 Section 13 of Thirling Adventures by Land and Sea by James O. Brayman A Jungle Recollection The hot season of 1849 was peculiarly oppressive and the irksome garrison duty at Sherudabad, in the south of India, had for many months been unusually severe. The colonel of my regiment, the brigadier and the general, having successively acceded to my application for three weeks leave, and that welcome fact having been duly notified in orders, it was not long before I found myself on the Combator Road, snugly packed, guns and all, in a country bullock cart, lying at full length on a mattress, with a thick layer of straw spread under it. All my preparations had been made beforehand. Relays of bullocks were posted for me at convenient intervals and I arrived at Gundalur, a distance of a hundred and ten miles, in rather more than forty-eight hours. Gundalur is a quiet little village, about eleven miles, from Quambator, but don't suppose I was going to spend my precious three weeks there. All loaded and a pony saddled, let us start. The two white cows and their calves, the mattress and blanket, rolled up and carried on a coolly-said jigari, horsekeeper and a village man with the three guns, while I myself bring up the rear. Over a few plowed fields and past that large banyan tree, the jungle begins. In a small clump of low jungle, on the sloping bank of a broad sandy water-course, the casual passerby would not have perceived a snug and tolerably strong little hut, the white ends of the small branches that were laid over it, and the mixture of foliage, alone revealing the fact to the observant eye of a practised woodman. No praise could be too strong to bestow on the faithful jigari. Had I chosen the spot myself, after a week's survey of the country, it would not have been more happily selected. To the deeply rooted stump of a young tree on the opposite bank, one of the white cows had been made fast by a double cord passed twice around her horns. Nothing remains to be done. The little door is fastened behind me, the prickly Hakesha bows are piled up against it on the outside, and my people are anxious to be off. The poor cow, too, listens with dismay to the retreating footsteps of the party, and has already made some furious plunges to free herself and rejoin the rest of the kind, who have been driven off a nothing loathe toward home. Watch her, how intently she stares along the path by which the people have deserted her. Were it not for the occasional stamp of her foreleg, or the impatient side-toss of the head to keep off the swarming flies, she might be carved out of marble, and now a fearful and anxious gaze up the bed of the nula, and into the thick fringe of mimoso, one ear pricked and the other back alternately, show that instinct has already whispered the warning of impending danger. Another plunge to get loose, and a searching gaze up the path, see her sides heave. Now comes what we want, that deep low. It echoes again among the hills, another and another. Poor wretch, you are hastening your doom, far or near the tiger hears you, under the rock or thicket, where he has lain since morning, sheltered from the scorching sun, his ears flutter as if they were tickled every time he hears that music. His huge green eyes, here to fore half closed, are now wide open, and alas, poor cow, gaze truly enough in thy direction. But he has not stirred yet, and nobody can say in what direction giant death will yet stalk forth. The moon is up, all nature still. The cow, again on her legs, is restless and evidently frightened. Oh, reader, even if you have the soul of a shikari, I despair of being able to convey in words a tithe of the sensations of that solitary vigil. A night like that is to be enjoyed but seldom, a red-letter day in one's existence. Where is the man who has never experienced the poetic influence of a moonlight scene? fancy, then, such a one, as here described. A crescent of low hills, craggy, steep and thickly wooded, around you, on three sides, and above them, again at twenty miles distance, the clear blue outline of the Nigeri hills. In your front the silver sand bed of the dry water course divides the thick and somber jungle with a stream of light till you lose it in the deep shadows at the foot of the hills, all quiet, all still, all bathed in the light of the moon, yourself the only man for miles to come. A solitary watcher, your only companion, the poor cow, who, full of fears and suspicious at every leaf fall, reminds you that a terrible struggle is about to take place within a few feet of your bed, and that there will be noise and confusion when you must be cool and collected. Your little kennel would not be strong enough to resist a determined charge, and you are alone if three good guns are not true friends. Oh, that I could express sounds on paper as music is written in notes. No reader, you must do as I have done, you must be placed in a similar situation to hear and enjoy the terrible roar of a hungry tiger, not from afar off and listened for, but close at hand and unexpected. It was like an electric shock. A moment ago I was dozing off and the cow, long since laid down, appeared asleep. That one roar had not died away among the hills when she had scrambled on her legs and stood with elevated head, stiffened limbs, tail raised and breath suspended, staring full of terror in the direction of the sound. As for the biped, with less noise and even more alacrity, he had grasped his Sam-knock, whose polished barrels just rested on the lower ledge of the little peephole. Perhaps his eyes were as round as saucers and heart beating fast and strong. Now for the struggle, pray heaven that I am cool and calm and do not fire in a hurry, for one shot will either lose or secure my well-earned prize. There he is again, evidently in that rugged, stony water-course which runs parallel and about two hundred yards behind the hut. But what is that? Yes, lightning, two flashes and quick succession, and a cold stream of air is rustling through the half-withered leaves of my ambush. Taking a look to the rear, through an accidental opening among the leaves, it was plain that a storm, or as it would be called at sea, a squall was brewing. An arch of black cloud was approaching from the westward, and the rain descending gave it the appearance of a huge black comb, the teeth reaching to the earth. The moon, half obscured, showed a white mist as far as the rain had reached, then was heard in the puffs of air the hissing of the distant butt approaching downpour, more lightning, then some large heavy drops plashed on the roof, and it was raining cats and dogs. How the scene was changed, half an hour ago, solemn and still and wild, as nature rested unpolluted, undefaced, unmarked by man, sleeping in the light of the moon, all was tranquility. The civilized man lost his idiosyncrasy and its contemplation. Forgot nation, pursuits, creed. He felt that he was nature's child, and adored the God of nature. But the beautiful was now exchanged for the sublime, when that scene appeared lit up suddenly and awfully by lightning, which now momentarily exchanged a sheet of intensely dazzling blue light with a darkness horrible to endure. A light which showed the many streams of water, which now appeared like ribbons over the smooth slabs of rod that lay on the slope of the hills and gave a microscopic accuracy of outline to every object, exchanged as suddenly for a darkness which for the moment might be supposed the darkness of extinction, of utter annihilation, while the crash of thunder overhead rolled over the echoes of the hills. I am the Lord thy God. The storm was at length over, the nula ran dry again, damp and sleepy, with arms folded and eyes sometimes open, but often shut. I kept an indifferent watch, when the cow, struggling on her legs and a groan, brought me to my senses. There they were, it was no dream. A large tiger holding her just behind the ears, shaking her like a fighting dog. By the doubtful light of the watery moon did I calmly and noiselessly run out the muzzle of my rifle. I saw him, without quitting his grip of the cow's neck, leap over her back more than once. She sank to the earth and he lifted her up again. At the first opportunity I pulled trigger. The left hand missed and I tried the right. It went off. Bang! Whether a hanging fire is an excuse or not, the tiger relinquished his hold and was off with a bound. The cow staggered and struggled and in a few seconds fell and with a heavy groan ceased to move. The tiger had killed the cow within a few feet of me and escaped, scatheless. Night after night did I watch for his return. I had almost spared of seeing him again. When one night about eleven o'clock my ears caught the echo among the rocks and then the distant roar, nearer, nearer, nearer, and, oh joy, answered, Tiger and Tigris above all hope coming to recompense me for hundreds of night watchings to balance a long account of weary nights in the silent jungle, in platforms on trees, in huts of leaf and bramble, and in damp pits on the water's edge, all bootless, coming, coming, nearer and nearer. Music nor words, dear reader, can stand me in any stead to convey the sound to you. The first note, like the trumpet of a peacock and the rest, the deepest stoned thunder. Stones and gravel ravelled just behind the hut on the path by which we came and went and a heavy step passed and descended the slope into the nula. I heard the sand crunching under his weight before I dared to look. A little peep! Oh, heavens looming in the moonlight! There he stood, long, sleek as satin, and lashing his tail. He stood stationary, smelling the slaughtered cow. No longer the cautious creeping Tiger I felt how awful a brute he was to offend. I remembered how he had worried a strong cow in half a minute and that, with his weight alone, my poor rickety little citadel would fall to pieces. As if the excitement of the moment was insufficient, the monster gazing down the dry water-course caught sight of his companion, who, advancing up the bed of the nula, stood irresolutely about twenty yards off. The bully, who was evidently the male, after smelling at the head, came round the carcass, making a sort of complacent purring, humming a kind of animal song, and to it he went tooth and nail. As he stood with his two forefeet on the haunch while he tugged and tore out of beefsteak I once more graft old Sam Nock and ran the muzzle out of the little port. The white linen band marked a line behind his shoulders and, rather low, but from the continued motion of his body, it was some moments before I and Finger agreed to pull trigger. Bang! A shower of sand rattled on the dry leaves and a roar of rage and pain satisfied me even before the white smoke, which hung in the still air, had cleared away to show the huge monster writhing and plunging where he had fallen. Either directed by the fire or by some slight noise made in the agitation of the moment, he saw me and, with a hideous yell, scrambled up. The roaring thunder of his voice filled the valley and echoes among the hills answered it with the hootings of tribes of monkeys who, scared out of sleep, sought the highest branches at the sound of the well-known voice of the tyrant of the jungle. I immediately perceived to my great joy that his hindquarters were paralyzed and useless and that all danger was out of the question. He sank down again on his elbows and as he rested his now powerless limbs I saw the blood welling out of a wound in the loins as it shone in the moonlight and trickled off his sleek painted side like globules of quicksilver. As I looked into his countenance I saw all the devil alive there. The will remained. The power only had gone. It was a sight never to be forgotten. With head raised to the full stretch of his neck he glared at me with an expression of such malignity that it almost made me quail. I thought of the native superstition of singeing off the whiskers of the newly killed tiger to lay his spirit and no longer wondered at it. With ears back and a mouth bleeding he growled and roared in fitful uncertainty as if he were trying but unable to measure the extent of the force that had laid him low. Motionless myself, provocation ceased and without further attempt to get on his legs he continued to gaze on me when I slowly lowered my head to the sight and again pulled trigger. This time true to the mark the ball entered just above the breastbone and the smoke cleared off with his death groan. There he lay foot to foot with his victim of last night motionless dead. My first impulse was to tear down the door behind and get a thorough view of his proportions but remembering that his companion, the Tigris had vanished only a short time ago close to the scene of the action I thought it as well to remain where I was so enlarging the windows with my hands I took a long look and then jovially attacked the coffee without reference to noise and fell back on the mattress to sleep or to think the nights work over. At last I have got him his skin will be pegged out tomorrow drying before the tent door. When my people came in the morning they found me seated on the dead tiger Coolies were sent for to carry the beast and I gave the pony his reins all the way back to the tent. Frasiers Magazine Attack of Boonesborough On the 10th of March 1778 Daniel Boone, having been taken prisoner by the Indians was conducted to Detroit where Governor Hamilton himself offered £100 sterling for his ransom but so great was the affection of the Indians for their prisoner that it was positively refused. Boone's anxiety on account of his wife and children was incessant and the more intolerable as he dared not excite the suspicions as captors by any indication of a wish to return home. The Indians were now preparing for a violent attack upon the settlements in Kentucky. Early in June 450 of the choicest warriors were ready to march against Boonesborough painted and armed in a fearful manner. Alarmed at these preparations he determined to make his escape. He hunted and shot with the Indians as usual until the morning of the 16th of June when taking an early start he left Chilacothe and directed his steps to Boonesborough. The distance exceeded 160 miles but he performed it in four days during which he ate only one meal. He appeared before the garrison like one risen from the dead. He found the fortress in a bad state and lost no time in rendering it more capable of defense. He repaired the flanks, gates and posterans, formed double bastions and completed the whole in ten days. On the 8th of August the enemy appeared. The attack upon the fort was instantly commenced and the siege lasted nine days during which an almost incessant firing was kept up. On the 20th of August the enemy retired with a loss of 37 killed and a great many wounded. This affair was highly creditable to the spirit and skill of the pioneers. Thrilling incidents of battle. There is a man now living in East Dicksfield, Oxford County, Maine who actually caught in his mouth a ball discharged from a musket. He was at the battle of Bridgewater in the war of 1812 and while biting off the end of a cartridge for the purpose of loading his gun was struck by a ball which entered on the left side of his face knocking out eight of his teeth cut off the end of his tongue and passed into his throat. He raised it, went to the hospital and stayed out the remainder of his enlistment and returned home with the bullet in his pocket. The New Orleans Picayune, one of whose editors was an eyewitness of the most of the leading battles in Mexico copies the foregoing paragraph and appends to it the following relation. We can relate an incident even more strange than this at the Siege of Monterey in 1846 and while general worst troops were advancing to storm the small fort known as La Soldata a man named Waters an excellent soldier belonging to Ben Macaulay's Rangers caught a large grape shot directly in his mouth. It was fully the size of a hen's egg was rough, uneven in shape and in its course completely carried out the fore-upper teeth of the ranger and part of the jaw or lower teeth as with a chisel split his tongue in twain carried away his palate went through the back of his head and striking a tendon glanced down and lodged under the skin on the shoulder blade where it was extracted by a surgeon and safely placed in the pocket of Waters for future reference. No man thought the wounded ranger would live. He could swallow neither food nor water. We saw him two nights afterward in a room in the Bishop's Palace which had been converted into a hospital sitting bolt upright among the wounded and the dying for the nature of his terrible hurt was such that he could not lie down without suffocating. His face was swollen to more than twice his ordinary size he was speechless of course his wands were only made known by means of a broken slate and pencil endeavoring to extract moisture which might quench the fever and intolerable thirst under which he was suffering. By his side lay young Thomas of Maryland a member of the same company who was mortally wounded the morning after and who was now dying. Wounded men struck that afternoon in worse advance upon the Grand Plaza were constantly being brought in the surgeons were amputating and dressing the hurts of the crippled soldiers by a pale and sickly candlelight and the groans of those in grievous pain added a new horror to the scene which was at best frightful. We recollect perfectly well a poor fellow struck in both legs by a grape shot while advancing up one of the streets he was begging lustily after one of his limbs had been amputated that the other might be spared him on which to hobble through the world. Poor Thomas as a gallant as spirit has ever lived finally breathed his last. We brought waters a fresh cup of water with which Dumois and his wounds and then left the room to catch an hour's sleep but the recollections of that terrible night will not soon be effaced from my memory. The above incident occurred on the night of the 23rd and morning of the 24th of September 1846 during the early part of the month of February following while passing into the old St. Charles in this city we were accosted with a strange voice by a fine-looking man who seemed extremely glad to see us although he had a most singular and unaccountable mode of expressing himself. We recollected the eye as one we had been familiar with but the lower features of the face although in no way disfigured for the life of us we could not make out. Why don't you know me in a mumbling, half-indistinct and forced manner said the man, still shaking our hand vigorously, I'm waters and waters it was in reality looking as well and as healthy as ever without showing the least outward sign that he had ever caught a grape shot in his mouth. A lageria to growth of moustaches completely covered his upper lip and concealed any scar the iron missile might have made. An imperial on his lower lip hid any appearance of a wound at that point and with the exception of his speech there was nothing to show that he had ever received the slightest injury about the face. His tongue which was terribly shattered was still partially benumbed rendering articulation both difficult and tiresome but he assured us he was every day gaining more and more the use of it and in his own words he was soon to be as good as new. It is needless to say that we were glad to see him to meet one we had never expected to encounter again in such excellent light. Anyone who could have seen him sitting in that apartment of the Bishop's palace his face swollen and with a gravity of countenance which would have been ludicrous even to the causing of laughter had it not been for his own precarious situation and the heart-rending scenes would have been equally as much astonished and rejoiced as we were on again so unexpectedly beholding him. A correspondent of the inquirer has sent us the following which is quite as remarkable as either of the foregoing. Very extraordinary incidents have been published lately of shot having been caught in the mouths of soldiers in the course of battle in the war of 1812 and in the Mexican war. But an incident perhaps more remarkable for the coolness of the individual on the occasion occurred at the battle of Fort Drain fought in August 1837 under the command of the late Colonel B.K. Pierce. This was one of the most signal and desperate engagements of the bloody war. The Seminoles under their renowned chief Osceola had taken a very commanding position in an extensive sugar field near the stockade strengthened on the east side by a dense hammock. Three desperate onsets were made during the battle and the enemy were finally driven from the field to the protection of the hammock. During the hottest of the battle a soldier belonging to the detachment under the command of Lieutenant Pickle whose position was a little in advance of the two wings of the name of Jackson having just fired from a tall Indian, not 20 yards distant, which broke through the outer parts of his pantaloons and lodged in his right hand pocket. Feeling the slight sting of the half spent ball, he thrust his hand in his pocket, drew out the bullet, dropped it into the barrel of his musket upon the charge of powder he had just before put in, and then with the unerring aim of a true marksman leveled his adversary was measured upon the ground. The wound was fatal, the warriors survived the shot but a few minutes. The above is one of the many incidents that occurred in the recent war with the Florida Indians which for peril and brave feats on the part of the American soldiers and officers has scarcely ever been equaled. The above incident is stated as it actually occurred. On the night of the 11th of April 1787 the house of a widow in Bourbon County, Kentucky became the scene of a deplorable adventure. She occupied what was called a double cabin in a lonely part of the county. One room was tenanted by the old lady herself together with two grown sons and a widow daughter with an infant. The other room was occupied by two unmarried daughters from the family together with the little girl. The hour was eleven o'clock at night and the family had retired to rest. Some symptoms of an alarming nature had engaged the attention of the young man for an hour before anything of a decided character took place. At length hasty steps were heard in the yard and quickly afterward several loud knocks at the door the young man supposing from the language that some benighted travelers were at the door hastily arose and was advancing to withdraw the bar that secured it when his mother who had long lived upon the frontier and had probably detected the Indian tone in the demand for admission instantly sprang out of bed and ordered her son not to admit them declaring that they were Indians. She continued to listen to the story of the young man who had been advancing their guns which were always charged prepared to repel the enemy. The Indians, finding it impossible to enter under their assumed characters began to thunder at the door with great violence but a single shot from a loophole obliged them to shift the attack to some less exposed point and unfortunately there on this point and by means of several rails taken from the yard fence the door was forced from his hinges and the girls were at the mercy of the savages. One was instantly secured but the eldest defended herself desperately with a knife she had been using at the loom and stabbed one of the Indians to the heart before she was tomahawked. In the meantime the little girl who secured the others ran out into the yard and might have affected her escape had she taken advantage of the darkness and fled but instead of looking to her own safety the terrified little creature ran round the house ringing her hands and crying that her sisters were killed. Just then the child uttered a loud scream followed by a few faint moans and all was silent. Presently the crackling of wood accompanied by a triumph that yelled from the Indians announcing that they had set fire to that division of the house which had been occupied by the daughters and of which they held undisputed possession. The fire was quickly communicated to the rest of the building and it became necessary to abandon it or perish in the flames. The door was thrown open and the old lady supported by her while her daughter carrying her child in her arm and attended by the younger of the brothers ran in a different direction. The blazing roof shed a light over the yard but little inferior to that of day and the savages were distinctly seen awaiting the approach of their victims. The old lady was permitted to reach the style unmolested but in the act of crossing received several balls in her breast and providentially remained unhurt and by extraordinary agility affected his escape. The other party succeeded in reaching the fence unhurt but in the act of crossing were vigorously assailed by several Indians who throwing down their guns rushed upon them with their tomahawks. The young man defended his sister gallantly firing upon the enemy as they approached and then wielding the butt of his rifle with a whole attention upon himself and gave his sister an opportunity of effecting her escape. He quickly fell however under the tomahawks and his enemies and was found at daylight, scalped and mangled in a shocking manner. Of the whole family consisting of eight persons only three escaped. Four were killed upon the swat and one the second daughter carried off as a prisoner. The neighborhood was quickly welcomed and by daylight about thirty men were assembled under the command of Colonel Edwards. A light snow had fallen during the latter part of the night and the Indian trail could be followed at a gallop. It led directly into the mountainous country bordering on the licking and afforded evidences of great hurry and precipitation on the part of the fugitives. Unfortunately a hound had been permitted to follow the whites and as and the scent warm she followed it with eagerness baying loudly and giving the alarm to the Indians. The consequences of this imprudence were soon manifest. The enemy finding the pursuit keen and perceiving the strength of their prisoner began to fail instantly sunk their tomahawks in her head and left her still warm and bleeding upon the snow. As the whites came up she regained strength to wave her hand in token of recognition and appeared desirous of giving them some information with regard to the enemy but her strength was too far gone. Her brother sprang from his horse and endeavored to stop the effusion of blood but in vain. She gave him her hand muttered to some inarticulate words and expired. CHAPTER XIV THRILLING INCIDENT In midwinter, about four years since, says Miss Martinot in her Norway and the Norwegians, a young man named Hunt was sent by his master on an errand about twenty miles to carry provisions to a village in the upper country. The village people asked him for charity to carry three orphaned children on his sledge a few miles on his way to Bergen and to leave them at a house on the road when they would be taken care of until they could be brought from Bergen. He took the little things and saw that the two elder were well wrapped up from the cold. The third he took within his arms and on his knee as he drove, clasping it warm against his shoulder, though say who saw them set off and it is confirmed by one who met the sledge on the road and heard the children prattling to Hunt and Hunt laughing merrily at their little talk. Before they got half way, however, a pack of hungry wolves burst out upon them from a hollow in the thicket to the right of the wood. The beasts followed close to the back of the sledge. Closer and closer the wolves pressed Hunt saw one about to spring at his throat. It was impossible for the horse to go faster than he did, for he went like the wind, so did the wolves. Hunt in desperation snatched up one of the children behind him through it over the back of the sledge. This stopped the pack a little. Hunt galloped the horse but the wolves were soon crowded around again with the blood freezing to their muzzles. It was easier to throw over the second child than the first and Hunt did it. But on came again the infuriated beasts gaunt with hunger and raging like fiends for the prey. It was harder to give up the third, the dumb infant that nestled at his breast, but Hunt was in mortal terror. Again the hot breath of the wolves was upon him. He threw away the infant and saved himself. Away over the snow flew the sledge, the village was reached and Hunt just escaped after all the sacrifice he had made. But he was unsettled and wild, and his talk, for some time, whenever he did speak night or day, was of wolves so fearful had been the effect upon his imagination. Adventures of Reverend Dr. Bacon and his party among the mountains of Persia Dr. Bacon and Reverend Dr. Marsh attempted across from the city of Mosul, on the Tigris, to Orumea, the residence of the Nestorian Christians. On their passage through the Kurdish mountains, they were robbed and narrowly escaped being murdered and were finally forced to return to Mosul. Dr. Bacon, after describing their departure from their beckers, says, I defer to another time the description of our romantic and picturesque passage down the Tigris. By the care of Providence our whole party completed this stage as they had completed the previous and more fatiguing ones in safety and comfortable health. We arrived in Mosul on the 16th of May in seven days from Dr. Bacon, and immediately set about making preparations for continuing our journey into the mountains. The engaging of mules, the hiring of servants and the preparation of provisions detained us in Mosul until Wednesday the 21st of May. The meantime was spent by us visiting the excavations on the opposite side of the river. In the mound of Kojecek we followed our guide through a labyrinth of narrow corridors, lighted dimly by occasional openings in the firm clay overhead. Some of the sculptures were described to Mr. Layard's volumes. Others have been since unearthed and some most interesting galleries had just been left by the picks of the workmen. Time at present does not permit to describe them, but I may mention as among the most interesting of the recent discoveries, a succession of slabs carved with a representation of the original transportation of the great winged bulls which adorned the stately entrances of the palaces of Dennis and Sardinopolis. A collection of small inscribed stones has also been found, supposed to contain public records and, about a day or two ago, the workmen brought in the report of new and still grander sculptures just discovered. We had expected to start on Wednesday at sunrise, but various petty hindrances detained us until late in the afternoon. We then united in prayer with the family in whose cares, anxieties and dangers we had shared through so many weary weeks and hastened to our saddles. Passing the Tigris by a rude ferry we rode in the setting by the once mysterious mounds of Coy and Jet. The reapers who were still busy within the grassy walls of fallen Nineveh came up to us as we passed with their sickles on their heads to present the offerings of the first fruits of harvest. We hurried on, however, and stopped for the night at a small village a little more than an hour from the gate of Mosul. On the third day they reached the town of Akra, among the mountains, where they were obliged to stay waiting for the Kurdish muleteers. They performed the sabbath service in a cavern of the mountain which the native Christians had fitted up as a secret chapel. Leaving Akra on Monday morning, the 26th of May, they entered the most dangerous part of the mountains. Mr. B. says, we spent this day's nooning by a spring that bursts out near the top of a steep mountain and ate our dinner under a tree that distilled upon the rocks some. Mounting again at two o'clock in half an hour we reached the summit, once we looked down a giddy descent upon the swift but winding zab. Here it became necessary to leave our animals and work our way down the most precipitous road while the mules slid, scrambled and tumbled after us as best they might. As I was pushing on a little in advance of the party, I was met in a narrow turn of the path an old bearded man with a dagger in his girdle, who reached out his hand toward me. I was uncertain at first how to understand it, but his only object was to press my hand to his lips with a fervent salam alaykum peace be with you, to which I responded according to usual form alaykum salam with you be peace. Meeting with others of his party they asked us if we were Nazarenes, Christians and saluted us with the same respect, going some distance back on their path with us to show us a cool water spring. They then went their ways and we saw them no more, but I shall not easily forget the satisfaction which they showed in recognizing us as fellow believers here in the land of the infidel and the kindness with which they went out of their way to offer us a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple. That night they spent on the banks of the river Zab. The next day after traversing a wild pass hemmed in by perpendicular rocks more than a thousand feet in height, they reached the village of Bizet and a valley of the mountains and secured a house top for the night. About the middle of the night Mr. Marsh was waked by a slight noise and lifting his head saw a party of five or six armed men creeping stealthily toward our roof which on the side toward the hill on which they were was only four or five feet from the ground. The foremost man stopped short for a moment at Mr. Marsh's movement and turning to his followers called Quajalla the gentleman. Then seeing that our old guard was asleep at the stepping stone he climbed upon the roof at another corner and stood for a moment with his long gun at his side. Mr. Marsh raised himself upon his arm and demanded in Arabic what do you want. The man probably did not understand the language at any rate he made no answer but turned to the old man and conversed earnestly with him in a low tone. The other men gathered near them as if to listen and take part but they all finally went away without doing any mischief. The next morning the sentinel who had kept watch over their baggage attempted to dissuade them from going the direct road as the people of the next village had heard of their coming and were determined to kill them. However they kept on and in the course of two or three hours their guide was stopped by a company of six armed men. The place was admirably chosen for the purpose the narrow path along the cliff by which we had come here widened into a little platform large enough for our mules to stand upon together. In front of us a ledge of broken rocks jetted from the mountain and ran down crossing our path and leaving only a very small passage. In front of this path stood our challengers. Six worse looking men whether in form, address or feature it would be difficult to imagine. Each man wore around his high conical felt hat a turban of handkerchiefs of every hue and texture. In his hand a long gun with short and narrow breach and in his belt the British curved and two-edged dagger. The leader of the gang was a man of middle age with black eyes and a grizzly untrimmed beard and with half his front teeth knocked out. After some discussion the robbers consented to allow them to pass on the payment of fifty piazzters two dollars and a half which they agreed to do provided they were conducted to the house of the aga. The robbers objected to this and provoked by the delay leveled their guns at the party. At this juncture the chief mulleteer advanced the necessary money and they were spared. These transactions from the time we were stopped occupied about an hour. We now passed with our ragged regiments straggling around us now with their long guns under our ears and now cutting off the long bends of our crooked and little used path. In about ten minutes from the pass we were hailed to the party, posted upon a hillside and a discussion of many minutes ensued between them and our escort in which our Kurdish mulleteers took an active part. The result was that we moved on with an addition of two men to our guard. We soon began to perceive that we were going toward the aga rather as prisoners than as guests. The castle, if it may be dignified by the name, which was now in sight was of a promising appearance. It was a rude rectangular building with a small white tower at one corner on which the workmen were still engaged. It was situated on the side of a hill which formed the head of a valley opening into the ravine we had just left. The small windows and the roof were crowded with men, women and children gazing at our singular cavalcade. As we drew near some women who were bathing at us with irrepressible curiosity. We stopped at the door of the castle. Here the assault began. The men of our guard flew like savage dogs at our servants. Kurdur and Abulad seized the arms which were girded about them, slashing furiously with their daggers to cut the straps of their guns and pistols. The turbans were torn from their heads and appropriated among the rabble. Similar violence was shown us when these operations were suddenly interrupted by the appearance from the castle of Melul Agha. He was a man taller by several inches than any of his tribe and with an expression of face which was that of one accustomed to be obeyed. He was dressed in a more elegant style than could have been expected in these mountains wearing upon his head a turban of grey silk and a long rifle slung from his shoulders with a melodramatic wave of his hand which was at once obeyed. He motioned his noisy tribe to desist and approaching us pointed out a tree a few hundred feet up the hill to which we might retire. As we moved along toward this spot a grim suspicion of his intentions crossed our minds. Might it not be for convenience in dispatching us that we had been removed? We seated ourselves quietly in the shade and watched the proceedings. The property of the Meluteers and donkey drivers had been unloaded and placed by itself. One of our loads had been thrown from the Melul and the other was now brought near us taken from the animal and laid under a neighboring tree. Mr. Marsh now went down toward the castle to assist Gundor in bringing the rest of our property toward the tree. This done, Kunder returned to the crowd to learn what he could of their intentions. Gundor came back to us in evident terror and said with a significant motion of his hand that they were intending to kill us. After sending the servant a second time he came back with the announcement that the aga would examine their baggage, take what he pleased and send them on to another aga but would not allow them to return to Mosul. This examination was soon made and the party was plundered of one thousand piasters for dollars besides razors, knives, and a quantity of clothing. The whole affair was conducted with a politeness of manner which was highly creditable to the aga and calculated to put us very much at our ease. He showed himself in everything as mild a mannered man as ever scuttled a ship or cut a throat. For instance, in searching our trunk his eye was caught by a small sealed parcel which I supposed to contain jewelry. I immediately told him through a servant that it was not mine but had been given to me in America to be delivered in Europe. He immediately put it down and proceeded with the search. During these operations several women, some from curiosity, others from pity, had gathered around us. Among the latter class was one who from her dress, beauty, and demeanor could be no other aga. She was dressed in a faded but once magnificent robe and trousers of silk and wore upon her head a massive and elaborately carved ornament of silver. She moved among the fierce and bloodthirsty savages with an air of mingled scorn and anxiety reproaching them with the shame of the transaction and pleading earnestly that our lives and property be spared. She warned them also that our lives would inevitably be visited upon their heads. Having finished his search, the aga with the old men of the tribe gathered on a ledge of rocks just behind us and consulted long and earnestly. We sat down and dined with what appetite we could muster. After the robbers had come to their decision a second search of the baggage took place which Mr. Bacon thus describes. The pressure of greater and more important dangers made me quite resigned to such petty losses as these and I watched with much amusement the appropriation of unusual articles. A black silk cravat which had seen much service in New Haven drawing rooms was twisted about the suspicious looking head of an uncommonly dirty boy. A pair of heavy writing boots were transferred to the shoulders of a youth who bore the gallows mark upon his features of unmistakable distinctness. A satin vest of Mr. Marshes was circulating through the crowd on the person of a dirty child who boasted no other wealth but a ragged shirt and a green pomegranate. I looked at the youngster with a smile of congratulation but he turned upon his heel and strutted gravely away his new garment trailing on the ground at every step. Having lightened our baggage considerably at this fall, they proceeded to search our persons. It had been our first movement on being placed by ourselves to transfer our watches together with a locket, all priceless memorials of distant or departed friends, from the waistcoat to the pantaloom's fob, a pocket compass attached to my watchguard was cared for, likewise the little notebook in which I was accustomed to place the map of each day's journey. We knew not how soon we might be in the mountains on foot and without a guide. Dr. Bacon had with him two English sovereigns and we were uncertain what to do with them. If we should openly give them to the robbers, we dreaded the effect of the Ari Sacra Thamis. If discovered in a secret place, we might be stripped in the search for more. The attempt to conceal them in the earth might be perilous. They were finally placed in the waistcoat fob from which the watch had been taken, with the hope that the clumsy curds might overlook it. They began with me. The aga with an irresistible smile and bow of apology passed his hands about my waist, feeling for a money belt, then over my dress, finding that one of my britches pocket was full, he motioned me to empty it and seemed satisfied when I drew out a handkerchief and a pair of gloves. Dr. Bacon was then searched even more superficially, but as the hand passed over the waistcoat pocket, something jingled. I held my breath as Dr. B. put in his hand and drew out a seal which he had bought a mozul as an antique. Upon Mr. Marsh, the aga found a gold pencil case which pleased him wonderfully. On being told of its use, he scrawled with the pencil on the Bayerada, an autograph for which I have a peculiar value. The mystery of this was that he restored the pencil with a grin of self-righteousness to Mr. Marsh. After waiting some time in suspense, the travelers were suffered to leave in charge of a Kurdish guard. It soon became evident that we were not on the road to Orumiye. Whether we were going was a matter of painful mystery. At the distance of more than a mile as we passed a village, a single Christian, a man of Akra came out in a crowd of curious villagers to offer his sympathy. As each of us passed him, he bowed with his head to the ground and with the strongest expression of regard urged us to remain with him there as he would guarantee our safety. It was not for us, however, to say and we pressed forward, but Kunder soon brought us the intelligence which he had obtained here that we were being led to the village of Amula, a very holy man under whose protection we might feel entirely secure. He added that toward Orumiye it would be quite impossible to go. Our only escape was toward Mosul. The Mullah received them kindly, entertained them a day in his house where all the diseased persons in the neighborhood were brought for them to cure and started with them early on the morning of the 30th of May to accompany them on their way back to Mosul. On reaching a village toward noon a scene took place which is of so much interest that we give Mr. Bacon's account of it in full. We were assisted from our horses by a remarkably ill looking set of men whom we supposed to have come out to see us from curiosity an unprepossessing young gentleman with a scar that divided his nose and his upper lip and a silver mounted dagger took a seat near the Mullah and a violent discussion immediately commenced of the drift of which we were happily ignorant. Soon another party of villagers appeared headed by another young man who was quite the counterpart of the first even to the scar in his lip but his dagger hilt and sheath were of solid silver set with precious stones and the long ringlets which hung upon his shoulders were still more daintily curled. The arrival of this reinforcement renewed the violence of the discussion between the Mullah on one side and the young men on the other. It plainly related to us and the fierce looks of the Kurds as they walked to and fro with their hands on their daggers would have alarmed us had we not had full confidence in the power and goodwill of our friend. The controversy had a good deal subsided when the approach of still another party renewed it once more. The aga himself he was a man of fifty years with a once grey beard dyed a bright red and with his lower eyebrow stained a livid blue black. He greeted us with a ferocious smile and entered at once into earnest conversation with Mullah Mustafa. The conversation was interrupted now and then by one of his amiable sons leaping from his seat and speaking violently to the great apparent satisfaction of the crowd. We soon learned the nature of these discussions from Qudar who had been an attentive and agitated listener to the whole. The respectable old gentleman it seems had sent his first son to murder us placing the second at a convenient distance to assist him. The latter surprised that the business lagged came up to see to it and the aga himself finding that business lagged came finally to attend to himself. The Mullah urged the danger of injuring persons of consequence. The sword of the Frank is long said he but this argument was without effect. Mustafa then appealed to him not to disgrace his hospitality. These men were under his own protection and he would not see them wrong. This argument also failed. He now urged that we were men of influence at Muzul and were going direct to Muzul that by securing our influence against his colleague and rival Melul Aga he might secure a perpetual supremacy in the district of Siarwan. This plea gained the case. The eyes of the old savage glistened with diabolical satisfaction as he thought of the villainous trick he was about to play upon his rival. He drew from his bosom a letter and handed it to the Mullah who read it and handed it to our friend. It was written by Melul Aga to Khan Abdul our present host directing him to take the rest of our property and murder us without fail. This letter had been written on the blank page of another letter sent to Melul Aga by Mustafa Aga of Ziba who resides at Acre. It was the last scoundrel who had sent letters in advance of us into the mountains inviting them to murder us and this all for the sake of making a little impression on the government at Melul. After these, her breath escapes from murder, the party returned in safety to Melul. End of section 14 Section 15 of Thriiling Adventures by Land and Sea by James O. Brayman this Libervox recording is in the public domain. Section 15 Since the exhibitions in London of the two Hindu snake charmers the first we believe, whoever visited Europe everything relating to serpents seems to have acquired additional interest. Many facts regarding the nature and habits of the various species have been published according much information and still greater astonishment. Waterton in his Wanderings in South America and the Antilles in 1812-24 relates some stories of so marvellous a character that coming from a less authentic source their truth might be reasonably doubted. While in the region of Meabree Hill Mr. Waterton long sought in vain for a serpent of large size and finally offered a reward to the negroes if they would find him one. A few days afterward one of the natives followed by his little dog came to him with the information that a snake of respectable dimensions had been discovered a short distance up the hill and armed with an eight feet lance and accompanied by two negroes with cutlasses and the dog he had once departed to take a look at it. Mr. Waterton states that he was barefoot with an old hat, check-shirt and trousers on and a pair of braces to keep them up. His snakeship was pointed out as lying at the roots of a large tree which had been torn up by a whirlwind but the remainder of the story shall be given in the traveller's own words. I advanced up to the place slow and cautious the snake was well concealed but at last I made him out. It was a culla canada not poisonous but large enough to have crushed any of us to death. On measuring him afterward he was something more than 14 feet long. This species of snake is very rare and much thicker in proportion to its length than any other snake in the forest. A culla canada of 14 feet in length is as thick as a common boa of 24 feet. After skinning this snake I could easily get my head into his mouth as the singular formation of the jaws admits a wonderful extension. On ascertaining the size of the serpent I retired slowly the way I came and promised four dollars to the negro who had shown it to me and one dollar to the other who had joined us. Aware that the day was on the decline and that the approach of night would be detrimental to the dissection a thought struck me that I could take him alive. I imagined that if I could strike him with the lance behind the head and pin him to the ground I might succeed in capturing him. When I told this to the negroes they begged and entreated me to let them go for a gun and bring more force as they were sure the snake would kill some of us. Taking however a cutlass from one of the negroes and then ranging both the sable slaves behind me I told them to follow me and that I would cut them down if they offered to fly. When we got up to the place the serpent had not stirred but I could see nothing of his head judged by the folds of his body that it must be at the farthest side of the den. A species of woodbine formed a complete mantle over the branches of the fallen tree almost impervious to the rain or the rays of the sun. Probably he had resorted to this sequestered place for a length of time as it bore marks of an ancient settlement. I now took my knife determined to cut away the woodbine and the twigs in the gentlest manner possible till I could get a view of his head. One negro stood to guard close behind me with the cutlass. The cutlass which I had taken from the first negro was on the ground close beside me in case of need. After working in dead silence for a quarter of an hour with one knee all the time on the ground I had cleared away enough to see his head. The second coils of his body and was flat on the ground. This was the very position I wished it to be in. I rose in silence and retreated very slowly making a sign to the negroes to do the same. The dog was sitting at a distance in mute observance. I could now read in the faces of the negroes that they considered this a very unpleasant affair and they made another vain attempt to persuade me to let them go for a gun. They were very mild and a good natured manner and made a faint to cut them down with the weapon I had in my hand. This was all the answer I made to their request and they looked very uneasy. It must be observed that we were about 20 yards from the snake's den. I now arranged the negroes behind me and told him who stood next to me to lay hold of the lance the moment I struck the snake and that the other must attend and only remain to take their cutlasses from them for I was sure that if I did not disarm them they would it be tempted to strike the snake in time of danger and thus forever spoil his skin. On taking their cutlasses from them if I might judge from their physiognomy they seemed to consider it as a most intolerable act of tyranny. Probably nothing kept them from bolting but the consolation that I was betwixt to them and the snake. Indeed my own heart in spite of all I could do beat quicker than usual. We went slowly on in silence without moving our arms or heads in order to prevent all alarm as much as possible lest the snake should glide off or attack us in self-defense. I carried the lance perpendicularly before me with the point about a foot from the ground. The snake had not moved and on getting up to him the lance on the near side just behind the neck and pinned him to the ground. That moment the negro next to me seized the lance and held it firm in its place while I dashed head foremost into the den to grapple with the snake and to get hold of his tail before he could do any mischief. On pinning him to the ground with the lance he gave a tremendous loud hiss and the little dog ran away howling as he went. He and the den at the rotten sticks flying on all sides and each party struggling for superiority. I called out to the second negro to throw himself upon me as I found I was not heavy enough. He did so and the additional weight was of great service. I had now got a firm hold of his tail and after a violent struggle or two he gave in finding himself overpowered. This was the moment to secure him so while the first negro continued to hold the lance firmly to the ground and the other was helping me I contrived to unloosen my braces and with them tied the snake's mouth. The snake now finding himself in an unpleasant predicament tried to better himself and set resolutely to work but we overpowered him. We contrived to make him twist himself round the shaft of the lance and then prepared to convey him out of the forest. I lifted his head and held it firm under my arm one negro supporting the belly and the other the tail. In this order we began to move slowly toward home and reached it after resting ten times for the snake was too heavy for us to support without stopping to recruit our strength. As we proceeded onward with him he fought hard for freedom but it was all in vain. We untied the mouth of the bag kept him down by main force and then cut his throat. The week following a curious conflict took place near the spot where I had captured the large snake. In the morning I had been following a species of paraquette and the day being rainy I had taken an umbrella to keep the gun dry and had left it under a tree. In the afternoon I took Daddy Quashy the negro with me to look for it. While he was searching about the loss that he led me toward the place of the late scene of action there was a path where Timber had formerly been dragged along. Here I observed a young culla canada ten feet long slowly moving onward and I saw he was thick enough to break my arm in case he got twisted around it. There was not a moment to be lost. I laid hold of his tail with the left hand one knee being on the ground and with the right hand I took off my hat and held it as I would hold a shield for defense. The snake instantly turned and came on at me with his head about a yard from the ground as if to ask me what business I had to take such liberties with his tail. I let him come hissing and open mouthed within two feet of my face and then with all the force that I was master of drove my fist shielded by my hat in his jaws. He was stunned and confounded by the blow and ere he could recover himself I had seized his throat with both hands in such a position that he could not bite me. I then allowed him to coil himself around my body and marched off with him as my lawful prize. He pressed me hard but not alarmingly so. As Steel's defeat in the spring of 1782 a party of 25 Wyandots secretly approached Steel's station and committed shocking outrages. Entering a cabin they tomahawked and scalped a woman and her two daughters. The neighborhood was instantly alarmed. Captain Steel speedily collected a body of 25 men and pursued the hostile trail with great rapidity. He came up with the savages on the Hinkston Fork of Licking immediately after they had crossed it and a most severe and desperate conflict ensued. Steel, unfortunately, sent six of his men under Lieutenant Miller to attack the enemy's rear. The Indian leader immediately availed himself of this diminution of force, rushed upon the weakened line of his adversaries and compelled him to give way. A total rout ensued. Captain Steel was killed together with his gallant Lieutenant South. Four men were wounded and fortunately escaped. Nine fell under the tomahawk and were scalped. The Indians also suffered severely and are believed to have lost half of their warriors. Incident at Niagara Falls On Saturday the 13th of July 1850 as a boy 10 years old was rowing his father over to their home on Grand Island the father being so much intoxicated as not to be able to assist anymore than to steer the canoe, the wind which was very strong offshore so frustrated the efforts of his tiny arm that the canoe in spite of him got into the current and finally into the rapids within a very few rods of the falls. On went the frail shell careering and plunging as the mad waters chose. Still the gallant little oarsmen maintained his struggle with the raging waves and actually got the canoe by his persevering maneuvering so close to Iris Island as to have her driven by a providential wave in between the little islands called the sisters. Here the father and his dauntless boy were in still greater danger for an instant for there is a fall between the two islands over which had they gone no earthly power could have withheld their final passage to the terrific precipice which forms the horseshoe fall. But the sudden dash of a wave capsized the canoe and left the two struggling in the water. Being near a rock and shallow the boy lost no time but seizing his father by the coke-caller dragged him up to a place of safety where the crowd of anxious citizens awaited to lend assistance. The poor boy on reaching the shore in safety instantly fainted while his considerable father was sufficiently sobered by the perils he had passed through. The canoe was dashed to pieces on the rocks ere it reached its final leap. A skater chased by a wolf. A thrilling incident in American country life is vividly sketched in evenings at Donaldson Manor. In the winter of 1844 the relator went out one evening to skate on the Kennebec in Maine moonlight and having ascended that river nearly two miles turned into a little stream to explore its course. For her and Hemlock of a century's growth, he says, met overhead and formed an archway radiant with frost work. All was dark within but I was young and fearless and as I peered into an unbroken forest that reared itself on the borders of the stream I laughed with very joyousness. My wild hurrah rang through the silent woods and I stood listening to the echo that reverberated again and again until all was hushed. Suddenly a sound arose it seemed to me to come from beneath the ice. It sounded low and tremulous at first until it ended in a low wild yell. I was appalled. Never before had such a noise met my ears. I thought it more than mortal so fierce and amid such an unbroken solitude it seemed as though from the tread of some brute animal and the blood rushed back to my forehead with a bound that made my skin burn and I felt relieved that I had to contend with things earthly and not spiritual. My energies returned and I turned around me for some means of escape. As I turned my head to the shore I could see two dark objects dashing through the underbrush at a pace nearly double in speed to my own. By this rapidity and the short yells they occasionally gave I knew at once that these were the much dreaded gray wolf. I had never met with these animals but from the description given of them I had very little pleasure in making their acquaintance. Their untameable fierceness and the enduring strength which seems part of their nature were the same objects of dread to every benighted traveler. There was no time for thought so I bent my head and dashed madly forward. Nature turned me toward home. The light flakes of snow spun from the iron skates and I was some distance from my pursuers when their fierce howl told me I was their fugitive. I did not look back. I did not feel afraid or sorry or even glad. One thought the bright faces waiting my return of their tears if they should never see me again and then every energy of body and mind was exerted for escape. I was perfectly at home on the ice. Many were the days I had spent on my good skates never thinking that at one time they would be my only means of safety. Every half minute an alternate yelp from my ferocious followers told me too certain that they were in close pursuit. Nearer and nearer they came. I heard their feet pattering on the ice nearer still until I could feel their breath and hear their sniffling scent. Every nerve and muscle in my frame was stretched to the utmost tension. The trees along the shore seemed to dance in the uncertain light and my brain turned with my own breathless speed yet still they seemed to hiss forth their breath with a sound and involuntary motion on my part turned me out of my course. The wolves close behind unable to stop and as unable to turn on the smooth ice slipped and fell still going on far ahead. Their tongues were lolling out their white tusks glaring from their bloody mouths. Their dark shaggy breasts were fleeced with foam and as they passed me their eyes glared and they howled with fury. I flashed on my mind that by these means I could avoid them this by turning aside whenever they came to near for they by the formation of their feet were unable to run on the ice except in a straight line. At one time by delaying my turning too long my sanguinary antagonists came so near that they threw the white foam over my dress as they sprang to seize me and their teeth clashed together in the spring of a fox trap. Had my skates failed for an instant had I tripped on a stick or caught my foot in a fissure in the ice the story I am now telling would never have been told. I thought over all the chances I knew where they would take hold of me if I fell. I thought how long it would be before I died and then there would be a search for the body that would already have its doom for oh how fast is out all the dread colors of death's picture only those who have been so near the grim original can tell. But I soon came opposite the house and my hounds I knew their deep voices roused by the noise bade furiously from the kennels. I heard their chains rattle how I wished they would break them and then I would have protectors that would be pure to the fiercest denizens of the wolves taking the hint conveyed by the dogs stopped in their mad career and after a moment's consideration turned and fled. I watched them until their dusky forms disappeared over a neighboring hill. Then taking off my skates I winded my way to the house with feelings which may be better imagined than described. But even yet I never see a broad sheet of ice in the moonshine without thinking of death and those fearful things that followed me closely down the frozen Kennebec. Our Flag on the Rocky Mountains We find the following incident of placing the American flag on the highest point of the Rocky Mountains in Colonel Fremont's narrative. We managed to get our mules up to a little bench about a hundred feet above the lakes where there was a patch of good grass on our rough ride to this place they had exhibited a wonderful sure-footedness. Parts of the defile were filled with angular sharp fragments of rock three or four and eight or ten feet cube and among these they had worked their way leaping from one narrow point to another, rarely making a false step and giving us no occasion to dismount. Having divested ourselves of every unnecessary encumbrance ascent. This time like experienced travelers we did not press ourselves but climbed leisurely, sitting down so soon as we found breath beginning to fail. At intervals we readied places where a number of springs gushed from the rocks and about eighteen hundred feet above the lakes came to the snowline. From this point our progress was uninterrupted climbing. Hitherto I had worn a pair of thick moccasins with soles of parflesh but here I put on a light thin pair which I had brought for the purpose as now the use of our toes became necessary to a further advance. I availed myself of a sort of comb of the mountain which stood against the wall like a buttress and which the wind and the solar radiation joined to the steepness of the smooth rock had kept almost entirely up this I made my way rapidly. Our cautious method of advancing at the outset had spared my strength and with the exception of a slight disposition to headache I felt no remains of yesterday's illness. In a few minutes we reached a point where the buttress was overhanging and there was no other way of surmounting the difficulty than by passing around one side of it which was the face of the hill hundred feet. Putting hands and feet in the crevices between the blocks I succeeded in getting over it and when I reached the top found my companions in a small valley below. Descending to them we continued climbing and in a short time reached the crest. I sprang upon the summit and another step would have precipitated me into an immense snow field five hundred feet below. To the edge of this field was a sheer icy precipice and then with a gradual fall the field sloped off for about a mile until it struck the foot of another lower ridge. I stood on a narrow crest about three feet in width with an inclination of about twenty degrees north, fifty-one degrees east. As soon as I had gratified the first feelings of curiosity I descended and each man descended in his turn, for I would only allow one at a time to mount the unstable and precarious slab which it seemed a breath would hurl into the abyss below. We mounted the barometer in the snow of the summit and fixing a ramrod in a crevice unfurled the national flag to wave in the breeze where flag never waved before. During our mornings as sent we had met no signs of life except a small sparrow like bird. A stillness the most profound and a terrible solitude forced themselves constantly on the mind as the great features of the place. Here on the summit where the stillness was absolute, unbroken by any sound and solitude complete we thought ourselves beyond the region of animated life. But while we were sitting on the rock a Bromus the humble bee came winging his flight from the eastern valley and lit on the knee of one of the men. It was a strange place the icy rock and the highest peak of the rocky mountains for a lover of warm sunshine and flowers and we pleased ourselves with the idea that he was the first of his species to cross the mountain barrier, a solitary pioneer to foretell the civilization. I believe that a moment's thought would have made us let him continue his way unarmed. But we carried out the law of this country where all animated nature seems at war and seizing him immediately put him in at least a fit place in the leaves of a large book among the flowers we had collected on our way. Running the canyon. Colonel Fremont in his narrative gives the following account of a perilous adventure of himself and party in attempting to run a canyon on the river plant. They had previously passed three cataracts. We re-embarked at nine o'clock and in about twenty minutes reached the next canyon. Landing on a rocky shore at its commencement we ascended the ridge to Reconnoiter. Portage was out of the question. So far as the winding line of seven or eight miles it was simply a narrow dark chasm in the rock and here the perpendicular faces were much higher than in the previous pass being at this end two to three hundred and further down as we afterward ascertained five hundred feet in vertical height. Our previous success had made us bold and we determined again to run the canyon. Everything was secured as firmly as possible and having divested ourselves of the greater part of our clothing we pushed into the stream. To save our chronometer from accident Mr. Preuss took it and attempted to proceed along the shore on the masses of rock which in places were piled up on either side. But after he had walked about five minutes everything like shore disappeared and the vertical wall came squarely down into the water. He therefore waited until we came up. An ugly pass lay before us. We had made fast to the stern of the boat a strong rope about fifty feet long and three of the men clambered along among the rocks and with this rope let her slowly through the pass. In several places high rocks I scattered about in the channel and in the narrows it required all our strength and skill to avoid staving the boat on the sharp ends. In one of these the boat proved a little too broad and stuck fast for an instant while the water flew over us. Fortunately it was but for an instant as our united strength forced her immediately through. The water swept overboard only a sextant and a pair of saddlebags. I caught the sextant as it passed by me but the saddlebags became the prey of the whirlpools. We reached the place where Mr. Price was standing, took him on board and with the aid of the boat put the men with the rope on the succeeding pile of rocks. We found this passage much worse than the previous one and our position was rather a bad one. To go back was impossible. Before us the cataract was a sheet of foam and shut up in the chasm by the rocks which in some places seemed almost to meet overhead the roar of the water was coming. We pushed off again but after making a little distance the force of the current became too great for the men on shore and two of them let go the rope. La Genessa, the third man hung on and was jerk head foremost into the river from a rock about twelve feet high and down the boat shot like an arrow, Bazille following us in the rapid current and exerting all his strength to keep in med channel. We were only seen occasionally like a black spot in the white foam. How far we went I do not exactly know but we succeeded in turning the boat into an eddy below. Cretier, said Bazille La Genessa, as he arrived immediately after us Je crois bien que je nage un demi-mile. He had owed his life to his skill as a swimmer and I determined to take him and to explore and trust to skill and fortune to reach the other end in safety. We placed ourselves on our knees with the short paddles in our hands, the most skillful boatman being at the bow, and again we commenced our rapid descent. We cleared rock after rock and shot past fall after fall our little boat seeming to play with a cataract. We became flushed with success and familiar with danger and the excitement of the occasion broke forth into a Canadian boat song. Singing, or rather shouting, we dashed along and were I believe in the midst of the chorus when the boat struck a concealed rock immediately at the foot of a fall which whirled her over in an instant. Three of my men could not swim and my first feeling was to assist them and save some of our effects, but a sharp concussion or two convinced me that I had not yet saved myself. A few strokes brought me into an eddy and I landed on a pile of rocks at the left side. Looking round I saw that Mr. Price had gained the shore on the same side about twenty yards below and a little climbing and swimming soon brought him to my side. On the opposite side, against the wall lay the boat, bottom up, and Lambert was in the act of saving Descoteau whom he had grasped by the hair and who could not swim. For a hundred yards below the current was covered with floating books and boxes, bales and blankets and scattered articles of clothing and so strong and boiling was the stream that even our heavy instruments which were all in cases kept on the surface and the sextant circle and the long black box of the telescope were in view at once. For a moment I felt somewhat frightened. All our books, almost every record of the journey, our journals and registers of astronomical and barometrical observations had been lost in a moment. But it was no time to indulge in regrets and I immediately set about endeavouring to save something from the wreck. Making ourselves understood as well as possible by signs, for nothing could be heard in the roar of the waters we commenced our operations on board, the only article that had been saved was my double-barreled gun, which Descoteau had caught and clung to with drowning tenacity. The men continued down the river on the left bank. Mr. Preus and myself descended on the side we were on and La Genessa with a paddle in his hand jumped on the boat alone and continued down the canyon. She was now light and cleared every bad place with much less difficulty. In a short time he was joined by Lambert and the search was continued for about a mile and a half which was as far as the boat could proceed in the pass. Here the walls were about five hundred feet high and the fragments of rocks from above had choked the river into a hollow pass but one or two feet above the surface. Through this and the interstices of the rock the water found its way. Favoured beyond our expectations all our registers had been recovered with the exception of one of my journals which contained the notes and incidents of travel and topographical descriptions, a number of scattered astronomical observations principally meridian altitudes of the sun and our barometrical register West of Laramie. Fortunately our other journals contained duplicates of the most important barometrical observations. In addition to these we saved the circle and these with a few blankets constituted everything that had been rescued from the waters. End of Section 15 Section 16 of Thrilling Adventures by Land and Sea by James O'Breyman. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain Section 16 The Rescue A young girl had been captured when all the males of the household were absent hunting wolves. She is seized by the Indians and born swiftly away to the encampment of a war party of the Osages. She is then placed in a land canoe and hurried rapidly forward toward their villages. Among the party she recognizes one whose life she had been instrumental in saving when a prisoner. He recognizes her and promises to assist her escape. At this point the following narrative is. At a late and solemn hour the Indian who had been the captive the night before suddenly ceased his snoring which had been heard without intermission for a great length of time and when Mary instinctively cast her eyes toward him she was surprised to see him gently and slowly raise his head. He enjoined silence by placing his hand upon his mouth. After carefully disengaging himself from his comrades he crept quietly away and soon vanished entirely from sight on the northern side of the spreading beach. Mary expected he would soon return and assist her to escape. Although she was aware of the hardships and perils that would attend her flight yet the thought of again meeting her friends was enough to nerve her for the undertaking and she awaited with anxious impatience the coming of her rescuer. But he came not. She could attribute no other design in fact but that of effecting her escape and yet he neither came for her nor beckoned her away. She had reposed confidence in his promise for she knew that the Indian savage as he was rarely forfeited to his word but when gratitude inspired a pledge she could not believe that he would use deceit. The fire was now burning quite low and its waning light scarce cast a beam upon the branches overhead. It was evidently not far from morning and every hope of present escape entirely fled from her bosom. But just as she was yielding to despair she saw the Indian returning in a stealthy pace bearing some dark object in his arms. He glided to her side and motioned her to leave the snow canoe and also to take with her all her robes with which she had been enveloped. She did his bidding and then he carefully deposited her in the place she had just occupied. A portion of the object becoming unwrapped Mary discovered it to be a huge mass of snow resembling in some respects a human form and the Indian stratagem was at once apparent to her. Relinquishing herself to his guidance she was led noiselessly through the bushes about a hundred paces distant from the fire to a large fallen tree that had yielded to some serious storm when her conductor paused. He pointed to a spot where a curve caused the tree trunk to rise about a foot from the surface of the snow under which was a round hole cut through the drifted snow down to the earth and in which were deposited several buffalo robes and so arranged that a person could repose within without coming in contact with the frozen element around. Mary looked down and then at her companion to retain his intentions. He spoke to her in a low tone enough of which she comprehended to understand that he desired her to descend into the pit without delay. She obeyed and when he had carefully folded the robes and diverse furs about her body he stepped a few paces to one side and gently lifting up a round lid of snow crust placed it over the aperture. It had been so smoothly cut and fitted with such a decision when replaced that no one would have been able to discover that an incision had been made. He then bid Mary a Dubai in bad English and set off on a run in a northern direction for the purpose of joining the whites. With the first light of morning the war party sprang to their feet and hastily dispatching a slight repast they set out on their journey with renewed animation and increased emotion. Before starting the chief called to Mary and again offered some food but no reply being returned or motion discovered under the robe which he imagined enveloped her he supposed she was sleeping and directed the party to select the most even route when they emerged in the prairie that she might as much as possible enjoy her repose. The Indian who had planned and executed the escape of Mary with the proverbial had told his companions that he would rise before day and pursue the same direction in advance of them and endeavour to kill a deer for their next night's meal. Thus his absence created no suspicion and the party continued their precipitate retreat. But about noon after casting many glances back at the supposed form of the captive reclining peacefully in the snow canoe the chief with much excitement betrayed by his looks which seemed to be mingled with an apprehension that she was dead abruptly ordered the party to hope. He sprang to the canoe and convulsively tearing away the skins discovered only the roll of snow. He at first compressed his lips in momentary rage and then burst into a fit of irrepressible laughter. But the rest raved and stamped and uttered direful implications and threats of vengeance. Immediately they were aware of the treachery of the absent Indian and resolved with one voice that his blood should be in atonement for the act. The snow was quickly thrown out and the war party adjusted their weapons with the expectation of encountering the whites and then whirling about they retraced their steps far more swiftly than they had been advancing. Just as the night was setting in they came inside of the grove where they had encamped. They slackened and, looking eagerly forward, seemed to think it not improbable that the whites had arrived in the vicinity and might be lying in ambush awaiting their return in search of the maid. They then abandoned the canoe after having concealed it under some low bushes and entered the grove in a stooping and watchful posture. Air long the chief attained the immediate neighbor of the spreading tree and with an arrow drawn to his head crept within a radius of the spot where he had lain the preceding night. His party were mostly a few feet in the rear while a few were approaching in the same manner from the opposite direction. Hearing no sound whatever he rose up slowly and with an ug of disappointment strode carelessly across the silent and untenanted dip place of encampment. Vaccation and anger were expressed by the savages and being thus they hoped to reek their vengeance on the whites and resolve to recapture the maiden. Where they expected to find them the scene was silent and desolate and they now sauntered about under the trees in the partial light of the moon that struggled through the matted branches, threatening in the most horrid manner the one who had thus baffled them. Some struck their tomahawks into the trunks of trees while others brandished threats. The young chief stood in silence with his arms folded on his breast. A small ray of light that fell upon his face exhibited a meditative brow and features expressing both firmness and determination. He had said that the captive should be regained and his followers ever and on regarded his thoughtful attitude with the competence that his decision would hasten the accomplishment of their long he remained thus motionless and dignified and no one dared to address him. The young chief called one of the oldest of the party who was standing a few paces distant absorbed in thought to his side and after a short conference the old savage prostrated himself on the snow and endeavored like a hound to set the tracks of his recreational brother. At first he met with no success but his circuit round the premises still applying his nose to the ground occasionally and minutely examining the bushes he paused abruptly and announced to the party that he had found the precise direction taken by the maid and her deliverer. Instantly they all clustered round him eventing the most intense interest. Some smelt the surface of the snow and others examined the bushes. Small twigs, not larger hens were picked up and closely scrutinized. They well knew that anyone passing through the frozen and clustered bushes must inevitably sever some of the twigs and buds. Their progress was slow but unerring. The course they pursued was the direction taken by Mary and her rescuer. It was not long before they arrived within a few feet of the place of the maidens concealment but now they were at fault. There they were immediately around the fallen tree. They paused, the chief in the van, with their bows and arrows and tomahawks in readiness for instant use. They knew that the maiden could not return to her friends on foot or the treacherous savage be able to bear her far on his shoulder. They thought that one or both must be concealed somewhere in the neighborhood and the fallen tree were at hollow to be selected for that purpose. After scanning the fallen trunk a few minutes in silence and discovering nothing to realize their hopes, they uttered a terrific yell and commenced striking their tomahawks in the wood and ripping up the bark in quest of some hiding place. But their search was in vain. The fallen trunk was sound and solid throughout and the young chief sat down on it others in passing about frequently trod on the very verge of the concealed pit. Mary was awakened by the yell but knew not that the sound came from her enemies. The Indian had told her that he would soon return and her heart now fluttered with the hope that her father and her friends were at hand. Yet she prudently determined not to rush from her concealment until she was better assured of the fact. She did not think that the savages would ever suspect that she was hid under the snow but yet she thought it very strange that her father did not come to her at once. Several minutes had elapsed since she had been startled by the sounds in the immediate vicinity. She heard the tramp of men almost directly over her head and the strokes against the fallen trunk. She was several times on the eve of rising up but was as often withheld by some mysterious impulse. She endeavored to reflect calmly but still she could not by any mode of conjecture realize the probability of her foes having returned and traced her thither. Yet an undefinable fear still possessed her and she endeavored with patients to await the pleasure of her friends. But when the chief seated himself in her vicinity and fell into one of his fits of abstraction and the whole party became comparatively still and refreshed, the poor girl's suspense was almost insufferable. She knew that human beings were all around her and yet her situation was truly pitiable and lonely. She felt assured that if the war-party had returned in pursuit of her the means which enabled them to retrace their victim to the fallen trunk would likewise have sufficed to indicate her hiding place. Then why should they hesitate? The yells that awakened her heard distinctly and under the circumstances she could not believe that she was surrounded by savages. On the other hand, if they were her friends, why did they not relieve her? Now a sudden but alas erroneous thought occurred to her. She was persuaded that they were her friends but that the friendly Indian was not with them. He had perhaps directed them where she could be found and then returned to his home. Might not her friends at that moment be anxiously searching for her? Would not one word suffice to dispel their solicitude and restore the lost one to their arms? She resolved to speak. Bowing down her head slightly so that her precise location might not instantly be ascertained, she uttered in a soft voice the word father. The chief sprang from his seat and the party was instantly in motion. Some of the savages looked above, among the twining branches, and some shot their arrows in the snow. But fortunately not in the direction of Mary, while others ran about in every direction examining all the large trees in the vicinity. The chief was amazed and utterly confounded. He drew not forth an arrow nor brandished a tomahawk. While he thus stood and the rest of the party were moving about a few paces distant, Mary again repeated the word father. As suddenly as if by enchantment every savage was paralyzed, each stood as devoid of animation as a statue. For many moments an intense silence reigned, as if not existed there but the cheerless forest trees. Slowly at length the tomahawk was returned to the belt and the quiver. No longer was a desire to spill blood manifested, the dusky children of the forest attributed to the mysterious sound a supernatural agency. They believed it was a voice from the perennial hunting grounds. Humbly they bowed their heads and whispered devotions to the great spirit. The young chief alone stood erect. He gazed at the round moon above him and sighs burst from his burning tears ran down his stained cheek. Impatiently by emotion of the hand he directed the savages to leave him and when they withdrew he resumed his seat on the fallen trunk and reclined his brow upon his hand. One of the long feathers that decked his head waved forward after he had been seated thus a few minutes and when his eye rested upon it he started up wildly and tearing it away trampled it under his feet. At that instant the same father was again heard. The young chief fell upon his knees and while he panted convulsively said in English, Father, Mother, I'm your poor William, you loved me much. Where are you? Oh, tell me, I will come to you. I want to see you. He then fell prostrate and groaned piteously. Father, oh, where are you? Whose voice was speaking through the slight incrustation that obscured her and leaping from her cover? The young chief sprang from the earth, gazed a moment at the maid, spoke rapidly and loudly in the language of his tribe to his party who were now at the place of encampment seated by the fire they had candleled and then seizing his tomahawk was in the act of hurling it at Mary when the yells of the war party and her arms arrested his steel when brandished in the air. The white men had arrived. The young chief seized Mary by her long-flowing hair, again prepared to strike the fatal blow when she turned her face upward and he again hesitated. Discharges in quick succession and nearer than before still rang in his ears. Mary strove not to escape nor did the Indian strike. The whites were rushing through the bushes. The chief seized the trembling girl in his arms, a bullet whizzed by his head. But unmindful of danger he vanished among the dark bushes with his burden. She's gone! She's gone! exclaimed Rough Grove, looking aghast at the vacated pit under the fallen trunk. But we will have her yet said a boon as he heard Glenn discharge a pistol a few paces apart at the bushes. The girl, not from the chief, but sneak, and the next moment the rifle of the latter was likewise heard. Still the Indian was not dispatched for the instant afterward his tomahawk which had been hurled without effect came sailing over the bushes and penetrated a tree hard by some fifteen or twenty feet above the earth where it entered the wood with such a force that it remained firmly fixed. A struggle, a violent blow was heard, the fall of the Indian and all was still. A minute afterward sneak emerged from the thicket bearing Mary in his arms and followed by Glenn. Is she dead? Oh, she's dead! cried Rough Grove snatching her from the arms of sneak. She has only fainted, exclaimed Glenn, examining the body of the girl and finding no wounds. She's recovering, said Boon, feeling her pulse, not to be praised, exclaimed Rough Grove when returning animation was manifest. Oh, I know you won't kill me for pity's sake, spare me, said Mary. It is your father, my poor child, said Rough Grove, pressing the girl to his heart. It is, it is, cried the happy girl, clinging rapturously to the old man's neck and then seizing the hands of the rest she seemed to be half-wild with delight. Medusa On the 17th of June, 1816 the Medusa, French frigate, commanded by Captain Chomérez and accompanied by three smaller vessels, sailed from the island of A for the coast of Africa in order to take possession of some colonies. On the 1st of July they entered the tropics and there with a childish disregard to danger and knowing that she was surrounded by all the unseen perils of the nation, her crew performed the ceremony usual to the occasion while the vessel was running headlong on destruction. The captain presided over the disgraceful scene of merriment leaving the ship to the command of a Monsieur Rousseau who had passed the ten preceding years of his life in an English prison. A few persons on board remonstrated in vain, though it was ascertained that they had passed, she continued her course and heaved the lead without slackening the sail. Everything denoted shallow water but Monsieur Rousseau persisted in saying that they were in one hundred fathoms. At that very moment only six fathoms were found and the vessel struck three times being in about sixteen feet water and the tide full flood. At ebb tide there remained but twelve feet after some bungling manoeuvres all hope of getting the ship off was abandoned. When the frigate struck she had on board six boats of various capacities all of which could not contain the crew and passengers and a raft was constructed. A dreadful scene ensued all scrambled out of the wreck without order or precaution. The first to reach the boats refused to admit any of their fellow sufferers into them though in a room for more. Some apprehending that a plot had been formed to abandon them in the vessel flew to arms. No one assisted his companions and Captain Chomarais stole out of a porthole into his own boat leaving a great part of the crew to shift for themselves. At length they put off to sea intending to steer for the sandy coast of the desert there to land and thence to proceed with a caravan to the island of Saint-Louis. The raft had been constructed without foresight or intelligence. It was about 65 feet long and 25 broad but the only part which could be depended upon was the middle and that was so small that 15 persons could not lie down upon it. Those who stood on the floor were in constant danger of slipping through between the planks. The sea flowed in on all its sides. When 150 passengers who were destined to be its burden were on board they stood like a solid parallelogram without a possibility of moving and they were up to their wastes in water. The desperate squadron had only proceeded three leagues when a faulty if not treacherous maneuver broke the tow line which fastened the captain's boat to the raft and thus became the signal to all to let loose their cables. The coast was known to be but 12 or 15 leagues distant and the land was in fact discovered by the boats on the very same evening on which they abandoned the raft. They were not therefore driven to this measure by any new perils and the cry of new les abandonnons which resounded throughout the line was the yell of a spontaneous and instinctive impulse of cowardice, perfidy and cruelty and the impulse was as unanimous as it was diabolical. The raft was left to the mercy of the waves one after another the boats disappeared and despair became general. Not one of the promised articles no provisions except a very few casks of wine and some spoiled biscuit sufficient for one single meal was found. A small pocket compass which Chance had discovered their last guide in the trackless ocean fell between the beams into the sea as the crew had taken no nourishment since morning some wine and biscuit were distributed and this day the first of thirteen on the raft was the last on which they tasted any solid food except such as human nature shudders at. The only thing which kept them alive was the hope of revenge on those who had treacherously betrayed them. The second night was stormy and the waves which had free access committed dreadful ravages and threatened worse. When day appeared twelve miserable wretches were found crushed to death between the openings of the raft and several more were missing but the number could not be ascertained as several soldiers had taken the billets of the dead in order to obtain two or even three rations. The second night was still more and many were washed off although the crew had so crowded together that some were smothered by the mere pressure. To soothe their last moments the soldiers drank immoderately and one who affected to rest himself upon the side but was treacherously cutting the ropes was thrown into the sea. Another whom Monsieur Corrade had snatched from the waves turned traitor a second time as soon as his senses but he too was killed. At length the revolted who were chiefly soldiers threw themselves upon their knees and abjectly implored mercy. At midnight however they rebelled again. Those who had no arms fought with their teeth and thus many severe wounds were inflicted. One was most wantonly and dreadfully bitten above the heel while his companions were beating him dead with their carbines before throwing him into the sea. The raft was strewed with dead bodies after innumerable instances of treachery and cruelty and from 60 to 65 perished that night. The force and courage of the strongest began to yield to their misfortunes and even the most resolute labored under mental derangement. In the conflict the revolted had thrown two casts of wine and all the remaining water into the sea and it became necessary to diminish each man's share. A day of comparative tranquility succeeded the survivors erected their mast again which had been wantonly cut down in the battle of the night and endeavored to catch some fish but in vain. They were reduced to feed on the dead bodies of their companions. A third night followed broken by the plaintive cries of wretches exposed to every kind of suffering ten or twelve of whom died of want and awfully foretold the fate of the remainder. The following day was fine some flying fish were caught in the raft which mixed up with human flesh afforded one scanty meal. A new insurrection to destroy the raft broke out on the fourth night this too was marked by perfidy and ended in blood. Most of the rebels were thrown into the sea. The fifth morning mustered about thirty men alive and these sick and wounded with the skin of their lower extremities corroded by the saltwater. Two soldiers were detected drinking the wine of the only remaining cask they were instantly thrown into the sea. One boy died and there remained only twenty-seven of whom fifteen only seemed likely to live. A council of war preceded by the most horrid despair was held. As the weak consumed a part of the common store they determined to throw them into the sea. This sentence was put into immediate execution and all the arms on board which now fill their minds with horror were with the exception of a single sabre committed to the deep. Distress and misery increased with an accelerated ratio and even after the desperate means of destroying their companions and eating the most nauseous elements the surviving fifteen could not hope for more than a few days' existence. A butterfly lighted on their sail the ninth day and though it was held to be a messenger of good yet many a greedy eye was cast upon it. Three days more passed over in inexpressible anguish when they constructed a smaller and more manageable raft in the hope of directing it to the shore but on trial it was found insufficient. On the seventeenth day a brig was seen which after exciting the vicissitude of hope and fear proved to be the Argus sent out in quest of the Medusa. The inhabitants of the raft were all received on board and were again very nearly perishing by a fire which broke out in the night. The six boats which had so cruelly cast them adrift reached the coast of Africa in safety and after many dangers among the moors the survivors arrived at Saint-Louis. After this a vessel was dispatched to the wreck of the Medusa to carry away the money and provisions. After beating about for eight days she was forced to return. She again put to sea but after being away five days again came back. Ten days more were lost in repairing her and she did not reach the port until fifty-two days after the vessel had been lost and dreadful to relate three miserable sufferers were found on board. Sixty men had been abandoned there by their magnanimous countrymen. All these had been carried off except seventeen some of whom were drunk and others refused to leave the vessel. They remained at peace as long as their provisions lasted. Twelve embarked on board a raft and were never more heard of. Another put to sea on a hindcoupe and sunk immediately. Four remained behind one of whom exhausted with hunger and fatigue perished. The other three lived in separate corners of the wreck and never met but to run at each other with drawn knives. They were put on board the vessel with all that could be saved from the wreck of the Medusa. The vessel was no sooner seen returning to San Louis than every heart beat high with joy in the hope of recovering some property. The men and officers of the Medusa jumped on board and asked if anything had been saved. Yes, was the reply, but it is all hours now and the naked Frenchman whose calamities had found pity from the moors of the desert were now deliberately plundered by their own countrymen. A fair was held in the town which lasted days. The clothes, furniture and necessary articles of life belonging to the men and officers of the Medusa were publicly sold before their faces. Such of the French as were able proceeded to the camp at Decad and the Sikh remained as San Louis. The French governor had promised them clothes and provisions but sent none and during five months they owed their existence to strangers to the British. End of section 16