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their capture is an accomplished fact; for such is the timid nature of the fluvien, that so long as a captain is at large they are afraid to inform against him
and
but let him once be seized and things are said and then they depose willingly
a foreward as wiligson ..
A glance at the return shows that the number of Piracies committed during the last two years is very large, though not beyond what might have been expected under these circumstances; indeed an increase in the number of Piracies was prognosticated by the Captain Superintendent of Police in his Annual Report of the 30th January 1874, where he remarks "I fear that Piracy is on the increase"
and that the scarcity of Gun Boats, and the "stringency of the Admiralty instructions" tend to this effect. I am the more strengthened in this view from the fact that while one of their "Gunboats was cruising off the "Li. M. Men" during a portion of the Summer - no piracies were committed;
but they recommenced directly she was withdrawn. Little if any violence is to be found in the accounts given of each case except that here and there instances of more than ordinary atrocity & cruelty have occurred; as for example on two occasions the pirates having nailed close the crew beneath the hatches deliberately scuttled the vessel and so drowned all on board, In early cases the Brigs and Schooners were mostly attacked
are useful. They sail up when the object of their attack is at anchor waiting for the turn of the tide; - while at a distance, they employ guns of large calibre; as they approach within pistol shot they resort to small arms, till finally the boarders armed with muskets and spears, plunder all the cargo to their own use
and sail away, without taking the captured vessel with them
Gunboats