The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1899-12-28

"a 'io AoHS budt. just as the poor AT
row began TO break up, for we could
see the waves beating into her and
rending asunder the decks. the inner
and outer sheathing, as If they couldn't
scatter the cargo fast enough far and
wide
We'll. there we were, shipwrecked
in a wild place on the west coast of
Africa. at a part of the Congo river
where the mangrove trees grow into
the water, and have their lower
branches covered with oysters and bar
nacles.
I'VE could see high blue hills in the
distance when the sun came UP from
the cane swamps and the wild woods
which bordered the river, and we sat
on the beach for while looking rue
fully at the wreck, of which little now
remained but few timbers. till the
increase of the morning heat drove us
for shelter into a grove of oil-palms,
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 longboat-she was
partly stove in-and 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 case
of surgical instruments, and the first
use we made of the saw was to cut into
halves an iron buoy which had floated
ashore from the wreck
Thus we had two kettles, in which
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 a 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 volley, 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 | had escaped their bullets, they
supposed that their fetish had pro-
tected me, and so for a time was safe.
For a whole.week was forced to
help these sayages 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
CO. 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 of
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.
Il was in very low spirits, you may
be sure, fearing they only intended tc
fatten me up, like stall-fed OK, or q
turtle in a tub, before cooking ant
eating me, or making me a sacrifice t
some idol carved of wood; for many
times l saw the whole 'tarnal tribe OF
their knees before the figure-head O
the Arrow, which had been washed
ashore, and was pronounced to be {
fetish.
For three days we travelled amonl
deep and slimy-green swamps thick
wild woods and immense painless
canebrakes, where in an hour l saw
more tree leopards and zebras, howl
ing jackals and antelopes, GRIMM,
monkeys and chattering paroquets
than ever were seen in all the show
at Greenwich fair, till we arrived at
kraal of a hundred huts, for all tn
, world like pigsties, surrounded by
high palisade of bamboos, and situate,
in a forest of palms.
II was now the slave of a chief
whose rigging was rather queer for |
consisted only of deep fringe. or kilt
of unplaited grass, a necklace of lion
teeth and fshbones, and a cap of leop
> ards skin, on which lowered a plum
of feathers, above a row of human
{ teeth and sea shells.
Being rope-ended by an inch-and
a-half colt-aye, or keelhauled once
'. day from the foreyardarm-were joke
i when compared to all this Africa
. niger made me undergo, in pestilen
y swamps, where the very air choked m,
u, as If | had been in ship with a for
- hold, for the slime in these canebrake
was as thick as tar and black as oil
= bilge-water,
= lone day he was soothing his e,
: citement by beating me with a heav
a bamboo, till my back and arms wei
covered with blood Close by were
! whole gang Of the tribe squatted III
- der a palm tree, smoking bubbles
- bubbles made out of nut shells, lool
T. | Ing oA anu laughing at INC lOl lulc
70 was undergoing; but in the midst
70 their sport we heard a roar that mad
ls our hearts tremble, and all ready
If scamper off
Ne There was mighty crashing ar
,e swaying of the wild canes in the a
I'd jacent brake, and then great, squar
as headed and tawny haired lion, as lar
as a goo1-sized pony, and with tn
like a swab at the end of his switchiI
S? tail came plunging forward, with ey
he flashing and red mouth open.
he "Souse as sheet anchor goes In
en- the sea, be sprang upon my ownt
nd and in the time l take to turn tn