Judged by his por t, in which he appears x thoroughly her, ¢ is the last man Mi to cara the title of pirate. Yet it master ut " privateer that he attained anil it is his experiences in that that he now unblushingly sets forth phe Cruise of the "Ban ry Captain Willis, in the rom. ancists and on interviewers by his owa way. And very good readi Had it been imply a plain recor! of facts, the subject ter must, of necessity, have provided a thrill or two for a Mus' public, But Captain Willis has a humour and an st him; conse burden, formerly plied with passengers and cargo between London and Aberdeen. In November of last year _however, she was berthed in the Vietoris Doc! London, for reconstruction, provisioning and fitting out, ostensibly for a pleasure cruise in the West Indies. Captain Willis lind been appointed to the command, on the understanding, however, thut his vessel was intended for the Columbian Goverament. He superintended the erection in, her of two m:, of gun mountings for Yow and stero chases, a_seare's—light fixed to. the foremast," and passages enable the men working guns to move more quickly from one part of the ship to the other. Then, after signing on a crew to be ultimately discharged at Colon, in Central Ameries, he proposed to leave for Antwerp. At this juncture, however, the Customs authorities bicorne suspicious, and their detention of the Rich? for first made the " Ban Righ ' a familiar name to newspaper readers. A common notion was that the ship was intended as a pri cer in the Boer interest. 'The actual fact was that she had been bought by General Matos, a wealthy Venezuelan, who, to revenge sume injury done him by' Pre: sident Castro, had cine to Europe intending to head one of the perivdie revolutions against the government of his Republic. By the intervention of the Consul-General of Columbia in Paris, where General Matos was then staying. the "Ban Righ" was released, and set out for Antwerp. There she loaded up a heavy cargo of "hardware, musical instrument sand keitledrums," which, with the memory of Mr. Kruger's " grand pianos" still fresh, will scarcely need further fication. By a round-about route and leisurely stages the Ban Righ" arrived at Martinique and there, by instruction from one of the ostensible Uritish owners, the original crew was paid off and a new and foreign one signed on. At Fort de France General Matos himself joined the vessel, and on last New Year's day Captain Willis was given to understand that the ship had been sold to General Matos, the British fag was hauled down, the Venezuelan hoisted in its stead, and the "Ban Righ" rechristened the Libertador." What this implied may be judged from avincident in the Captain's own words:—General Matos and his son spoke excellent English, and they also wrote our language far better than the majority of foreigners. As I was making the land (near Capeloro) 2 sloop was observed in the offing, and General;\atos sent his son'on the bridge to ask me if I saw her. "Yes, certainly," Lanswered, feeling surprised at the question. " My father's orders are that you are to arrest that sloop, we want her to land arms and ammunition."
"The devil he does?" I exclaimed. "Then you may tell him that I didn't come tosca asa pirate, but to land our cargo. I won't do it!"
then left the bridge, and presently two of the Generals came up, and covering me with their revolvers told me I must obey orders or die."
8 8
"T looked round at the villainous face of the wild-looking rebels, at the stern determined Generals near me on the bridge, at the steady barrels of their shining revolvers; a vision of home and old Eng and flashed through my brain, and I reluctantly con. sented to obey the order of General Matos.
The running down of the'sloop, graphically described by Captain Willis, was the first of ascries of adventures and escapades, in which the "Libertador became involved, during the following few weeks. One ¢-nsequetice of these was that President Castro not only offered a reward for the capture of the "Ban Righ", but also set a price of 16,000 dollars on the head of lr unfortunate captain. How he contrived frustrate Gen. Matos' plans; how he nearly fell" into a trap. set for him personally by wily Columbians; and how, aided: by the Philadelphian pier: master at Port Columbia, he eventually escaped from his vessel ani found shelter in the English mail, we must leave our readers to discover from the captain's own narcar tive. There, too, they will find many interesting observations on sine of the West Indian islands visited by the writer on his home t" England, to say nothing of certain caustic remarks concerning. interviewers, st whose hands the worthy captain has suffered worse horrors apparently than from Gen. Matos himself.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.