Evening star., 1942-10-23

OF GH OOSCuTS ULOI. ne HeTUe.
tingling details of this ertraordi-
nary experience are being related
here as told to Robert TrumbuH.
EPILOGUE-THE ISLAND.
(Continued)
Now that we were relieved Of the
spiritual compulsion, the overpower-
ing drive from inward, that makes a
man fight for his life against any
odds, the ills and ravages of the
body asserted themselves at once
with a violence that stripped our
nerves and left us helpless. We
were dizzy for several days, and
when we dropped to sleep briefly we
had Nightmares that surpassed in
horror even those we had expert
enced in the raft.
Our legs had been so long doubled
up in the raft, with little room to
stand and none to walk, that as we
abandoned our tired bodies to COM
plete relaxation now they froze into
the sitting position. We were able
to straighten them after week,
! but until then I lay most Of tie
time on my back with my knees in
the air, as had seen my friend lie
in sick bay aboard the ship the day
had the presentiment that I
would sometime be in the same posi-
ton. That strange warning from
somewhere-it had come true on
this island.
I knew, though, that we were not
to die. AS for the boys, I had to
warn them not to overdo the eating.
We were going to be all right.
The commissioner was gone a
great deal that day. We soon learned
that he was very much concerned
over the fact that the barometer
was dropping rapidly while the wind
seemed to be increasing. The tall
slim palms were threshing back and
forth like whips. The roar almost
drowned the excited voices of the
natives, who were running about
securing their possessions, for it was
plain that this was to be a disastrous
storm.
BY evening the gale had built to q
hurricane. The surf was crashing
like series of small tidal waves
against the tiny coral island. The
thunderous boom of the sea and the
wind bowling through thousands OF
palm trees, combined in an over
powering din that dominated all
else and seemed to make the whole
island shake. Then the rain was
hurled against our house like tre-
mendous buckets of marbles.
A Terrific Storm.
The commissioner house was SUBJ
stantial and stood the ruthless beat
ing without injury, but the natives
little homes were lifted from the
ground and tunbled about like toys
Many Of them ended as mere heaps
OF sticks and straw tangled among
hundreds of fallen coconut palms.
There were about TOO natives or
the island, and from what observed
now and later I believe every man
woman and child of them was badly
frightened that night. The COM
missioner instructed the native chic
to move his people from the low
part of the island, where the prin-
cipal village was located, to the
higher ground around the govern.
ment house. They came, bringing
as much of their possessions as they
could carry in the storm. The COM
missioner's residence stood in a bic
grove of coconut palms and we were
worried that one of them might
fall upon the house and cave 1t in
There were hundreds of natives
taking refuge in the grove, and why
none was struck by falling tree I'll
never understand; outside of super
f1cial cuts and bruises, suffered as
the wind flung them about, they all
came out of it unhurt, although
many lost all their possessions and
some became i'll from exposure.
The trees fell like jackstraws
Many of those that did not blow
over were stripped of their fronds
leaving them grotesquely high wav-
Ing stumps. All the nuts that were
on the trees dropped, of course
whether they were ripe or not.
In the rain all the commissioner
fuel supply for cooking was soon
wetted. AS a result our distressed
hostess was unable to give us {
great deal to eat except coconuts
during the hurricane. She die
manage to keep tea brewed, anc
once we ate dumplings which she
steamed in her oven as the only
available substitute for bread. The
next morning she managed to get us
two eggs each. Those were the last
the hurricane stopped the hens from
laying. The second morning sh
made a pudding of arrowroot, one
OF the island staples. OF course We
had lots of taro, which these island.
ers cook like potatoes-they do not
make poi from taro as the Hawaiian.
do. She fixed coconut in variou.
appetizing ways, but hungry as wa
found her coconut cream" toe
rich for my taste and could drinl
little Of it. I did consume enormou.
quantities Of the coconut milk.
Tremendous Damage.
Taro appeared to be the island
staff of life. The commissioner hae
his own taro beds on high ground
but they were small and were ex
pected to supply only the needs O.
the household. The natives die
their cultivating on the lower lands
where they might be washed out i
the wind rose high enough to blow