Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-07-20
MY FIRST TIGER.
A Successful Hunt for sssIr. Stripes in
Cochin China.

| A Successful Hunt for ssSir. Stripes" in
| Cochin China.
SCARCITY OF THE eANE-rHE TELEGRAPH COLONY
AT CAPE ST. JAMEs-ALL NIGHT IN A MIRADoR-
CLEAN IN THE DARKSrss--A LUCKY SHOT
HOW THE TIGER WAS DONE Fon.
From THE Stars Travelling Commissioner.
| CAPE ST.. JAMES, COCHIN, CHINA, June IS, 'S9.
When left home promised to bring back
q necklace of tiger claws of my own shooting.
This was the result of conversation about
''Mr. Isaacs" 1t is just as easy to promise one
thing as another. and when you are handling
brand-new Express rife in your den at home
you positively ache for the moment which shall
bring you face to face with the sportsman's
king Of beasts. When the moment really
comes the ache is apt TO be of different kind.
But this is to anticipate. At any rate, prom
! ised the claws. bore the promise constantly
in mind. and looked upon the moose and
bears and wolves which fell to that rifle merely
as training for its fulfllment.
| SCARCE GAME.
| But soon found that even in tiger lands
| tigers are not 80 common as ones Imagination
at home pictures them. And, moreover, when
ever there is tiger there are hundred men
Of his locality bent on trapping him, or poison
|
| needs must on shooting him. My first hopes
| were set on vladivostock. There are the WOOL
| Hest tigers in the world, and before reaching
there was full of stories of how they were in
the habit Of coming into the back yard for the
| scraps, and how men never walked abroad at
night in parties of less than dozen, all armed
| to the teeth. But, once in Russian Tartary.
| found the tiger was tradition, and the lead
| ing merchant told me he had standing orders
| from three different high officials to buy any
in int he ,.~ak
| any price.
So transferred my hopes to Corea. Was not
the tiger a sort of national emblem of the ner-
NIT kingdom? And is there not special caste
of tiger hunters--the very men who once gave
such thrashing to a French landing party?
In ride across the country therefore. might
well hope for chance. From sea to sea. how
| ever, never caught sight of even the hunter;
| only with much difficulty did / succeed in find
| ing and buying one poor skin, and the most sat-
| isfactory response / could get to my earnest in
| qulries was the information. There are two
seasons in Corea- one in which the man hunts
the tiger and the other in which the tiger hunts
1 the man. 1t is now the latter; therefore YOU
| must come at another time" So in Northern
| China; so, too, in Tonquin, though there I once
actually saw tigers footprint at the entrance
TO a coal mine. There remained, as thought,
| only Java and India between me and the un-
| pleasant results of broken promise.
| "A HOPE IN COCHIN CHINA
At the entrance to the river of Saigon. the
French capital of Cochin China, and forty miles
from the city, there is a lonely telegraph
| station, where the English cable from Hong
Kong and Singapore and the French cable to
| Tonquin touch ground. As l am much
interested in telegraphy and have circular
| letter of introduction from Sir James Ander-
son, the managing director OF the Eastern
| and EpGtarn Eyt fAlnvrar,h
determined to pay these exiled electricians
a visit. And then l learned that twelve
| years ago an operator had shot a tiger that
came on the veranda and looked i'll at the
window while he was at work, and that three
| months ago another had been killed in more
orthodox way. So when the next steamer
Of the Messageries Maritimes picked up her
pilot at am. off Cape st. James l tumbed
with my things into his boat and was rowed
ashore as the ships side lights disappeared in
the distance and the light house began to grow
| pale in the sunrise. The fellow passengers of
| the Iraoueddy rose from their mattresses on
deck to wish me good luck, but they looked
| upon me as more than usually mad English
| man to go on such FOOLS errand, and nv
jovial friend, Captain Bretel said just before I
got over the side, There are no tigers here,
| mon ami" "But," / expostulated, there was
one shot there the other day." "Parfaitement,
but that was the lastr'
CURIOUS COLONY.
1t is curious little colony at Cape st. James
a dozen Englishmen for the service of the
| English cable three or four Frenchmen for the
French cable, half a dozen pilots, and hotel
| or sanitarium where nobody comes The cleo
| tricans get their supplies in launch from
! Saigon every Sunday morning and for the rest
| Of the week their only communication with the
great world is by the zig-zag line which
| trickles interminably out of the tiny siphon of
| Sir William Thompsons recorder. And this
fnll,
come in code. The great French mail
steamers pass them twice week and the few
other steamers which ply to Saigon for rice
pick up pilot. The company keep
them well supplied with newspapers and
they have an excellent billiard table, but
their life is not happy one. On Sundays,
when the fresh supplies are in. they feast. On
Monday they feast again, for all meat must be
| cooked at once. On Tuesday cold meat On
Wednesday hash. On Thursday back to timed
meats, and by Friday there is probably neither
bread'nor ice at the cape. Then, too, 1t is
terrible climate and fever makes its regular
round among them. Their pale faces, Scared
with prickly heat and other physical nuisances
of damp tropical climate, are u painful re-
minder that our convenient kilograms. like
everything else that we enjoy, mean sacrifices
| on everybody's part But they are transferred
| sooner or later and their very lonliness makes
them extremely hospitable.
But THE TIGERS.
To return, however, to the tigers. The
chance Of one found was decidedly slim. The
local Nimrod, Mr. Self, had spent nearly all
his spare time for two years in trying to get
one; had built innumerable ''miradors" and
| sacrificed dozens of buffaloes, dogs, goats and
pigs. And two months ago he had had his
| first and only success, shooting a splendid
| beast. Except the one killed by accident
twelve years before no other tiger had ever
been shot here by European. had come to
| try, however, and next morning an Annamito
hunter who had been sent out by Mr.. Lang
| don, the superintendent of the station, to look
| for tracks, returned and reported that he had
built "mirador" and we were to make our
| first attempt that evening. Whether there
| was any likelihood Of a tiger or not he de-
| clined to say, and conversation with him was
| difficult privilege first, because he only spoke
| few words Of English and q few words of
| French, and second, because he was stone
| deaf. Then he went away to sleep, looked
over my rifle and tried to do the same, and at
| $50 that afternoon we started, Mitt (that was
his name or nickname) walking and running
| ahead and following him on pony.
| READY FOR A LONG WATCH.
For time we followed road through the
| woods and then struck of into the BUSH An hour
later Nit laid down his rifle and motioned me
| to dismount. A coolie waiting for us jumped
| into the saddle and galloped of. We were on
q small rising ground dotted with bushes, in
the middle OF rough tangle OF forest and
brushwood. looked everywhere for the s'mi.
rador," and, not finding it, I yelled an fnouirv