A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 261, 25 March 1911, Page 10

A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE.

A DAREDEVIL'S THRILLING AD- - VENTURES. ' Captain George B. Boyntou. the famI oiia filibuster, who served under twelve flags, and in spirit remained a soldier ! of fortune almost to the last hour, has died in a New York hospital at the age of 09. Captain Boynton was born in New York in 1842; he enlisted in an Illinois regiment in the American cifil war, and left the service with a sabre cut across his cheek, Ijis next,, experience wa§ in the early revolt in Cuba, led by General de Cespedcs, in 18C8. This revolt attracted the support of a number of filibusters who had fought in the American Civil War, and were looking for trouble, but it was unsuccessful. Captain Boynton succeeded in running a cargo of arms during the Spanish blockade to the Cuban patriots. In 1870 he tried to run another cargo to the French army, but owing to the shifting of the scene of the battle was unable to reach them. Ultimately he turned them over to the forces of Don Carlos, operating in the north of Spain. Boytiton's was a splendidly impartial character. Whether it wah Republican army in France or a Royalist Army in Spain, it was all one to this modern condottiere. He next appeared in the Near East, where the present kingdoms of Servia and Montenegro were revolting from Turkey. Tie did some gun-running for the Russians, and was with their armies at the siege of Plevna. He turned up next in Egypt,, after the bombardment of Alexandria, and as there had been many American officers in the old Ecrpytian army in the days of Ismail he got a warm reception in Nationalist circles. Boynton was mixed up in a scheme to rescue Arabi Pasha, the Nationalist leader, from the British, but it failed, and he lost the £30,000 he had been promised.

After a short service with the Chilian army, in which he held the rank of major, this daredevil appeared in San Domingo, the Mulatto Republic, which was then governed by General Heureaux, the gigantic and implacable Jamaica negro President. At this time Boynton had returned to the profession of gunrunner. He was caught and sentenced to be shot, but, of course, he claimed his American citizenship, and President Heureaux thought it better to let him go. So Boynton went across the island, and was fighting in one of the revolutions in Hayti, against General Hippolyte, who was President between 1889 and 1896. Tn 1893 Captain Boynton appeared in the Brazilian naval revolt. Rio de Janiero was at that time being bombarded at intervals, when they got sufficient ammunition, by the men-of-war in the squadTon of Admiral de Mello, who had revolted again President Peixoto. One day Boynton started from the shore in a small tug-boat flying the Union Jack, his object being reported to be to torpedo Admiral De Mello's flagship with a torpedo of his own manufacture.

There were several foreign men-of-war lying in Rio harbor, and the appearance of the British flag on Boynton's tug induced IT.M.S. Sirius to intervene before lie could rpach the Brazilian rebel flacship. fe As he then claimed to be an American citizen, he was sent as a prisoner on board the U.S. cruiser Charleston.

He was sent to New York as a prisoner but escaped any punishment from the U.S. authorities.

In 1997, when he was almost forgotten in New York, he was arrested in that city on a charge of making counterfeit silver bolivars for circulation in Venezuela. It appeared that he had quarrelled with General Castro (the then President) and was concerned in a revolutionary plot, for which he was making the counterfeit Venezuelan money. After some time in custody he was released early in 1908 by President Roosevelt, and lived in New York until his death. Boynton was a type of filibuster that it read so much ■about, but so rarely met in life He was a tall, bronzed, broad-shouldered man. and next to "Dynamite Johnny " O'Brien, also a daredevil, reckless, adventurous Yankee, was the most picturesque and daring of tho many soldiers of fortime who sought adventures in the last quarter of a century in the Soulh American countries. Once he was nearly killed by'a pirate's cutlass, again by «n assassin's dagger, and he was frequently in peril of'his life by rifle-fire. He had followed all sorts of occupations, from that of salesman to brewer.