Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1873-05-29

story of the south Atlantic
The Brgosy,l
1.-THE following story is literally true,
and may be recognized by some men still
living.]
Fifty miles more to Rio," says my com
panion as we recline on a spare sail in the
foretop Of the Southampton packet, enjoy
ing in all its fullness, pleasure which the
men of the North can but family appreci-
ate-the luxury of shade and inaction-
and surveying with that cool nothing to-
speaks of air characteristic of the uudemon-
strative Anglo Saxton, the vast smooth ex-
panse of sunlit sea beneath our feet, and
the huge dark-green pyramid of Cape
Frio, topedJby its trim little lighthouse
towering giant-like overhead.
My fellow watcher is a tine specimen Of
the been everywhere and seen every
thing" class; kind Of real life Tom Thur
nall, with all the ready invention, pictures
que cosmopolitanism, and cool self-relianee
of=AIr- Elngsley's wonderful hero. He
has been half murdered in Australia, fever
stricken at Madras, run out of water in the
North Pacific; he has Summered in Bahia
and wintered IN VanDieman's Land, eaten
rice at Shanghai and drunk rum in Jamai-
ca; served a gun at the bombardment Of
Sweaborg and lain off Constadt in the
WellngtOn; and is now, settlement pour
s'amuser, about to join me in run thro'
the interior of Brazil.
"Now think of it, remark l. ''you
promshed me South american story, and
I've never had it yet. Suppose you give
it me to-day. With all your travels you
must know good yarn or two"
"Ay, that's just the mistake people al
ways make" answers my friend. "On that
point can't do better than quote you the
verdict of an old boatswain of mine: You
see, sir, folks think as how we sailors
ought to know all about the places we've
| been to--but dye mind, most on don't
learn that way; we just drop into the first
grog shop, and that's all we see till were
| off again You ak a sailor where's The
Three Tuns' or The jolly Mariner
and he'll tell you fast enough, but try him
upon the scenery, and the lingo, and all
that 'ere-and he's mum directly.''
Well remark P laughing. in spite of
| Professor Boatswain's dictum, [ still adhere
to my creed that you possess good story
or two. Can't you recollect a yarn con-
nected with Cape Frio yonder? 1t would
come in very appropriately just now
Over the ancient mariners broad jovial
face falls sudden gloom, like the shadow
| OF some great peril rising up again from
the far past. Before he can utter a word
I divine that the coming story will be one
of no ordinary interest.
'Well,' he answers, at length, with a
grim earnestness in his voice. it happens
that 1 have got yarn about Cape Frio-
and such one as you don't often hear
nowadays. You young travellers of this
generation only read about what saw
then; but it was not thing to be forgot
ten. Listen, and FL tell you about it,
On fine morning in May, 1881, was
rounding that very headland that you sec
yonder, in the brig Carron, bound from
Glasgow to Rio de Janeiro; and although
we had our share Of rough weather on the
way, l can't remember a voyage that | en-
ioyed more You young fellows of this
high-pressure age, who gallop through
your lives as you would ride to hounds
and fly over country or an event as yor
would take big fence, can't think how
much you lose. In my time the passage o
the Atlantic was a voyage; now it's jump
We used to be months upon months at sea
in the glorious breezy weather, with blue
water and blue sky all around us, and the
fresh air stirring our blood like the breatt
of life, and all the troubles and bothera
tions of our life on shore lying behind Us