The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-03-02
CIAN'ED BY A TIGER.
A FEARFUL EXPERIENCE IN THE
WILDS OF BURMA.

story Of nm English Engineer Who
Vscd For Bait In IL Trap Set For u
Man Eating Monster.
Burma was most disturbed country
from 1853 till 1855. l had my share of
rough work, for was detailed to survey
and explore the country with view to
opening 1t out by roads, writes Henry
Stone in Tho Wide World Magazine
was quite young and owed my posi-
ton to my knowledge Of surveying and
civil engineering, which had learned at
school at Woo!wich was surveying IA
line for O road between Prone and Ran
gun cannot give details, us have not
my diaries by mo- but one day some vii
layers came to ask me 10 shoot some ela-
plants that wero destroying their dhan
paddy felds)
asked them if the herd was a large
one. They said yes, but that If the two
ringleaders, who looked like twins, were
killed the rest would go back Quietly into
the yomahs.
was not particularly busy that day, so
agreed to go out. had a long trudgc,
and, sure enough, came on the two in
scparables and accounted for them both.
But the day was overcast. We strayed
erratically. Finally night came on and
our men acknowledged that they did not
know their way out Of the forest.
ought to have mentioned that Moung
Goung Gee, an independent warrior, half
soldier and wholly a dacoit was in arms
at this time and appeared here and there
from time to time. Wherever he met our
troops he was defeated, of course, but as
rule he only attacked outlying towns tor
turing the people and leyying blackmail
wherever possible His whereabouts, how
ever had not been heard of for some time
and as there was no hope Of our getting
back TO my headquarters we lit fires and
composed ourselves to sleep.
suppose it was between 2 Il. m. and 3
a. m. when we were sayagcly awakened
and before we knew for certain whether
the whole thing was II fantastic dream or
not we were securely bound and taken off
to Goung Gees headquarters, about six
miles off.
We had an interview with him next
morning. He said lie had long wanted to
catch a sahib of the dctested English and
would metc ont to mca punishment 80 ter
riblc that it would etfectually prevent 9TH
rr> from wandering into his country. As
for those Will me, he said they had been
warned what their fate would be if they
assisted the analogue.
lie ordered them off for instant torture
and execution, but l cannot describe the
horrors that followed Their memory is II
horrid nj ghtlaarp to this day.
About 5 p. IN. ! was walked off n good
six or eight miles through dense jungles,
reviled and tortured more or less thc whole
way, and at length found myself stripped
and thrust into trap prepared for II tiger
"A bamboo arrangement Of simple con
structi0n. My jailcrs were nordlessly
brutal and abused mo in every way, hop
ing ia like the treatment | should meet
from the man eating tiger which lowered
nhout near where the trap had been spe-
cialv laid.
But previously, while u prisoner and
tied to tree Il Karen girl had, ,st tho
risk of her lira given ne u little water,
and hrEgrd of her 10 send some one h,lr.
rcdlY to CAPTAIN DOyly, who was calnped
n fow miles of, to hurry to my "e'"uc.
Tho trap was one Of those usually erect
I'd for tigers in Burma. 1t was Il long,
rcatungiItar bUxlikr structure mat.r Of
hamboos. The portion set aside for the
bait was only Just largo enough for Inc. |
rrouchsd there jhmbly, half dazcd with
horror and quite unabl" to realize my
fearful position.
II WAS Christmas eve, and the weather
very Chiily-fOr Burma. ! offered large
brides to my custodians to let me escape,
but they only scoficd ut ne.
How slowly did the hours pass, The
cold was bitter, but must have dozcd off
all the same for | remember being awak-
cnci by II clammy something crawling
over me My heart lcapcd into my mouth.
1t was onlyn rock snake, however, creep
ing through the bars and seeking an exit
somewhere. Oh, the ghastly loHthSomc-
ness Of feeling that cold, creepy reptile
gliding over my poor, palpilating body! l
thanked God when the snake foupd an
outlet somewhere and disappeared
But shortly afterwnrd the browning hor-
ror came heard soft footballs first and
then something shifting round the trap.
There could BIO no doubt that il was the
man cater. My heart nearly burst l was
kept in agony for fully ton minutes and
then tho beast evidently found the door,
for he entered and heard the door fall
There was a partition OF bamboos between
him and me, but | anticipated that he
wnud soon demolish that and then tear
me to pecesas l lay huddlcd up helplessly.
1t appeared aftcrward, however, that
the Karen girls brother had been forced
to erect the trap and had made the parti-
ton Of malo hamboos of great strength.
In the darkness could sec the great,
luminous, wistful eyes Of the man cater.
The fearful brute, finding ho could not
get in to Inc, began to insc t his paws
gently, but l crept up to the outer bars,
and then he could barely reach me. He
did succeed, however, in giving me u claw
or two on my back and but,nck.
As he smcllcd the blood he began to
gnAw at the bars and would doubtless
have made short work Of them, but there
was sudden glare of torches, IL confused
murmur, and then l felt the worst had
passed.
The Karen girl, with ten of the Sikhs
out of the 20whch formed my bodyguard,
came up and hayonuted the tiger, who was
caught literally like u rat in n trap. Fire
they dared nos AS they were only couple
Of miles from Goun2 Gees camp. They
released mc-more dead than alive-from
my living tomb and then improvscd u
hammock out of n native blanket and car
RED me to my camp.
En- route l met D'Oyly, who with a
strong force of regulars and irrryulars,
Has Fastening to my rescue. He was de.
lighted to sec me free and FASTENED on in
the hope Of surprising the dacoit leader.
The latter however, was too well served
and had decanred before my friends ar
rived.
! lay between life and death for six
weeks, for tho shock to my syu.em, as
well as the exposure to the cold chills of u
December night had brought on n severe
attack Of fever But was truly thank
full for my seemingly miraculous escape
from that man eater whom l met Gutler
such appalling conditions.
As lie Saw II.
Bobbie--Pop what is a divine healerf