Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-10-02

appeared running at full speed at the OPP
posi.e oank: | recognized my uncle; he
| vas ittle IN front of his pursuers, who
uelayeo themselves by Intellectually hurl
i!hg thelr spears. One, however, running
~ IL siantlng direction, was trying to cut
nm OH, and as my uncle passed within
twenty yards Of him, he pulled up, and
po!slng MS assegai for a second, sent il
qulverlng into the wretched mans body
IL: ile lell on the spot; and the others com
ny up, nnlshed him on the ground, amidst
cries OF 'Ngahla.' 1 thought we at any
lale were to be left in peace; but | sup
pose they must have heard at the neigh
pollhg kraals that my mother and sister
Id, ,!au escaped; and knowing from their SEN
tihels That we must be some where within
thelr lines, they set to work to beat every
push or hollow capable of concealing a
human being. Once, two of them came
GOWN TO the water, but on reaching the
oeep place opposite our hiding place, and
seeing how bare the stunted bushes under
winch we were seemed to be, they skirted
along the shallow and passed on In half
an hour one of them came back, got out
OF the water, and walked along the bank
above us, and looked down Something
must have aroused his suspicious, perhaps
some involuntary movement, for he stop
pea and watched the place, and then run
nlng down, got into the river and came
along plunging his spear through the
pushes l saw we should be discovered,
ana quietly rose and slipped into the
water till only my head was out half con-
cealed by projecting branch. AS he
came abreast of me, swimming, for it was
very deep, | thought it would be all ight
he was too much engaged treading water
to examine the bank very closely; but I'M
luckily one of those babies made little
squat, and | saw by his face he had heard
it. He half turned in the stream. l had
heavy knobkenie in one hand, and max
ing spring, struck him on the head with
1t, and throwing my body on his, pressed
him down. He must have been half.
stunned by the blow, for I got him
to the bottom, and catching hold
of a root with one hand,
wrenched his spear from him with the
other; and in second more that danger
had passed away. l came up again as
quietly as possible, and with look round
to see that no one was in sight, got back
to my old shelter
There is not much more to tell They
kept proving about till afternoon, when
we could hear them driving the cattle off;
but we were afraid to move that night,
though went back to the kraal to see if
anything had escaped. You would not
care to hear what did see. We lay there
all the next day, starving, for we had not
brought much food with us, and then
started next night, We dared not make
for the lower fords which were sure to be
watched, and so lay in bush all the fol
lowing day. | was dead-tired, for l had
carried those two babies most of the way.
My sisters ought to have done it; but one
has been sick, and the other is lame We
got to the upper ford in the middle of last
night, and here before daylight this morn
ing" And so he finished his story, endin g
by shouting out praises and thanksgivings
to his ancestral spirit, who had saved his
mother and sisters. -Chanber's J0at7naI.