The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-05-15
oRUsoEs UP TO DATE.
Life for Five Months ON Desert Island
in the Pacific.

The combined adventures of the
| Ancient Mariner. Robinson Crusoe
] and the Swiss Family Robinson pale
beside those of Donal Morrison, sec
ond mate of the Norwegian bark
| Alexander Oubis. who was cast away
for five months on a desert island in
the Pacific. Mr.. Morrison has arrived
safely at Dundee. and has himself re-
lated the story of his thrilling .exper-
| fences. ~ T..
I at joined the craft in New South
Wales" he said, '.and we set sail from
| Newcastle for Panama on November
| 26. 1906.
'For about two months we had
| good weather and favorable winds.
Then we entered region of calm. out
| of which we could never extricate
| ourselves. Months passed by without
! a puff Of wind coming our way. and
| never once did we sight any kind of
craft.
eat the end of four months our
situation was bad in the extreme.
Food was giving out, and the water
was getting unpleasant. The captain
gave orders that the ship was to be
put on half rations.
For a month we lved-or. rather,
| eked out an existence-on the half al
lowance of food. and then we were
| transported into delirium of the
| widest enthusiasm by catching sight
of land. We made out that we were
| of which only one or two are in
| habited.
"It was decided that we should try
| to reach Chatham Islands, but the
| currents took a dead set against US.
| and we ran the risk of being carried
ing for it but to abandon the bark
| and take to the two boats
ION May g." Mr.. Morrison con-
| tinued, 1--WE left the bark to her fate,
| and made for what we thought was
| Charles Island. There were ten men
| close together.
| For ten days the battle against a
strong contrary current continued.
| and at last we neared a forbidding-
| looking island. 1t was both barren
| and deserted, and as it was obviously
| no use trying to land there, we al
tered our course. heading, as we i'm
| agined, for Chatham Island.
"In the darkness the two boats
| parted company. To add to our woes,
the plug fell out Of our water tank,
| and before the mishap was discovered
| our entire supply was gone.
! "Our predicament was now graver
than all our previous trials. We be-
! gan to suffer the unspeakable horrors
of thirst under a tropical sun.
"At the end Of the eseventh day we
reached land.
1.-THE island was about as uninvit-
ing as anything I have ever seen in
my thirty-six years of seafaring life.
The center, some miles inland, was
occupied by a mountain whose slopes
were quite black, probably from
streams of lava Except at the coast
line, the place was thickly covered
| with leahess, thorny shrub.
i Fresh water. however, was what
we most urgently needed. and there
was no sign Of it anywhere, but the
captains resourcefulness came to our
aid. Slfcing UP leaves from large
round, and shall never forget the de-
light Of tasting the cool juice.
ssTyhus refreshed, we formed our
selves into small parties and set out
to gather dried wood for a fire. We
had sixteen matches between us-of
which we still had nine when we
left the island-and we treasured
| them as il they were the most price,
less things on earth.
"When we came to compare the
conformation Of the coast with our
map we were plunged into despair
by the discovery that we were on In
defatigable Island, which for cen
turtles had been Stunned by even ma
II tives Of the archipelago.
"While we were still wondering
what we should do news arrived that
enormous turtles were disportine
themselves on a beach close at hand.
4 Aiming ourselves with clubs. we crept
i over the rock on either side OF the
hay. and cutting on the turtles re-