Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1899-10-16

for the awful deed to be done, so that
it, too, might share in the dreadful
feast.
Raising his bony arm, he pointed
toward the moving fin. 10 him a
shark meant no added horror OF
danger to their position, but possibly
deliverance. "Boston Ned" 0nd the
other man first looked at the coming
shark, and then with sunken eyes
again turned to Renton. Voices none
of them had, and Renton's parched
tongue could not articulate but with
signs and lip movements he tried to
make the other two men understand.
No shark hook had they, nor if
they had had one had they anything
with which to bait it. But Renton,
crawling off, picked up the harpoon,
placed it in Boston Ned's" hands,
and motioned to him to stand by.
Then, with eager, trembling hands,
he stripped from his legs the shreds
of trousers which remained on them,
and, sitting upon the gunwale of the
| pouU, huhB ou0 lll1D OfcE anu l6u IL
trail in the water.
Three times the shark came up, and
thrice Ned prepared to strike, but each
time the horrid ranger of the seas
turned aside and dived as it caught
sight of the waiting figure with weap-
on poised above. But at last hunger
prevailed. and swimming slowly up
till within few yards of the boat, it
made sudden dash for the bait,
missed it, and the harpoon, deftly
darted by the old ex-whaler, Glove
through its tough skin and buried
itself deep into its body.
1t took the worn-out, exhausted
men a long time to haul alongside and
dispatch the struggling monster.
which, says Renton, was ten feet in
length.
Then followed sharks flesh and
sharks blood, some of the former,
after the first raw meal, being cooked
on fire made of the biscuit barge,
upon wet blanket spread in the bot
tom of the boat. The hot weather,
however, soon turned the remaining
portion putrid; but two or three days
later came Gods blessed rain, and
gave them hope and life again. They
managed to save a considerable guam
tity of water, and though the sharks
flesh was in horrible condition,
they continued to feed upon it until
the thirty day.
On this day they saw land, high and
wellwooded, but now the trade winds
failed them, and for the following two
days the unfortunate men contended
with battling light airs, calms and
strong currents. At last they got
within short distance of the shore,
and sought for a landing place
through the surrounding surf.
Suddenly four or five canoes darted
out from the shore. They were filed
with armed sayages, whose aspect and
demeanor warned old Ned that he and
his comrades were among cannibals.
Sweeping alongside the boat, the saw
ages seized the white men, who were
all too feeble to resist or even move,
put them into their Icanoes and con-
veyed them on shore, fed them, and
treated them with much apparent
hlhuhCob. SloWoo Vi uhulNCb lIOm
that part of the island-which was
Malayta, one of the Solomon group
came to look at them, and one man,
chief, took fancy to Renton and
claimed him as his own especial
property.
Renton never saw the rest of his
companions again, for they were re-
moved to the interior of the island
probably sold to some of the bush
tribes; the ''man na-bush," as the
] coastal natives called them. Their
fate is not difficult to guess, for the
people of Malayta were then, as they
are now, cannibals.
On August 7th, 1875, the Queens
land labor recruiting schooner Bobtail
Nag was cruising off the leland, trad
ing for yams, and her captain heard
| from some natives who came alongside
that there was a white man living
ashore in village about ten miles
distant. The skipper of the Bobtail
Nag at once offered to pay a handsome
price if the man was brought on board,
and at the cost of several dozen Birm-
ingham steel axes and some tobacco,
poor Renton's release was effected.
He told his rescuers that the people
among whom he had lived had taken
great fancy to him, and had treated
him with great kindness.
If the reader will look at a chart of
the South Pacific he will see, among
the Phoenix Group, the position of
McKean's Island; two thousand miles
distant, westward and southwa ard, is
the island of Malayta, upon which
Renton and his companions in misery
drifted. d.-Ainslee's Magazine.
The Farmers of the Sea.