Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1895-12-20

tic animal with mortal wound and sank
beneath the waves. We watched the beach
for an hour, but not another man came
ashore Every Jack Tar of 'em was
drowned. Then VIC started inland to ex
plore the place. We didn't feel at all ut
ease, mates, because Captain Stout figured
as how we must be on one Of the smallest
of the Solomon islands, which we knew
was inhabited by the toughest lot of can
nibals and head hunters in the Pacific.
"We realized that we were dead men if
we were captured and we kept a sharp
lookout for the cannibals while we were
takin in the lay Of the land. We saw
many cocoanut and breadfruit trees, but
tho island was apparently uninhabited.
say apparently because about half an hour
after we landed q dozen ugly, tattooed
savages leaped upon US from the bushes.
I knocked ono CT 'om off his logs before a
big warclub brought me to the grass, and
Stout, Fry and English had no better
luck. The savages were armed with clubs,
bows and arrows and bone pointed spears
and their hair was thick and bushy and
was stuck full of sticks for hairpins.
"We were all bound hand and foot, and
then the savages carried us to village
and guarded by two big black fellows
armed with clubs.
'MMes,' says English, did you notice
what was hangin up agin the hut next to
| us?' We all said, NO We'll, says he
it was the flesh Of human bein's, and, as
Captain Stout feared, these fellers with
clubs is cannjbals'
If they are, our goose Is cooked, and
no nt0i with q
hollow sort of laugh. Blast my eyes,
he says, If tomorrow amt Christmas day
too! Perhaps these blacks are goin to
have us help 'em make their turkey din
ner success Wea all shuddered, and jack
Brown for one thought he had seen New
York for the last time. We lay in the hut
all day and the followin night. The saw
ages fed us very WE'LL and while we en-
joyd the mess we couldn't help thinkin
that the black villains were givin it to us
to make us more fat and eatable. Next
mornin we heard great yellin and pound
in of talntams, and Fry, who could look
through crack in the hut, said that big
party of blacks had just returned from
somewhere in largo war canoes and had
with em a dozen native prisoners.
1T looks, says Fry, as II our captors
have been maxim war on another tribe that
lives In this village. The prisoners they
have with 'em evidently got away when
the village was attacked, but we're chased
Inland and captured
"Fry's guess proved correct, and we soon
found that our captors did not live on the
island, but on another large one about five
miles away. just after sunrise Christmas
day we were loaded into big, handsomely
carved war canoes along with the dozen
native prisoners and the savages padded
across q wide channel to their own island.
On the shore was q native village, and
about 1000 dancin, yellin drum beatin
blacks Of both sexes welcomed the return
Of the war canoes, loaded down as they
we're with Christmas turkeys.
"Well, mates, the savages carried us up
the beach short distance and dropped US
near an uely idol 30 feet high. Several
hundred fires were built near by, and then
most of the savages gathered In a circle
around the idol. Pretty soon q dozen of
the tallest blacks, all armed with long,
sharp spears, danced around the idol to the
music of hundred tamtams, and then
they ranged the dozen native prisoners In
line faoin the idol and speared the poor
blacks through and through.
II won't describe the horrible scene that
followed, except to say that we lay there
expectin every minute would be our last
and saw the cannibals cook and devour
their victims.
They're savin us for dessert, says the
captain.
"But they didn't save us long. In q
very few minutes the 10 big savages were
leadin us toward the idol, and we were
sayin goodby to one another. Death