Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1884-11-08
THE STORY OF A HERMIT
a Cliff-Dweller Recognized bv g
Sea Captain.
The Romantic Discovery OF an OLD
Time Deiauiter and Embcn.ler
In Cave ON the Desolate
Coast of Chilli.
Isan Francisco CALL

h
terviewer from the CdH remarkable
story about an adventure in Chilli. The
Captain, whose boyhood was passed in
Pittsfield, Mass, left the bark W. Robin.
son at Iquique, Peru, on the occasion
mentioned, and, with four other of the
same vessel, made his way overland ~
Valparaiso. 1t was during the long tramn
that the adventure occurred. The Cantain
now master Of the steamer Santa Crnx. IA
quoted;
''At about four in the afternoon one dax
when we were getting pretty well down
into Chilli, we found ourselves etnptv-
stomached and stranded at the base OF a
promontory that jutted well out into the
sea. We hadn't come across house or man
for several days past, and there wasn't
crumb left in the provision bag, the last
scrap having been divided that morning.
While climbing among the rocks we found
a spring Of water to which path ran
down. We secuted carefully up the path,
and finally came in sight of the queerest.
looking man I ever saw.
"He was haggard, dried-up old body,
whose age might have been anywhere from
eighty to one hundred, and he sat on the
plateau, little back from the edge Of the
cliff, nursing his knees and staring out To
sea in a vacant sort of way. He had moth
ing on his head, and his hair and beard.
which evidently hadn't been cut for many
years, had changed through age from
white to a moldy sort of yellow, and made
him look like a hermit in picture-book.
His only clothing was a ragged sheepskin,
loosely hung upon his shoulders, and bits
of sheepskin bound around his legs and
feet. / can't describe to you how ghastly
and miserable the poor old man looked,
with his withered flesh, dim eyes and
toothless gums, as he sat there muttering
to himself and ignorant Of the fact that we
stood within few feet Of him. | guess we
all felt a creepy sensation, for several min
utes must have passed before one plucked
up courage enough to touch the old boy on
the shoulder He slowly glanced up at Us,
took one Indifferent sort of look and then
turned to sea-gazing again. Then some
one made a remark in English, which
seemed to give the old fellow galvanic
shock, for he reused himself all Of a sud-
den, struggled ON to his feet and appeared
as though on the point of trying to run.
Then he shook his head in weary fashion
and collapsed to his original position.
"Our Spanish talker now asked him some
things in that language. He didn't say a
word, but fumbled around under his sheep
skin until he got hold of an old razor and
motioned us to sharpen it for him. II was
of English make and had the dullest blade
you ever saw, with hicks all over II. One
of the boys had small oil-stoue in
his kit and we all sat down there while he
ground away a. the razor. After another
failure to get word from the old man, we
began chatting in English, growing over
our bad luck in the grub line and wonder
ing II our neighbor couldn't put us in the
way of eating a square meal. When a
tolerable edge had been got on the razor
the old man stood up and motioned US To
follow him. He hobbled along the beaten
path which led him inland until it suddenly
ended where large sheepskin hung ON the
face of low cliff. Lifting the skin be
showed us a hole in the soft rock behind Il
and signed for US to crawl in. We hung
back trife, but felt rather ashamed Of
showing any sdperstitious fear, and did
crawl in to what was an artificial cave.
''It was, perhaps, some twelve feet
square, and so low that we couldn't stand
up. At the far end another sheepskin
divided this cave from an inner one, and
when one of us was about to lift this the
old man stopped him, and muttered an
grily something we couldn't understand.
Then he pointed out to one chap whore
some brushwood could be got, and handed
another one rough crockery pot 10 get
water with. There wasn't the least trace
of furniture in the cave, where we sat on
the ground, and nothing, in fact, but two
or three pots Of crockery and iron and a
few rude wooden platters. While a fire
was building in the outer cave the old man
went into the inner cave and returned with
a small supply of jerked meat and dried
fish. There wasn't scrap of bread, and
not enough of the other stuff 10 go decent
ly around, but we made as much as we
could Of it and filled in the chinks with
cold water. The poor old boy wouldn't
eat anything, but after supper he seemed
to get good deal Of satisfaction out OF q
pipe that one of us passed TO him. Not a
word did he speak. mind you, but sat there
staring ut us.
GAS 1t had got quite dark outside our
linguist asked IL we might stay in the
cave all night, and the old man nodded his
head in assent. Shortly after this he
passed into the inner cave and didn't
come out again. We bunked on the
bare floor around the fire and
were tired enough to sleep as though II was
feather bed. About two O'Clock In the
morning we were reused by awful groans
from the inner cave and gasping sounds
that made eur flesh crawl. After chucking
some dry brush on the fire and raising q
blaze we pulled away the sheepskin and
found the old man ~rithing with pain on a
rough pallet. He seemed e be suffering
intensely with cramps, and stretched his
hands out to us. / thought / heard him
say: Forgive me, o Lordw We covered
him up well and went into the larger cave,
where we sat for a few minutes. When We
went back he was dead.
Sin the morning, after burying him, we
searched the cave. In the way OF food we
found scant supply for two days, and
nothing else worth noticing except Bible
under the head Of the bed. This Bible was
printed in English, and had been read 70
rags. On the fyleaf name was written
and you can imagine how startled was V
read the words "Pittsfield, Massachusetts"
-. -rs.r,. l.arad uaunf