The evening times., 1896-04-30
GRABBED BY A GORILLA.
American Travellers Thrilling Ey-
perience on East Coast Of Africa.
Cincinnati En0Iirer

A Cincinnatian who has lately returned
froma tour Of the South and East Africa tOld
reporter OF a thrilling encounter he had
with a gorilla while in that far off
country. Said He:
THE evening train had arrived at
Lorenzo Marques, Delagoa Bay, on schedule
time. But what night it was; the rain
came down as If the very heavens Were
falling, the wind blew terrific gale, and
the darkness which oversprcad tie whole
scene was such as | had never witnessed
before. 1t was, however, a fitting night
to the experience which followed. Step
ping from what the Netherlands Railwa v
Company terms first-class carriage, L
acccsted heavy-set individual on the plat
form. Can you tell me, sir, which i5
the best hotel of this place. l asked.
well, stranger he remarked, that is
hardly a fair question to ask NE, u own
both the hotels ill this place
Il turned over my grip to him and fol-
lowed crowd of Africans through that
tropical storm Dinner was served at the
international Hotel, but my permanent
quarters were to be at tie Central. both
of these being owned by Jim Carpenter.
the person 1 met at the station. After
dinner an employe of the hotel asked ne
if l was ready to go 10 the Central. / re-
piled in the affirmative. He went to the
door, and above the din of wind and
rain could be heard bis voice yelling Six
pence"
My belief was that this individual was
singing out to some of the natives that 4
sixpence job was waiting for any of them
who would take me to the Central Hotel.
but II proved to be the peculiar name OF
an East African negro. .Sixpence' came
with zap, boas.' 1t seemed as he
came that section of that black night
was moving bodily toward me. The in
strucuon was to keep close to 'SiXpence.'
The route was through Il large garden.
We had hardly entered the garden inclosure
when a terrific scream was heard and at tie
same time | was struck on the head. In an
instant had my revolver out and fired at
myunkno wn assailant. Ny enemy grappled
with me, but before losing my hold OF tie
revolver manage to fire two more shots.
But it was an uneven fight. l received an
other blow on the head, rendering me un-
conscious. When / Iegained Consciousness
which was three day later, i learned that;uy
firing of the revolver had attracted the
attention Ofan American W no va knownas
Deiasoa Bay as Texas Wilson, He told
me that he ran out of his house with his
gun and lantern and had hardly gone 200
yards when he came across huge gorilla
carrying me on his back.
The gorilla scowled at him but lie was
determined TO try and rescue me from that
brute After taking careful aim he
mana geG to shoot the animal witboutiitfiag
ME. and killed him. Then he brought me
to the hotel, where / afterward was III
formed that Il big gorilla had been sent TO
Jim Carpenter about three days previous.
BE had been tied to Il tree in the garden,
but somehow must have broken his chain,
and WIS waiting 70 the first conner. Ii was
Carpenters intention to send the gorilla
to the Manches ster, Eng, biological
Garden as a present
This was my first visit in December,
1894, to the sleepy, dirty and sickly town of
Dclagoa Bay, on the east coast of Africa"