come to pass,'" read out the ensign; "'the men
mutinied, but thanks be to Providence, we are safe. But a fearful
catastrophe overtook the misguided fellows. Short handed as we were,
having lost ten hands by scurvy and drowning in the South Seas, the crew
mustered but eight men. Thus, with my two officers, we were three
against them. The attack came at midnight on July 27th, 1883. Luckily we
were on the watch, and as the men came aft we met them with firearms.
Four went down at the first volley. Three died shortly, the other the
next day.

"'The remainder fled, but before I could stop them my officers had shot
down three, leaving only the cook alive. I saved his life. But as we
were examining the injured, one of them whipped out a knife and killed
my first officer. The next day we buried the dead and worked the ship as
best we could with three hands. Luckily the breeze was light, for in a
brisk blow we could not have handled the ship.

"'Finding ourselves off the coast of the Carolinas, and despairing of
navigating the ship to port, we ran in and anchored off a small desolate
island. On it grew a few scrub trees, but not much else. After a
consultation we decided to abandon the ship; but first we agreed, while
the weather was fair, to bury the ivory on one of the islands. It was a
long, tedious task, but at last it was done, and the spot where it had
been secreted, marked.

"'This done, we rowed back to the ship to obtain my chronometers,
papers, and so forth. I should have explained that we had but one boat,
heavy seas off the Horn having smashed four of them, and a fifth was
broken in a fight with a whale. I was some time below, getting papers,
when suddenly I heard a splash of oars. By some inspiration, I guessed
what had happened. Rushing on deck I was in time to behold my rascally
second mate and the cook rowing from the ship with might and main.

"'I shouted, entreated, and raged. But it was all in vain. All the
rascals did was to laugh at me. I might have guessed their terrible
purpose to maroon me on my own ship, but I had paid no heed to some
whispering I had observed between them while on the island working at
the burial of the ivory. All this has been written since they abandoned
me in so cowardly a fashion for the sake of the ivory. Their intent, I
readily guessed. They would reach the shore ahead of me. Find some
capital, get a ship and seize the whole cache. I count myself lucky that
they did not kill