Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1901-10-22
CAPE MAlEA HERMIT.
PATHETIC STORY OF AN EN-.
GLISH SEA CAPTAIN.
Stricken While a Young Man by the
Drowning of His Bride During tine
Honeymoon, He Lived for Many Years
Among Ignorant Greek Goatherds.

About twenty-five years ago there
was young sailor who, by dlnt OF
hard work. integrity Of character ana
firmness of will, reached at the age OF
26 the summit of his ambition-be-
coming a master Of what then would
be called a good-sized steamship,
some 900 tons register. Upon this ac-
cession to good fortune he married
the girl of his choice, who had pa
tiently waited for him since as boy
and girl sweethearts they parted on
his first going to sea. And with rare
complacency his owners gave him the
inestimable privilege of carrying his
young bride to sea with him.
How happy he was! How deep and
all-embracing his pride, as steaming
down the grimy Thames he explained
to the light of his eyes all the wonders
that she was now witnessing for the
! first time but which he had made Ia
| miliar to her mind by his oft-repeated
| sea stories during the few bright days
between voyages that it had been able
to develop to courtship. The ship was
bound to several Mediterranean ports,
| the time being late autumn, and conse-
Quently the most ideal season for a
honeymoon that could possibly be i'm
agined. Cadiz, Genoa, Naples, Venice,
delightful tour with not one weary
moment wherein to wish for something
else. Even a flying visit to old Rome
from Naples had been possible, for the
two officers, rejoicing in their happy
young skipper's joy, saw to it that no
unnecessary cares should trouble him,
and bore willing testimony, in order
that he should get as much delight out
| of those halcyon days as possible, that
the entire crew were as docile as could
be wished, devoted to their bright COM
mander and his beautiful wife. Then
at Venice came orders to proceed to
Galatz and load wheat for home. Great
was the glee Of the girl-wife. She
would see Constantinople and the Dan
ube. Life would hardly be long enough
to recount all the wonders of this most
wonderful of wedding trips. And they
sailed, with hearts overbrimming with
JOY as the blue sky above them seem
ed yelling over with sunlight.
Wind and weather favored them
nothing occurred to cast shadow ovel
their happiness until nearing Cape Ma
lea at that fatal hour of the morning
Just before the dawn, when more col
lisions occur than at any other time
they were run into by blunderins
| Greek steamer coming the other way
and cut down amidships to the water
edge To their peaceful sleep or quie
appreciation of the nights silver
splendors succeeded the Overwhelming
flood, the hiss and roar of escapin.
steam, the suffocating embrace O
DEATH In that dread fight for life al
perished but one, he SO lately the hap
piest of men, the skipper Instructive
he had been washed ashore under Cap,
) Malea at the ebbing of the scanty tide
and his strong physique reasserting 1t
self enable him to reach the plateau
Here he was found gazing seaward b,
} some goat-herds, who, in search o
r their nfmble-footed focks, had wander
ed down the precipitous side of tn
mountain They endeavored to per
suade him to come with them back t
the world, but in vain. He would live
gratefully accepting some of their poo
provision, but from that watching plac
he would not go. And those rude peas
5 ants, understanding something of hi
5 depth of woe, sympathized with hin
, so deeply that without payment or hop
s of any, they helped him to build hi
hut, and kept him supplied with sue
poor morsels of food and drink as sui
feed for his stunted needs.
And there, with his gaze fixed durin
a all his waking hours upon that inscrut
l able depth wherein all his bright hope
: had suddenly been quenched, he live
e until quite recent years, "the worl
forgetting, by the world forgot liy
e ing monument of constaney and pa
). tient. accomplishing grief. By his hun
BILE friends. whose language he neve
learned, he was regarded as sain
and when one day they came upo
his lifeless body fallen forward upo
his knees at the little unglazed windo,
. through which he was wont to loo
. out upon the sea where his dear on
. lay, they felt confirmed in their opinio
!. of the sanctity of the hermit of Cap
. Malea.-London Spectator.
U