The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-07-18

the pine contains nutrment that will sup
port life for weeks. Fish are matters OF
course. The buckle Of your trousers makes
as good hook as anybody needs; so does q
metal button pounded out, and the line, OF
course. comes out OF our shirts or any of our
clothes. So here we are, provided with
food, water and fire before we have been
| twenty-four hours out Of the ship.
1--WE may be rescued in few days, or It
| may be some weeks before any of the little
! trading vessels pass near us. 1t is we'll TO
| prepare for a long stay and make ourselves
comfortable. You laugh at my speaking OK
comfort in connection with such life; but
there are many worse things in this world.
! Every day adds something to our comfort
and our civilization. Our island is what
ttAy call coral rock, which is limestone, and
| when this stone is burned the result Is lime.
We find a big slanting rock, as big aspossible,
and clear all the sand and dirt from 1t, and
chip shallow gutter In it, this way, to
| lead to a hole which we dig beneath. With
our lime and sand We make mortar, and we
pile up stones around the sides and bottom
| of the hole and cover them with mortar
making a water-tight tank. when the
first hard rain comes we have a thankful Of
pure water"
But we are living outdoors all this
| time" the reporter suggested.
mo great hardship in hot climate" the
| l1Ihb OlllC6f dLSW6Tcu, Duu We Will GI6u-
tually need shelter from night damps and
midday suns. if we are to remain long, as
well as a storage place for such food as we
may hoard. With plenty of stones GROUND
| US and with lime and sand, the building OF
any kind OF small house is too simple a
matter to need explanation. Lime and
sand and stones will make US substantial
walls, and timbers, stones and plaster will
| roof them. There is no difficulty about
cutting the timbers, as long as we have fire
to burn through the trunks Of trees. If
| our stay were to extend over months and
years, instead of perhaps 6 few weeks, we
should advance still further. The making
Of earthern pots and kettles and various
stone implements would be among the
| earliest.
"In this account of what you and 1
| would do on desert island, have told
you precisely what my two shipmates aud
did on the island OF Ochoa. eighty miles
north Of the South American coast, except
that have omitted ~some things. When
\ we were taken off, five weeks after our
arrival, we had on hand enough dried and
salted fish and dried turtles meat TO last
US several months, aud q good supply of
water. We invented number OF ways OF
taking fish, and il we had remained year
we should have been in condition to trade
| with the first vessel that came along. The
| only real hardshlps we had was the want
| Of tobacco. We were on an island OF less
| than an acre in extent, and even if we had
4 had seed there was no soil to raise tobacco.
| We found some leaves which when dried
made passable substitute, but they had
| not the true inwardneSs Of the real plant.
II our accident had happened in some other
1 part of the world, where we might have
1 had cold to battle with instead Of heat, our
| methods would, of course, have been some
| what different, but the result would have
been the same. You see, 10 is not an easy
matter to starve men who have some little
4 knowledge and fair share of energy.
at has always seemed to me one of the
strangest facts of this shipwreck, that when
we were discovered and taken off we were
\ carried among the people who. though
they lived in an old settled country and
i under the British flag, were no further ad-
4 vanoed in the arts of civilization and had
no more comforts or luxuries than we had
4 after five weeks on the island. We kept a
4 green wood fire burning TO make a smoke,
4 and the vessel that took us off was trading
4 schooner bound from Caracas for the Island
l of Dominica, about 300 miles from our
island. We we're landed at Roseau, and
as il was an American ship we
| were wrecked in the American consul took
! VI in charge and kept us until there was a
chance to send US to New York. We
| were in Dominica for three weeks
| waiting for steamer. and had a good
chance to see how the people lived. There
| are few whites, but nearly all the inhabit-
ants are negroes, and they live in as prim-
tive fashion az we did at Oohoa. 1t was
very much the way Adam and Eve must
| lived for the first year or two with some
additional drawbacks. They have no
money whatever. the negroes, and outside
the few settlements they do not seem to
care for any. 1t would amuse you very
much TO see how they live. To begin with
they can have land without even asking
for it, for the island is very thinIy settled
and mountainous. When young man
takes IL into his head TO leave home
and set up for himself, which
is generally when he wants to
marry be gathers enough stones TO build q
small house OF one room and puts q thatoh
roof on 1t. There are plenty Of springs and
| streams SO the water Is ready at his door,
His only furniture is such as he can make
himself. and II he has learned the art he
makes 1t of basket work. He makes and
baKes two or three esrthen pots, and is
ready TO set up housekeeping. | have seen
these fellows, middle aged, with large FAINT
lies-men who had gone to the public
schools and could read and write. and who
had sometimes visited the other islands. who
had absolutely nothing In their homes but
what was made with their own hands with
the exception of a corn mill"
| "a corn milln
"Yes; mill for grinding corn. The
corn mill in the West India darky's idea
of modern machinery. 1t is about as big
as four coffee mills and has handle on
each side. so that a man grinds with both
hands. The Dominican sets up post and
fasGens his mill to the topot it, lets his
corn stand IN the field TIL he is ready to
use it and grinds enough every day, or
makes his wife do IL. for that days
needs From this ground corn he gets
both meal and hominy. He makes a
basket tray, about 2 feet aor, IS and
inches deep, audh sakes the ground corn
up and down in this, standing in the wind.
The meal sticks In the corners and crevices
and the homiuy stays in the tray. and the
wind blows off the chaff or husks. This is
the sole food, except the fruit he raises
sometimes ION his neighbours trees), the fish
or turtles he catches and the mountain
chickens These mountain chickens are
immense frogs, half SIS big as cats, that are
| considered a great luxury These are
oftener taken and sold, for they bring a
good price.
You may wonder what kind of clothes
such people wear. A flour bag makes a
dress suit for man, woman and child
though the small children go naked. A hole
| is cut in the top for che head and one at
| each side for the arms, and thesuit is ready.
They shave these fellows, but not with
rAzors. Thore is no such thing as looking
| l. bo;r to b,f han eIarZ