentic narratives of the most celebrated sea robbersEllms, Charles
History
The pirates own book : $b authentic narratives of the most celebrated sea robbers
Ellms, Charles
Pirates
When Mr. Endicott, Mr. Barry, and the four seamen arrived at the beach,
they saw the crew jumping into the sea; the truth now, with all its
horrors, flashed upon his mind, that the vessel was attacked, and in an
instant they jumped on board the boat and pushed off; at the same time a
friendly rajah named Po Adam, sprang into the boat; he was the
proprietor of a port and considerable property at a place called Pulo
Kio, but three miles distant from the mouth of the river Quallah Battoo.
More business had been done by the rajah during the eight years past
than by any other on the pepper coast; he had uniformly professed
himself friendly to the Americans, and he has generally received the
character of their being honest. Speaking a little English as he sprang
into the boat, he exclaimed, "Captain, you got trouble; Malay kill you,
he kill Po Adam too!" Crowds of Malays assembled on both sides of the
river, brandishing their weapons in a menacing manner, while a ferry
boat, manned with eight or ten of the natives, armed with spears and
krisses, pushed off to prevent the officers' regaining their ship. The
latter exhibited no fear, and flourished the cutlass of Po Adam in a
menacing manner from the bows of the boat; it so intimidated the Malays
that they fled to the shore, leaving a free passage to the ship; but as
they got near her they found that the Malays had got entire possession
of her; some of them were promenading the deck, others were making
signals of success to the people on shore, while, with the exception of
one man aloft, not an individual of the crew could be seen. Three Malay
boats, with about fifty men, now issued from the river in the direction
of the ship, while the captain and his men, concluding that their only
hope of recovering their vessel was to obtain assistance from some other
ships, directed their course towards Muchie, where they knew that
several American vessels were lying at anchor. Three American captains,
upon hearing the misfortunes of their countrymen, weighed anchor
immediately for Quallah Battoo, determined, if possible, to recover the
ship. By four o'clock on the same day they gained an anchorage off that
place; the Malays, in the meantime, had removed on shore every moveable
article belonging to the ship, including specie, besides several cases
of opium, amounting in all to upwards of thirty thousand dollars. This
was done on the night of the 9th, and on the morning of the 10th, they
contrived to heave in the chain cable, and get the anchor up to the
bows; and the ship was drifting finely towards the beach, when the
cable, not being stopped abaft the bitts, began suddenly to run out with
great velocity; but a bight having by accident been thrown forward of
the windlass, a riding turn was the consequence, and the anchor, in its
descent, was suddenly checked about fifteen fathoms from the hawse. A
squall soon after coming on, the vessel drifted obliquely towards the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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