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Star (Christchurch), Issue 294, 23 April 1869, Page 3

Captain Willoughby was the commander of a fine little cutter which cruised chiefly from Lougli Foylp to Lough Swillie, round the coast of Innisheon, in the county of Donegal, on the northern shore of Ireland. Innisheon Head, as it is now called, is not forty miles distant from Cantire, and was once tho kingdom of o' Connor. There was always a great connection between the Celtic population of these two places ; and, just as Cantire, although a peninsula, was accounted an island, and reckoned among those Sodorenses or southern isles that gave the title to the Bishopric of Sodor and Man, so

also that old kingdom of Innisheon, which is a word meaning " the island of birds," wai accounted an island, although it was really a peninsula ; for the two lochs that bound it on the east and west are nearly thirty miles in length, and, at their southern extremity, meet within a few miles of each other. Thus, Innisheon had a seaboard as extensive as that of Cautire ; and, perhaps from this fact, its inhabitants were exceedingly vigorous in carrying on the trade of illicit distillation. It was to prevent the smuggling traffic that Captain Willoughby's cruiser was stationed off that part of the Irish coast ; and, as ho had a preference for Canipbeltown sailors, he had his little vessel entirely manned by them. But as the sailors were not commissioned to make a prize of smuggled goods, they did not privately seek to interfere with the contraband manufacture of whiskey, or to annoy the smugglers in any way, although they were occasionally called upon to accompany their officers and to defend them when attacked. One day when Captain Willoughby's Cantire sailors were lying off Innisheon, they were ordered to arm themselves, and to go ashore with the officers in order to make a search. They did so ; and, on entering a lone cabin, they found a man very busy distilling whiskey. " Ho, ho," say 3 the Irishman, " come in my Scotch boys ! faiks ye have caught me very nately at my work, and all the materials will belong to ye, my boys ; all the whiskey, and the still, and the worms, head and tail ; it'll be yours, my boys. But, my dear Scotch boys, I am runniug the precious stuff, and it would be a shame and a wickedness to destroy it. Aud so, my der.r boys, if yell rest for a little while until the whiskey is distilled, then ye'.U have all the spirit, and all the materials a3 well ; and I will leave them all outside of the door to ye, and ready prepared for ye to take away. And now, my dear Scotch boys, business is business, all the wide world over ; but why should it stop us from enjoying ourselves while we are able ? so, instead of spilling the precious stuff, which would be a wicked thing to do, I would advise ye to make yourselves comfortable until the whiskey is ready. And here are nice seats for ye, my dear boys, where ye can sit at ease, and watch me at work ; and I'll teach ye all the secrets of my trade for jist nothing at all. And, not to bo idle yourselves, here's some nico little employment for ye, my dear Scotch boys ; so let us be happy while we may, and the business shall be business all the same." Captain Willoughby and the officers were greatly amused with the man ; but, as they were not indifferent to a drop of whiskey after their walk, they sat down, and gave their sailors permission to do the same, while the Innisheon man very poh'tely set before them a large bottle of whiskey, and gave each of them " a refreshment." Very well they relished it ; and they sat and drank, and made merry, while he went on with his distilling, running off the spirit, and laughing and cracking his jokes, and telling them queer anecdotes. At last, when ho had got his whiskey distilled, he took the head off the still, and lifted it to the outside of the dcor j and he did the same with all the other'materials. "Now, my dear Scotch boys," he said, " I've shown you how to make whiskey, and taught ye all my secrets, just for the fun of the thing. So let us part good friends, and take a " deoch-an-doruis J '" tills was the " drink of the door," or, the bumper at parting. So they took their parting glass in a very friendly way ; but, when the Cantire sailors went outside, neither whiskey nor still could be seen. " Where are the materials gone to ?" they asked. " Well, my dear Scotch boys, that is more than I can say," said the Innisheon man ; " I put them all there, as ye saw ; and I left them all there 5 and, if they are not there now, why then, my dear Scotch boys, they must have been spirited away by the little folks." By the little folks he meant the fairies j but, in reality, they were the man's own children, whom he had trained ready for the hnergency. And, as the Cantire sailors could nowhere find the whiskey or the materials, they had to go away without them, and conf -ss that the Innisheon fairies had got the better of them.