Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-10-09

"Once settled IN our nut, poor Wabtleo
! shelter, we set to work at once and collected
! with will and at the end of IL months
| we'd done so finely that Fred went down
! to Bahia to ship our goods to London which
we confidently valued at e300 sterling.
We'd worked pretty hard, I can tell you,
| to do so much in our time and we'd lived
pretty sparingly on yam and plantain; but
our poor little capital was iairiy well
eaten up By then and we'd hardly anything
| left to live meanwhile upon.
"However, the negroes on the few estates
about were tolerably friendly and the In
| dians trusted us, so by promising to repay
| them we'll, when our ship came in as We
always said, managed to pull through till
| Ffed's return from Bahia.
'rIt took long time in those days to get
up and down country by the fiat bottomed
boats; and long time 100 for ship to sail
from Brazil to England. Soit was nearly
six months before heard again from Fred;
and all that time l was living On what I
could get from the negroes on credit-the
! credit of my promises discounting our ex-
| pected remittance from England.
cat last, one evening" he drew his hand
| across his brow, as if the recollection was
too much for him, Il can remember it as
though it were yesterday. i was sitting at
the door of my hut, skinning q new kind of
monkey to add TO my collection, when sud-
denly I heard noise of slow footsteps
through the wood, as of somebody coming
!. up along the trail, very tired and wretched.
| 1 looked round. 1t was Fred. He stood
before me and gasped. He was tootsors
and worn, and pale as ghost with horror.
| "'Why Fred, / cried, 'how's this? You
don't mean to say that you're alone.
4 Where's the provisions? the goods? the
ammunition, anything"
| 'He flung himself down on the ground,
| ready to drop where he stood with fatigue
md despair. 'All gone; all lost, he gasped
out, every box, every one of them.
"'Not Indians, l cried in horror. Not
| Indians, Fred, surelyr
| "'No, not Indians he answered, shak-
ing his mead very hard. Worse than that.
Far worse. The sea! The sea! Gone to
the bottom, my dear fellow, every man
Jack of them!'
Il gszed at him horror-struck.
SIT was some time before / could get him
| composed enough to tell me the whole ter
rible truth o little more calmly. For
cheapness' sake he had shipped our entire
| collection-our priceless beasts and birds,
the labor of II months-in the crazy hull of
| that ranshackled old Dom Pedro; and the
| Dom Ptdro had gone down in an Atlantic
cyclone with our precious orchids aud but
terfies and skins in her hold the finest
tropical museum ever gathered together.
| 1t was pitiable to think OF all those wasted
months, all that reckless destructle>-ef al
| most unique specimens
"'Thank Goo, Fred i cried fervently, as
he finished his story, our manuscripts are
| safe! The knowledge aud experience we've
gained at least is lett US. No one can take
| that away from us! We've got it in our
| hearts! It's our own foTeverp For already
| the mate, ials tor Life aud its Origins ere
| in embryo in the crest.
| "WeH, ritter This crashing blow, We had
! to think OF now we could begin work again,
and pile up second collection as good as
| the tirst one. Starvation iairly stared us in
the face just then; it was question of food,
| not merely of science. Fred had struggled
| in on foot, more dead than alive, and half
faint with hunger. Our ammunition was
gone; our credit broken. What could We
do for our living? That was now the ques-
! tion
| 1--WE went to neighbo1ng planter, in
| the nearest settiement-ior We were cIn,p-
! ing out in the wilds, 80 miles from house
and put tie thing p.sinly 10 him. He
| was a kind-hearted man, ia his Hay, as
| Shareholders gU, aud he piiied our plight;
/ though, like most Portuguese M ricans,
he hadn't the slightest idea what on earth
| We could want to go hunting beetles and
weeds tor He didn't even understand
what science meant. He regarded us as q
| couple Of amiable but peculiar lunatics
| Still, We were white men and he pitied our
! plight I'll tell you what I'll do for you,'
| he said to Us in Portuguese; ri take you
| on upon my estates to work at the cocoa
| Plantations?
we deliberated together 1t was hard
| offer, negro's work, wholly uaHt for Euro
perns in that dradi5 climate. But il vas
| all we could ge., and We managed it this
| way. Every second day Fred took his place
on the estate, with the gang of slaves, and
did his DAYS labor, for a slaves raticns,
and a few pence rs wages; while 1 went
| out in the forest, as usual, collecting. Then
| on the alternate days, / tooK my place in
| the gang, while Fred went off With his gun
| in the woods after birds and monkeys. In
! this way We counted together as one man,
and We lived, between us, one slaves
food, eked out with what little we could
buy with our daily wage, after Keeping our
selves both ih ammunition and so forth.
Talk about the happy negro on the good
massas plantation. / know what slavery
means, Pearson, for to all intenis and pur-
poses I've been slave myself; and 1 tell
you IFS damnable-nothing short OF damna-
bic On Sundays and iesIas, however, We
had q holiday together and then we col
lected with all our might and main, as it
was the only time We could get out into the
woods both at once, and in hunting two men .
abreast can do more in day thau one alone
can effect in fortnight In the twilight,
too, we made some capital finds, 1 can tell
you, and often we almost did ourselves out
of our nights rest in order to make haste
with our precious collection.
ut took US Is months all the same under
these altered circumstances and with i'll
male powder to gather together what we
had managed before in Il. But at last with
hard work our collection was ready, almos5
as good as the first and In some respects
richer
''Then the question arose how were we to
get it to the sea and ship it to England.
Fred was the stronger of US two and there
were lots OF boxes. So in spite of hls pre-
vious misfortune we decided that he must
take charge of it with q friendly Indian to
help him and must see it off from Bahia in
the usual fashion. I was to stop behind and
work on the plantation every day alike in
his absence, saving my wages as l could, and
then when he returned l was to go on to
Bahia with my cash in my hand and await
the arrival Of our expected remittance
while he in turn worked on upon the estate
for q livelihood.
II can tell you 1t was dreary long time
while Fred was away and had 10 toll and
HfOii alOng Dy myself IN tnat suIlry Climate
surrounded by negro slaves who talked bad
| Portuguese and without friend or an equal
OF any sort near me. Sometimes / almost
despaired in the hot tropical MONDAY work.
| ing away under the fierce sun with the rest
| of the gang by my side and not Christian
soul to say God-speed to me anywhere. The
very negroes despised me tor . mean
] white declasss gentleman. Night stsss