The Delawarean., 1900-08-04

the trader grew afraid and put off as
soon as he had touched.
You will wonder how man could
have lived for month as Westall lived
for three years. For eight months
there was species of wild fruit some
thing like plum. Now and then a
fish was left by the tide for him to cap
ture, but he had to eat them raw.
There were oysters and mussels and
limpets clinging to the rocks, but after
awhile he could hardly force himself
to swallow them. In six months his
boots were gone and his clothing was in
tatters, and as the days dragged away
the man had it on his mind that his
memory was failing him. When a
year had gone by, he could no longer
recall his identity. The initials on the
tree stood for dozen different names
to him. Six months later he was little
better than wild beast. During his
second year, had he thought to erect
some sort of signal at the landing
place-some such signal as a sailor
would have made-he would probably
have been rescued, as two or three
traders came In for water, but he did
not even heap up stones or set up a
bush to attract attention. He had ex-
listed on the island three years and
two weeks when the American whal-
Ing snip Jonathan touched there for
water. l was in the boat first sent
ashore. and while waiting for the wa
ter casks to arrive l followed a path
up into the woods and discovered West
all asleep on his platform. | believed
him at first to be some monster gorilla.
The weather had turned him almost
black, his hair was long and matted,
and he was without clothing. AS he
came tumbling down 1 ran away and
gave the alarm. That frightened him,
and seven men of us spent half a day
In his capture. He fought us with the
greatest ferocity, and for a long time
we could not make out his nationality.
He chattered queer jargon or sulked,
and we had put in at Japanese port
before we could keep clothing on him.
l was one of the apprentice boys on
the ship, and, as the wild man had
taken great liking to me and | seem
ed to be the only one who could control
him, the American consul advised that
be left behind with the man while the
snip made q three months circuit
Quarters were provided for us, and
was instructed how to go to work in an
effort to restore the poor fellows men,
ory. BY this time he had let fall
enough to satisfy us that he was either
English or American. We had also
connected him in way with the miss
ing ship Restless. She had been re-
ported as leaving Honolulu, but that
was the last of her. l put up black
board and turned schoolmaster. l
chalked down the letters of the alpha
bet, made figures, drew pictures and
tried to start his memory to work. For
a month l had no luck. The mans
mind was as blank as night. He tried
hard enough, and he used to break
down and weep almost daily, but he
could not get hold of the end of the
string. l had about given up all hope
when one day as l was going through
the usual performance memory came
back to him like a flash. He suddenly
uttered a shout and sprang to his feet,
and as turned on him it was to find a
new look on his face and to hear him
shout:
1T has come! 1t has come! My
name is Robert Westall, and l can re-
member everything!
So it turned out, but the shock of re-
covery brought about an illness that
confined him to his bed for weeks.
When he could relate his story, the
consul went to work to find out what
had become of the Restless. Inquiries
We're made at all the ports of China
and Japan, but no news was obtained.
The search was still being prosecuted
when a sandalwood trader from one of
the Philippines brought the consul
some wreckage picked up three years
agone which proved that the bark had
gone to the bottom in gale encoun-
tered soon after sailing away from
Wakes island. To this day there have
been no tidings to alter this belief.
The wretches who so coolly and de-
lberately planned the death of the
shipowner by starvation did not live
beyond a few days to enjoy their tri-
umph. The three years spent on the
island made an old man of Westall be-
fore his time, and he never was clear
headed again, but he lived for 15 years
after and managed to get together
quite little property and to spend his
last years in peace.