AN ACT OF PROVIDENCE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4907, 24 March 1894, Page 2

AN ACT OF PROVIDENCE.

We were standing up the Gulf of Siam, with the Malay country not over ten miles away, when the wind died out and left ns heaving and falling on the glassy ground swell. It was the merchant brig Fearnaught, with a crew of eleven men and the captain and his wife and child aboard. It was ten o'clock in the forenoon when the wind left us, and by two o'clock in the afternoon we had drifted to within five miles of the land. From noon to two o'clock the captain and mate appeared troubled and anxious, and frequently swept the coast line with their glasses. At the latter hour the captain called ns aft and said— " Men, you know what sort of a coast ! lies over there. The Malaya no longer i attack vessels at sea, but we've drifted in ' close, and there's not another sail in i sight, audit's a greater temptation than , they can withstand. A crowd of them are I pulling out to visit ns. If they get aboard i not a man of us will be alive ten minutes , later. Will you stand by to beat them I off?" ; " Aye, sir t" answered one man for all i of us, " but what are we to do it with ?" l In almost every houee in tbe land there's ! a firearm of some sort, but shipowners i will to this day send a craft to the cani nibal islands without even an old musket > aboard. i If the Malays attacked us our only . weapons would be the capstan bars and , belaying pine. They were pulling out to i us in a sort of galley, with as many as ten , oars on a side, and we could figure tbat , there would be at least forty of them and all well armed. It did not take us five ; minutes to get ready. It did not take any < man five seconds to figure ont what would , follow an attack. The Malays never left a . witness of their cruelties alive behind them. * You see men turn pale and shiver as they i go into battle. When you Bee men quietly , arming themselves to make a hopeless ' fight, you mark the contrast. Their faces i flush, their eyes glare, and they bite their i lips without feeling the pain. They move , on tiptoe, they speak in whispers, they ; look around them as if taking a farewell . of earth. When the galley was yet two , miles away, our ship was as eilent as- the i grave, though this silence was broken at i intervals by sobs from the cabin. The . captain had told his wife of the danger. * Womanlike, she uttered a sob of despair ! now and then. But e-zen sb ehe did so, Bhe was weighting hor clothing and that . of her sleeping child with bars of lead. If the Malays boarded us, she would take i the child in her arms and leap overboard. , That was settled from the very firßt. Did the fellows pull a lazy stroke to [ deceive us into they belief that they were > coming out on some matter of no great im- . portance? The mate's glass made out . forty-three men in the boat, and their i weapons caught aud reflected tbe rays of , the sun aa they came along. We swept i the sea for Bight of sail br steamerfs . Btnoke, but we were alone. We uttered i bitter curses as we realised our helpless i situation, but we must let them scramble i aboard of the brig before our weapons ; would be of any use. Ifc was positively > maddening to witness their slow and care- * less approach. It was as if they felt ao 1 sure ot victory that they need put forth ho particular exertion* The galley was ' steered for our port broadside, and she [ was within two hundred feet of us, and [ we could look into the evil eyes of her i desperate crew when her way was oheckeq. Tften her captain stood up, made us. a profound bow,' and in fairly good Engliah observed: "Captain, I trust you are loaded with English goods for Bangkok." Our captain bowed, but did not speak. " Because," continued the other, " that ie just such a cargo as I want, and your brig also pleases me very well. Do you surrender P " " No ! No ! No ! " yelled half a dozen voices in reply. "Ah, you do notP Do you wish to jump overboard and drown, or ahall I have to kill you and throw your bodies to the sharks ? lam in no hurry. I will give you three minutes in which to decide I About fifteen of the natives had English rifle., probably purchased in Singapore, and the others were armed with blowgutts, pistola and sworde. They needn't come a foot nearer to pick off every man of uW The captain and mate conversed for a. minute, and then the former quiety Baid io US: '•''•?.-.? "Men, we have all got to meet death right here and now, but let' us show them that tha brig carries no eowarda ! Be ready for them when they dash in !" I think their first idea waa to use their rifles, but they abandoned it for fear the firing might betray them., though, aa I said before, there was nothing in sight. Those who had their guns raised now lowered them, the roweta lifted the oars, and the long sweeps had juat dropped into the water when we beheld a singular spectacle. The galley suddenly lifted itself out of the water and went up and up until it reached a point thirty feet high, and then turned over and came down bo broken and shattered that it instantly sank from eight. Right under the boat was the head of a whale, and it followed it up for at least fifteen feet. Then the monßter fell on his side, gave his tale a flirt or two, and disappeared from view. Ifc was like a magician's trick. Tho time consumed was not over fifteen seconds. We caw the boat bows on to üb. We saw her high in the air. We saw a few of her planks dashing about on the waves kicked up by the whale. That

Waa aU. But for the half-dozen Malay* who .reached our bows and were killed there, but for the racing to and fro of tbe sharks, all of us would have wondered if il wag not a horrible dream. The wife sat ir the cabin weeping and wailing. The child slept on without moving a hand. We looked into each other's faces ; we looked Irom sea to shore and down at the splin tered planks, floating about. Then w< heard the captain's voice quietly saying :— . " There comes an off-shore breeze, Mi Merwin, and you can swing the yards and make sail. TeU the steward to serve out ?;rog and see if he can't loosen the oogues of the lads and get up a cheer oz two."