The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1883-04-24
A Life of Advem tmre.

| ulul ever suspect tuot MS iito HAS OCCu iuii vi
romantic incidents and exciting adventures 1t
is not little singular that when boy of eight
he should have been brought by his parents, in
1889, from New York State where he was born,
to Old Port Leon, in Wakulla county, where two
years later both his parents died of yellow fever,
and that Al years thereafter he should return
| and locate within short distance of the place
where he was made orphan, his life in the
| meantime having been crowded with ups and
| downs OF startling character, growing out of
| travels in remote countries But so it is 1t
sounds like marvellous romance to hear him
talk of his youthful days, of his travels and adj
ventures, of the persons he has met, the coun-
| tries visited and scenes gone through and some
day not far Off we hope the Colonel will fall into
the hands OF an enterprsing book publisher who
| will see the profit there would be in printing
the Life and Adventures of this American wan
| derer. These wanderings commenced in 1S49,
when he was only Is years OF age 1t was in
| that year in which the discoveries of gold in
| California aroused the cupidity of the whole
| American continent. Young DeMilt took the
gold fever and in a motley company OF -
| started for the new Eldorado The journey
across the plains and over the Sierra Nevada
| mountains 10 point where they found their first
gold took four months The story of this trip
with what was seen and encountered, both pleas
ant and unpleasant, as told by the adventures is
interesting in the extreme And then how he
Jared in Calitorna-in luck one day and driving
a dray the next, the fate of so many who had
| been lured by the hope OF speedy wealth-and
final 1icpuot wOuld fiji IA
Mlt by the way, is among the few 49-ers now
left of the horles who flocked to the Pacific in
those days. He is nearly or quite the last sur
vivor of the seventy-fve who made up the COM
pany OF which he was a member. His travels
after his first and second visits TO California were
wide Central and South America and Australia
were explored, going to the latter country in
search of gold and finding little His descrip-
ton OF the valley of the Amazon, down which
river from its source, where ii could he stepped
across TO Para, Brazil, he descended in small
boat, is full of interest," Astounding as the descent
OF the river did with striking adventures both
amusing and perilous Both sides of the mighty
river, for long distances, are full of danger from
the natives who wander through the immense
forests and from wild beasts and venomous rep
tiles making it advisable for explorers to keep to
their boats night and day. The Colonies expe-
rence on the Amazon was perhaps not unlike
that of others who have descended or assembled
it, though one might travel on it now and not
meet with 1.-THE Of the adventures that befell
him and his party thirty years ago-before
about the time Lieutenant IIerndon was explor-
ing the valley under the authority Of the Amcri-
can government Our adventures We're not act
ing under orders but were endeav0ring to escape
from country which offered no attractions for
money making. They were in constant danger
from semi-savages who prowled along the
shores and their boat afforded but scant safety
from the numberless crockodiles encountered
almost daily. Two snake storics,' told by the
Colonel, will give vivid idea of what was to he
seen on the Amazon in those days a. we'll as
what could be done by sportsmen
Going to a place called Laguna, near the
mouth of the Huallaga river where monkeys are
plentiful, OF all kinds, We put in one morning to
cook our breakfast, seeing a clear place on the
bank and an eddy where we could land Two
guides We had fastened the boat to a tree and
began to make fire Three of our party started
out to hunt little grey monkeys about the size of
our squirrels, | remaining in charge OF the boat
| was in the stern OF the boat fishing; noticed
about 20 yards above stream a tree that had partly
fallen into the water its roots clinging on to the
bank-sdc, as the river had undermined il. dis
covered in its branches a snake-part of its body
was on the main trunk and its head was towards
the land | sung out to the natives that there
was snake in that tree. They made q sign
with their hands as if greatly excited and then
made for the boat and wanted to jump in and
make out for the stream but would not let them
for my chums were in the woods and was de-
termned not to leave them | told our guides
il they dared leave the shore | would shoot and
that intended killing the snake. They looked
on me with establishment and said it would kill
me and all the crowd, but could never kill it,
| got out of the boat and made them stand where
they had been cooking and told them | would
shoot II they dare move. then went to a small
tree, about eighteen inches in diameter ten or
twelve feet from the tree in which lay the snake
i had my gun and pistol and also bowie knife
with me. had both snake and guides 10 watch
| was afraid the men would attempt to leave
with the boat and would be at the mercy of the
snake and my partners after me- | crawled up
behind this small tree and took aim at the snake
BY this time the snake had seen me and his head
was then about twenty-five feet from me- | was
wearing small Panama hat at the time and
could feel it raise up off my head from the fright
leveed at him and he had crawled by that
time at least five feat nearer, part of his body
still coiled around the trunk of the tree He
seemed by instinct to know | was trying to get
10 Illll Hrcu my nrSt ShOt anu my cap snapped,
but did not lose command over myself put
on another cap, and even stopped to pick the
tube OF the gun with pin. BY that time he
was within fifteen feet of me; he had rasd his
head to about four feet from the trunk of the
tree his mouth wide open and a tongue hung out
at least three to four inches long and could see
his tangs, and his eyes snap. | took aim down
his throat and it carried off the whole top of his
head. He dropped on the roots of the tree The
natives ran TO me and fell on their knees. The
natives said it was one of the most venOmous
snakes of that country and reward of $50 was
ii and il was within few inches of sixteen feet
eight inches long, tapered at both ends. It's
head was large and flat; the color was "A brown
bred, checkered-grey and black, and it was
beautiful to look at. gave it to the natives and
they took the hide off and said they would get
the reward for it on their return. In the meantime
our men came in and heard the snake story and
we all congratulated each other. They brought
back with them several little monkeys, ducks and
one or two good sized monkeys. We cooked up
our provisions for the tweny-fOur hours and
started out, for we never landed but once day.
We had game of some kind almost every day
We never slept ashore for we were afraid of both
natives and beasts SO drfted along night and day,
unless we struck some sand bar or island and
then we would put in and stop over night
Near a town called Bara, not far from Rio Negro,
when we were nearer the right bank than the
left of the Amazon, Il was steering the boat
when one of our men sung out that there was a
lot of young natives at the foot of the bluff just
opposite to where we were, and on top of this
bluff was a tree and something like a grape vine
seemed hanging over the water and was waving to