The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1897-09-02

we could distinctly see that they were
bent on pursuing us.
We took wide circuit, and then
headed downward under cover Of the
willows, behind several small islands
near the Georgia shore, and came out
in the main stream far below the islands,
while we had the satisfaction of seeing
the lights of our pursuers disappearing
up the river, and prowling about the
upper end of the islands, which we were
now leaving far behind us. We soon
lost sight of them, and the strong pre-
sumption is that they never succeeded
in finding their boat.
We increased our speed to the utmost,
and kept under the shadows of the
wooded shores rs much as possible, con-
graduating each other on our lucky boat
trade. With a good boat and an open river
we felt now that our chances of escape
were exceedingly good, and our spirits
were buoyant and hopes nigh, although
our stomachs were craving food. We
were on the verge of starvation all the
time, for we had eaten food only three
times, not counting the corn and morsel
of bread, since we started, although we
had been travelling every night, and, in
the mountains, both day and night.
When | look back and think of those
long, painful, hungry nights and days,
l wonder how it was possible that we
kept up. / do not think could with
stand the same deprivation again, al
though a man does not know what he
can endure until he tries it. [ believe
a human being can endure greater hard
ships and longer-continued suffering than
any other animal.
RAvENoUs.
Hunger was now our main dread. We
felt that our paddles and the stiff current
of the river were good for so miles each
night, provided we could keep from
starving. To be sure, we were used to
fasting; indeed, for months not day
had passed that we had not felt the
pinching distress of an unsatisfed long
ing for food But on we swept, hour
after hour, down the broad river, happy
in the thought that we were fast placing
scores of miles between us and the hated
prison. The rest given our feet had
much allayed the pain we had suffered,
and when morning came, and we had Sc
creted ourselves for the day, we slept we'll,
but awoke in the afternoon ravenously
desperate for want of something to eat.
We went out; and, accommodating a
little, discovered a cornfeld. Making
sure that there was no one about we
stole into the field, and found plenty of
corn and pumpkins The hard corn
and river water did not 60 we'll to-
gether, and proved to be an unpleasant
diet to us; SO we broke up the pump
kins, ate freely of the seed, and filled
our pockets with more for lunch, each
of us taking also few years of corr.
BY the time we got back it was nearly
dark, and We pulled out. The pump,
kin-seed diet, poor as it was, helped us
wonderfully, and we made a big nights
journey, passing steamboat upward
bound, which we lodged by pulling
under the shadows of the timber and
low-hanging bushes
Thus We progressed, travelling by boat
at night and laying by in the daytime
If any reader of this story has ever
made trip on the lower end of the
Chattahoochee River | think he or she
will agree with me when | say that the
river scenery is peculiarly monotonous
and causes a sense of loneliness. 1t is a
vast water-path through dense forests OF
cypress and other swamp-growing tim
J Der.
On either side, to the right and left
: were endless swamps covered with water
: and the river channel was only observ.
able by It's being free from logs and gi
! gantic trees Great festoons of gray
and somber moss hung suspended from
even the topmost limbs of these trees
reaching clear down to the water, and
foated and swung to the music of the
, signing winds. Perhaps it was the cir
: cumstances IN our case that made US
feel so, but | remember it as dismal
| lonesome Journey. Sometimes we would
not see a sign Of civilization for As hour;
, at a stretch.
Besides the torments of hunger oul
nights were made almost uncomfortable
by the swarms of bloodthirsty musketos
: which came upon us in clouds. / die
, think | had learned considerable about
musketos in my boyhood days in the
2 Black Swamp of northwestern Ohio
= but for numbers, vocal powers, anc
: ferocity, | will "trot out" the Chatta
hoochee swamp fellows against am
I others | have ever met up with"
e The ragged clothing which yet chung t,
e our backs did not much more than hal
: cover us; especially was this the cas-
Y with Wood, who was, L may truthful,
say, half naked, and thus was doubl,
!, annoyed by the omnipresent skeeters.
n And my own condition was but littl
s better. To protect ourselves from tn
Y pests we matched our bodies all owe
d with great skeins of moss, and two NOR
r, comical-looking beings than we were