ADVENTURE OF TWO SEAMEN.
Even within the present century piracy was not uncommon within a few days' sail of our own shores, and in the Mediterranean and on the coast of Africa, pirates frequently carried on their depredations with impunity. This is strikingly illustrated by the story of two sailors, the sole survivors of a crew of twenty-four men belonging to the English vessel called the "St. Helena," which was captured by pirates off the island of that name, about thirty years since. The vessel was sailing in full daylight, when a ship under Portuguese colours hove in sight. The stranger bore down on the "St. Helena," and a boat with persons dressed as officers came alongside, and asked permission to come on board. The strangers behaved with great courtesy, and while inspecting the ship the chief of the party asked leave of the captain of the "St. Helena" for his second in command to come and see the ship also. Permission being granted a signal was hoisted him, and he came aboard, bringing another boat's crew of men with him. They then asked leave to go below and see the arrangements there, which was granted with ready hospitality by the unsuspecting captain. Meanwhile another signal was hoisted for a third officer, who with the boat's crew finally made up fifty foreigners on the deck of the "St. Helena." This latter step had not been perceived by the captain, who was engaged in escorting his guests below; but on his ascending to the deck the unfortunate man was suddenly seized from behind, while his arms were pinioned. Looking round he then perceived that the whole of his crew were already fast bound to the rigging, and he discovered too late that his ship was in the hands of pirates.
Concealment being now at an end the pirates hastened below and commenced a search for plunder, in which they were very successful, as the "St. Helena" had specie aboard. Unhappily, in the course of their search, they came upon a cask of spirits, and knocking the top off they drank till they were half-intoxicated, when they rushed upon deck in a state of fury, and commenced proceedings by cutting off the captain's head and throwing him into the sea. One by one the crew shared the same fate, except the two men in question, who escaped unnoticed in the beginning of the scuffle, and hid themselves below among some casks. Here they heard the struggling and screaming, and the splash of the bodies thrown overboard, till there were no more victims left. Then in a kind of frenzy the pirates yelled, fired shots through the rigging, cut away the masts, and attempted to scuttle the ship; but being stoutly built, and of very hard wood, it defied their efforts, especially in their drunken condition. So, after having exhausted their powers of destruction, they departed. The two men below watched the pirate ship sail, but for eight or ten hours more they dared not come on deck. When they did so they found themselves in a mere hulk, in the midst of the Atlantic. Ignorant of which way to steer they contrived to hoist a small remnant of a sail, and abandoning themselves to the mercy of the winds, they reached in safety the coast of Africa. Soon after, they were picked up by a Portuguese man-of-war, and carried to the mouth of the Tagus, whence they shortly procured a passage to England.