Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-09-29

until at length they found small
quantity of water. the whole of which
was eagerly drank by the men, leaving
none for the poor little cabin boy, half
dead with hunger, thirst, exposure and
fatigue, and whose feet we're cut to
pieces by the sharp coral of the rees,
Their thirst having been quenched, the
captain and his sons-eight in all-re-
turned to their boat and sailed away
again, leaving the boy to die by the
empty water hole. They reached New
Caledonia in safety, and there the cap
tain reported the loss of his vessel and
the hardshlps he and his companions
had undergone. He did not. however,
report his abandonment of Narcisse
Peltier.
The Chinese left at Roussel Island
were. it was afterward ascertained,
gradually killed and eaten by the
natives, with the exception of some
twenty, who ultimately escaped.
The career of the boy Narcisse Peltier
would undoubtedly have come to close
even before his Captain s arrival in New
Caledonia, had it not CHANGED that some
blacks crossed the footprints left by the
sailors in their search for water, and fol-
lowed them up until they found the
dying boy by the side of the dried-up
we'll. They gave him food, which he
describes as les notsettes, and then led
him away gently by the hand to their
tribe, with which he has remained TN
interruptly until the present time, O.
period of no less than seventeen years.
Narcisse is short, thick.set, active
man. His skin is bright red color,
and glazed upon the surface by contin-
ued exposure to the sun. He is clean
in his person. and says the blacks with
whom he has lived are SO also-a state
ment apparently confirmed by the dis
gust he expressed for the Chiuese on
board the Brisbane, whom he styled
dirty pigs (ies sales cOchosas). Across
his breast are two horizontal lines of
raised flesh about the thickness of an
ordinary lead pencil. The upper ore
extends from nipple to nipple; the
other, rather shorter, is about
an inch lower. Above each
breast are four short hori-
zontsl scars, one above the other, and
on the upper part of the right arm a
sort of gridiron has been scored, con-
sisting Of four vertical cuts Enclosed in
one passing all around them. These
cuts were made with pieces of broken
bottles obtained from ships, and the
tips of the cuts raised by continually
pinching them up. No earth or other
foreign materials been introduced into
the cuts. These scars, he states, are
made simply for ornament, and he is
proud of them, or was short time
since. The lobe of his right ear has
been pierced, and the flesh itself con.
siderably drawn down, apparently be-
tween two or three inches. When
found, he wore a piece of wood in this
aperture about half an incl In diameter
and four inches long. This ornament
he gave to one of the sailors of the
schooner which brought him to Somer-
set. When speaking of the size to
which the ear had been drawn down, he
mentioned, with evident admiration,
some of his tribe who had trained the
lobe of the ear down, or nearly down,
to the shoulder. After having been on
board of the Brisbane q day or two,
however, he came to the conclusion
that the best thing he could do would
be to have the lower part of his ear cut
off, as not being ''the right thing" in
civilized society.
His nose is also pierced, and he was
accustomed to wear In it white shell,
probably that of the pearl oyster. When
first found by the blacks he says he was
very unhappy, often thought of his
father, mother and brothers, and longed
to get away. In the course of time the
recollection of tb1m became less vivid
and painful, and he ultimately COM
pletely identified himself with the tribe.
cape, ss, being alone, he could not man
age canoe out at sea; and though he
had seen vessels passing along the
coast, he had never been allowed to get
near them, having always been sent by
the blacks into the woods in the inter-
Tor when they went on board ship. It
is not clear how they came to allow him
to be seen at last by the sailors of the
John Bell. When first captured he could
hardly recall word Of French, and
the rapidity with which he has recover
ed it is remarkable. Even when he
came on board the Brisbane, a week
ago, his knowledge of his own language
was very limited, and it was curious to
see the manner in which word or it's
meaning would suddenly recur to his
recollection. He now speaks French
fuently, and in proportion as it returns
to him he forgets the language of his
tribe, of which, however, about 100
words have been collected from him and
taken down by Lieutenant Ottley, r. e.
What is very much more remarkable,
however, than his recovery Of his moth
er tongue, is the fact that he has not
lost the powers of reading or writing,
after a disuse of several years, during
which he, of course, never saw book,
and, as he says, never wrote line; nor,
indeed, did the blacks know that he pos
sessed the power to do SO. Very prob
ably he did not know it himself.
After two or three weeks residence
at Somerset, however. he wrote, as has
already been mentioned, few almost
unintelligible lines. Before coming on
board tbs Brisbane he had much i'm
proved in intelligence, and pronounced
CORRECTLY the names he saw written upon