Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1878-09-12
Mistellaueuns &eading.
A CRUSOE WITHOUT LEGS.

In his own room, in a lodging house kept
by his sister in South Washington square,
New York, reporter found Mr.. Samuel
Barnes. After reading letter of introduc-
ton which the reporter presented, Mr.. Barnes
said "If it wasn't that Captain Trenwith
(the author of the introduction) had been 80
kind to me, would not talk to you. How.
ever, to oblige our mutual friend, the cap
tain, fire away with your questions" The
reporter lost no time in complying, and was
put in possession of the following strange
story:
II sailed from London" said Mr.. Barnes,
''in July, 1872, as second mate of the ship
Benares We were bound to Bombay by
way of the Cape of Good Hope, and thence
with load of coolies to Demerara The
Benares was an iron ship, in splendid condi-
tion We had unaccountably bad weather for
three weeks, which ended in terrible storm.
We were carrying only close reefed foresail
and fore say sail when the iron truss on
which it is partially supported, snapped The
yard still swung by the slings, and the men
we're ordered aloft to secure it. 1 was stand
ing on the deck when one of the slings parted
and the yard came crashing down. 1t knock
ed me off my feet and smashed both my legs
half way between the ankles and the knees.
Being an emigrant ship, we had an expert
enced surgeon. He performed skillful ampu-
tation, as you see. But a fierce fever follow
ed, and when we spoke an American ship
bound for the Sandwich Islands, three weeks
later, I was put aboard Of her to be removed
to the hospital in Tahiti. In March, '73, | was
all right, and stumping about town on two
wooden legs.
"The Alexander Scott, California schoon-
er, was about to sail for home and I obtained
a passage on her. The crew and passengers
of the Benares had made up purse, and that,
with my pay, amounted to over 300 pounds.
A subscription was also circulated in the
islands, King Kalakaua heading the list with
fifty dollars. I had altogether nearly $4,000.
The Alexander Scott ran short of water on
account of her tanks leaking, and we ran for
a group of uninhabited islands 800 miles
from Tahiti, where the whalers had sunk
barrel wells in the beach,. The group is call
ed the Freshwater Gays. The schooner's car
90 had been badly slowed, and when we an.
chored off the islands the captain set all
hands but the crew of the water boat to work
re-stowing it. 1 offered to take charge of the
boat, which l could very easily do, and went
ashore with it, remaining all day on the
beach. Two days were spent in this way.
The morning of the third was threatening.
and the men worked hard to fill the last Of
the casks. At noon, while the boats we're
alongside the schooner, it came on to blow all
of sudden, and tremendous surf began to
roll in on the beach, As the wind was, it
was lee shore, and the schooner had to slip
her cable and beat out to sea. | watched
her vanish in the storm mist with feelings
that can never be described. [ waited and
hoped two, three, four days, a week, and a
fortnight. Then knew that l was abandon
ed. As have since learned, the Alexander
Scott was dismasted and waterlogged, and
after drifting nearly 1900 miles, the captain
and crew were taken off by whaler and car
ried into Panama.
However, that is not my story. The
whalers who occasionally visited Freshwater
Gays had built cabin of cocoanut logs, aud
in this | found shelter. I had brought
flint and steel ashore with me to light my
pipe. Up to the time my last hope of rescue
by the Scott vanished, I had kept body and
soul together by eating cocoanuts, with which
the island was covered, and a huge heap of
which the men had collected. Now set my
wits to work to provide myself with better
fare. 1t was the beginning Of the season
when the turtles come ashore to lay their eggs.
| made a number of attempts to capture them,
but my movements were 80 slow that they
always escaped me. At last ruse suggested
ITSELF l buried myself in the sand at place
where they came out in great numbers, and
so captured any quantity of them. l simply
turned them on their backs in the shade.
1T was terribly monotonous living though.
Nothing but green turtle and turtle eggs, with
such cocoanuts as occasionally fell from the
trees. l used to vary the fare by making
turtle stew. l cleaned the back shell of
three hundred pound turtle and made a soup
kettle of it. 1 would fill it with meat and
water, and then drop red-hot stones in it until
| it boiled.
II naturally became very expert in moving
about cut my wooden legs down to about
foot in length, which made navigation
much easier, too. But 1 could not climb,
and the fresh, green cocoanuts on the trees
made my mouth water to madness, until
Providence solved the problem. found
dead shark on the beech, and cut long strips
from his skin, which, as you know, is almost
as rough as the edge of a saw. By winding
these around my stumps, found that could
claw my way up such trees as inclined at any
angle, as we'll as telegraph repairer climbs
pole with his steel grapples. After that l
had all the cocoanuts | wanted.
"But you can't Gil your paper with my
yarn so I'll cut it short. was left on the
island in May, '73. In November, 1874, |
was taken off by the whaler James K. Polk,
which put in for water. BY that time had
contrived to make fishing tackle out of turtle
gut and bone and catch fish. | had also
found mussel bed under the lee of the is-
land in reef of coral rock, so [ was feeling
more comfortably. But you can imagine
what scare the Folks crew we're in when
they saw a man without legs and with q
beard that touched the ground, waddling to.
ward them and screaming for joy. They got
bravely over their fright, however, and car
ried me to Honolulu. There met Captain
Trenwith, who was driving brisk miscellan-
eous trade among the islands with little
steamer. He became interested in me and
made me his supercargo. He had artificial
legs brought for me from America. 1t was
never question of wages between us. He
treated me like brother, and when he gave
up business last February he brought me
here with him. When we landed he made
me present, which will keep me a bove water
for many long day. But there's another
strange thing. When got here my sister
supposed me to be dead. The captain of the
Alexander Scott had published an account
of my being cast away and, of course, every.