The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-06-28

himself away the night before we sailed.
| and had eaten nothing till he had been
/ found. That was all his story. So be went
with me through the vast, dim forests of
eastern Madagascar, towards the capital of
! the Queen. In the middle of the year 1854,
capital city of interior Madagascar, and for
the following six weeks | remained the
guest Of the Hova Queen, Ranavolona Ill.
In all those many dreary days, made often
the sadder still by the deaths or desertion
OF my party, by forest fever, by long ex-
posture and the innumerable disheartening
incidents OF travel In an unknown and bar
barous country, from the far coast to the
upland interior, '.Rinaldo," as l called
him, the castaway, was my ever faithful
companion. He followed my every action,
every look, every gesture. He paid me the
most implicit obedience always, and fore
stalled my every unexpressed wish. His
oldish, wrinkled face lit up always with the
same bright smile when l addressed him.
His CHEEKY voice in good old English came
to my ears, amid the iibbering of half a
thousand naked men, like cool water to the
thirsty palate. His devotion 70 me was the
blind devotion of animal to human. He
would sleep nowhere but in front of my
tent at night, or trot by my side the long,
weary way through the forest belt he
exercised peculiar sway with the natives
who accompanied US, though he spoke not
their language. He excited certain awe
amongst them as much by his peculiar
physical appearance as anything else. We
were travelling in the country of the Betei
masaraka,
DEGRADED AND vINDICTIvE RACE,
and stepped in all the lowest beliefs of
savagery and fetishness. | often, at sly
moments, studied this peculiar creatures
face. When in repose 1t expressed little,
and have tried to picture TO myself how
such head would look upon another body,
or such body with a younger head. Then
the combination in RinaldO would suddenly
force itself upon me again, and l could have
shouted with laughter at the oddly OF the
thing, il the earnest, honest look of love
and reverence for me / could see creep into
his black eyes when he caught my glance at
him. At the end of our stay at the capital,
in the fall of 1884, started at the head of a
souls to reach the west coast OF Madagas-
car. Rinaldo accompanied me. His devo
ton for me became more and more marked
each day. both while we were in Antanarivo
and the terrible journey toward the sea.
In somewhat over month our party found
ourselves in the heart of the western or
Sakalara district, the country Of a totally
barbarous, cruel and savage race BY con-
slant assertions and deaths, our once large
army had dwindled to handful of men and
women, and food was scarce. We were
many, many miles from the coast. Our
situation grew daily more hopeless, and
was full of dull foreboding and anxiety.
Little by little, noticed, too, that the ua-
tives about me showed in many ways dis
contentment and characterization. Slowly
began to understand that for some I'M
known reason, they had lost both fear and
respect for me. The crisis came rapidly.
One morning 1 rose much earlier than was
my custom. i came out from my tent in
the very early morning light To my great
astonishment
DID NOT FIND RINALDo
at my door, as had been his invariable Gus
tom, and l saw that the camp fires, that
generally died out during the night, were
all burning brightly and surrounded by
groups of natives. knew both the value
Of caution as well as of action with the rude
people who surrounded me. / went back
into the tent and armed myself, then on
coming out, stepped cautiously around and
behind the cauras and into the woods be-
hind the native camp. Noiselessly trod
the forest path till l got within few rods
Of the nearest blazing fire. Twenty naked
men were standing about 1t. gesticulating
and talking wildly one to another. could
not of course, understand them, but was
sure that several strange faces were among
them. looked closer-my heart almost