The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-11-28
CARPET TACkS SAVED HIS LIFE
Experience of voyager Around the
World at Terra del Fuego.

Experience of Voyager Around the
World at Terra del Fuego.
From the Chicago Chronicle.
Capt. Joshua Slocum, in his solitary
voyage around the world in in the sloop
Spray, found new and exciting use
for carpet tacks. He thus describes an
encounter with the natives of TERRA
del Fuego:
Canoes manned by savages from
Fortesque now came in pursuit. The
wind falling light, they gained on me
rapidly till coming within hail, when
they ceased padding and a bow-legged
savage stood up and called to me:
"Yammerschooner yammerschooner"
which is their begging term. I said
mo-" Now, I was not for letting
them know I was alone, and so I
stepped into the cabin, and, passing
through the hole, came out at the fore
scuttle, changing my clothing as I went
along. That made two men. Then the
piece of bowsprit which had sawed off
at Buenos Ayres and which 1 had still
on board, l arranged forward on the
lookout, dressed as a seaman, attach
ing line by which I could put it in
motion. That made three of us, and
we did not want to ''yammerschooner,"
but for all that the savages came on,
faster than before. l saw that besides
four at the paddles there We're others in
the bottom, and that they were shifting
hands often. At 80 yards fired shot
across the bow Of the nearest canoe,
at which they all stopped, but only for
a moment. Seeing that they persisted
in coming nearer, I fired the second
shot so close to the chap who wanted to
''yammerschooner" that he changed his
mind quickly enough and beloved with
with fear: "Bueno jo via Isla," and,
sitting down in his canoe, he rubbed mis-
starboard cathead for some time.
IA, 1T, nfn :~,,z
advice when pulled the trigger, and
must have aimed pretty straight; how
ever, miss was as good as a mile for
BLACK Pedro" as he it was, and
no other a leader in several bloody
massacres.
He now directed the course of his
canoe for the island and the others fol-
lowed him. I knew by his Spanish
lingo and by his full beard that he was
the william l have named, a, renegade
mongre1 and the worst murderer in
TERRA del Fuego The authorities have
been in search of him for two years.
The Fuegans are not bearded.
AT night, March s, at anchor in snug
cove at the Turn, every heartbeat
counted thanks. Here l pondered on
the events of the last few days, and.
strangely enough, instead of feeling
rested from sitting or lying down, 1
now began to feel jaded and worn, but
right SO that I could sleep. AS drowsi-
ness came on I first sprinkled the deck
with the tacks that my old friend Sam
blich had given me, and then I turned
in. l saw to it that not few of them
stood business end" up, for when the
Spray passed Thieves bay two canoes
had put out and followed in her wake,
and there was no Disgusting the fact
any longer that 1 was alone.
Now, it is well known that one cam
not step on tack without saying
something about it. A pretty good
Christian will whistle when he steps on
the commercial end of a carpet tack;
a savage will howl and claw the air,
and that was just what happened that
night about IL o'clock, while l was
asleep in the cabin, where the savages
thought they had me-" sloop and all.
They changed their minds, however,
when they stepped on deck. for then
they thought that l or somebody else
had them. l had no need of a dog, they
howled like a pack of bloodhounds.
had hardly use for a gun. They
jumped pell-mell, some into their ca
noes and some into the sea, to cool off,
l suppose. and there was a deal of free
language over it as they went I fired
the rascals salute of several guns
when I came on deck to let them know
that I was at home. and then I turned
in again, feeling sure that l should not
be disturbed any more by people who
left in so great hurry.