The Washington herald., 1911-08-27


His psrents, a quite young and well-educated
couple, who, like the rest of ", were bound
for the antipodes in hope Of bettering their
fortune, said that the boy was fourteen years
of age; but, had it not been for his remark
able muscular strength and daring, no one
4 would have taken him for over twelve. his
short stature and lovely childish tsce leading
to that inference.
The Murrays hailed from the city Of Roch.
{ ester. N. ". and Cyril had never seen q
seagoing weasel before embsrking on our ship,
one at that.
Yet he was never for moment seasck, and
knew the name Of every spar, sail and rope,
and could climb anywhere aloft with almost
the agility and quite the fearlessness of o
Including officers and crew, there were two
every last one of them simply idolized the
ooy. Had It been possible to spoil him, the
sailors would have done so in short order, for
they never tired Of petting him and loading
derful ropework creations and curiousiy carv. M
ed mimic boats, in the making of which salt
water tars are such adopts
but the little fellow couldn't be spoiled:
petting did him good. He received the sun.
shine Of loving kindness as naturally as might
q hover, and to all on board, from captain
70 cooks mate, his joyous spirits and never.
ia4lng gaieW were continual delight.
tba - was .a Charming to see him with his parents
part, and the answering devotion and unaues-
sionng obedience on his. In all INV life
nave I'VE never, ! think, known SO happy a trio
.h;,, hne n hercules was, as l have said, slow
IN the tropics and afterwards delayed by a
great storm off the Cape of Good Hone Il
was not until we had been eighty-two d.ys
of oq' shss we sighted 81 Psuls, small island
in about 38 degrees south latitude and ri des
grees east longitude. AN - ue
The captain had told US the night before
that ,nas we should probably open it up" in the
any kind since leaving New York. ali hs,Ss "a
were ON deck bright and early.
Sure enough, there lay the island off our
port port bow. and. the captain said. about fifteen
The ship, with everything Get, was running
80 slowly before light southwestern bree.e
that we did not come fairly sbeam Of the
ocean speck for two. hours, at which time il
was not more than six miles away.
Then it happened fortunately, some Of us
thought-that the wind died out entirely and
the ship lay helpless in that sailors abomina-
tion, dead calm, one which might last, the
old sea dogs said. for days.
After breakfast was over, several of the
passengers expressed a wish to visit the isl.
and, and Captain Cheswick very kindly placed
boat. the second mate and four men at
: tnelr dBpOsaI. '.t' -t .f4
Eight of us. among whom were Mr.. Murray
Snd,. after an hours easy pulling, effected a
Of rock left the water not much more than
deep enough to float the boat.
Before we left the ship the captain had
directed the mate to take . half dozen buckets
along and bring of supply Of eggs.
You'll find the island nearly covered with
them" ne said, "and they'll be treat for
u.s."
So, indeed. we did; for tens of thousands-
millions, perhaps-of sea fowl were lowering
over or resting upon the barren rocks, and on
every level spot were eggs, incalculable in
The oldest sailor present told IN how 70
distinguish the fresh ones.
Those which have been set upon" eaid
he, have glazy kind of look, but the shells
OF those newly laid are sort of rough-like and
In few minutes the six big buckets were
filled, and we then roamed about for while.
But there was nothing attractive in the fam
tastic hills and holows of scoria, overlsid, as
most OF them were. with guano. and We soon
The buckets were placed under the seats.
and we were about to set off for the ship,
when one OF the Passengers said to the mate !:
Whl you kindly row part way around the
Island, i;is1a Mr.. Boxen' I should like to see a
And J." said Mr.. Murray, will take a
good, long swim while you're gone The wa
ter, is smooth as glass, and l may not have
such chance again. Will you stay with
me, Cyril, or stick to the boat%
"I'll stay with you, father; but I dont
care to swim. I'd like to hunt up two or
three young birds, though, to take on board" /"
replied the boy. =
'.AlI right" reioined Mr.. Murray.
And the two stepped ashore again, while
the rest Of us rowed away.
As before mentioned, the water was quite
shoal at the landing, but little way west of
that it was very deep right up to the foot of
an overhanging lava cliff :
After passing the southerly point of the
island, we lost sight of father and son. and,
having extended our trip much farther than
,ns,i we intended tended we dId not get back for more
Often since that time have wondered how
anyone Of us, after what we had already