The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1885-01-18
4 STORY OF A HERMIT.
4 Clif-Dweller Recognized by
a Sea Captain.
THE ROMANTIC DISCOVERY.
DIN Time Desaulter and Embezzler
ina Cave On the Desolate Coast
of Chilli.

,,,,st Steamship Company, gave Oh III
- -.;o,,er from the CaB a remarkable
20 w. ohoptan adventure in Chilli. The
100 ''toi,, whose boyhood was passed in
% o;tt ,', Mass, left the bark W. Rob
inson at Iouieue, Peru, on the occasion
raontioned, and with four other of the
10 vessel made his way overland to
2 ~alnoraiso, 1t was during the long
mn that the adventure occurred.
The u peI CAPTAIN, now master OF the steamer
santa Cruz, is quoted: ,.o-,,,o,, o,,o
7a hS4 abont four IL the afternoon one
~, We we" we're getting pretty well down
cay S ~ we found ourselves empty
li.t.loooo,o0c ld and stranded at the base OF
s.o nnnnntorv that jutted well out into
r L loie,S We hadn't come across house
S.!V ,, on for several days past, and there
VI o 81 cr1mb left in the provision bag,
Tr Let scrap having been divided that
. .llo While climbing among the
+o ,cL -, we found spring OF water to
Wbicb a path ran down. We secuted
carefulIy up the path, and finally came
in sight of the queerest-looking man
ef He Sa% was haggard, dried-up old
body. whose age might have been any,
where from eighty to one hundred, and
he sat on the plateau, a little back from
fine edge of the cliff nursing his knees
and staring out to sea in vacant sort OF
way. He had nothing on his head, and
his hair and beard, which evidently had
not been cut for manyyears, had chang
ed through age from white to moldy
sort of yellow, and made him look like
hermit in a picture-book. Ills only
clothing was ragged sheepskin, loosely
hung upon his shoulders, ana pltS OF
sheepskin bound around his legs and
feet. cannot describe to you how
CHASTITY and miserable the old man look
ed. with his W1thered flesh, dim eyes and
toothless gums, as he sat there mutter-
ing to himself and ignorant OF the fact
that we stood within few feet OF him.
| guess we all felt creepy sensation.
Several minutes. must have passed be-
fore one plucked up courage enough to
touch the old boy on the shoulder. He
slowly glancedup atus, took one lndltfer-
ent 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 a galvanic shock, for he
reused himself all of q sudden, strug-
gled on TO his feet and appeared as
though on the point of trying to run.
Then he shook his head in a weary
fashion and collapsed to his original
position.
Our Spanish talker now asked him
some things in that language He did
under his sheepskin until he caught
hold of an old razor and motioned US to
sharpen it for him. 1t was of English
make and had the dullest blade you
ever saw, with hicks all over it. One OF
the bows had a small oil-stone in his kit,
and We all sat down. there while he
ground away at the razor. After an
other failure to get word from the old
man, we began chatting in English
growing over our bad luck in the grub
line and wondering if our neighbor
couldn't put US in the way of eating a
square meal, When a toIerab,e edge
had been put 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 hollow cliff. Lifting the skin
he showed US a hole in the soft rock be-
hind it and signed for US TO crawl in.
We hung back trile, but felt rather
ashamed of showing any superstitious
fear, and did crawl in to what was an
artificial cave
1t 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
MN, and muttered angrily something
we coqidR understand. Then he point.
co out to one chap where some brush,
"eOd could be got, and handed another
enc rough erockery pot TO get water
win: There was not the least trace o.
IIIhiture IN the cave, where we sat OF
tHe ground, and nothing, in fact, but
I"9 or three pots of crockery and iror
ana few rude wooden platters. Will,
a., IRE was building in the outer cave tn,
Olu man went into the inner cave .an(
returned with small supply of jerket
meat and dried fish. There wasn't ;
stIAp Oh bread, and not enough of tin
oeuef stud to go decently around. bu
e mg maze as much as we could of it an,
MI Tnea IN the chinks with cold water
ne poor old boy wouldn't eat anything
ous after supper he seemed to get
sood deal Of satisfaction out of a pip
mat one OF Us passed to him. Not
word did he speak, mind you, but Sa
there staring NJ us.
As 1t had got quite dark outside on
hngulst asked if we might STAY in tn
cave all night. ana the old man nodde
us head IN assent. Shortly after TIN
ne passed into tine inner cave and didn
come out again. We bunked on tn
pare floor around the fire and wer
NTed enough to sleep as though it we1
leather bed. About o'clock i
the morning we were aroused by awfl
sToans from the inner cave and gaspin
sounds which made our flesh craw
elVer chucking some dry brush on til
IRE and raising a blaze we pulled ava
le sheepskin and found the old ma
9Iltnlng with pain on a rough pale
ne seemed to be suffering intensel
win cramps, and stretched his hanC
9 IN TO Us. I thought | heard him SAY
forgive me, 0 Lordp We coyert
nin up well and went into larger cav
waere We sat for few minutes Wire
went back he was dead.
IN the morning, after burying hir
ne searched the cave. In the way
t I We found scant supply for tw
e1Ss, and nothing else worth noticiI
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