Passaic City record., 1892-12-17

row escapes from the creatures that /
hunted. But it was in Borneo that the
most terrible adventure of my life befell
me, when, face to face with the gigan-
tic orang- outang. I was only saved by
q strange chance. It was in the early
sixties that l set out from the coast city
of Branai for the interior of the island
in search of living specimen of the
animal spoke of. / had been warned
of the ferocity and strength of these
creatures, with their almost human in
telligence, but it was my vocation to
meet danger, and / had been so often in
perilous situations that I had come to
believe in luck being on my side.
So selecting three or four of the
strongest and brightest of the natives
that applied to me to join me in the ex-
cursion, I provided myself with plenty
of provisions to last me several weeks,
and carried with me my net IN which to
ensnare the animal, besides all the weap-
ons boasted of. The woods are very
dense on the western shore of the island,
rising gradually to the foot Of the mount
aims that traverse the land from south.
west to the north, and from the western
shore to the eastern; and from the dens-
ity We proceeded very slowly, often
having to wait until the underground
and trailing vines, which latter are
sometimes as thick as a mans thigh,
was cut away by the short axes the men
carried on their shoulders. But was
repaid for the time it took to get over
this rough country by the finding
OF several rare serpents and the
trapping of couple of birds even less
common; but was anxious to capture
my orang-outang, and every night spread
my net, hoping to be aroused by the
struggles of the great ape. / gathered
from the natives that they stood in terror
OF the animals, and knew that if ran
upon one of them Inadvertently would
In all probability have to meet it alone.
One day while camping on the banks
OF small, sluggish stream that flowed
from the distant mountains I took my
gun and walked short way from the
camp, hoping to find some animal that
would furnish meat for our breakfast,
when l saw two little creatures hanging
from the limbs of tree, and on ap-
preaching them saw that / had had the
luck to come across two new born orang-
outang. Calling my men to come quickly
with one of the small cages I carried
with me, placed the little whimpering
things in comfortable bed made of moss
and cotton, and dismissing the natives
after they had spread the net about the
tree for me, laid in wait for the mother,
which knew would return. kept my
gun beside me, though hoped to cap
ture her alive. In about an hour she
came, and, swinging herself up into the
tree, began to look for her children. Not
finding them, she sprang from limb to
limb, until sic had searched the entire
tree, uttering low, moaning cries, and at
last sitting down under the tree, locking
up into it and weeping aloud for her lost
darlings. l declare the creatures grief
touched me so that had I had my way
would have run and gotten them for her,
but as yet she had not ventured into the
meshes of the net, and when she did so
and was captured meant to restore the
babies to her. both for humanity'z
sakc and because wished to preserv e
the little things alive, as it would add to
the value of the capture, and | calcu-
lated on getting over f250 for the trio.
But as watched the mourning mother
she began to scent the air, and press