The Opelousas courier., 1897-06-26
THE FIELD OF ADVENTURE.
THRILLING INCIDENTS ANTI "a,
AN9 DEEDS ON LAND AND SEA.

INCIDENTS AND nap-
ANa DEEDS ON LAND AND SEA.
a white Expedition in Afrie. s;.ut
ou ov savages An Orang-Ou.
tang Attacks His Keeper, Etc.
Y. MONG the PASSENGER O, thu
IA steamer Benny. which la.
III arrived at Liverpool from the
6 west coast of Africa, was
captain Boisragon, who Yves n eff the
ohly 1--WE white men who escaped from
a Benin massacre, Mr.. Locke beina
'he other Captain Boisragon was il
very good health, and said that hi.
arm was almost we'll again.
Captain Boisragon gave in the Lon
o Times the following account Of
his adventures after the first attach
was made on the expedition:
when the firing began I was walk.
ing Just behind Major Crawford, who
was next to Mr.. Phillips. At first we
could not believe that the firing was
meant for anything but a salute. as
everything had seemed SO peaceful.
when we did realize what it mean ]
rushed back to try and get nv re.
volver, which was locked up in a box.
but as all the carriers had bolted at
once L could not get it, and was re-
turning to the head Of the column
When l met Crawford and the others
coming back. Crawford told me
Phillips had been killed already, SC We
settled to try and get back to Gwato.
AS we went along the road with a lot
OF our carriers and servants who
had Joined US, we were confirm.
ally fired on by the Benin men. At
first all the white men kept on turning
to the Benin men, saying sAdoc' the
Benin %salutation) and 'Don'tfre, It's
= peaceful %palaver.' Finding that
this was no good, we took to charging
them with u sticks, and they inva.
riably ran away. After a bit Major
Crawford Vas badly wounded in the
groin. So Mr.. Locke, Mailing, myself
and Crawford's orderly carried him,
although he told US he was done for
and implored us to leave him and
save ourselves. Meanwhile all our
carriers had gone on with Mr.. Fowls.
who. when I last saw him, seemed to
be driving the Benin men before him
like sheep. He had been up to Benin
several times before, could speak the
language q little, and at first the Benin
men did not seem to want to touch
him at all. While we were carrying
Major Crawford, DR.. Elliot, who was
bleeding from a wound in the head,
kept on charging into the bush, try
ing to prevent the Benin men from
shooting at US, for we could only go
very slowly. He most undoubtedly
kept them from coming close up to us,
and saved us from being hit several
times. After a bit I saw a man aim
ing at us from behind q tree further
up the road in the direction we were
going, so I told the others to put
Crawford down for a short time while
I charged at the man. In doing SO I
was knocked over by a shot in my
aEsF>but as it did not hurt at the time
Fgot up again and charged the Benin
man away.
"When I got back to the others I
found a lot of Benin men had crept
up close behind and killed them ell
except Locke. who was wounded in
three places. We were all hit with
pellets several times. As Locke and
myself were the only two living, we
bolted into the bush. We lad taken
the compass belonging to poor NAL
ing, and tried to steer northwest,
which would bring us out on the
Gwato Greek some way above Gwato.
We ran and walked through thick bush
as far as we could that evening, and
stopped to rest about $50 p. M, hav-
ing left the scene of the massacre
about 3.45 p. m. Immediately after
we sat down we heard two men-Benin
men, of course-talking to each other
not twenty yards away from us, and a
few minutes afterwards we heard a
party cutting their way through the
bush. At first it seemed as if they
were making straight for us, but they
passed about twenty yards from us.
dropping sentries ashley went. Dur
ing the night I had to change my po-
sition, as 7 was getting cramp, and
the sentry in front of us must
have heard me, for he called
out to the one next him, and
we could hear them both searching
through the bush. Soon alter that !
woke up to find a hand on my boot,
then feeling up my gaiter, and |
thought it was one of the Benin men
who had found us in the dark. |
grabbed the hand, meaning to strangle
the man before he could cry out. At
the same time I called out, Locke, I
have caught this villain!' when l
found it was Locke himself, who had
changed his position and was trying
to find out where I was. After this
the Benins must have known where we
were, as we could hear three of them
walking round and round us until
long after daylight. Then they seemed
to leave us, but why OF wherefore they
did I cannot tell. We thought that
they imagined we were already done
for. However, instead of being shot
when we moved of, as we half ex-
pected to be, we saw no one and got
-o- AIthouoh we heard plenty OF