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


| AT length everything was ready. and
| [ paid q final farewell, as | thought, to
my black friends in Cambridge Gulf.
| They knew l was venturing on a long
| journey overland to another part of the
! country many miles distant, in the hope
| of being able to get into touch once more
they realized they Should never see me
very natural thing. We had a very al
! fectionate leave-taking, and a body Of
ever, Yamba, myself and the faithful
dog were left to continue our wanderings
this woman, by the way, was, absolute
and unquesttoning. L knew that alone
| could not live day In the awful vii
nor could any solitary white man. BY
this time, however 1 had had .5s innp inner.
miraculous powers In the way Of provid-
ing food and water when, to the ordin-
airy eye, neither were forthcoming.
/ ought to mention that before leaving
my black people I had provided myself
with what 1 may term a native pass
port-a kind of Masonic mystic stick,
inscribed with certain cabalistic char
acters. Every chief carried one of these
sticks stuck through his nose; l, how
ever. invariably. carried the passport in
my long, luxuriant hair, which | wore
hair This passport stick proved invalua-
BILE as q means of putting me on good
terms
tered. The chiefs of the blacks never VEN
tured out of their own country without
one of these mysterious sticks, and L am
sure l should not have been able TO travel
far without mine.
Whenever l encountered strange
tribe along the line Of march I always
asked to be taken before the chief. and
when in his presence I presented my
little stick. He would at once manifest
the greatest friendlness, and would offer
US food and drink. Then, before | took
ole hi
sign upon 1t, handing it back to me, and
probably sending me on to another tribe
with an escort 1t often happened, how
ever, that | was personally introduced to
another tribe whose frontier Joined that
of my late hosts, and in such cases my
passport was unnecessary.
AT first the country through which our
wanderings led US was hilly and well
wooded, the trees being particularly
fine, many of them towering to height
of $50 or 200 feet. Our principal food con-
sisted of roots, rats, snakes, opoSsum and
kangaroo.
Gradually we left the hilly country be-
hind US and at length got into an extra
ordinary desert of red sand, which gave
off a dust from our very tracks that near
ly suffocated US. Each water hole we
came across now began to contain less
and less OF the precious liquid, and our
daily menu grew more and more scanty,
until at length we were compelled to live
on practically nothing but few roots
and stray rats. Still we plodded on and
on, finally striking q terrible spinifex
country, which was inconceivably worse
than anything we had hitherto encoun-
tered Not only was water all but unob-
tainable here, but our skin was torn with
thorns at almost every step. Yamba was
terribly troubled when she found she
Fortunately the dew fell heavily at night
and a sufficient quantity would collect on
the foliage, and more particularly on the
me somewhat in the morning. How eager
Nv would I lick the precious drops from
the shining blade of that American Ak
TO this time did not seem distressed from
ieck of water; but nothing about this
marvellous woman surprised me.
nv this time L began to feel delirious,
onG fear / was like baby in Yambas
hands She knew that all l wanted was
water, and she became almost distracted
when she could not t, nnd any IoT me me or
vas FIN of strange resources and devices.
When / screamed aloud in an agony of
Grass e1rtl to chew, and although this pos
fhe fiow of saliva, and thus materially
and the the deiirium Increased. Hour after
hour through the endless nights would
That dsy9t9 my es with the dew That eo
iacted on the grass and on the blade of my
tomahawk. On the fifth day without
SUFFERED @T u ehs mon gave @R
s saIf mn mn for lost 1 could not stand or
walk wal nor could I speak or swallow; Ny
throat seemed to be almost most closed up.
anu saer,e %IiI To be going round and round in
the most dizzy and si .boinsg manner manner
MY heart beat o midh so tRat thooebt
was going mad.
A CHASTITY DRINK.
Gradually 1 grew weaker and weaker,
and at last, feeling the end was near, I
aeet the death was now fervently pray
ing for. Had Yamba given up these lines
would never have been written. .Amaz-
ing, TO relate, she kept marvelously well