LAST OF THE PIRATES. His Dangerous Ship and Its Change of Colour.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 266, 23 May 1888, Page 6

LAST OF THE PIRATES. His Dangerous Ship and Its Change of Colour.

A \ i.ssio!, which julived from Honolulu a fe.v d.'Uh ago (says tho London ' Daily News') brought news ot tho death of a man who is described as having been ' the deuce of a fellow, wicked and big, with a voice ot thunder.' Twenty-live years ago, we aie told, he was a pirate ; for .some yeais bcioro his death he had been a hermit. In the d.iys ot his ■wickedness and power ho commanded a vessel called tho Hcd Cloud, staunch, unusually fast, and furnished with powciiul guns. Periodically this eat mine-ied craft disappeared fiom thesea.s, and in her place would come another, all in "ombro black, and called the 1 Hack Cloud. This piece ol tlmatiical elloct, which cost, nothing but a little paint, had it^ expected influence upon the .superstitious, minds of the sailors who woe .sometimes sent in pursuit of the \e-sel. Most of them fully believed that there was something uncanny about the craft and that her captain had siipernatuial help. In those da% \s ho was the tenor of the South I'acilic -e.i>, and the IJiihsh (loveinment bet a big price upon Ins head, lluudicdsot attempts were made to captin o him by fair light and by tiaps, ;md by e\ery means that could be downed. But lie eluded all the tiaps, came out victorious in all the tights, and in e\ery case sailed away with the tiaditional scointul laugh of the piiate king JIo had a Spam-.li name, whu h no bod} remembers now, and he was supposed to belong to that national lty, although he .spoke Spanish, Engh-h, h tench and Oeiinan <dl with equal fluency. At last.i young English nobleman, lo\ing ad\enbine, and de.-hous of the re waul, undct took to captuio him. After cruising aiound in tho i'aeilic foi some time, he came late one afternoon directly upon the Red (Jloiul. The buccaneer spoke to the Englishman, asking where she was bound and what she had on bo.nd. The leply was that they were looking for the pirate, that they knew they were talking to him, and that he had beltei give himself up at once. In an instant blight lights appeared all o\ei the Red Cloud, and hei captain answcied in good English : ' J will see }ou in hell lust !' Then a cannon ball whi/zed tlnough the air, but it was aimed too ln<,rh, and passed above the vessel. ' 1 will sec }ou th'jic,' shouted back the l>ngli°hman, and a bioadside from his guns, aimed low , sent the Ked Cloud to the bottom of the sea. Jiut the buccaneer escaped, and not lone: afterwards he and two of his ciew appealed in a rowboat on the bat ten island oi Molokmi, which is neai the East Mani Inlands of the Jlawaiian (itoup. It is a Miwll, barren, rocky place, uninhabited. Theic his two companions even lett him, and there he lived alone for twenty five >eais. .Since his landing theie he was called the ir\ti\e name for the island. A sailor who had been going to and fro from the Sand j wich Islands for ten or twelve yens learned all he could about Morotinnee, and says that he was much liked and feaied by the natives. They cuiied to him all the delicacies to be found in the kingdom, and enabled him to live a life of ease and lu\uiy. They said he wa,s a tall man, big and commanding, with a \ oice like tlumdet so powerful that, they firmly belie\ed he could cause tho wind to lisc or the water | to subside. They would not allow white men to go near the island it tho\ coi.ld help it, probably because thoy had boon so commanded b} him, and when he died they buncd him neai the place whcie he had h\ed, with much mourning o\or hi- depaiI'UIC