The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1903-08-26

anu pId'uly, WIN lluc AHsiV
Saxon coolness, did our sturdy
leader inform us that, within Il very
few hours. hundreds OF armed savages
iand cannibals to roou might be eX-
pected TO fall upon our unarmed com
.pany of fifty-nine souls. two of whom
were women. and seven more helpless
.invalids Frustrated by the terrible
African fever.
Our vessel had been cast away at the
mouth of "A small West African liver
three nights before, and had not our
boats provldentially touched the shore
at the very point where two white
traders had established themselves. a
few months before, we should prob
ably have been (as our Irish doctor
pOelically phrased it, the deadnSt men
alive Even as it was, when We ut
length succeeded in landing lafter a
series OF sensational adventures too
long 10 be told herel, we had 20 show
fight at once with oars. boat hooks,
and even fists, against the ma:aud,ng
natives. who seemed bent upon strip
ping us of what few clothes the sea
had spared.
But when once fairly hot. cl after
their five hours in open boats Esneath
the pelting African rain my brave COM
rades accepted the situation with thor
ough British stoicism. and made them
selves as comfortable as could be eX-
pected where fifty-nine persons were
-crammed into a trading station orig
inally built for two. 10 stranger could
have found any token OF peril or hard
ship In the merry talk and ringing
laughter of these men who had just
lost all they had except their lives. as
they sat there around the one small
lamp which our kind hosts limited re-
sources could furnish, chatting, singing.
telling tales of adventure, reading the
tws or three soaked and tattered books
which l had luckily brought ashore in
my pockets. or drowning the moan of
the night wind and the thunder of the
breakers On the bar with the lusty
chorus Of an impromp,u parody oil
$50 Early in the Morning."
-''The sun il baked T. b.acl: and brown,
The scorpions saunterei up and down,
-Aad the flies kept gaddins about Ike
brIcAs,
Til yoa c5u,da't draw breath without
swallowing six;
"Wherc we were wrecked that morning,
Where We were wrecked that morning,
Where we were wrecked that morning,
Before the break OF day"
Br,kest and blithest os all was poor
Franz V, Stanley's famous l!euten-
ant On the Lower Congo, who little
dreaming OF the miserable end that
awaited him in the hideOus swamps of
the Niger not many months later, was
the life and soul Of our party. And yet
all this time he kEcY well-and we all
knew it as we'll rs he did--that there
was but a step between us and &c.
struCtiOn.
For the first two days aftC- the
wreck, however, there was no 5 IN of
mischief, our fierce neighbors being
fully occupied with the picking up of
the countless waits and strays which
Kept drifting ashore from our poor o.d
steamer. while some Of the bolder
spirits among them, defying in their tiny
canoes the fury OF n surf that would
have beaten any other craft to atoms.
went out TO the wreck itself and
helped themselves as freely as Robin
son Crusoe. We could not look sea-
ward in quest OF a possible sail with.
out seeing =. swarm OF human ants
creeping up and down the two tall
masts which stood gauntly up out of
the sullen waters that had engul ed
our lost vessel, and witnessing a hack
Ing OF sails and a chopping away OF
cordage from which our poor captain
already heart.broken at the loss Of his
ship-turned away his eyes with a
stihed groan.
may observe in parenthesis that
the natives OF West Africa can fairly
claim AT least one clause OF the bitter
old Levantine proverb. 1.-The Greek
wines steal all heads, the Greek
women steal all hearts, and the Greei
men steal everything" Nothing II
@'too hot or too heavy" for the savag,
of the Guinea coast. With him thievln,
is one of the fine arts: and while othe
thieves steal for the baser motive o
gain, he steals In the spirit OF an artist
for the mere pleasure OF taking wha
does not belong to him. however use
less II may be. The true West African
Will steal Latin dictionary, sextani
a map OK ancient Greece; and In sew
eral OF the native villages which
sfterward visited higher up the rive
found spoIls quite as incongruous a
these. l have known "KroO boy
spend a whole afternoon aboard shl
in patiently unscrewlng the brass kno
OF ventllator. which could be OF u
possible use to him when he had 20
1t: and such case is by no mean
unique.
Seeing the worthy sayages 80 full
employed. we began to hope that, afte
all. the occupation OF robbery mlgt
prove more attra ctiye TO them tina
that OF murder. But. as tbird-rai
noyeiists say when they want TO 1
Z impressive. ''the time WAS coming. m
It came"
Our captain had foreto.d Gas has
sai4 that the third night would be ii