Untitled

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XVII, Issue 1285, 6 January 1860, Page 4

*, The -rtory* of - the Ararat, now- in 'Bombay Hartx>itr,l , would have iitisfied'us when, in'our Sehoblboy'days, vre' .'thoughts nothing mot* inspiriting ttiatr such "Tnlesttf :the Sea." as narrated the bloody deeds' of pirate*, and the righteous retribution that'sometimes overtook'them'.'' - The Ararat it a baric of '290 tons, owned by v Hajee Saleb Mahommed Arbee, of Bombay, and commanded by^Captain 37 M. Correya. 1 On the 30th of January last she lefVßombay with Convicts for • Penang and Singapore.-.. Having landed the men, 1 and disposed% of his cargo, the captain tendered and was accepted for con- , •riots for Bombay, twelve of whom were ready for deportation from Singapore, and-as many from Just at the vessel was ready to leave, Captain" Correya was informed'that he might have a batch of pirates, the 1 Esk having brought them in. ' It seemi. that, shortly before the Ararat's arrival at Singapore, complaints had been made of two piratical * junks prowling about the China Seas, and the steamer Hooghly, Her Majesty's Indian Navy, Captain Wright, was sent after them. Coming up with them alpng the islands, the steamer's boats where sent in chase, but on coming within range of the junk's guns, each vessel carrying ten or twelve 6to 12-pounders, they weromet by such a fire as compelled them to return. The Hooghly's armament consisting of only two 6-pounders, the-captain did not think himself justified in proceeding further in the matter, and steamed back to Singapore. On his report, Her Majesty's steamer Esk, Captain Sir E. Maclure, was despatched in search, with the mate of the Hooghly as a guide, and was happily successful. On the junks catching sight of the Esk, there being 1 men on board them who were well up as to her armament, discretion was thought to be the better part of valour. A boat was lowered, with some fellows who could speak a little English, and pulled for the Esk. On coming on board they showed Sir Robert a Singapore port clearance, in ballast. But Sir Robert being far too old'a salt to allow any to be put on his tail, coolly gave the order to "Go ahead." In a twinkling the Esk was alongside the junks, the crews were taken on board, a draught to each junk made from the Esk, and the gallant vessel, with the' junks in tow, steamed away for Singapore. These where the fellows whom Captain Correya was told he might have in addition to the ordinary convicts. They were tried on shore, 52 in number, by a special session, two being acquitted and the remainder sentenced to transportation to Bombay, some for 15 years, some for life. On the judge passing the sentence they assured him that if they got an opportunity on the voyage they would not fail to take advantage -of it and mnrder every soul on board. 'They would rather be hanged than transported. With these 60 pirates on board, 12 ordinary convicts, a guard of 15 European Madras Artillerymen, and eight sepoys of the Marine Battalion, the Ararat left Singapore on the 19th of June, and arrived at Penang in the evening of the 24th. 12 convicts were here added to the gang, making 74 in all. The Ararat left Penang in the evening of the 25th, a junk leaving at the same time, and doing her best to keep up with the ship. Captain Correya, not liking the appearance of things, dodged his satellite, and finally lost sight of the craft on the evening of the 27th. A few hours later the Ararat was some 60 miles from Penang. The 28th broke gloomily, very dark, and sharp gusts of wind. At 2*45 the captain ordered the mate to set top-gallant sails if the weather should clear, and lay down again on the poop. His rest was of short duration. Ten minutes later he was aroused by a noise, such an one as wakens a man broadly in an instant. The noise, a crash of something giving way, followed by a shout, startled the mate as he was standing-by the break of the poop. There was no doubt as to the cause —the convicts had broken loose. Quick as thought the captain leaped to the deck and brought his arms —a revolver and two pistols —from the cabin. The mate as instantly aroused the guard, at the same time hailing the sentry forward, but received no reply. He remained by the night-guard muskets until the guard turned out, before which the captain's revolver spoke from the poop. The captain, it seems, on reaching the deck could just discern that the convicts were making their way aft. They had advanced as faras the stern of the long-boat when he fired into them. Still they came on, a tumultuous rush, yelling like fiends, and heaving before them blocks, handspikes, holystones, firewood, curry-stuff grinders —anything, in fact, they could lay hands on. Captain Correya was severely struck by some of these missiles, as were also several of the guard, who had by this time joined the captain (the crew, Lascars and Spaniards, being altogether without arms, having made their way into the rigging) on the poop. The gallant party had no thought, however, of acting on the defensive, but jumping to the quarterdeck commenced a hand-to-hand fight with the scoundrels. Both the captain and guard fired into them as fast as they could load, using also their cutlasses and bayonets to keep them at bay. They had desperate men to deal with. No sooner was a musket fired than a rush was made upon before it could be reloaded, but in not one instance did they succeed in wrenching it from the grip that held it for life or death. One bayonet was their only spoil. During the whole time they kept up a shower of the missiles described above, and it is only wonderful that more mischief was not done by them. Inch by inch, however, the captain and his party gained ground, advancing purposely with caution, lest from behind the water casks a rush might, be made upon them, and their arms —their salvation —' be seized. And here we have to record an instance of courage as rare as heroic. ' Some ten minutes or so after the outbreak, amid an uproar as if of hell let loose, arising from men who were thirsting for blood, the captain's wife took her part in the fray, by loading and continuing to reload her husband's pistols, and passing them up from the cuddy skylight. As each hatch was gained it was seized by the guard and fastened down. After an hour's hard fighting the convicts were driven on to the topgallant forcastle, where they were charged with the bayonet, and several run through or driven over the bows. Two or three were seen to lay hold of the fore topgallant studding sail, which was lying on the forecastle, and jump overboard with it. They were shot from the poop and quarterdeck, as well as the darkness permitted their being made out. The deck now being clear, lights were brought — many attempts had been made to get wlights w Iights during the fight, but as soon as one appeared it was knocked over by the convicts, and the whole work was done in almost darkness. The sights which the lights revealed were of the horridest. Here a man with a gashed face, there another cut almost in two, there another riddled with the bayonet, there one —yes, yet living, with four bullets through Mm. The aspect of this place was that of a slaughter house. Eight dead bodies where found on the forecastle, and three on the main deck, including - the European sentry and Portuguese cook. It was now apparent why the sentry had not answered the hail of the mate —the poor fellow was found to have been stabbed to the heart. There seems, unfortunately, to be no doubt that he had left his post below, and come on deck, where he is supposed to have fallen asleep, being stabbed without awkening even to fire his pistol, which was in hand as he lay. Had he been at his post, or even awake on deck, alarm might in all probability have been given sufficiently, early to have prevented the convicts gaining the deck at all. The poor cook was shot by accident, being mixed up with the convicts. The carpenter and an Arab passenger jumped overboard. The former fell into the bight of the lee fore-sheet, got into the fore-chains, and made bis way aft. The Arab was never seen again. At daybreak "a man was found hanging on to the rudder. A rope being let down he was hauled up, and was found to have been shot through the leg. On search being made below, five more bodies were found of men who, on receiving enough, had gone below to die. .It was found that the convicts had escaped by cutting through with .a knife, of which they had somehow gained possession, a bar of a prison door forward, then partly cutting .through the inside partition bar on the port side, which 'enabled jftem to burst the door in altogether. They then lhouted to the rest in other cells to follow them, which, with the exception of 14, whom the guard were enabled to keep' down, they did. At six the convicts were mustered, when it was found that 28 were dead or missing—2B out of 60 who came on deck.. The remaining 325 with the exception of thretf 'wounded, where 'tteated to three'dozen each,|^At half-past nine" the^sen--trief gave' the alarm that'iome of the convicts had slip--ped^theirleg'irons. < The pard was called and 'secured them.' On overhauling the remainder,' it, wai found that 'many of the irons iwere itoo'large,.!ahd'they werefaccorr dingly reduced: 1 ' 'A 1 welcome sight must Bombay have 2been to JheJArarat.- The^captahrspealei 'in high'terms'pf. tbekEuropei»n 'guard,-and -of the^ Marine J*Baftaliblv '»!«>,' thferhavildar' especially tingling himself-out bV hi'i - -Tidour;viWhat'shi^^we liay"'^the'<»ptain JJmmselfl What would have been/the-result hadh'e beed'a 1 man^f <fe«f courage'arid pluck than htf'shpwed himself to* be? The vef*«l would have beenjl^pvejcy' soul on 1 board ihurderedi : to the China Seas again/to ttfe who iife ■ Say^oVJm'uch'life'ancl'prdpWy exceptional ' k-o^s'that"^ douW'riot'the'C^hl^B^of-'Connner-cewnl ;./ tokfeißomeiiotioe-ofif/ ! has r earnedfor , 'vlii^^life^no^pa^iKuld^W'cleklt frfthWS * Way^bewming^thisi^t'wnW^ ***** 4W I -ij3,v tpa iUJJ.i\a

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*l Jhii!^«se)|,o|^ of myriad^ fHVdredisTetfually |eDre»jtenfolchw,o)rae pOQur omylyear ty Bon. «nd.Sutherl»nd, "u^der, circumstances i.farmort fitted to'Sfouae public fueling., t Thii tailor, was but*' squatter, 1 »,kin'd o^f bird of, passage, hsvirigino local 'habitation, name, tie, or connection, -arid* .touches' his trefttmerit ii "to be^denounced^ it it possible there may b,o Something "to, sayjoii the other.. lideil [But iri mostcases of Highland eviction, not a , word can be ,said on .the, "part of territorinLopprenor.. * No motiTe'pan exist but* A deeply^ rooted; resolution; of weeding out a noble people and converting the Scottish highland! into a, dreary waste; nor can a shadow, Of constitutional, or moral . argument be adduced for the general system .under which, in moit eases, the scraps of land which the people are .grudgingly allowed to are managed, or the infamous and tyrannical regulations under which they, are kept in serfdom. What tay those who^are rightly wroth at Captain Chisholm to the following case } "In the Scourie district of the Sutherland estate there lives one \yilliam. 14'CaskiH, who up to May, 1858, was for forty years' and more tenant of a small piece of land at Balchladitch, .always maintaining" a good character, and paying his rent with the utmost regularity. His father, a man of excellent character, was tenant at Dulkein for a long- period, t and died at the age of eighty years. The person referred tojs sixty years of age, is severely afflicted with rupture, and subject to fits of falling sickness, rendering him unfit for labour or taking care of himself. His wife is Seventy-two years of age, and has been bedridden for the last twenty years. Their family consists of three sons and three daughters, all married,; and the youngest, Donald, thirty years of age, was the only one who remained with his aged parents, chiefly maintaining them. On marrying, Dpnald was admitted into his father's , hut, with his wife, under* taking to support his aged parents, and keep them off the poor- roll. But the inexorable fiat of the 1 factor cnme forth, that as the regulations of the estate had been broken, by Donald daring to tako his young wife into his father's house to nurse his father and mother in their declining years, and labour their lot for their mutual support, the, lot must be taken from them ; and taken it was, while the joung man and his wife had to leave their parents'? hut and seek a home elsewhere, to save the , aged' sufferers from having their humble abode unroofed and demolished. ' , "Another case:— John Campbell, tenant, Culkein, has been guilty of a like crime, and has paid a similar penalty. Ho has been supporting in his house three orphans for the last eight years. One of his sons Robert Campbell, married eighteen years ago, and had to live in an old storehouse, from which he and his family were unceremoniously ejected, while one of the children wai dangerously ill, and was carried in a blanket to a neighbouring house, in the face of the doctor's injunctions against such a proceeding. After leaving the old store, Robert was driven for refuge to his father's barn, where he and his family found a comfortless home; and because' the father dared to open his barn door to his own flesh and blood, rather than they should die outside, legal proceedings were .instituted, and the old man has been deprived of the land he tilled for more than thirty years, which he left without a farthing of arrears. " What say the declaimers of Captain Chisholm to these facts ? And what says Mr. Loch, the duke's commissioner, to them J We cheerfully and gratefully give Mr. Lock credit for an anxious desire to benefit the people ; but we tell him v»ith all firmness, yet with all respect, that the general proceedings and regulations on the west coast are a disgrace to the age we live in, and are rapidly destroying the feelings of attachment of the people to their superiors, seriously impeding the progress of Sutherland, and tarnishing the fame of that ducal family We cannot believe that Mr. Loch can be aware of these things, or the feeling with which they are viewed wherever they are known. And we implore him to weigh well the importance of a thorough change in the treatment of the people. Mr. Loch has it in his power to inaugurate a new era in the history of the highlands of Scotland, and to introduce o system of policy under which pence and prosperity will be restored to thoie important and interesting districts. Surely that system cannot be founded on politic or enlightened principles which punishes a man for sheltering his own child, or refuses to allow a son to labour for an afflicted father, or a daughter to nurse a bed-ridden mother." Lloyds Weekely News paper, Sept. 3. - I