Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1889-04-12

~ huV dhy insuo my ucu tuut
night under tree on some boughs cut
OH. | slept fairly we'll, and my second
breakfast was again made CT fruits.
when got my fill | determined to make
fire. The novelist of day will have
cast-away youth rub two dry sticks to-
gethor. Tor few minutes and start a
niaze, but got the dryost sticks could
ma and rubbed until MAS completely
tired out, and could not oven blacken
them. l got some dry moss and struck
stones together. but the sparks would
not ignite it. Thrco- quarters of the day
was spent In efforts to get fire, aud
then l had to give it up. A smoke
would have been the best signal to q
passing craft, but l could not get fire,
ana as had no clothes to spare, being
IN my shirt sleeves when / went over.
board, had to abandon tho idea and
nope that some native craft would touch
the shore.
had landed midway of the island, on
lne eastern shore. and the spot was as
pleasant as any other locality. There
fore, on The third day built me a com.
Portable shelter under the trees, and
settled it with myself that | was in for it
Ior some time to come. Twice that day
l saw sailing vessels to the cast, but
miles away, | also went to the south,
west and north sides of the island. and
piicu M shells on the beach above tide
mark and placed sticks on top of them
pom ting my way. Whoever landed
Won be apt to see them and understand
that some one had been cast away.
a week passed, and no craft came near.
AT tho end of five or six days l was
thoroughly tired of my feed, but there
was no change, unless l wanted raw fish
or Hesh. could have made net out of
vines and caught some fish, or could
easily have killed some OF the birds with
CLUB, but the absence of a fire was
inc drawback. Few men get less sound
sleep than sailor. Many time have
promised myself slumber OF week at
the end OF voyage. ought to have
slept like stone on my island as there
was nothing to make me afraid, but l
was more wakeful than on shipboard.
About the middle of the second week
had an adventure which quite broke
me up Tor the next day or two. Having
seen no sharks inside the reef, / had
taken n SWIM in the clear, still waters
every morning. On this morning, soon
after getting out of bed, stripped
ana jumped in with great splash and
oeSaI Laundering about. l was about
to strike out for the reef when saw the
dorsal lin of a shark between inc and it.
ana l turned and landed without loss Of
time. AS l looked ba k something
struck at me and fell short by only
loot, and l lcapcd away just in time to
avold another fceer of monstrous
devil fish. | could plainly make him
out on the bottom, and he came within
an ace OF getting hold of me- The shark,
which was fully sixteen feet long, adj
vanccd toward the beach, and ms he
reached the spot where the devil fish lay
row began. The shark was seized by
Mt least two of the fcclcrs, and in the first
moment he was rolled over and over.
Then he pulled himself together, and for
the next five minutes the water was
churncd to fury. think the shark got
the best of he fight, as he made of after
while seemingly unhurt, while pieces
OF one OF the fcclers came ashore to prove
that it had been severed from the body
by the sharks teeth.
The second week passed, and third
and fourth During the time | sighted
many sails, but they were always afar of.
l had become so sick of my fare that I
scarcely ate anything, and the lazy life
became II positive disgust At the end
OF the fourth week would have agreed
to work one year Mt ditch digging with
out pay for passage 10 civilization. On
the second day OF the fifth week there
was gale and heavy sea from the cast.
at about noon on the third dav n ship's
yawl nearly full of water, but containing
a woman. drove ashore almost Mt nv
feet. There was heavy surf. notw.th-
the coral reef, and had not
been on hand the boat would have been
pulled back by the undcrtow and carried
out among the rocks and smashed. The
woman had lased herself TO one of the
thwars, and was nearly exhausted with
hunger and exposure. 1t was little
could do for her except to give her
water and food, and it was shutdown be-
fore she could tell her story. She was
the w fe of Captain Bradburn of another
English tea brig. the Constellation. I
was coming down the Pacific when
washed overheard. She was going up.
n gust or squat hccled the Consielat on
over, and she was boarded by sea
which swept Mrs. BMdbnrn and two
men away, AID took with it the boat
and IL lot of deck raHc The men she
saw struggling ms she got hold of the
boat, but they were doubtless drowned.
II was almost dark, rs in my case, and
she also dro to The west How she got
into the boat she could no. remember
nor was she clear as to how long she had
f!oated. She thought it must have been
n great deal longer than figu cd.
1t was three days before tn, woman
picked up her strength ana courage, and
by that time was ready to leave the
island. The mast and sail belonging to
the boat had been slowed under the
thwarts and were safe, and all had to
do was to fill number of big shells
with fresh water, of which, as have for.
gotten to state, there was n supply on
the island. We left in the morning
heading to the south, and ut 3 o'clock in
I he afternoon we were picked up by an
American ship called Happy Home. She
was bound up for Al aucsc teas, but
that same day we signaled an English
ship coming out of Shanghai and bound
home, and Mrs. Bradbnrn was trans.
feircd. That was the last ever saw or
heard of her, though know the ship
reached England safely was rowing
sailor, with no home or address. and no