Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1895-11-01

and there, In their archives, got their
nort 1T the story. Strange enough 1t Is,
and YOU shall hear 1t now.
It was In the year 1645 that, in this
same village Of Lower Mandara, look
ing much then as 1t looks now, there
was to be O hrst-class Wedding. This
Young fellow, as he was then. who is the
hero OF this story henceforth-his name
was Telega-was to be married. And
he was to be married to his sweetheart,
ns It happened. am afraid it did not
always happen 80. But all the accounts
horee that 1t was match Of his making
nav. I believe they think, as do, that
this is the reason why we ever heard OF
him again.
Well, the forms Of marriage were not
ours. But In all countries fingers the
tradition that the groom seizes the
bride as, with her maldens, she goes
unescorted by him. So Pluto seized
Proserpine in Emma. And go, to this
dav. in o high wedding at church the
bride and her maidens walk up The aisle,
with the flowers they have gathered in
their walk, and the groom, rightly
dressed, with his men perhaps, steps
out and takes her for his own. so the
bride walked with her maidens that day;
30 at an ambush prepared and known OF
all, Telega and his men seized her, ana
then the procession passed on, he lead
ing her to the great central house OF the
village, where the rite would come to an
end.
Well, Just as the tom-toms and ban
JOS were doing their best that day, and
the dancing girls dancing their best,
down came dozen Portuguese slave
drivers, with quilted cotton jackets on,
such as turned arrows, and with guns
loaded and matches burning. The
dancing girls shrieked and ran. The
tom-tom men and boys ran. And Telega
and his father and his friends fought
like wildcats. But what had they to
fight with? They were not even armed.
It ended in the Portuguese rascals clap
ping handouts on seventeen OF them
and marching them off to a dhow when
was waiting for them on the. river. Ii
was, as the traditions agreed at the very
bluff where the Princess Beatrice was
mending her connecting rod, the day L
wandered so far. Tradition is far more
accurate, before books, paper, and INK
came in.
What happened then 1 do not know.
But it is clear enough that Telega and
his neighbors were not used to being
slaves, and that they led the Portu-
guese a wretched life. They knocked
them down, they jumped overheard,
they set the barracoons on fire, and at
the last the Portuguese captain was
glad enough to trade Telega of to man
whose language he could not under
stand, who had been blown south from
Sales, a Moor sh port where he was
trading. This man of the unknown Ian
guage was no other than Nathan Glib
bons, master who had saile1 out OF
Boston, in ship rugged as brigantlne,
whose name / do not know. He looked
a ound him in the Blight of Benin,
he picked up some cotton and some
palm-oil and a little gold-dust, lie
watered his vessel and went back to
Lisbon with her. What happened then
| do not know. / do know that, four or
five months after the wedding was
broken up, Master Telega, the bride
groom, was landed at Gibbons Wharf
in Boston. l know that Gibbons uncle
was selling off the cargo, and that Tele-
ga was advertised by poster and 10y
own-crier, to be sold, as a hearty,
strong, negro 10y, just arrived from
Africa.
TO BE CONTINUED.