Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1893-07-16

Their principal business was to fight land
crabs and catch fish. and they lived on
both. The Caleb Curtis a trim little
schooner, left San Francisco in August,
1893, 10 get guano on Clipperton island,
which is In latitude 10 degrees north and
longitude 10 degrees west The outlook
was 20 poor that the captain decided to
leave one man there to hold possession and
look farther. Why the schooner did not
return has not yet been explained. John
son volunteered 10 remain because, as he
says, he had a spice OF Robinson Crusoe in
him and thought 1t would be "a great
lark
"Well,n says johnson, II watched the
schooner disappear and was beginning TO
wonder how big fool I'd made OF myself
by letting them land me there when felt
something touch my foot. IL felt as much
like a snake Rs anything, only 1t moved too
slow. | showed the creature away and
stood up for moment. One foot came
plump down on u shell.like sort OF thing
that moved under my weight. shuflled
around bit and found was literally sur
Rounded by land crabs. was certainly not
likely to lack for company II | counted
crabs
81 walked TO the beach and heard queer
noise, II VIA something like shuttle, as
II some creature had come out OF the water
and was creeping along the sands, but /
soon found that il was the crabs ngnin The
beach was alive with them. Every step /
took disturbed some Of them, and most
steps disturbed me little, for was almost
sure to tread upon them.
~ found that the strip OF land between
the sea and the fresh water lagoon was not
more than COO feet wide. dipped up water
from the lagoon with my right hand and
tasted 1t, II was not bad except for flavor
Of crabs, which | imagined it had, but
afterward found that the flavor must have
been wholly Imagined by me, for those
creeping things can't live in the water at
all, and when they began to get too much
IN my way got In the habit Of shoyeling
them of in the water 20 get rid Of them"
The crabs did not bite, however. 1t was
only their persistent crowding on him that
tormented him. With his rude tools he
could fix up no continuance 70 keep thcm
out Of the hut he built, aud so had to 'just
get used to them and sleep while they
crnwled." He had but few weeks proyi-
sions, and his great reliance was on the
crabs and queer little square built fish
which he likens to n matchbox with a head
and tail By and by he learned how to slip
up on and knock over the BOBBY birds which
occasionally landed on the island, and that
varied his fare little The crabs averaged
about 2 by . inches In size aud were red
even before cooking.
Al last he gave himselfu up for an aban-
doned sailor and began to hoist signals by
day and build fires by night, but was al.
most insane from loneliness. To his great
delight the Helen hartman reached the is
land about the last Of November, but before
he could warn her that there was no guano
worth working her boat had landed four
men with small outfit and the vessel
sailed away. The newcomers thought John
son savage at first and then decided he
was q lunatic, his joy at seeing them throw
ing him into Il frenzy. These four were
John and William Anderson, George Knud.
son and Henry Smith.
Except for society the exile was worse oil
than before, for the season came ON when
no birds could be captured and no bird eggs
found. Four months dragged away, tho
hvemen getting thin and wrrtched on fish
nnd crabs, and still the Helen Marimon did
not return, Finally, late in March. the
Compoer arrived, also In search of guanu.
and with u delight which words cannot ex.
press the five eNiles abandoned hut fish
and crabs and sailed away There is, in
fact, very little giano on the island and
that little not easily workable. The livo
sailors recovered their usual henlta by tho
time they reached San Francisco but have
no wish to Crusoe IL again.