The National tribune., 1898-08-11
CHAPTER XI.


sons who resided for some time at Jala-
Jala, l must not forget one of my colonists
| Joachim BalthaZard, a native. of Mar
| SellleS, as eccentric man as have ever
known. When Joachim was young he
set sail from MarSeiileS When he ar
rived at Bourbon, his name not being on
the crews list, he was arrested, and put
on board the Astrolabe which was then
making voyage round the world.
| He deserted at the Marianne Islands
| and came TO the Philippines in the great
est distress, and addressed himself tc
| some good friars, in order. as he said. te
effect his conversion and his salvation
| He lived among them, and at their ex
pense, for nearly two years; afterwards
he opened n coffee house at Manila and
spent in pleasure and debauchery a large
sum of money that fellow -countryman
and had advanced him.
lie was generally without farthing, OF
all OF a sudden rich with heavy sums
that were spent in a few days. He Dor
rowed from everyb body, and never paid
| them pack; nc lived like a real Indian
and was as cowardly as a half drowned
| chicken.
| AS | was one day crossing over the lake
| IN small canoe with him and two In
dams we were assailed by one of those
extraordinary gales of wind, which in the
Chinese seas are called Tay-Founc
tyPheon}. These gales of wind though
extremely rare, are tremendous. The sky
! is covered with the heaviest clouds. the
ram pours IN torrents; the daylight dis.
appears, almost as much as in the
| densest fog; and the wind blows with
such fury that it throws down every
thing it reaches in its course
We were in our canoe; the wind ha6
scarcely begun to blow with all it's VIC,
lence than BalthaZard commenced to i'm
woke all the saints in Paradise.
DANGEROUS SITUATION.
These lamentations and appeals served
only to frighten my two Indians. and most
undoubtedly our position was critica
enough for US To endeavor to retain on,
| presence OF mind. so as to attend to the
management of our little boat which
| rom one moment to another was in
danger of being swamped However
was certain that, being provided with two
| large beams of bamboOS, it could keen its
| position in the current between two
waters and not capSiZe, if we had the
precautlon and strength to scud before the
wind, and not turn the side to a wave. for
| IN such case we should all have been
| drowned.
What | foresaw, happened. A wave
burst upon u.s.. for a few minutes we were
plunged IN the deep, but when the wave
passed over we came above water. Our
canoe was swamped between the cur
rents, but we did not abandon it; we put
fast; the half Of our body was above
water. But every time that wave came
towards us ii passed over our heads. and
then went off, giving us time to brea th e
until another wave came and dashe q
over US. Every three or four minutes th e
same manuveringS took place. NV In
dams and / used all our strength and
skill to scud on before the wind. Bal
thaZard had ceased his lamentations: we
all kept silence; from time to time | ONLY
uttered these words
Take courage, boys; we shall reach tn e
shore. 's' @'t''t"
Our position then became much worse
for night set in. The rain continued to
pour in torrents, the wind increased i'm
fury. From time to time we received
some light from globes of fire, like what
the sailors call Saint Elmo's fire. -
While these rays of light continued I
looked as far around me as / could and
only perceived an immense body of water
in furious agitation.
AN INUNDATION
For nearly two hours we were tossed
about by the waves that drove us toward
the beach, and, at a moment when we
driven into the midst of an extensive
grove of lofty bamboos. l then knew that
we were over the land, and that the lake
had inundated the country for several
miles around. We were up to our breasts
IN water, and it was not in our power to
pass through the inundatiOn. The dark
ness was too great to allow us to 60 in any
direction; our canoe was no longer of any
use to us, as il was entangled among the
bambOOS
We climbed up the trees as well as we