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290
Dodge's
[WeitTzn For Dopes'’s Literary Museum]
Che Contoy Prisoners:
BY ONE OF THE NUMBER.
{The following story will be read with the greatest attention. Its style is remarkably lively, humorous,
and graphic, and it possesses all the interest of an imaginative work of fiction; while at the same time it
Ag strictly true.
The author was au eye-witness of the events which he relates, “all of which he saw, and
part of which he was.” It was his unfortunate lot to be one of the unhappy ‘ Conroy Prisoners,” who
suffered such barbarous cruelty at the hands of the inhuman Spaniards. -
> His release was most remarkable;
Piteracy Iluseum.
the present stage of the proceedings wheth-
er they would be a_help or an injury to us;
therefore it was best to conceal them now
and bring them forth afterward, if necessity
required.
We reached the deck just as the brig let
go the hawser and dropped anchor. The
Pizarro hauled immediately across our bows,
distant not more than a cable’s length, and
dropped anchor also. A heavy gun was
mounted on her forecastle, loaded with can-
most one stood a midshipman whose face
betokened him a heavy patronizer of lily-
white. It is true that one of our men, who
was slightly prejudiced against the Spanish
government, afterwards suggested that the
palish cast might be attributable to fear, but
of course this opinion received no sanction
from the rest.
As the boat reached our side, the gentle-
man, with a voice faltering from constitu-
tional weakness, requested that a man-rope
ws
and his transposition to his present social situation ve iivstrates ee ane Gowns ‘or Mew nister, and pointed in such a manner as to| be thrown to assist him in the ascent. We 3
sketch, ‘an o’er true tale,” will be generally read, and will richly rewar: w peruse it.—: J) ake a clean sweep of our deck from bow unfortunately were. entirely out of man-
Part Fourth. Captain Benson was glad to get possession to stern, when fired. ropes, but Will Smith threw one end of a
FTER stirring around and making a | of his cabin once more. He seemed unde- Things began to wear a scrious ‘aspect, | lanyard to him, and held on to the other .
breakfast on “hard tack,” Captain
Benson wanted us to take a boat and get
some sand from the island, to make a bed on
deck for the fire necessary to do the cooking.
This we were glad to “do, as it furnished
an excellent opportunity to gather some of
the beautiful shells that covered the beach,
than which we knew of no more acceptable
presents to carry to our friends at home.
We spent the most of the day on the island,
and collected quite a lot of them; many
kinds that were new to us, albeit we were
not versed in conchology. But the place
seemed very lonely. When we thought of
the many good-hearted fellows that had
been our comrades, making life pleasant by
their companionable qualities, and enliven-
- ing the now desorted camps but a few short | ©
days before, now gone, to meet what fate it
was impossible even to conjecture, an op-
pressive feeling of desolation weighed heay-
ily upon us.
There lay the charred remains of the last
fire, looking as though left but an hour be-
fore, while here, beneath one of the leaf-
covered tents, was the imprint in the sand
that denoted the sleeping spot of some
wearied soldier. On one of the cross pieces
in the interior of a hut was carved the
name of little Kelly. Poor Kelly ! his jokes,
his witty sallies, and joyous voice are stilled
in death.
When Lopez, defeated, fled from. Cuba,
his haste was so great that five poor fellows
were left on the island, although the steamer
was not forty feet from the pier, when they
got there, These were of course taken
prisoners by the Spaniards, and little Kelly
was among them. .
They were placed in prison for a little
while, and then brought out to be shot.
Just before the execution, Kelly begged for
the love of God to be allowed to write a few
short lines to his widowed mother. This
was granted by the officer then in com-
mand, but before he had finished it, a supe-
rior inhumanly took it from him, and tore
it up before his eyes.
That there can be such a demon w wearing
God’s image can scarcely be realized, yet,
with all their boasted half-civilization, more
Christianity and mercy may be expected at
~the hands of the barbarous Camanches than
the cowardly Spaniards.
The prisoners were then placed before a
platoon of soldiers, and fell, pierced by a
dozen bullets. Five more lives were placed
by the Recording Angel against the account
of those by whom this great wrong was
committed, to be answered for in time, or
eternity.
But we are again digressing. “After wan-
dering about the island until nearly night,
we placed the shells and sand in the boat,
and returned to the vessel. We could
boast of but one article to eat, now—hard
sea-biscuits. They were rendered a little
more palatable, however, by soaking in salt
water, and then frying brown.
cided whether, in the event of obtaining any
water, he should land his passengers at New
Orleans or some eastern port. ‘The. men
were utterly indifferent, so that they once
more got back where there was law and
justice, sand something to eat.
On the next day, after dinner, feeling
drowsy from the excessive heat, we selected
a cool berth in the shadow of a friendly sail,
and fell asleep. About four o'clock we
were awakened by Will Smith, a jolly,
good-natured fellow voyager, who reported
the smoke of a steamer visible in the hori-
zon. But little apprehension was felt, as
the captain and mate thought it was one of
the Chagres steamers. It was some two
hours before she was near enough for us to
distinguish what she was. It was the Span-
ish war-steamer Pizarro, towing the twenty
gun brig Habanero. Steadily the black
leviathan bore down upon us, while volumes
of dense smoke rolled from her chimneys.
Benson grew pale and trembled with
fear, as he saw them, for they were now
within half a mile of us, opening the ports,
and protruding the black-mouthed cannon
from them.
Personally we were under no apprehen-
sion. Simpleton that we were, we thought
that if our innocence of any crime or mis-
demeanor did not exempt us from punish-
ment, at least the American flag, when way-
ing over American citizens, and an Ameri-
can vessel, whose papers and position were
indisputable, was suflicient to protect us
from insult. But the American flag meets
with no respect from the Spanish. And
why should it? What has our government
ever done to sustain it in the exalted posi-
tion it claims for it ?
No. American citizens at home gaze with
pride upon its folds, and plume themselves
upon its integrity ; but let them once find
themselves in some unfortunate vessel whose
seizure and confiscation has been determin-
ed on, in utter violation of all treaties and
national rights, by these half-civilized, pal-
try ruffians, and though it is done scarce
beyond the range of our long toms at Key
West, they will, find, instead of a prompt
resort to force to defend ourselyes, some
Claytonian official wasting quires of paper,
and day by day, the lives of the prisoners,
in diplomatic quibbling with a power by
whom the demand is as little heeded as the
breeze that waves the flag of Moro.
It is mortifying to an American to be
compelled to acknowledge this, but, hum-
bling as it is, it would sooner bring about a
reform could every citizen be made to realize
ite
- As it seemed very probable, however,
that we should at least be searched, we
deemed it best to go below and hide the
letters that had been given us to take home
to the relatives of those who had made the
venture, as well as the memorandum book
in which we had kept an accurate detail of
events thus far. It was impossible to tell at
yet we can truly say that we never felt more
composed or utterly indifferent about any-
thing in our life. We would not have given
a straw to know whether they would fire or
not.
‘We remember that the soul of a pitying
smile pervaded our being, as we thought
what poor fools they were if they imagined
by shooting to place us in worse circum-
stances than we then were. ,
Reuben had all this time been lying on
the forecastle, gazing wonderingly at the
operations of the steamer. It at last occur-
red to him that perhaps the cannon had
been placed there with the intention of
shooting something; this led to the caleula-
tion that as it was pointed directly at him, it
was probable he was the “ thing.”
Tlowbeit, Reuben had not the least de-
sire to be gathered unto his fathers. In
fact, he was decidedly opposed to it, both
from principle and interest. Ie had con-
siderable important business which he could
not leave in an unsettled condition.
That these were his sentiments we are
quite positive; we judge from his actions.
He immediately arose, and vacating the
place, took up his position near us, .
“ Reuben,” said’ we, impressively, “sce’st
thou yonder cannon whose frowning mouth
gives warning of coming doom?”
Reuben looked into our face with a ehild-
ish simplicity, then at the sky and the water,
finally, at the steamer. He had an impres-
sion that we said something about the can-
non.
Ie “saw the cannon.”
“Well, Reuben, let but him who so
proudly struts the deck give the word, let
but the merest spark fall from that ignited
match held so threateningly over it, and ere
its thunder reaches us, we will have entered
‘that bourne whence no traveller returns.”
Reuben wasn’t quite sure that he under-
stood this, but he didn’t want to go any-
where, if he couldn’t return.
The Pizarro had by this time lowered
quite a fleet of small boats, manned by sail- |"
ors in dark blue cotton pant: and shirts, and
close- fitting woollen’ ‘skull-caps, with a tassel
or button on the topmost peak. As many
soldiers as the boats would carry, were
crowded into them, standing erect, with
their bayonets glistening over their heads.
What the necessity for all this demon-
stration was, we could not see. ¢If they in-
tended to capture us, itnced not have taken
over four hundred of them, with their six-
ty-four pounders, if the whole fifty-two of us
had been armed and determined to resist.
As it was, there was not a single weapon of
defence except Reuben’s Barlow knife
among us, and not ammunition enough to
have charged a fire-cracker. Moreover, we
were so nearly starved out that we would
have gone peaceably with them for the sake
of getting something to eat.
The entire squadron of yawls then sur-
rounded our vessel. In the bow of the fore-
while he climbed up. Will was usually a
strong man, but on this occasion he was not
entirely equal to the task—the rope slipped
a little, and though the middy did not get
as low as the water, he climbed considerably
more of ‘that rope than would have measur-
ed the ship’s side.
Eventually, however, his head appeared
above the bulwarks, and quite exhausted, he
jumped on deck, requesting to see the cap-
tain.
The captain did not et the first audi-
ence, for Reuben, graciously grecting the
gentleman with a “ how air ye,” premised
that he was entirely innocent, and handed
him his passage-ticket to examine. The
middy pocketed it, and turning to the cap-
tain, requested him to get his papers and go
on board the steamer to sce the admiral.
He did so. Directly the boat returned
for the mate. Ie made a most excruciat-
ing salaam, and went aboard also, Ile was
accompanied by a man named Davis, a
South American, who spoke both Spanish
and English fluently. He was a well-edu-
|cated man, of sound judgment and firm
nerve. To him every one of us owe our
lives.
On reaching the Pizarro, they were ush-
ered into the presence of the admiral, who,
glancing at them a moment, ordered them to °
be strung up to the yard-arm, with cannon-
balls tied to their feet, and then to serve the
rest of the: pirates the same way.
Preparations were speedily made, ropes
and cannon-balls brought andadjusted. At
this juncture Davis boldly confronted the
pompous admiral, and asked him in Spanish
if he really intended to hang us.
“Tia, dog, you speak Spanish, do you?”
said he, « you shall die.”
“ang us, then, you coward, if you think
best "said Dayis, “but you will rue the day.
We are Americans, and sailing under the
American flag; hang us if you “dare—but if
yea, do, | the. United | States will take your
island from ‘ you in less than a month.”
“Tfe’ turned away with a contemptuous
look at the admiral, who, thunderstruck at
the man’s assurance, gazed after him in as-
tonishment. Ie had dared to address him
on his own quarter-deck, not only without
leave, but without even so much as taking
off his hat. Ile began to suspect that he
must have had some intimation or assurance
from that power to sustain him in his asser-
tion, and perhaps it would be better to take
the prisoners into Havana, and delay the
execution until it could be ascertained
whether the American government would
interfere or not. At any rate, he puta stop
to the proceedings for. the present, giving
orders at the same time to have the rest of
the prisoners brought on board.
At this time, be it remembered, the rest
of us knew nothing of all this. We saw
a commotion on the steamer, it is true, and
heard loud talking, but it was too near dark
for us to sce what, and as the talking was in
oe