Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-10-17
AFRICAN HISTORY.
VOYAGE DOWN AND FACTS THAT ARE
OF RECORD.
N,obt an Board ship-An Able Ghost
Story Bloodless and Aimiess
squabbles.

mouth Of the GAMBIA
AZ last We arc fairly round Cape
Verde the westernmost point OF the
huge continent which We are skirtingl
and hitherto all has gore well. WIND
and sea have been favorable to us
throughout, and in twenty-three days
more, il nothing goes wrong we ought
to find ourselves safely anchored IN
Banana creek, ct the mouth OF the
Congo, with q river steamer ready 10
carry us up the stream to Bona, the
new local seat Of Government rice
Viyi. demolished. Meanwhile we are
daily receiving ample proofs that we
have got we'll within the limits oil the
tropics. Our butter at breakfast,
% albeit unused to the melting mood"
is rapidly becoming as soft as draw
ipg.room poets head, while as if to
balance matters, our beefsteaks, douoly
cooked by the sun and the galley fire,
arc as hard as the heart Of CUSTOM
house officer. In spite Of the fresh
breeze and the awnings which we have
rugged up fore and aft, the temperature
is already that Of an August day in
Malta. and threatens to become what
British excursionist called moro hot
terer" before long. The saloon pas
sepeers are chiefly engaged in helping
each other to do nothing, or in initiating
the midsbipman who " fell asleep
with the utmost energy" whenever he
could.
But the night fully atoncs for all the
misdeeds of the day. Colerldge's
" Ancient Mariner" alone in his SPELL
bound ship on the unknown sea where
no other man had ever been, saw no
such spectacle as that which lies be-
fore us every evening at nightfall. Be-
meath the glorious tropical moonlight
the calm sea lies outspread like
mighty mirror, as far as the eye can
reach, while no sound breaks the deep,
dreamy stiffness save the tapping of the
water against the vessels sides. Every
ripple in our wake flashes into living
fire as it breaks and vanishes, only to
be followed by fresh sparkles as bright
and numberless as q swarm Of fireiiles.
Against the cold splendor of the moon
lit sky every strand of our lower rig
cling, from the topmast stay to the
/ lowest ratline, stands out TRANSPORTED
70 longer black cobweb of tarred and
grimy ropes, but slender stair Of en-
chanted gossamer leading up to some
fairy palace far away among the stars.
/ A flash of silver light suddenly shoots
inward from the shadOwy waters be-
low and falls upon our lower deck in
the form OF Aying-fsh, shaking from
its elistening wings shower OF tiny
rainbows. Ard then, as the moon
light begins to fade, the darkenlng sea
is lighted up with an endless procession
Of floating lamps, shedding around
them soft rays Of purple, pink, or
bright green, in which a ma;ter-of-lact
professor OF natural history would see
nothing but the " small pbosphorescent
ielly-fish of the tropical seas"
10 this touch Of natural history |
may ftly subjoin the rather supernatu-
raj history Tecounted the other night
by one Of the passengers, whose fond
ness for telling frightiul stories has "a.
Their increased than diminished since
last wrote. The worst Of it is that
they nearly always tell them wrong
! Only a few mornings ago, after relating
to one Of my ftllow-yOyagers the fate
Of SANKEY'S lieutenant, poor Frank Po'
cock, who persisted in the Congo while
shooting a rapid, | was considerably
shocked to hear him explaining to a
friend that Pocock had been " drowned
in shooting a rabbit" But the talk tC
which have alluded above, although
it may sound fiat enough in its present
form, contains more than one inciden
which, aided by the grim accessories o
the savage equatorial scenery and tn
hideous African superstitions, woul'
have been terribly effective in the hand
of such an artist as Nathaniel Haw
thoTre or Edgar Poe.
IL don't vouch for this yarn myself
for | wasn't there at the time" said tn
narrator, "but the old fellow who toll
it to me gave it quite circumstantially
telling me even where this man wa
sitting and where that man was stand
ing when the thing happened. Their
was man Of the name of F.
l dare say you've heard Of him, 70
be was pretty well known on the coast,
had taken house at Porto Novo
which stands upon one of the lagoons
5 little TO the westward Of Lagos. Now
j as / think told you the other day, on
! days very much like another on tn
west coast--rise early, have a cup
tea OF coffee about ESQ, work till i
take a bath, and make solid break
fast, to work again till 5, with pei
= hads another cup Of tea about t
d keep you going,) and then start out TO
/ ride or walk, and come back to dir
D ner at I. Well, it happened that +
5 met three Of his chums one evening a
he was riding home, and brought theI
back with him to dinner, and after dir
ner somebody proposed a game
! cards.
: OF. had just got up to fetch th
cards, when one Of the four candle
went out. Another followed suit tn
, next minute, and then the third, an
' then the fourth. They didn't go OF
suddenly either, as if the wind BILE
them, land indeed, there wasn't breat
stirring but in a slow, dying sort
: way, as lamp dies in foul air. tn
four fellows were rather taken abacs
: but just at first they didn't thin
,, much of it, and lighted the candle
4 again, meaning to go on with the
game. But they were hardly lighte
when they went out again one by ont
;. Just the same as before"
= "That might be done without any 81
= pernatural agency" said /, Il" for it's
' common trick with men who kno
= something Of chemistry. But VIII
happened next?"
- "Well, then, as you may suppos
y they began to feel rather queer, ar
looked about to see if they could h
upon any explanation Of the myster
10 The moon was at the full, makir
10 everything almost as clear as da
l. and by its light they saw all Of