The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1912-07-20

revolt that was being Matched had broken its
shell. The Government was promptly turned
over to him by Alcantara
The Costa Ricans We're found in the midst
OF one of their periodical but always quite
futile efforts to depose their President General
Iomaso Guardla, and had no difficulty in dis
posing OF my arms and ammunition, which /
+ exchanged for a cargo Of coffee.
With the cargo Of coffee we headed for New
Orleans where sold i'll
Z w lille the coffee was coming out stores were
swiftly going In, and We were out Of the river
again and on our way to Hayti in record
breaking time. Though had good cause to
remember Santo Domingo never had been in
the Black Republic and, as had heard there
was proba bility of some lively times there.
/ determined to visit it before I returned to
New York
But the crankiness of the Richards inter.
fered with my plans. When we were about
one hundred miles west Of Key West the old
ship committed suicide by burning herself to
death. The fire started in the hold amidships
but we could not even imagine what might
have caused it. 1t was SO unexpected that 1t
had a good start before we discovered it. We
fought it, Of course, but we might as well have
tried to quench volcano in eruption The
strange craft had made up her mind to go I'M
der, and there was nothing for us to do but
take to the Whaleboat which was large enough
for all of US, as had only a small crew
After we had showed off we returned at con-
siderable risk to rescue big black cat which
was on the ship when bought her. We had
christened him John Croix''
Our humanity was well rewarded. for John
saved our lives, or at least saved us from a
lot of suffering Eventually we drifted among
the islands to the westward Of Key West and
we headed for the largest one in sight In the
heavy sea that was running we made bad
mess OF the landing. Our boat was overturned
and stove in, the bung came out Of the water
cask and all of our supplies and most of our
instruments were lost
Early in the morning the cat awakened me
by rubbing against my face. At first I
thought he was only depressed like the rest
OF US, and wanted company, but he pestered
around until I got up and followed him. Call
ing to me over his shoulder he led the way
to c1ump Of mangrove trees, whose roots
oVerhung the bank three feet above high tide
John trotted under the mass Of roots and be-
gan to purr loudly. I started to follow him
and then backed out, but the cat yoWled so
loudly that got down on all tours again and
followed him. / craWled along for ten or
twelve feet until found John standing over
rivulet Of fresh water about as hig as my
finger.
| drank my fill from it and then awakened
the others and told them of Johns discovery.
They hailed him our savior, and when he
came trotting into camp couple of hours later
with an oyster in his mouth they were ready
to beatty him.
Strengthened and encouraged. we patched up
our boat and when the storm had blown itself
out, put to sea again, and encountered little
schooner from St. Johns, Fla, which took us
to Key West, where we soon got ship for
New York.
| returned to Melbourne in 1885, after an |
absence of about four years, and went to Mem
ztes' Hotel, which was not the one had |
stopped at before--when I was James Stuart I
Henderson.
When Nourse and Wilson were released t
from prison the former scurried across Bass |
Strait to his old Tasmanian home with the |
money had paid him for SO successfully i'm
personating me. He considered that lie had |
been well compensated and expected to invest
MS capital IN some small business to which af- I
fluent position under ordinary conditions, he
never could have aspired with any degree Of
confidence