Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder and Piracy: A weird series of tales of shipwreck and disaster, from the earliest part of the century to the present time, with accounts of providential escapes and heart-rending fatalities.Anonymous
History
Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder and Piracy: A weird series of tales of shipwreck and disaster, from the earliest part of the century to the present time, with accounts of providential escapes and heart-rending fatalities.
Anonymous
Mutiny; Pirates; Seafaring life; Shipwrecks
An ounce of gunpowder having been found in the morning, was dried in
the sun during the day, which was very fine; a steel, gunflints, and
tinder made also a part of the same parcel. After a good deal of
difficulty we set fire to some fragments of dry linen. We made a large
opening in the side of an empty cask, and placed at the bottom of it
several wet things, and upon this kind of scaffolding we set our fire;
all of which we placed on a barrel that the sea-water might not
extinguish it. We cooked some fish and eat them with extreme avidity;
but our hunger was such, and our portion so small, that we added to it
some of the sacrilegious viands, which the cooking rendered less
revolting. This some of the officers touched for the first time. From
this day we continued to eat it; but we could no longer dress it, the
means of making a fire having been entirely lost; the barrel having
caught fire we extinguished it without being able to preserve
anything to rekindle it on the morrow. The powder and tinder were
entirely gone. This meal gave us all additional strength to support
our fatigues. The night was tolerable, and would have been happy, had
it not been signalized by a new massacre.
Some Spaniards, Italians, and negroes, had formed a plot to throw us
all into the sea. The negroes had told them that they were very near
the shore, and that, when there, they would enable them to traverse
Africa without danger. We had to take to our arms again, the sailors,
who had remained faithful to us, pointing out to us the conspirators.
The first signal for battle was given by a Spaniard, who, placing
himself behind the mast, holding fast by it, made the sign of the
Cross with one hand, invoking the name of God, and with the other held
a knife. The sailors seized him and threw him into the sea. An
Italian, servant to an officer of the troops, who was in the plot,
seeing all was discovered, armed himself with the only boarding axe
left on the raft, made his retreat to the front, enveloped himself in
a piece of drapery he wore across his breast, and of his own accord
threw himself into the sea. The rebels rushed forward to avenge their
comrades; a terrible conflict again commenced; both sides fought with
desperate fury; and soon the fatal raft was strewed with dead bodies
and blood, which should have been shed by other hands, and in another
cause. In this tumult we heard them again demanding, with horrid rage,
the head of Lieut. Danglas! In this assault the unfortunate sutler was
a second time thrown into the sea. M. Coudin, assisted by some
workmen, saved her, to prolong for a little while her torment and her
existence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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