Gilpin observer., 1899-04-13
An Eton Boy.

got sternway, SO you see, sir, 1t was
soon all over with her after that"
HOWL do not understand"
Don't you know what sternway is?
What do they teach folks ashore? She
was taken aback in the hurricane-the
most dangerous thing that can happen
to any vessel-a sudden shift OF wind
threw her on her broadside in the
trough OF the sea, and with her deck
toward the storm, so her matches were
soon beaten in-all the sooner that
she was driven on a coral reef near
the Sharks Nose, where the sea was
like sheet of foam around her.
Five poor fellows were washed
away and drowned; but when day
broke, and the storm abated a little,
the captain, six men and I got ashore
in the long boat, Just as the poor Ar
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.
well. there we were, shipwrecked
in a wild place on the west coast of
Africa, at 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 a 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 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 1oated
ashore from the wreck.
THUS we had two kettles. in which
| we boiled some seabirds and their
| 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 wren we heard loud yells, and.
attracted o. the smoke Of our fire,
down came a whole gang Of ugly dar-
kies, s;l Mussolongos, wild and naked.
with rings or fishbones in their long
ears and fat 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 l had escaped their bullets. they
supposed that their fetish had pro-
tected me, and so for time was safe.
For a whole week | was forced to
help these savages in .he 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
&C, 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, was
more than ever n prisoner
II was in very low spirits. you may
be sure, fearing they only intended to
fatten me up, like stall-fed OK, or q
turtle in a tub. before cooking and
eating me. or making me a sacrifice to
some idol carved of wood for many
times saw the whole 'tarnal tribe on
their knees before the figure head OF
the Arrow which had been washed
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
canebrakes, where In an hour / saw
more tree leopards and zebras, howl
ing jackals and antelopes. grinnipg
monkeys and chattering paroquets,
than ever were seen In all the shows
at Greenwich fair, till we arrived at a
kraal OF hundred huts, for all the
world like pigstles. surrounded by
high palisade of bamboos. and situated
in a forest of palms.
81 was now the slave OF chief.
whose rigging was rather queer. for II
| consisted only of n deem fringe or kilt