The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1899-06-22
1e invoice price. No wonder the people

the invoice price. No wonder the people
are poor!
There are but very few trees on these
islands, and with sun too bright, the
conditions of life are uncomfortable, and
would be to us anything but homelike If
unhappily obliged to live in the tropics,
would prefer to be where | could occasion :
ally 60 for the woods, or sometimes get
up on hill and 'holler.'
Our tarry at Salt Cay was not long-the
old policy repeated together with the
benefit of an established friendly reputa-
ton, fastened the cargo on board-and
we sailed with the prayers of the print
tive little community, and scores of par
ticular 'God Speeds all in our favor.
AS we sailed directly northward the
days grew longer and the heat became
less intense. After summer cruising in
the tropics it is very refreshing and com
forting to reach back into cooler zones.
For short voyage, we this time played
around under the sun to remarkable de-
gree. am quite sure that | never before
had quite such an experience in lodging a
perpendicular sun. The day after our ar
rival in st. Pierre, the sun passed the re-
NTH of that place on its summer migration
northward; on our way to Turk Island we
passed under the sun; while lying at Salt
Cay, the sun continuing its northern swing,
passed over the parallel of that place, and
the day after sailing for home we again
passed under it, and were glad to hurry
onward to lines where it's burning rays
would strike our base at a more com fort
able angle. All of this time it was I'M
usually bright and very trying to the eyes,
to say nothing of its effects on a tender
and valued complexion.
The first part of our homeward passage
W as moderate and monotonus With a
smooth sea, and no more than a three or
four knot breeze, We drifted lazily along
through the floating weed of the Sargasso
Sea. On my last voyage l mentioned i'll
The Journal the absurdity of that old
mythical obstruction. Only a few weeks
later the bark Arlington arrived in Phila-
delphia, and a reporter on one Of the lead
ing papers of that city, purporting to in =
teUiew some ef the crew, wrote a start
ling tale of the bark IS narrow escape from
perpetual bondage in the Sargasso Sea
The tweed climbed up the rigging and
choked the blocks so the vessel became
/ helpless and manageable until favor
able current happily drifted her into open
waters" / think The journal did not
copy the sensational tale, but many other
respectable papers did 50. Two reporters
We're Sent over from New Y ok with pencil
and camera to get pictures of the vessel
and captain and to write more details of
the remarkable occurrence. Capt. Griggs,
my old, old friend, "a sea diamond in the
rough-gave them this much detail: "a
damn lie" l wonder where some space
writer's go when they die? II Peter is not
very careful they will doubtless lie their
way in.
Only few years ago l was in New York
and about to sail on cool, cross sea win
ter passage, when my brother in-law Of
fered to give me hog that had been rails
ed on his vessel, and was SO friendly with
the crew that none of them would ever
butcher him or think of eating his flesh
On the afternoon before sailing the hog
(too large to be longer a pet was brought
to my vessel
At ten o'clock that night a young man
knocked at the cabin door and said lie was
from the - -, a leading daily paper
He had heard that | had an educated pig
ON board and he wished for some particu-
lars. | told him it was a hoax, but he
would not be put off, and | invited him in
He was only told the facts OF why and how
| came by the hog. The next morning. on
the front page of the paper, under flaming
headlines, were two columns of ''Educat-
ed Pig" 1t was SO ingeniously written
that a reader would believe it to be nearly
true, though he would notice that in
places it must be somewhat colored 'The
pig was well known in most all sea ports
he understood several languages and could
swear in English; he allowed no one near
the galley door excepting the cook, and
always guarded the cabin doorway against
the footsteps of strangers con reaching
my vessel-where he had come in order to
make a voyage better fol his health, to see
more of the world and for further educa-
tion-he had chased my dog into the cabin
and taken full charge of the deck upon
himself AS the facts turned, when two
days out from New Y ork there was fresh
pork on the table and it continued to be
one of our most acceptable rations nearly
all the way across. Had the reporter S
story been half true, the butchering of
such a prodigy would have been murder,
and eating his flesh would have been can
nibalism.
A life is of course made up of
changes, and no matter how long the ex-
peri ence, every voyage offers something