El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-19
PAGES 9 TO II.

an old quart bottle which he had
found upon the beach, and were as a
great medicine or order of the gar
ter, perhaps. He saved me by saying
in their out'andish gibberish that 1
was evidently under the protection of
the great fetish, in honor of whom I
| should be made like themselves and
handsomely t.. ttooed
ct might as we'll have hallooed to
| the wind in a tearing pampero, or a
stiff reef-topsail breeze. Master Rod
ney, as have attempted to oppose this
piece of Congo kindness In minute
I was hove down under the nasty,
black paws of five-and-forty bowling
and jabbering niggers, all smearing
me with palm-oil out of calabashes and
old gallipots, and they persisted in
rubbing it into me till all my skin was
nearly peeled off,
"Then the old fetishman, who lived
In the root of the tree, after making
three summersets and uttering six
bowls, ornar ented all my face, hands
and arms in this fashion, using a kind
of knife, which he dipped from time
to time in some black stuff that he
carried on a cocoanut shell. In ten
minutes I was all over serpents and
circles, stripes, pothooks and hang
ers!
1T went to my heart to have my
beauty spoiled, but was far past max
ing any opposition, and so have had
to go through life in all weathers, with
face like the clowns in a panto-
mime.
They made me so like a niger
that they scarcely knew me from one
OF themselves. This so favored my es-
cape that I soon found an opportunity
of giving the Mussolongos the slip in
the night, and made a shift after
many a break-heart adventure, to
reach British settlement
II remember we'll when, from a wild
forest, I saw before me a long blue
ridge. 1t was the Sierra Leonda-or
the Mountain of the Lioness, as the
niggers thereabout call it, the highest
in North or South Guinea. Glad was
[, Master Rodney, to see the flag of
Did England waving on the fort and in
the bay. There was sloop of war at
anchor there, the Active; and when
she fired the evening gun you would
have thought whole fleet was salut-
ng, there are so many echoing caves
Ind dents in the mountains and along
he shore
II soon made my way home to Eng
and, but was more laughed at than
'ftied for my queer figure-head, which
frightened some folks, my old mother
specially, for she banged the door
light in my face, and called for the
'olice when I went to her old bunk at
)eptford.
However, I got used to all that sort
# thing; but as folks are SO ill-bred
md uncharitable ashore, I have left
)eptford forever, and keep always
float, to be out of harms way. So
hats the yarn of how I became tat
ooed, Master Rodney
Finish the brandy-and-water, Tom"
aid I, "and now we'll make a start
Dr. the brig-noon is past, and the
tmosphere cooler than it was"
Your very good health. Next time
re splice the main-brace ashore,
ope 1t will be in Cuba" said Tom,
nishing the contents of my flask and
len becoming SO jovial that he broke
once into an old sea-song, the last
70 verses of which were somewhat to
lis purpose:
learned to splice, to reef and clew,
o drink my grog with the best of the
crew,
And tell merry story;
nd though I wasn't very big,
loft I'd climb, nor care q fig
D stand by my gun, or dance a jig,
And all for Britain's glory!
When home I steered again I found
y poor old mother run aground,
And doleful was her story;
lie had been cheated by a lawyer elf,
no married her for her old dads pelf,
1t spent it all, then hanged himself
Hooray for England's glory!"
Just as Tom concluded this remark
lie ditty with tones that made the
lcanic grotto to echo to GLORY"
ice that made US start exclaimed,
,se by us:
'Bueno! Ha! Ha! Los Anglesos
rrachios!"
On hearing this impertinent reflec-
N on our sobriety we both looked
and saw-what the next chapter
IL tell you.