The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1884-08-06


modest fashion. On the other hand,
they are proper enough in their con-
duct, and during our stay with them we
saw no evidences Of immortality, al.
though l and my mate kept a sharp
eye upon both the natives and our men.
The young girls marry early in life, and
are apparently well treated by their
husbands. None Of the men are allowed
TO have more than one wife, except the
King and his two sons, each Of whom
has two wives. The King, years before,
had come in contact with some sailors
on ono Of the trading islands, so he
talked few words Of pigeon English,
and called himself Elijah Block. Still
he knew absolutely nothing Of the ont
side world, except that men of-war are
things 10 be dreaded.
His government is mild-manncred
despotism, TO which his subjects bow
without grumbling, so far as we could
fee. Every day the men bring him
such provisions IA they have gathered
from land or sea and he takes what no
wishes for himself and family. If he or
his Sons wanted anything belonging TO
any Of the people, noticed that they
took it as a matter Of course and that the
owner surrendered it without any open
expression or discomfort. In that way
royalty managed to eoniiscate many Of
the things that we gave to the natives.
These latter eagerly accepted anything
We offered them and were especially
pleased with anything in the shape Of
| ,,iyi,f, ma, tuluigyIF thaV
had in tho way Of eatables. The fun
| nicst thing | ever aaw was couple to
| whom ] gave paper collar and IN old
| pair Of cuffs. The woman PIT the collar
around her neck, and the man fastened
the cuffs around his ankles, aud then
they marched of in all their nakcdncss.
There are no animals on the island, ex-
cept few chickens that were imported
from some larger island, to which they
were brought by trading ships The
consequence IL that the natives know
nothing Of food in the shape of flesh,
and live mainly upon paste made Of
wild arrOwroOt and cocOanut, upon
brradfruit aud upon an occasional feast
Of fish. At the dark Of the moon they
20 out Mt night upon the lagoon in their
canoes, in which they carry nirng
torches. The lights attract the flying
| fish, and with dig-ncts IN the water and
| spread across the boats they manage to
catch good many. This is the only
way they have Of fishing, and IA they
cln only employ it on dark nights there
are long times between bells.
The only thing We saw IN the way Of
religious ceremonies were at the changes
Of the moon when the chief men 20
through queer sort Of dance, or series
Of qnivcrlng movements, without NOV
ing from the spot ON which they stand
Meanwhile the women make hidcous
noise by beating on wooden drums, and
other people stand around the place
with bright torches burning. As well
as we could understand their cxplana-
ton, this performance wns intended to
scare the evil spirits from the island.
UIac IL SO small that il does not attract
the Traders, and as vessels never touch
there, the people were totally unac-
quaintcd with white faces and customs
until we camo among them. The natu-
raj result was that they watched III
with the kccncst curiosity, and the wo-
mon were especially inquisitivc about
my daughters dress aud habits. This
sort of thing was annoymga ut times, but
it was go natural that We could not
afford TO he really angry about it. Taken
NIL in all, they are the happicst most in
dolent and kindcst savagcs | have ever
seen or read about.
Al
about making preparations for our re-
turn TO civilization, and to that end
industriously gathered everything we
could in the way Of salvage from the
wreck. A great deal of driftage was
washed over the reef into the lagoon, and
from the wafer and tho hulk itself we
gathered material to build and rig lit
tie vessel Of our own. As Ujue is about
three thousand miles distant from any
continent, we had no idea Of making
such far.ofl lands in a boat of our own
construction, our only intention being
to reach tho larger islands where traders
touch. Meanwhile, it was well to make
ar effort to catch passing ship AZ soon
M possible, M our provisions could not
last forever, and as we lacked all sorts of
comforts and ncccssarics. We had no
medicines nor forks nor plates. and n
host Of other things were missing, to say
nothing Of the fact that the native food
was scarcely suited to our civilized
pnlatcs and stomachs. The second mate
and four men volunteered to take the
long.boat and mako m effort to reach
Jalut, al island some hundred miles
distant, where two German trading
houses were established. | provided
them with chart of the course, with
nautical Instruments and with water and
provisions for twenty days, and they set
sail on the 10th of January.
After they had gone We prisoners on
the island commenced to build n
schooner, and got it finished about the
middle of March. She proved to be II
neat little craft and quite seaworthy, al.
though not exactly Of size which one
would choose for long voyage. Her
dimensions were 40 feet In length, in
beam and 0 In depth Of hold, and she
was decked all over. On the 10Th of
March our steward died Of dropsy, and
this cast a gloom over the party. The
trouble and worry had already made mo
, sick, but i sailed III the schooner on
U March 18, taking with mo eleven of the
crew and two natives to act M pilots,
|, leaving my daughter with her husband,
the mate, and nine men on the island.
We thought it best that she should not
risk the sea III such II craft and besides,
were all the time hoping that help
might be brought by the volunteers
who had sailed III the long boat. We
had to beat up against tho northeast
monsoon to Jalut, but reached there all
safe on March "a. We found there II
German in one of the two trading
houses, who held the position of Ameri-
can Consular agent, and to him | APP
piled for assistance. A schooner was
just sailing for Hong Kong, aud he
shipped ten of my men by her. tho