The Savannah morning news., 1902-06-08
DoMINICA'S BOILING LAKE
WILFRED NJ. Give TRIED TO SAVE
THE LIFE OF A NEGRO GUIDE.

Extinct volcano and Disappear
cd With the Eruption of PeIee.
Dominica Is a Tiny Place, but the
Lake Was Not Found for 400 Years
After the Islands DiscoVcry--WOn-
ders of the Crater of the Little
sOufriere Thrilling story OF
Gives journey and His Futile At
tempt to Rescue His Guide.
Copyright, 1902. by L. NJ. Howe.)
1t is easy enough. now that the
Grand Soufriere has slain it's thou
sands and Pelee its tens of thousands,
to look back and say: BY such and
such a thing they should have taken
warning" But 10 commence, as the
lawyers say, at the place of begin
ming" There is little doubt that the
tragedy at the famous, but seldom Wis
tied, Boiling Lake of Dominica, last
December was the first serious mutter-
ing of the awakening volcanic fires.
Partly because he was the first vic
tim of this never to be forgotten erup
ton of 1902, but more especially lest
the manner in which brave man met
his e1lC-lOOllSIl4y PCIldpS, Dul I'LL
shrinkingly-should go unrecorded and
unnoticed, this tale of one who fear
lessly laid down his life for one who
was not even a friend, is written.
Wilfred NJ. Give, was the heros
name, a descendant of the great Lord
lands Indian Empire, and nearly re-
lated to half dozen men of naughty
name and title, yet in appearance and
action simply quiet, travelling Eng
lishman, exploring in an idle moment
the strange, wild, Caribbean Island of
Dominica.
A fascinating, beautiful, treacherous
island is this same Dominica. The aw-
full molten lava sea, that underlies the
thin crust which men call 1.-The solid
EARTH here seethes beneath so thin
covering that, warmed as it was by
the very fires of hell, vegetation has
sprung up with an incompatible lux
uriance that makes it the most wonder
full in the world. So thin indeed is this
covering which is itself merely disin-
tegrated lava, that everywhere streams
of boiling sulphurous water break
through. milky white, poisoning the or
| chid-scented air with deadly vapors,
while high upon the mountain lies the
boiling lake, one of natures marveIs.
1t may seem incredible that a won
der like the boiling lake could exist on
an island only twenty nine miles long
by sixteen broad, for four hundred
years after. discovery, during which
time CARDS, Spaniard, French and
English had apparently fought over
every square inch of it, without the
lake being seen or its existence even
| suspected. Yet it was only about
twenty years ago that DR.. Nichols
found the mysterious little sheet OF
water. However, any one who has Wis
tied Dominica can understand, perhaps.
for so wrinkled with high mountain
ranges and deep. sunless valleys, and
| so lmpenetrable are the closely woven
forests and green tangle of tropic I'M
derbrush covering everything there that
the journey across the island consumes
two full days time.
Hearing of this strange lake, lying
1000 feet above the level of the sea,
on the flank of Mount Diablatin, the
highest peak in the West Indies, Mr..
Give determined to visit it straight
way.
Gives Inst Journey.
So, on Dec. 20, accompanied by Ger
aid Mcdonald and a guide, Give set
out from the town of Roseau for Lau-
dat. which was reached at 2 o'clock in
the afternoon. Leaving Mcdonald be-
hind, Give began the climb under the
guidance of Jean Jules and Manton
Rollin, or, as many visitors to Do
minica will better remember them,
''Wylie" and "Dugresclin."
The scenery grew wilder and more
unnatural at every step. A mighty
wave of living green swept down upon
ha
every inch of the narrow path along the
precipice. From out of the valley be-
meath them a horde of huge trunKed
invaders, waving their green limbs like
banners, rushed up to overwhelm them
The air became heavy with the scent
of orchids growing on outspreading
limbs. a sheer hundred feet above their
heads. A soft unceasing rustling, as
thousands of creeping things moved
through tET underbrush. was drowned
at intervals by the hoarse uncanny cry
of the Devils Bird-strange of shape.
with long black beak and "fete like
ducks feet but armed with terrible
long claws" black as Erebus, we'll de-
serving of the evil name the native
CARDS had bestowed upon it. Other
strange sounds, not SO easily accounted
for, were heard. In short, the path
stretched through an enchanted forest,
filled with heaven alone what mystic
rious dangers for the unwary traveller
tumble, Voodoo. Obeah, all the SUI
perstition of the Indian and negro so
gaily laughed at the day before, be-
came suddenly very real and possible
beliefs. Here and there a break in the
solid green wall, where some great tree
had hurled itself into a abyss below,
showed far up on the mountain side,
cloud of fleecy steam rising swiftly
only to melt as swiftly into thin air.
At last the petit Soufriere was reach
ed; a deep basin, some 200 feet across,
surrounded by upreaching hills, green
to their SUBMITS. 1t was only a hun
bred feet down, but a half hour of
hardest work was needed to accom-
plish that short descent.
Here, as Wylie severed with one
clean stroke of his keen edged ma
chete the last obstructing llanQ even
Clyde's stolid English composure could
not repress a wondering exclamation
at the scene. The naked earth had
been painted over by the unseen devils
who gurgled and chuckled in their
Shiny caves with countless shades of
lurid reds and greens and brilliant
sulphurous yellows.
With each fresh bubbling of horrid
laughter they spewed out new masses
of boiling, sinking mud. Such was the
impression. There could be no doubt
of the actual presence of the devils.
The negroes theories on the subject
became quite reasonable. The horrid,
half human tone that rose from each
steaming hole was, beyond doubt, that
of actual living and internal things.
Such was the spell OF the enchanted
forest the unreasOning terror inspired