St. Paul daily globe., 1884-07-05


dark nights there are long times between
bells.
The only thing we saw in the way of relig-
ious ceremonies were at the changes of the
moon, when the chief men go through a
queer sort of dance, or series of quivering
movements, without moving from the spot
on which they stand. Meanwhile the women
make hideous noise by beating on wooden
| drums, and other people stand around the
! place with bright torches burning. As well
as we could understand their explanation,
the performance was intended to scare the
evil spirits from the island. Ujae is so small
that it does not attract the traders, and as
vessels never touch there the people were to-
| tally unacquainted with white faces and GUS
| toms until we came among them. The nat
ural result was that they watched us with the
| keenest curiosity, and the women were es-
! pecially inquisitive about my daughters
dress and habits This sort of thing was
annoying at times, but it was so natural that
we could not afford to be really angry about
| it. Taken in all, they are the happiest, most
indolent and kindest savages have. ever
seen or read about.
AS we were housed we set about making
preparations for our return to civilization,
and TO that end industriously gathered every
thing 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
water and the hulk itself we gathered mater
ial to build and rig little vessel of our own,
AS Ujae is about three thousand miles dis
tant from any continent, we had no idea OF
making such far-off lands in boat of our
own construction, our only intention being
to reach the larger islands where traders
touch Meanwhile it was well to make an
effort to catch passing ship as soon as pos
sible, as our provisions could not last forever
and as we lacked all sorts Of comforts and
necessaries. We had no medicines nor
forks nor plates, and host of other things
were missing, to say nothing of the fact that
the native food was scarcely suited to our
civilized palates and stomachs. The second
mate and four men volunteered to take the
long-boat and make an effort to reach Jalut
an island some hundred miles distant, where
two German trading houses were established.
| provided them with a chart of their course,
with nautical instruments and with water
and provisions for twenty days, and they set
sail on the 10th of January
BUILDING SCHOONER.
After they had gone we prisoners on the
island commenced to build schooner and
got it finished about the middle of March,
She proved to be neat little craft and quite
seaworthy, although not exactly of size
which one would choose for a long voyage.
Her dimensions were 40 feet in length, 9 in
beam and in depth of hold, and she was
deckrd all over. On the 18th of March our
steward died of dropsy, and this cast a
gloom over the party. The trouble and worry
had already made me sick, but sailed in the
schooner March 19, taking with me eleven
Of the crew and two natives to act as 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 in such craft and besides, we're all the
time hoping that help might be brought by
the volunteers who had sailed in the long
boat. We had to beat up against the north
east monsoon to Jalut, but reached there all
safe on March "a. We found there a Ger
man in one of the two trading houses, who
held the position of American Consular
agent. and TO him / applied for assistance.
A schooner was just sailing for Hong Kong,
and he shipped ten Of my men by her, the
other one volunteering to stay with me, as
had become partially parayzed and had al
most entirely lost my speech. | made re-
peated efforts to get that Consular agent to
send medicines and provisions to my people
in Ujae, but he declined on the ground that
his house could not afford to lose the time
it would take for one of their schooners to
go there,
Then tried the other house, but they de-
clined to render any assistance. / was be-
gining to despair when one day yacht
reached Jalut from another island on which
lives King Kaborra, or King John, who is
the chief royalty on the Ralck group. This
vessel was the old yacht Lottie, which had
been brought to the islands some years be-
fore and sold to King John. The yacht war
in charge Of the Kings chief navigator and
he agreed to return at once and ask the
| Kings permission to carry medicines and
provisions to Jalut By this time | was bed
ridden, but | managed things through the
aid Of my sailor lad, who volunteered TO sail
with the Lottie. | bought the necessary out
fit from the Germans with $3.50 borrowed
from them at five per cent. month. my
schooner, chronometer and nautical instru-
ments being held by them as security. The
Lottle sailed with Willis Jackson on board
and handsome present Of tobacco and 9TH
er trifes for King Kaborra. Subsequently
heard from Jackson, by trading schooner,
that the Lotte had sailed for Ujae, hut l new
er saw or heard of him again, although
have every reason TO believe that he is all
right. He reached Ujae too late, and must
| have then returned to Jalut, where left my
nautical instruments for him. AS he is a
Bath boy and competent navigator, he is
sure to get along all right whether he stays
for awhile among the islands or returns by
way of Hong Kong on the first schooner
from Jalut, for which arrangements were
made before we left.
HOW THEY WERE RESCUED.
| Now comes the story of how we were res
cued from our island prison. The second
mate and his four men in the long boat left
| Ujae, as | have said, on January 10. After
several days had been spent in an unsuccess-
! ful attempt to beat up to Jalut the boat was
headed for Ulan, or Armstrong Island, and
when just in sight of that place the crew were
picked up by the British bark Columna. The
weather had been pretty rough and the men