The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-10-30

crash and looking back I saw the enor-
nous tail of the great whale towering
| boat descending in fragments upon it
! from a height of from fifteen feet to
twenty feet above the agitated waters
Oddly enough the fore part of the boat
remained fixed to the rope of the harpoon
! in the calf. My first thought, even at SO
terrible moment and In SO serious sit
uation, was one Of bitter regret for the
loss of what I considered the only means
Of reaching civilization. Like a flash it
months of toll and hope and expectancy
I had spent over that darling craft; and
rememibered to2 the deirious Joy ssS Of
through my mind in a few seconds.
A TEN-MILE SWIM.
At this time we had swim Of some ten
miles before US, and yet IN the far dis
lance l could not only. see land distinctly
but also the crowd of blacks, who We're
now putting out in their catamarans to
help US.
Before long large catamaran with one
Of the chiefs on board came up with US,
but although deeply grateful for Yamba.' s
distressed at the loss of my boat.
My harpoon had evidently inflicted
mortal wound on the whale baby, be-
cause as we looked we saw it lying ex-
hausted on the surface of the water, and
being gradually swept nearer and nearer
the shore by the swift flowing tide. The
however, and still continued to wheel
round it continuously, even when her Off
spring had reached dangerously swallow
water.
The result was that when the tide
turned both the mother and her calf We're
left stranded high and dry on the beach,
to the unbounded delight and amazement
of the natives, who swarmed round the
leviathans and set up such terr1hc up
roar that verify Pelieye they frgin It Iiet
mails were at once sent up to summon all
the tribes in the surrounding country
enemies as well as friends.
c%Oy CHI q
fully believed that I had killed single
handed and brought ashore both whales.
And in the corroborees That ensued the
poets almost went delirious In trying TO
find suitable eulogiumS to beStoW upon
the mighty white hunter.
Never can forget the scene that FOL
lowed when the blacks from the sur
rounding country had responded TO the
smoke signals announcing the capture OF
the great fish" From hundreds OF miles
south came the natives, literally in their
thousands-eyery man provided with his
stone tomahawk and whole armory OF
shell knives. They simply swarned over
the carcass Ike vermin, and saw many
of them staggering away under solid
Jumps of flesh weighing between thirty
and forty pounds.
and gorging went on. The spectacle wit
messed on the beach would have been in
tensely comical were 1t not so revolt
ing. Many of the men and women had
gorged themselves to such an extent as
to be absolutely unable to walk, and they
rolled about on the sand, tearing at the
ground in agony. It may amuse you to
know that smoke signals were at once
sent up for all the doctors in the coun-
try, and these ministering angels could
presently be seen with their massage
shells rubbing the distended stomachs of
the sufferers as they lay on the beach. I
saw some men fairly bowling with agony,
but still deyouring enormous quantities
of oil and blubber
The orgy, however, had its uses from
my point of view, because I took advan-
tage of the arrival Of Of SO many strange
their chiefs their languages and their
manners and customs, in the hope that
these tribes might be useful to me some
dav when I commenced my journey over
land to civilization. For, Of course, all
hope of escape by sea had now to be
abandoned, since my boat was DESTROYED.
my mysterious arrows or flying
spears" as the natives considered them,
and my Prowess with With the harpoo man, and
And not the least awkward thing about
my position was that [ dared not even
attempt little gu quiet practice tic e,, IN spear
come upon me suddenly, when I would
most certainly lose caste.
The months passed slowly away, and
I was still living the same monotonous
life among my accompanying
them upon their hunting expeditions.
joining in their sports fb a9 Tam making peri
to make overland to Cape York. When I
spoke to my devoted companion about
NV plans she told me she was ready to
accompany me wherever | went-to
ode Eight well / knew that she would
in1rhesftatingly do these things Her
dog-lfke fidelity to me never wavered and
I Know she would have laid down her life
for me at any time.
DOG-LIKE FIDELITY.
Often I told her of my own home be-
yond the seas, and when ] asked her
whether she would come with me she
would reply: Your people are my PEG.
pie, and your friends my friends, I VIII