"A LITTLE BIT OF HELL MAINE STYLE" That's What Capt. Spurling Gave a Pirate-State Gets Tokens of His Courage, It was just ninety-six years ago Tuesday (Jan. 21) that an eventghap- pened in the harbor of Trinidad, Cuba, which reflected great credit on the leader of a bold enterprise, recollec- tions of which have recently been stirred in Maine, on account of the purchase by the state of a brace of pistols and a sword from Mrs. E Preble of Framingham, Mass. The sword and pistols were the property of her father Captain Sam- uel Spurling of Cranberry Isle, Me., and had been in the family possession for many years. They commemorated the bold act of Captain Spurling, when on Jan. 21, 1823, he drove a pirate vessel away from what promised to be rich plunder in the harbor of Trinidad, and were presented to him by the American merchants of the port in token of appreciation of His boldness and the success of his ex- ploit-the town and the vessels in the harbor being unmolested. Captain Samuel Spurling, as master of the Maine schooner Cashier, was on his vessel in the harbor of Trinidad on the day and date given. when it was reported that what appeared to be pirate vessel was making for the port. Several other merchant vessels were in the harbor, and the rumor of the evil stranger disturbed them to such a degree that the crews prepared to abandon their vessels and hide on shore, and the merchants ashore also prepared to remove their goods and valuables to some secure place inland, in order to save them from the pirate. Captain Spurling was not of the same mind. He studied the approach- ing stranger and decided that he was not going to run away; a decison which his crew readily ratified, for they willingly made sail at the skip per's command, and went out of the harbor to meet the corsair. Nothing could have been better for the pirate. Here was what appeared to be an unsuspecting vessel coming out to become easy prey, before he tackled the other rich booty in the harbor and town; so the pirate made for the scliooner and fired a shot across her bows-the sea-order to heave to. This the Cashier willing- ly, did, and the pirate vessel worked in closer to board her. This was simply playing into the hands of Captain Samuel Spurling, who had ideas of his own. for he waited in the good old American fashion until the enemy was near enough to be seen distinctly, when he ordered his crew to "give 'em a little bit of hell, Maine style."