The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-08-29
17lEl[E i'PO[L@[RONJO SHIP q
downright, 1897. by Cutcliffe Hyne)
BY CUTCLIfFE HYNE.

Il don know ABOUT tnat, Salu Net
tie. 1--WE faced some of the ughest
crowds that have f1oated on the seas be-
fore this, and they thought they were
going to have it all their own way, and
they found when it came to shooting
that l could keep my end up very hand
lily"
He waved his guest to deck chair,
placed a box of cheroots Hospitality
open ON the chart table, and then he
went outside the charthouse and leaned
over the bridge deckrail. The awning
above him threw clean-cut shade
which swung to and fro as the Saigon
rolled over the faint, oily swell; and
outside it's shelter the suns rays fell
like molten brass, and the metal work
was hot enough to raise blister. The
air was motonless and stagnant and
greasy with the smell of humanity.
The whole fabric of the steamer SHIN
mered in the dancing heat.
For the dense mass of pilgrims below,
the situation approached the intolera-
ble Left to itself, the rusted iron deck
beneath their bare skins would have
grown hot enough to char them. Moth
ing but a constant sluicing with water
made it in any way to be endured. And
as the water from alongside came up to
them as warm as tea, it did but little
to refresh. The African can withstand
most temperatures which are thrown
from above onto the face of this planet,
but even the African can at time die
from heat as glibbly as his betters. Even
as Kettle watched, one of the pilgrims,
grizzle-headed Hausa from the west
7 ,t., nY,1a vta1 xx,.f
apoplexy; breathed stertoriously for a
minute or so, and then lay still, and inn
mediately became prey to flies innu-
merable Two of his nearest comrades
bestirred themselves to look at him;
pronounced that life was extinct; stood
lup. and with an effort carried the body
out of the press, and heaved it over the
hot iron bulwark into the oily sea be-
meath. 1t is not good that the dead
should remain with the quick even for
minutes in circumstances such as those.
And whilst the bearers carried him
away, an old white-haired negro from
Sokoto stood upon his feet, swaying to
the roll of the ship, and faced the heat
blurred east with bowed head. Aloud
he bore witness that God was great,
| and that MahOmmet was the prophet of
God; ana that OF mortalS, each man S
fate was writ big upon his forehead
And then the rest of the pilgrims bent
their foreheads to the torturing deck
plates, and made profession of the faith
following his words.
Capt. Kettle, from his stand against
the rail of the bridge, pitied the
heather, and thought with a complacent
sigh of a certain obscure chapel in South
Shields, but at the same time he could
not avoid being impressed by the
heathens' constancy. They might die,
but they forbore to curse God in doing
it, and the omission gave him an in
| sight into the workings of fatalism
which made him think more of what
Cortolvin had said. Every man among
the pilgrims had sword or spear or
mace, or rifle within grip of his fist, and
as fighting force-with fatalism to
back them-he began to realize that they
could make a very ugly company to
vancouver against. A regulation of the
pilgrim trade requires that all weapons
shall be taken from this class of pas
sengers during the voyage, but Kettle
had omitted to disarm them through
sheer contempt for what they could do.
If they chose to fight among themselves
that was their own concern; it never