The record-union., 1899-11-27
CAST Away ON the PACIFIC.
Mark Twain Retel1s the Story Of
an Amazing Adventure.

Mark Twain RetelIs the Story Of
an Amazing Adventure.
The title of Mark Twain's story in the
November Century" My Debut as
Literary Person." gives an idea of the
terrible tragedy of which it tells. In
May, 1866, a merchantmen was de-
stroyed by fire at sea, and the crew
and two passengers put off in three
boats, with rations for ten days. Two
OF the boats were lost, but the Cap
tain's, with fifteen frightfully enact
ated men aboard, reached the Hawaiian
Islands, forty-three days later, after a
voyage of 1000 miles or so. One of the
two passengers still survives, and has
long been a Professor in Trinity College,
Hartford. Mark Twain got the story
from the survivors, whom he accom-
panied from Honolulu to San Francisco.
1t is an amazing adventure. There
is nothing of its sort in history that
surpasSeS it in impOsSibilitieS made pos
sible. In one extraordinary detail-the
survival of every person in the boat
1t probably stands alone in the history
of adventures Of it's kind. Usually
merely a part of a boats company sur
v1ve-officers, mainly, and other edu-
Gated and tenderly reared men, un-
used to hardship and heavy labor; the
unframed, roughly reared, hard work
ers succumb. But in this case even
the rudest and toughest stood the pri-
vauons and miseries of the voyage al
most as well as did the college bred
young brothers and the Captain l
mean, physically. The minds of most
OF the sailors broke down in the fourth
week and went to temporary ruin, but
physically the endurance exhibited was
astonishing. Those men did not sur
vive by any merit of their own, of
course, but by merit of the character
and intelligence of the Captain; they
lived by the mastery of his spirit. With
out him they would have been children
without nurse. They would have eX-
hausted their provisions in week, and
their pluck would not have lasted even
as long as the provisions.
The boat came near to being wrecked
at the last. AS it approached the shore
the sail was let go, and came down
with run; then the Captain saw that
he was drifting swiftly toward an ugly
reef, and an effort was made to hoist
the sail again; but it could not be done;
the mems strength was wholly exhaust
ed; they could not even pull an oar.
They were helpless, and death ;nmi-
nent. 1t was then that they were dis
covered by the two Kanakas who
achieved the rescue. They swan out
and manned the boat and piloted her
through narrow and hardly notice
able break in the reef-the only break
in it for stretch of thirty-five miles,
The spot where the landing was made
was the only one in that stretch where
footing could have been found OH the
shore; everywhere else precipices came
sheer down into forty fathoms of water.
Also, in ali that stretch this was the
only spot where anybody lived.
Within ten days after the landing all
the men but one were up and creeping
about. Properly, they ought to have
killed themselves with the food of the
last few days-some Of them, at any
rate = men who had freignued their
stomachs with strips of leather from
old boots and with chips from the but
ter cask; a freightage which they did
not get rid of by digestion, but by
passengers did not eat strips and chips.
as the sailors did, but scraped the boot
leather and the wood. and made a pulp
of the scrapings by moistening them
with water. The third mate told me
that the boots were old and full of
holes; then added thoughtfully, but the
holes digested the best" Speaking OF
digestion, here is a remarkable thing,
and worth noting: During this strange
voyage, and for awhile afterward on
shore, the bowels of some of the men
virtually ceased from their functions:
in some cases there was no action for
twenty and thirty days, and in one
case for fortyfour! Sleeping also came
to be rare. Yet the men did very well
without it. During many days the Cap
tain did not sleep at all-twenty- l
think, on one stretch.
When the landing was made all the
men were successfully protected from
overeating except the "Portyghee"; he
escaped the watch and ate an incredible
number of bananas: a hundred and
flfty-two, the third mate said, but this
was undoubtedly an exaggeration; L
think it was a hundred and f1fty-one.
He was already nearly full of leather;
it was hanging out of his ears. q do
not state this on the third mates au-
thority, for we have seen what sort OF
person he was; state it on my own.)
The "Portyghee' ought to have died,
of course, and even now it seems pity
that he didn't; but he got well, and as
early as any of them; and all full of
leather, too, the way he was and but
ter-timber and handkerchiefs and
bananas. Some of the men did eat
handkerchiefs in these last days, also
socks; and he was one of them.
The Learned Barber.
When a famo11s archa eolopiSt went