El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-19
CHAPTER VIII.


How Tom Was Tattooed
My companion was a short and thick
set sailor, about forty years of age
ana whose figure was suggestive OF
great muscular strength; his hair was
cut snort, but his whiskers were oil
the most voluminous description. as he
was anxious to conceal as much as
possible of the strange circles. strines
and grotesque designs with which his
| sun-burned face was covered and
winch, by their form and blackness,
impaired hideous aspect of features
that otherwise were rather good LOOK
ing and pleasing.
he was an intelligent man,and well
read, for the humble class to which he
| belonged.
Aye, Master Rodney" said he IN
percelVlng that l was still SURVEYING
him with something of wonder Cand
MS race was a point on which he was
particularly sensitive); you see what
precious hgure-head these 'tarnal
n1ggers on the coast of Africa made
for me-"
How did this happen, Tom ?" said
nlllng his drinking horn.
ABOUT twenty years ago, Master
a
smart Liverpool bark of two hundred
and twenty tons register made
many voyages in her to South Ameri-
ca out at last, as bad luck, or my des-
tiny las men say in the play) would
nave II, she was chartered for the west
coast OF Africa, to trade with the ma
yves out not in black cattle, for slav-
cry was never our line of business
ho
and early in August found ourselves at
the mouth OF the Congo river, after a
prosperous voyage; but on the night
we MADE the land, heavy gale came
on and 1t veered round all the points
OF the compass in an hour. The sea
and the sky was as black as thew could
be, and everything else was black too.
except the breakers on abe shore to
leeward, and heaven knows they were
white enough-too white and too near
to be pleasant.
Our skipper handled the Arrow
well, and she obeyed every touch of
ne helm as a horse might do it's
orldle; she was sharply built, but
heavily spared, and no other square,
1gged craft upon the sea could beat
Ter on a wind.
ley, for she was the first vessel
n1pped on board of, and hang me If |
didn't love her as if she had been
ny old mothers house. near Deptford
ocks.
"Her hull was long and low, and
at like swan in the water, only that
he was not white, like a swan, but
S black as paint could make her.
loft, the masts tapered away like
sh1ng-rods, crossed by the square
ards, while stays, shrouds, halyards
nd hamper were always taut, as if
lade of cast-iron; but for all this, she
allied to weather that gale off the
ongo river. She missed stays and
ot sternway. so you see, sir, it was
Don all over with her after that"
Howl do not understand
Don't you know what sternway is?
WHAT do they teach folks ashore? She
as taken aback in the hurricane-the
lost dangerous thing that can happen
any vessel-a sudden shift of wind
1reW her on her broadside in the |
'ough OF the sea, and with her deck |
ward the storm, SO her matches were
bon beaten in-all the sooner that
he was driven on a coral reef near
lie Sharks Nose, where the sea was
Ike sheet of foam around her.
Five poor fellows were washed |
way and drowned; but when day
roke, and the storm abated a little
lie captain, six men and I got ashore
the long boat, just as the poor Ar
wv began to break up, for we could {
'e the waves beating into her and
hiding asunder the decks, the inner ]
Id outer sheathing, as if they couldn't t
after the cargo fast enough far and l
ide. t
well, there we were, shfpwrecked V
wild place on the west coast of f
frica, at part of the Congo river '
here the maDgrove trees grow into +
Re water, and have their lower h
anches covered with oysters and bar e
ic1eS. n
I'VE could see high blue hills in the a
stance when the sun came up from v
e cane swamps and the. wild woods a