Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1886-09-11

him in awe, and lean dogs came and
snarled aud shifted at him suspiciously.
The tribe appeared 10 consist Of be-
tween 100 and 200 and there were sew
sral rude huts formed Of trees cut down
and stuck Close together in the ground,
while their branches and foliage were
tied together and formed an inefficient
roof.
Fuegans appear to be insensible 70
cold, for though the climate is as cold or
even colder than the extreme north Of
Scotland, they do not attempt TO make
comfortable huts for themselves, and
they wear nothing but the light clothing
which have described. At night, how
ever, most Of them slept by the fires,
like dogs on q winters night. q
All that night long Thomas Thorold
lay bound upon the beach. trembling
with cold and terror. and praying, lord,
now Let me der 3 t..b ~
In the early morning he felt that his
hour had come, for two or three of tho
Fucgans came towards him. and one of
them had knife in his hand. But when
the they cut the fiber ropes that bound
him they left him alone again, Standing
On the beach, free to do what he liked.
1t was useless to think of fight, for
their eyes were always upon him, and
besides, one man could have done
nothing with boat in the sea outside
the bay. So after while he obeyed the
cravings of nature, and collected muscles
and CLAIMS on the shore, as he had seen
the natives do; and on this cold food he
made wretched breakfast.
Thus he spent all that day and all the
next thi1ty-seyen days, for he kept a
careful count Of the time. he ate only
The miserable shell-fsh chat he found ON
the beach, drank water from torfcnt
that flowed down the mountain side, and
slept by one of the fires, which he boldly
approached the first night after they had
unbound him, for he had experienced
the cold Of one wintry, night and that
was enough. M8 n G t-3
r They were neither kind nor unkind to
him, but took no notice of him what
ever; they never attempted to speak to
him, even by signs, except on one 90
casion when he wandered too far from
them, and one of them ran after hin.
and made signs to him to go back.
During the leaden-footed days he
necessarily observed how the natives
passed taeir time, and he did SO without
the slightest interest, and was unable
to relate many details about them. Most
of the work, such as hewing wood and
drawing water, was done by the women;
the men did very little, but spent their
time mostly in lying about their huts.
Sometimes few of them went off in
their canoes seal hunting, and always re-
turned with one or two seals; sometimes
they went hunting inland, and always
returned with a guanaco-a species of
llama: then they all Immediately fell
upon 1t, tore 1t to pieces, and ate it raw.
Ii a dead seal was washed ashore, they
ate it in the same way, gorging them
selves on che putrid blubber and flesh.
After these disgusting feeds they lay
on the ground in torpor, and Thorold
could easily hsve stabbed them as they lay
asleep, but that some Of the weaker ones,
having been unable to secure much of
the food, were awake and ready TO cast
their spears at him. Moreover, If he had
killed them all he would have been no
better off. a1o
All these weeks he was in horrible
state OF suspense Us to why he was being
kept alive and what torture was prepar-
ing for him, so much so that he was un-
able to sleep for terror, until forced into
Inconsistencies by fatigue.
But on the thirty-eighth day an event
occurred which, although in itself
gruesome and terrifying, put into his
heart hope that he might some day re-
turn to the outer world again, and gave
him q clue @ to what was his captors'
only conceivable object in preserving him
| alive. gTc 3.dN& .Ft1G#@
| 1t was about noon, on q fine cold day,
when Thor0ad, standing ON the beach
and looking out to sea, saw two whalers'
boats pull round the headland to dis
tant part Of the shore, where they pro
ceeded to land and get fresh water. The
huts of the Fuegaps were between Thor
old and the newcomers, who apparently
did not perceive the natives, and were
quietly filing their water casks at a
stream.
AS Thorold was following his natural
impulse to run to them, get into one OF
their boats, and make them row away,
he was pinioaed by three or four strong
natives. Thsn a few canoes, put out &c
cut off the boats, should they attempt tc
escape, and an the rest of the fighting
men, and many of the women, caught
up their long spears and ran towards
their victims q
I To Thorold's surprise, he was made te
run along with them. The whalers
men were intercepted before they got off
and then it was the old CHASTITY tale re
peated: they were shot down to mar
with the poisoned spears. Ill the while
the Negsns wko were holding Thorolt
made him understand that they wishet
him to watsh what was going on, b,
gesticulating snd pointing towards the
slaughter. After it was over they pill
aged the dead bodies and the boats Of
everything they had, and Their threw th,
corpses into the sea.