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

fully at the wreck, of which little now
remained but a few timbers, till the
increase of the morning heat drove us
for shelter into a grove of oil-pa1ms
and there, Master Rodney, we found
tulips, lilies and hyacinths growing
wild, and six times larger than you
ever saw in England.
Some of our men proposed that we
should repair the 1ongboat-she was
partly stove inland put to sea, or
creep in along the coast until we were
picked up. We were without carpen-
ter's tools; but the captain had a case
Of surgical instruments, and the first
use we made of the saw was to cut into
halves an iron buoy which had foated
| ashore from the wreck.
'"Thus we had two kettles, in which
| we boiled some SeabirdS and t. ir
eggs, and made a mess whereupon we
breakfasted. Exhausted by the late
storm, the birds were easily knocked
| down by stones as they sat with droop-
| ing wings upon the rocks near the sea;
| but scarcely was our miserable meal
over when we heard loud yells, and,
! attracted by the smoke of our fire,
| down came whole gang of ugly dar-
kies, all Mussolongos, wild and naked,
with rings or fishbones in their long
ears and fiat noses-all streaked with
war-paint and shouting like madmen
as they brandished their muskets and
spears.
"They fired a vo1ley, which stretched
on the earth the poor captain and all
my shipmates, dead or dying. The lat
ter they soon dispatched with their
knives and spears, and left them to be
eaten by wild animals; but on finding
that I had escaped their bullets, they
supposed that their fetish had pro-
tected me, and so for a time I was safe.
For a whole week I was forced to
help these savages in the work of TAX
ing all that remained of the wreck to |
pieces, though hundreds came from |
the interior, and they wrought hard, |
some men using even their filed teeth |
to get all the iron and copper bolts, |
which they priced more than the car |
go, sails or spars, as they could fash
ion them into weapons and the heads |
of spears and arrows. But with every
thing they could lay their dingy hands
upon, myself included, they made off |
inland, just as a vessel, which proved
to be a kings ship, came round the
Sharks Nose, and thus, with help,
protection and liberty at hand, I was
more than ever a prisoner.
81 was in very low spirits, you may
be sure, fearing they only intended to
fatten me up, like Stalled OK, or a
turtle in a tub, before cooking and
eating me, or making me sacrifice to |
some idol carved of wood; for many
times I saw the whole 'tarnal tribe on
their knees before the figure-head of
fhn hi oh, Io6 i
ashore, and was pronounced to be a
fetish.
For three days we travelled among
deep and slimy-green swamps, thick,
wild woods and immense painless
where in an hour I saw
more tree leopards and zebras, howl .
ing jackals and antelopes, grinning
and chattering paroquets. q,
han ever were seen in all the shows ,
1T Greenwich fair, till we arrived at a .
zraal of a hundred huts, for all the :
world like pigsties, surrounded by
high palisade of bamboos, and situated +
n a forest of palms. +
81 was now the slave of a chief | {.
whose rigging was rather queer, for it =
consisted only of a deep fringe, or kilt,
# unplaited grass, a necklace of lions
eeth and fishbones, and cap of leop- A
rd's skin, on which lowered a plume | a
4 feathers, above a row of human =
eeth and sea Shells
Being rope-ended by an inch-and- &c
half colt-aye, or keelhauled once a N
ay from the foreyardarm-were jokes
men compared to all this African ! G
1gger made me undergo, in pestilent y
wamps, where the very air choked me, p
II L had been in ship with a foul
old, for the slime In these canebrakes
as as thick as tar and black as old O,
ilge-water. ~
"One day he was soothing his ex- v,
tement by beating me with a heavy ri
amboo, till my back and arms were
'vered with blood. Close by were a h,
hole gang of the tribe squatted I'M
er palm tree, smoking bubbles til
ubbles made out of nut shells, look III
lg on and laughing at the torture Iiw
as undergoing; but in the midst of =
leir sport we heard a roar that made
Ut hearts tremble, and all ready to
camper off,
There was mighty crashing and
vaying of the wild canes in the ad-
cent brake, and then a great, square
eaded and tawny-haired lion, as large &c
J a good-sized pony, and with tuft es
ke swab at the end of his switching OF
IL, came plunging forward, with eyes OF
ashing and red mouth open. ma
Souse as a sheet anchor goes into tn
e sea, he sprang upon my owner, ba
Id in the time 1 take to turn this CO
lid, Master Rodney, that tire uble- DO
me parsonage was borne off into the it
ngle, bruised mass of bones and
God, dangling in his laws We
Inc whole thing passed like flash an