Pomeroy weekly telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio) 1860-1866, 1860-09-07

AS soon as it became known to the
crew of our vessel that [ had decided to
remain for time at Dominica, one OF
the Marquesas Islands, I was assailed
with persuasions, yarns, and respectful
protests from the honest seamen, who,
from one cause or another, had become
attached to me. An attack of the scurvy,
however, under which [ was suffering,
and which rendered it imperative for me
to live ON land for couple of months,
proved more powerful in its demand than
their stories in argument, and as the
aforementioned islands was the nearest
spot of earth, thither l was bound.
"But, sir, demonstrated English Jake,
as one of our best and ablest sailors was
called, "Them chaps is Typees-they'd d
roast and eat you in the twinklin' of the
pinnacle! I've bin among 'em, an may
[ never go aloft if [ havn't seen 'em
make lobscourse of human bein's, an
devour 'em just as would salt junk
There amt a white man ON the island,
an if there was, they'd know the taste
of him afore soon"
l confess that, through just such sto-
ries as this, l had imbibed something of
a morbid fondness for the horrible; and
| have no doubt that my condition of
mind resembled somewhat that of the
young girl who, once warned of the folly
of sin, wished to experience the folly of
it therself. The endeavors of Jake, there
fore, were unavailing, though one of his
messmates, Harry l., backed them
up with the following relation:
"You must know, sir, that in 1910,
visited these ere islands in Nantucket
whaler. We knew that 'twa'nt no use
fur us to expect to git much fresh pro-
visions there; but our skipper thought
the men would be ready for another six
months cruise if he could give them a
run on shore for day or two. He
wouldn't leave the whalin' ground,
where, for seven months, we had been
in the middle of schools Of eighty and
ninety barrel sperm whales. So, as the
Marquesas was the highest and could be
reached in less than week, he stood in
for Dominica.
"Now, we'd heard that the natives
were man-eaters, but the captain thought
them yarns weren t true, and if they was,
that he'd rather run risk than lose a
whole season by going to leeward. Well,
sir, we arrived and anchored in Haun-
attappa, one of the best bays in the is
land. Soon all hands forgot the stories
about the cannibals, and with merry
heart-that, you know, always belongs to
sailor-we went on shore. We had
lots of terbackcr and calico to trade for
cocoanuts, bananas and other fruits, and
could have filed boat with what we
got in barter. A shipmate of mine pro-
posed to go back in the island little
and as we had brought little toddy and
had used it, we both felt like having an
adventure. We soon found an opportu-
nifty of stealin' away from our compan-
ions, who were dancin' and goin' with
some of the natives on the beach, and
took line as straight as a mainstay into
the interior.
"Well, sir, we disobeyed orders, fol
the captain told US to keep within sight
and hail, so long as we were on shore
and to come off as soon as the return
signal was set. But once on our way, We
couldn't turn back, so we kept on anc
continued drinking We met number
of the naked savages, but they didn' t in
terfere with us, so we didn't stop fol
them.
cat last we sat down under the wide
branches of breadfruit tree, and begar
to talk over old times and former voy
ages, until we keeled over and both fel
fast asleep. I reckon when we had slep
five or six hours, when [ reused up
shook my shipmate, and proposed tina
we should put back to the ship. W.
started in earnest, for there had suddenl.
met our ears the most Internal yellin,
that had ever heard. The noise seemed
to come from every side, and to approach
US as we hurried forward, and to ech'
through every part of the valley. Nei
ther of us said word, bat by motion
and by looks each encouraged the othel
to greater speed, for we both we'll knew
that the sarpents were aroused, and wer
doin something thatthey hadn't oughter
"Atlast we drew near the shore, where
from behind tree, we looked out upol
the devils who were gathered on tn
beach. They were yellin' shoutin' an'
dancin' as if they had been bitten by
rattlesnake and were tryin' to shake OF
the effects. Beyond them, just haulin
alongside of our ship, We saw four boat
from which our shipmates leaped int
the fore and main chains like parcel o
tfrightenedchildren. We understood tn