The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1884-11-06
" Instead Of teaching him English OF

WOAuS VI LIS OWA l. uN0s' A0sAV0 .IVA600s
and communicated with him al much IS
possible in that alone,s aided by
gesture, in which, like all French
men, he possessed marvellous facilitJ
Of expire ssion.. In the UNEMPLOYED back
country of Africa the negro had been q
prince, and Fourier bade him look
forward to the time when he would re-
turn and rule. He always addressed
him by his African name and title in
his own tongue. He took him into the
wards Of his hospital, and taught him
to be useful at surgical operations and
to care for the instruments, that he
might become familiar with them and
with the sight Of blood, which at first
madden6d him. Once he gave him a
a drug that made his head throb, and
then bled him with almost instant re-
lief. He affected an interest in the am
ulets which hung at his neck. and be-
sought him to give him ono to wear.
He committed to his care, with express
sions 6f the greatest solicitude, d strong
box; brass bound and carefully locked,
which he told him contained his god, a
most potent and cruel deity, who would,
however, when it pleased him, give
back the life of dead man for blood.
This box contained silver cup, with a
thermometer fixed at its side; a glass
syringe holding about third of q pint -;
large curved needle perforated in its
length like tube, sharp at one end, at
the other expanded to fit accurately the
nozzle Of the syringe; a little strainer
also fling the syringe; and last, small
bundle. of wires with a handle like an
egg-beater. 49,.
For the rest, this savage was crooked,
1l.shapen and hideous. His skin was
as black as night; his head small, the
face immensely disproportionate to the
Uranium; his jaws massive and armed
with glittering white teeth, fled to the
points; his cheeks full, his nose fiat, his
eyes little, deep-set, restless, wicked.
The usage he received from his new
master was SO different from his former
experience with white men, and so in
accord with his own undiciplined ma
ture, that it called forth all thes sympa-
thies of his character. He soon loved
the Frenchman with an intensity of af-
lection almost incomprehensibie. It is
no exaggeration to say that he would
have willingly laid his life to crafty his
masters slightest wish. The latter's
knowledge was to him SO comprehen-
sive, his power so boundless and his will
so imperious and infexible, that he
feared and worslliped him as god.
Fourier looked upon his monster
with satisfaction, and longed for bat
tie. His wish was at last gratifed.
On the Fourth of July, 1864, an engage
ment took place three miles northwest
of Legareville, near the North Edisto
river. A force Of Union soldiers had
been assembled from tho Sea islands
and from Florida, massed on Seabrook
island, and pushed thence up into
South Carolina. Every movement was
watched and reported hy the rebel
scouts; all the troops that could be
spared from Charleston were sent out
to oppose the invaders; roads were OBJ
structed, bridges were destroyed, bat
teries erected in strong positions, every
thing prepared to impede their progress.
With infinite fatigue and peril they ad-
vanced only five or six miles in day.
march. There was occasional skirmish-
ing; but one actual battle. To that the
troops gave the name of "the Battle of
Bloody Bridge"
In this battle heavy as the losses
were, the Confederates took but one
prisoner. At the third charge a tall,
broad-shouldered captain, who seemed,
like another son of Thetis, almost lnvul-
nerable, darted impetuously ahead of
his men and reached the summit of the
defense. Useless bravery! In an in
slant a vo]ley point blank swept away
the charging men behind him, and a
gunners sabre-thrust bore him to the
ground within the works, where he lay
stunned and bleeding beside the gun
he had striven so hard to take. The
man who had captured him, wild with
excitement and maddened with the
powder that blackened him, and the
hot blood which jetted upon him, sprang
down, spat upon HIM, spurned him with
his foot. anil would have dashed out his
brains with the heavy hilt of his dubbed
sword had not strong hand held his
uplifted wrist.
It was Fournier, who had watched
the battle with an interest as intense as
that Of the most ardent southerner in
the battery, though wildly different in
character. His interest was that of the
naturlist who stands by eager to see a
rustic entrap some rara avis that he de-
s1res to study, to use for his expert
ment.
The gunner turned fiercely upon him,
but dropped his arm and sheathed his
sabre at his question, and walked back
to his gun abashed, for he was, after all,
a brave and chivalrous man. !
Fourier simply asked: "Do .confed-
crate soldiers murder prisoners Of war ?"
And added, He is wounded man
leave him to me-. Then he knelt down
beside him and examined his wound,
and though he strove to be calm he
trembled with excitement as he tore
open the blue blouse and felt the warm
blood yelling over his fingers. It was
a simple wound through the feshy part
of the shoulder; a strand of saddler's
silk and few strips of sticking plaster
would have sufficed to dress it, but the
Frenehman smiled when he wiped away
the clots and saw the blood squirting
from two or three small divided arteries.
Then he called his African, and they
carried the wounded man back to the
tent, and land him on bed of moss and
cypress boughs, and left him there to
bleed, while he went out into the air.
And the prisoner, what of him? Any
one, looking upon him as he lay upon
the cypress boughs, would have known
him to be, thoroughbred. Everything
about him proclaimed 1T. His face
manly but gentle, his figure, great in
stature and strength, yet graceful in
outline like Grecian god, the very
dress and accoutrements he wore, which
were neat, strong, expensive, but with
out ornament, showed him to be gen
tleman. And Robert Shirley was a
gentleman. Probably no man in all
the states could have been found who
would have presented greater contrast
to the man standing guard outside, the
tent than this man who lay within it;
and for that reason none who would
have been so welcome to Fourier. AS
Ine one was pure SaVaRe, tue oCner
was the realization of the most inustri-
GUS enlightenment; the other gentle,
frank, considerate; as the one was hid
eous, ill formed and black as night, so
The other was radiant with manly beau
ty, and fair as the morning. Each
among his own people sprang from no.
bic stock; the one prince, the other
the descendant of the purest Pu-
ritan race, which knew among it's own
livines and judges, brave captains. and
farther back a governor of the colony.