Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1886-02-27

He laughed and complied. But |
must here make his story shorter.
"Although," he said, 81 am by
profession a sailor, still | believe l
could make my living on land--in-
deed" he added, glancing affection
ately at the pretty face that peeped
out from the bundle of plaids and
shawls in the corner, 81 am not sure
that have not promised to try to do
so, at all events. But four years ago
was not a benedict | was free to
rove anywhere in all the world, and
rove did. / had command of tiny
steam ocean yacht, of which ! was
also halloween. She was broad in
the beam, but of no great draught-
precisely the kind of vesselto explore
the big rivers of Africa with.
"Ah! sir, there is money to be
made by that sort of trade, and pleas
ure to be had, too. What was my
cargo? A very pretty one, can as
sure you; it consisted of ivory, lions
and leopards' skins, gum copal, spices
of all kinds, and, last but not least,
gold-dust."
SIN addition to these oddments, l
need hardly tell you that we laid in
a good store of 'curios' and specimens
of all kinds. 1t was in the collecting
Of these latter that most of my enjoy
ment lay. We always filled up, how
ever, with oWpaying cargo first; then
leaving our yacht at anchor in some
cozy reach of the river-almoSt hid
den, perhaps, by the trees that over
hung that water-accompanied by
one or two of my men, | would jour-
ney inland in search of the beautiful.
Or we would drop down the river,
cross the bar, and, putting out to sea,
spend weeks in and about the num-
erous lovely little lagoon islands that
lie everywhere near the coast south
of the EQUATOR
Just at this point the seafarer APP
peared for time to forget entirely
that he had promised story of adj
venture. He let himself drift, as it
were, hither and thither on the tide
way of his recollection; hegave Mem
Dry the tiller-ropes to hold, and per-
mitted her to steer him wheresoever
she pleased.
1t was strange to sit there in semi
darkness and silence, buried beneath
the snow, on this bitter January
night, and listen to the graphic de-
scription which this stranger had to
give of far-off sunny lands, of crystal
lined seas slumbering under monday
heat, and rejecting the blues and the
puppies of the skies above them; OF
coral islands fringed with green, that
seemed to float on the liquid horizon;
of marine gardens, wide and wild,
deep down beneath the translucent
waters, where shells Of every shade
and color, marvelously painted fishes,
and creeping things, grotesque and
horrible, had their homes amid foil
age forever gently waving to and fro
as if instinct with a MYSTERIOUS kind
of life; or in groves of sub-oceaniC
shrubs, whose very stems were epa.
lescent and their branches and fronds
radiant with more than rainbow
beauty; of the broad-bOsomed rivers
rolling seward from the interiors
and of the great forest-lands that
stretched like an ocean from horizon
to horizon, silent as the graveby day
awakening at night to shrek of wild
bird and hungry roar of lion. at was
strange, / say, to listen to descriptions
of this kind in such a situation
strange, yet pleasant.
f "The first mate of my little craft
continued the seafarer, twas mar
whom | had always trusted. Judged
physiognomically, none would have
said that guile lurked in that hand
some, open face of his, with its laugh
ing eyes of blue, and fair soft beard
l know now why this fellow played
me false, and all have to say is tha
if there be an excuse for such villainy
as he was guilty of, Lawson tina
was his name-had it.
"Just at the bend of the River La
moo, some ninety odd miles from tn,
sea, stands a beautiful little Portu
guese village and settlement. 1t ha
its Governors house, its few white
inhabitants, its fertilization, and it
e, small detachment of soldiers. Thu
woods and forests around are con
stantly secured by bands of armed
Somali Indians, who bear no good
will to either Portuguese or English
4