St. Landry democrat., 1888-10-27

this made it slow work. Our catch III
hrst day was seventeen. We increase
this to twenty on the second sav. an
Tor four days maintained that figur,
on the afternoon of the fourth dav
SAD calamity occurred. The spring s
which we got our water was about fou
hundred feet inland, and we had cant
path to it. We had seen few snake:
out they seemed DESTROYS of AVOIDING II
as much as possible, and none of u
were alarmed about them. On thi
afternoon, as one of my helpers wen
after water, he was struck bv a snail,
lying in the tangle, and ALTHOUGH. h
was back within five minutes, I opul
tel oy MS looks that he had received
deadly bite. In ten minutes he wa
rolling On the ground in agony, and j,
flfteen his body began to swell, Whit
ne mad not seen the serpent, we had n,
ooupt OF It's species, II is known il
the East as the collar snake, and j.
found on all the islands Iii the Indian
ocean. 1t attains a length of two fee
ana mas a white ring or collar about it.
neck. There is no more poisono,,.
snake In forty minutes from thu
time the man received the bite he was
dead, and his body was q terrible sirht
to look at,
| When we had buried our comnas,i,n
IN the sands we loaded orr guns with
me shot and weast snake hunting. We
killed refund dozen of the cola,
snakes between the tent and the sprinp.
ana felt assured that the firing would
ria the neighborhood of any which had
escaped us. They had probably been
araWn that way by the scent of the
olood and meat, The tragedy had up-
set us both, and neither was inclined to
sleep that night. It was well that we
We're In Wakeful mood. Ever since the
indian Sea was navigated by European
vessels there has been more or less pi-
| racy. AT this time almost every island
mad It's boss wrecker, who was no bet
ter than pirate. While not daring to
attack ship. il she was caught in dis
tress it went hard with her. 1t was a
quiet, starlight night, and | was sitting
outside The tent while my comrade was
lying down inside, when I caught q
sound from the water which alarmed
me. AS Irose up and advanced Caught
sight of native craft stealing into the
rip from the lower side She was from
the Pindo Islands, to the north of us,
and was spice boat. She had sim
gle mast and lanteen sail, and during
calm was pulled by oars. l ran back
to my companion, and we crept for
ward ON hands and knees to discover
the object of the visit Had the men
been honest they would have been talk
ing and singing. They would not have
come into the rip had they not known
OF our presence, and the fact of their
coming SO quietly BODIED i'll for us. The
craft was grounded about 100 feet above
us, and twelve or fifteen natives leaped |
out on the beach.
When we had seen this much we re-
turned to our tent, secured the three |
guns and coarse ammunition, and took |
up our stations between the tent and
the water. In five minutes we had
burrowed out our rife pits and charged
the guns with buekshot. 1t was not
for us to open the fight. We could just
make out the group of figures around
the boat, and they would soon let us
know whether they were friends or en-
emies- We bad just gos fairly settled
when we saw the crowd stealing over
the sands in the direction of the tent.
All had spears and clubs, and their
cautious movements proved them bent
On mischief. When they had come up
quite close to the tent they raised
loud yell and dashed forward, hurting
their spears and swinging their clubs,
and 1t was two or three minutes before
hey discovered that the tent was unoc-
eupled Then, as they huddled to-
gether, we opened fire. They were
lot more than sixty feet away, and the
chad to tell. There were
screams. and shouts, and stampede |
All broke for the boat-all who were on I
heir feet after our fire. Two or three {
men had been left in charge of the t
raft, and as soon as they heard the fir
ng and yelling a panic seized them, l
nd they pushed the boat off. sprang +,
nto her, and made off down the rip. /
llne natives were thus left in the lurch. '
hey raised a great cutlery, calling and t
but those in the boat did
OF even reply.
The situation was this: We had the
sllONs penned up on a neck of sand
'ithOut cover, and we had firearms and I
1ey had none. / have no doubt wa Il
sd been spied upon before they came g
, make the attack, and very likely E
ley believed there were three of us. n
hey were afraid to attack us, and as Q
n surrender it was not to be thought t
!. In the five years ! sailed among the o
lands never knew quarrel between e
hite men and natives to terminate in Q
raw. One party or the other ran tt
way or were wiped out. These wreck q
IS had meant to butcher us. Had I s.
Tered them terms, they would have re- "
sed. Had they captured us alive, they e.
ould have lanced us off-hand, and been O
tonished at any protest. Lying in our "
fe-pits, we both realized that it was U
lestion of the survival of the strong 81
t, and that we would have no relies II
It'll the last man was wiped out. We 81
ard them chattering and eursing for ri
i. hour or SO, the leader evidently tt
eking to work their courage up to the CO