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Les diagrammes suivants iilustrent la mithoda. 1 2 3 4 5 6 \ REMARKABLE ADVENTURES FRO\i REAL LIFE. LONDON: PUBLISHED Al' THE LEISURE HOUF. OFFICE .■ ■ THK RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY- ™ PATEItNOSTER KOW, AND 3M PICCADItLV ™..D AT HAUAVAV W,T,0,V. AXn y.y ,„„ ,.X,k.SE,.,.«,, VlCo 9 'o s A L A A A Ai A Aj Lo m An Roi Bu] Ax An A ^ Ad^ Exc A I An Ak Bbn] AL CONTENTS. My AoveKtuhes mm Grisly Bear8 in Cautoksia a^d Okeoox ►Stopped ox the Highway An Adventure in China , Lost in the Woods .... Adventure with Spanish Smugglers A Lady's Adventure during an Inundation of the Rhone A Night among Chlnese Pirates Adventures in the Nicobar Islands A Female Crusoe .... An Adventi're in the Desert Lost on the Fells ._ Narrow Escape from a Snake-bite An Adventure on Beachy Head Robbing the Dead Buried Alive in the Snow . An Adventure in Arran An Awkward Ad^-enture A Twilight Adveni-ure.-Aw Apparition Extkaordinary Adventure a3iong the Hudson's Bay Fuu Hunters EncouxNter with a Water Snake A Night Adventure in Paris An Adventure at Petra An Adventure in Rupert's Land Benighted on Salisbury Plain A Leaf from a Clergyman's Journal yAr.R 7 18 •23 HI 35 41 59 03 72 S5 1)2 95 104 IIG 125 ];{2 1:^9 112 150 150 165 179 188 198 ^ i vJ $ B CONTENTS. An Advevturb i:roN Exiioon AUVENTI KK IN TeHU .,....•• An Am'EXTLi!E in CAiiUNGPOuD Bay ; oi!, Tuk Sruui of IjAvlndkk An Encounter ■with a BrFFAUj An Adventure in the Levant An AI)^^;NTT:RE in a Pint; Wood I?I,M[NlSCENfTiS OP THE YeLI-OW FeVEiJ AT CaRTIIAGENA A Night 'n Tasmania , A StUTKINQ PllOVIDKNOAi » 200 214 22U 234 239 24;» 2r)S 265 284 NOTE. The papers composing this book liave appcurod in various volumes of " The Leisuub Hour " and " Sunday at Home." With .; few exceptior.s, the sources of which are indicated, the " Adventures" were communicated as true incidents by correspondents known to the Editor. While aft vding interesting reading, especially for the young, Ihey will bo found to convey useful information about many lands. Most of the narratives have the higher purpose of impressing ou tho mind the reality of an over- ruling Providence; and some of them present, in an attractive form, lessomi of Christian faith and duty. REMARKABLE ADVENTURES FROM REAL LIFE. MY ADVENTURES WITH GRISLY BEARS IN CALI- FORNIA AND OREGON. The first time I e\ cr saw a grisly bear was in the British Museum. Of course he was dead and stuffed, and presented the usual door- mat and Duclancholy appearance peculiar to stuffed animals. I was very young then, and little thought I should ever encounter him in a more dangerous aspect. Every traveller in California ]iei),rs more or less of *' grislies," and many and wonderful {ire the *' stiff yarns" told by old hunters and trappers up at the mines ; but I am not now going to repeat vhat I have heard. T^his is a true narrative, and I purpose simply to relate my own unvarnished experiences. In Californiaj which is a strange country, one is often obliged to lake to strange and unusual pursuits to earn a living. I know that I had to do so. One of my occupations, during the time I dwelt there, was that of a boatman in the harbour. In conjunction with another young adventurer, I owned a large boat ; and when not ! ngaged witli freight or passengers, we often used to take a trip iK^ross the bay, some twelve miles in distance, load with timber, which wo procured by felling trees in the wood that fringed the shore, transport it to San Francisco, and dispose of it to the shop- ItEMAUKAI-I.E ADVENTUHES. !| , ! kcopcrs llicrc. vVt that tinu} wood was th(3 only I'ut'l to bo obtained ill tho city. As tlicso expeditions often consumed a couple ol' days and a niglit, wc Imd constructed a nide shanty in the wood, close to tho shore, under which wo sl(?pt. This shanty, or hut, was formed simply of l)oughs of trees, etc., and only boasted of three walls, the fourth being supplied by our fire, wliich we regu- larly lighted at night and kept burning till morning. One iu'glit, about nine o'clock, we were extended on our blankets in th(3 shanty, just on the point of dropping into that deep and drejimlesd sleep Avliich labour alone earns, when our ears were suddenly saluted by a deep and prolonged roar, evidently proceeding from some distance in the woods. *' That's a bear," said my mate. " It is," said I. With this short dialogue our conversation ceased, and my com- panion turned over and seemed to go to sleep, but I could not. All the terrible stories of grisly bears which I had ever heard began to catalogue themselves in my imagination mt\i most unpleasant Y'-n'^-^ess, and I reflected moodily on the trifling defence we could c should a bear attack us. His rush would bring down the walls of our poor little shanty about our ears, and our only arms were two short guns and a brace of bowie knives — poor weapons of defence in such u serious encounter. Thus an hour passed away, and I lay glancing alternately at th(3 lire and out into the woods through the chinks of our shanty (for it was a lovely moonlight night), when again presently a roar deeper, and certainly nearer, rang upon the silent night air, and my com- panion suddenly sat up. Like me, he had only been pretending sleep, and had not cared to explain his fears. Now he spoke, and said, *' Do you think it's safe here ?" " No, I don't," I rejoined ; and, the ice being broken, we simul- taneously sprang to our feet and looked around; Nothing living ADVENTUUES WITll llEAKS. was ill siglit; but again a roar uiipleastmtly near nitido itself heard to our listening ears. We took the hint, and in two minutes we had packed up our traps, and were racing down to the boat, some two hundred yards distant. Htistily launching her, we i)ut a good hundred yards between us and the shore, and anehoi «(l. Throwing ourselves under the thwart of the boat, we made oui*- selves as comfortable as circnmstances would permit, and snorinaly emulated the growlings of the bear, soon after we had stretched ourselves on the hard planks. We wore awakened in a few hours by a fresh alarm. All in a moment, as it seemed, though it must have taken place gradually, my mate rolled violently on the 'x)p of me. As, I suppose, my mind had been filled all night with dreamy visions of grisly bears, I concluded, on being thus abruptly awakened, that I was assaulted by one of them, and instantly I grappled with my foe, who grappled with me in return. It took a minute or two to satisfy each of us that the hug in which we found ourselves locked was human instead of ursine. With a laugh we released each other, and then dis- covered the cause of the accident. The fact was, while we slept, the tide had run out, and we were high and dry. Of course, as the water left us, our boat heeled over, till at last she lay on her side, and, as I was to leeward of my companion, he rolled down upon me. With no good feelings towards the bear tribe in general, we pro2)ped up our boat again to a level keel, and betx)ok ourseh es once more to slumber, not awaking till the sun rose bright and cheerful in the blue unclouded Califomian sky. Such was my first distant introduction to a grisly bear. At a later period, I was cruising about the Bay of San Francisco, in a ship's long-boat, with three or four sailors, in search of any " wreck " (or " flotsam," as our old statutes would call it), such as building-piles or spars of vessels, that we might chance to come across. Sometimes these expeditions were successful, at other b2 10 IJKMAIIKADLE ADVENTUliES. times u luilure. I remeiubur once, after a sovcro easterly gale, wo picked up a number of valuable articles, evidently from the ^vn!ck of yoiiKj unfortunate vessel. Amongst the spoil was a cask of lime juice, and another cask of preserved eggs, for which wc; obtained the several prices of lifty and one hundred and thirty dollars — sums which, in English money, are together equivalent to about oSl. The latter may seem a large price ; but it is necessary to remem- ber that at that thiie — namely, hi 1849 — provisions of all kinds were fearfully expensive, especially eggs, which were very scarce. But to continue my rarrative. I have said that we were sailing about, the harboiu* in search of wreck, and, as often happened, night closed upon us when we were a long way from home. I believe the Bay of San Francisco is some thirty miles in length, so, according to our custom, we made for the nearest land, ancliored our boat, and wont ashore. In what particular portion of the bay we were situated, none of us knew or cared. It seemed a some- what desolate spot, as far as we could discern through the dark and drear autumn night. However, our requisites for camping — namely, wood and water — were easily procm'ed, and in a few minutes a capital lire sent forth its cheerful blaze and genial heat. Then our blankets, fryingpan, kettle, etc., were brought ashore, and in a short time our preparations for supper were complete. The kettle was singing on the embers, the fryingpan was splutter- ing away with the rashers, and the wfive-worn wreckers were seated in a row, gazing with hungry and anxious faces on the approaching "feed;" when suddenly a dark and formidable-looking object emerged jfrom the gloom of night in the landward dii'ection, and advanced slowly towards om* fire. " A bear, and a grisly one," shouted the American we had with us, as we all started to our feet. That was enough. Sauve qui pent was the order of the day. Resistance was not for a moment thought of. Supper and our traps were in an instant iibaiidoned^ AUVENTUllKS SVlTli BEAlt.S. 11 and i)(3ll-mi'll wa rusliud down to tlus beucli, and Dcvor looked iicliind lill W(' \v(n'(5 i'airly in tlio boat and getting tlio anchor np. Tlion, what a wight greeted us ! There sat our griwly enemy on Ills Iiaunclies, gazing with the greatest uonchahuK^e int(jthe glowing cinbers of tlie iire — our tire — and evidently enjoying thn the other side, Mr. A turned round to look at the ships in the distance with feelings of a somewhat melancholy nature, as may be sup- posed, when the same man who had struck him said, hi lialf Portuguese, half Chinese, " })o you want to look ? look ! it is your last look !" These words Mr. A happened to understand, from having heard occasionally a little of this jargon at Macao, and they certainly did not tend to soothe his mind in its then anxious state. 8till, he had a kind of hope that dollars might gain his releyse, although up to this time appearances were far from favouring such an idea. Having descended the hill towards the beach, on tlie opposite side from the ships, and after a two miles' run A\ith the lieat at 100° at least, they halted under some trees close to a small stream of water, of which Mr. A asked to be allowed to drink, which was granted. He then, seeing that his wrists were alread}' considerably swollen, from the tightness of the rope by which they were bound, asked to have it slackened. This was also fr m i. ti 26 REMARKABLE ADVENTURES. not only granted, but ho was then only tied by one hand ; and in a few minutes the run was again commenced for a fm-ther distance < ' about two miles, nearly the whole of which was through heavy sand, till at last a village was entered, and Mr. A was safely housed in a large ground-floor room on one side of a square court, where were two long tables, and benches on either side of them. Tired and fagged with a four-mile march at the double, and dragged along by the rope like a bullock to be slaughtered, he sat down at one of the tables with feelings more easily imagined than described. These wore certainly not much relieved when, in a few minutes, the demon of the bamboo brought some huge knives from a corner of the room, and put them to his neck with a grin of delight, saying that the mandarin would soon be there to pass sentence of death on him, when he should cut off his head in the manner then shown. Meanwhile, hundreds of people came to see the Fankwei — men, women, and children — who had never beheld one in their lives before ; some wondered at his dress, others at his hair, and nearly all jeered and laughed at his position ; even the women, whose compassion Mr. A had tried to gain, abused him and talked of the mandarin, making signs also of cutting off a head, etc. The crowd being by this time very great, and adding much to the almost insufferable heat, Mr. A begged to be relieved from such unwelcome visitors if possible, which request was imme- diii,tely acceded to, by his being placed in a small room on the other side of the court, where was the usual Chinese bed — namely, a mat and glazed pillow on a board, and a. stool and table with a teapot and cup on it. The door of this place was only a mat hung from the top, which was occasionally lifted up, to allow the favoured few to have a peep at the Fankwei, or foreign devil. Ml'. A here threw himself down on the mat bed, to await, AN ADVENTURE IN CHINA. 27 as lie lioped, the coming of the captain to his rescue, which ho knew from experience he would do immediately on learning the circumstances of the case from the boat's crew (for he did not then know of the escape of Mr. B ), and he prayed sincerely that this might happen before the arrival of the said mandarin. The natives offered him tea, which he gladly accepted, after he had first seen them drink out of the same pot ; and in a short time, amongst the " favoured few " who were allowed to peep into this raree-show, appeared a man who accosted Mr. A with the well-knu Yu sounds of " Hey, yah, how you do ? I have see you before ; I thinkee at Macao." Never was mongrel English more welcome. Mr. A recollected having seen the man some- where, and at once looked upon him as a friend, and asked if he thought there was any danger of liis being killed, as had been threatened ; to which the man said, in a careless, imsatisfactory soi-t of way, " No, I no thinkee so." " Do they want dollars ?" asked Mr. A . " Yes," was the reply. " How much ?" " Two thousand," said the man. " Maskee " (never mind), answered the prisoner. " If you wih give me a pen and ink, with a sheet of paper, and take a letter to the captain when written, he will give you the dollars." To this itn assent was at once given, and the necessary articles being pro- duced, a letter was forthwith written by Mr. A , descriptive of the state of the case and his whereabouts, as near as he could j;uess, not forgetting the beaiing of the village from the ship by compass, and requesting that the number of dollars should be paid which were demanded, and no killing or wounding at the watering jtlace; as Mr. A was so completely in the Chinamen's hands that he would then be sure to be beheaded. He also asked for a [■air of shoes to be sent, to enable him to walk back to the ship. \rr iiiHiiiiBHi 28 REMARKABLE ADVENTURES. lilr \\ When this letter was despatched, Mr. A lay down once more on the mat, and was now in a comparatively composed state of mind, being under the impression that he would bo a prisoner for four or five days at least, as the captain would require to get the ship under weigh and proceed to Mf.cao for such an amount as two thousand dollars, if that sum should really be demanded by the messenger. Far different was the result, however. On the man's arrival at the watering place, he found a con- siderable number of well-armed men and officers, all ready for an attack, and vowing vengeance against all Chinamen. The letter was delivered to the captain, and when read, the man was asked how many dollars were demanded, Mr. A having in tha letter stated no particular number, but merely " to pay " the amount *' demanded.' ' His answer was fifty, which the captain immediately went on board the ship and procured, taking the opportunity of getting a pair of shoes to send, and writing a letter to Mr. A at the same time ; all of which he delivered into the hands of the messenger, the dollars sealed up in a bag, addressed to Mr. A . As this man objected to any Englishman going to the village along with him, from fear of a fight, it was thought advisable to give in to him, and send a Chinese carpenter, who belonged to one of the ships, to assist in the negotiation, and show the road back to Mr. A , no difficulty being apprehended, as the whole sum asked for had been given, and the captain having no knowledge of any greater having been spoken of. He told the man, however, that, having satisfied his demands, he would allow a reasonable time for the release of Mr. A ; but if this was not then accom- plished, he would burn the village, and " make a second Lintin business of it, and take him by force :" alluding to what had been done there a few months before by H.M frigate " Topaz;.," which caused a stoppage of trade for six weeks at Canton. With this warning, the two Chinamen left the little " army " at AN ADVENTURE IN CHINA. the watering y ice, and in due time made their appearance at the village, and delivered the bag of dollars, letter, and shoes to Mr. A , who, on recognising the carpenter, immediately gave him the dollars to hand over to the four ** braves," and expected to Ix) allowed to decamp forthwith. But, " man, man !" (stop !) was the order, and a long angry conversation took place in the large room amongst many Chinamen, who were not a little annoyed at the small sum received by their messenger ; but theif had not seen the " guns and swords, and rungs and gads " which caused this craven to reduce his figures so instantaneously ; and it took at least twenty minutes of verbal war for him to convince his friends that it was better to pocket fifty dollars with a whole skin, than lose their village and their lives by standing out for a larger sum. The carpenter, no doubt, had some weight in the argument, and at last Mr. A was " granted a pass " to the watering-place, iu company with the carpenter. He tried hard to induce the four braves to accompany him back, by way of showing the road, 1 laving a distant glimmering of seeing them tied up at the gang- way of his ship, and expiating their offences under the boatswain's tuition ; but as the probability of such a climax had no doubt been hinted to their own minds, the invitation was politely re- fused, saving so far as to the skirts of the village. With a light heart, Mr. A now travelled along with the car- penter, and in the course of an hour had the gratification of being Avelcomed at the watering-place by three cheers from the armed party in waiting, and many a hearty shake of congratulation by the hand ; feeling at the same time deeply thankful to the Almighty for his merciful escape, and particularly for having so willed it that lie should have been without arms on the occasion of his capture ; a?j they certainly would have been used, and, as a consequence, \\ ould almost as certainly have been the cause of his murder. As it is customary in China for all mandarins to live upon those i' ^,.^vJ^M,vi*m.!tMV, t » eSS iSSm 30 REMARKABLE ADVENTURES. under them, by " squeezing," or niaklii!:>' them pay cloHars, it wn!-''i not much to be wondered at that some of them should try to malvcs capital out of the above occurrence ; and consequently, three ov four days aftei*wards a man-of-war junk, sent by the admiral from Cheun-pee, oame to anchor in the bay, and in a short time tli(^ mandarin went on board the " Swinger," and made inquiries touching the description of the attacking parties, and particularly that of the four " braves," which was easily given by Mv. A , their features being indelibly imprinted on his mind, and he having; in addition been able to get hold of their names from some of th(> natives at the watering place. The mandarin said he should go on shore and seize those men, and, if successful, bring them on board the " Swinger " the follow- ing day for Mr. A to identify, when he should tie them u}) and flog them till Mr. A was satisfied. But on that same evening an East India Company's ship arrived and anchored at Lintin, and the captain of the " Swinger " having business to trans- act with it, it was necessary for him to get under weigh at day- light on the following morning, and sail for that island, distant about six or seven miles, which prevented Mr. A witnessing the flogging of the four " braves ;" for it was shortly afterwards known that the mandarin did seize them, and not only flogged them well, but " squeezed " them well also. The ship which had arrived was that to which IMr. A pro- perly belonged, he having only been lent to do duty in the " Swinger " during her temporary absence' at Pcnang ; and as lie then for ever quitted the opium service, he has had no subsequent opportunity of learning any further particulars concerning the men who committed this outrage, or even the name of the village t(^ which he was dragged. The facts are, however, strictly true, and will tend to show how absolutely necessary it is for all boats' crew^^ to use the greatest caution on landing on the coasts of China. LOST IN THE WOODS. 31 LOST IN THE \YOODS. JiEFORE the discovery of gold at Vancouver's Island, when tlie onlv European residents were confined within the quadrangle of a wooden fort, or, more properly speaking, a stockade, I was on one occasion very nearly perisliing in the woods of that beautiful island. The abundance of game of all sorts, and my ovm love of adventm-e, tempted me to set out alone, thereby hoping to have a 1>(}tter chance of securing a deer than if accompanied by a com- rad(\ I started for a small stream running into Esquimalt liar- hour, where the Indians had informed me the animals came at day- break to drink. I soon found myself following a trail, which I believed led to the desired spot : of this, however, I gradually became doubtful, as the ground began to rise, and the trail gi-ew less distinct as I advanced. The grand trunks of pine trees, towering far above the rest of the forest, and the thick dark foliage they supported, impressed my mind with that indescribable feeling of awe which we experience in the broad silent desert or the perfect calm at sea. I had seen no traces of deer, and the only sounds which had met my ear were the sharp tapping of the large wood- pecker and the flapping wings of the pigeons. The stems of the trees were blackened by the action of fire, and in many places some giant trunk, felled by the wintry gales, lay across my path. I toiled onward, but without finding the stream for which I was in search. The sun was high in the heavens, and all chance of reach- ing the di'inking place of the deer in time to meet them was at an end. After taking a biscuit from my pocket and a sip from my flask, I turned to retrace my steps; but in this I was even less successful, for the trail I had followed appeared to be growing less distinct, and branched off in several directions. Hearing a rustling sound !l 32 REMARKABLE ADVENTURES. in tlie underwood, I stood quite still; and presently, to my dcliplit, I detected the head of a deer, about two hundred paces in front of me. I raised my gun and fired, when the animal gave a bound, and, as I fancied, fell. Without thinking of the trail, I ran forward until I reached the exact spot at which the creature was wlien I pulled the trigger, but he was nowhere to be seen ; upon the leaves, however, there were traces of blood, which I followed, hoping soon to come up witli the wounded buck. The difficulty of tracing the blood upon the ground became greater, and at length I was compelled to stop and again try to find my way back. After many fruitless attempts, I was forced to give up, and sit quietly down to think as to my wisest course. The usual expedients by which the Indians regain the lost trail were at that time unknown to me, and having no compass, or any knowledge of the trend of the coast line, I was uncertain in which direction to proceed. I had no watch, and was therefore compelled to guess tlie hour, by which means alone I could determine my position by the sun, as it wixs impossible to obtain a sight of the sun's disc. My scanty stock of biscuit was exhausted, and the difficulty of struggling through the scrub had wearied me, so that I fancied it would be wiser to remain where I was, until I could determine my course by the sunset : then I knew that by travelling westward, I must reach the coast. A wolf came near me while seated upon a fallen tree, but I failed to obtain a shot at him, and soon heard his unpleasant howl far away in the forest. As soon as the twilight commenced, I began to think the night would prove the most uncomfortable part of ni}^ adventure ; so, to relieve the gloom, I kindled a fire and collected al the diy wood I could lay my hand on, previously choosing a bare spot of open ground, where there could be no fear of the forest taking fire. Sleep was out of the question, for as soon as darkness set in, 1 li LOST IN THE WOODS. ' d('lis2:hi, :■ I front of '1 a bound, 1 lehed the M gger, but ''f lero were 1 with the ■i 1 upon the stop and atteni})ts, '^S nk as to e Indians id havinjjj ' iM ine, I was ''M I, and was s alone I ossible to ■1 scuit was J scrub had 1 where I n I knew rolf came 1 obtain a | lay in tlie ihe night | le ; so, to ly wood I ' 1 of open " King fire. 1 Iset Id, I ,■■■' could hear the various predacious animals busy in the distance, and occasionally the light would fall upon the shining eyeballs of a wolf or bear, several of whom were bold enough to approach so neai* that I could see their forms distinctly. One gaunt old wolf drew so close to me that I could see the glistening of his ugly fangs, and ]X3rceivc that his skin hung loosely upon his bones. Several times this brute endeavoured to summon courage to face the flames, but a burning piece of wood thrown at him sent him howling back int:> the gloom. Nothing daunted, he returned to the attack whenever the flames died away, until I put an end to his intrusion by sending ii ball through his chest. At the report of my gun, the whole of the forest seemed alive ; birds, bats, and animals of every description, added their sounds to the unearthly screaming of the stricken wolf. Although I had collected a large stock of wood before nightfall, yet keeping three fires burning, between which I placed myself, soon diminished my supply, and made me impatiently long for the morning ; added to this, I now began to suffer from great thirst, not having been able to find any water from the time of my leaving for the woods. As the sun gi'adually threw its beams high into the heavens, the excitement of the nocturnal feeders grew less, and at sunrise I found myself alone once more. After casting a careful glance around on every side, I stepped from my lodging in quest of the wolf I had shot. To my surprise, not a trace of the carcass was to be found. I had no doubt he was killed by my ball, from the quiet way in which he lay for an hour or two afterwards ; he must therefore have been carried off by his comrades. Directly the sun showed, I turned my back to it, and pushed my way through the underwood, having previously reloaded my double-barrelled gun. The further I went, the thicker the tangled shrub became. My thirst was increasing, and my want of rest did not improve my condition. For hom's I toiled on, yet never C fl M I' 84 KEMARKABLE ADVENTURES. Beemed to find the trace of liuman beings. Sometimes I went through gigantic ferns, where it was quite impossible to steer my course, as, once amongst them, everything else was hidden, tliey rising many feet above my head. I could hear the deer push through them. I occasionally fired at a squirrel or a bird, in the hope that the report of my piece might reach a stray Indian, and thus bring me help. Another night at length stared me in the face. I searched for berries, but could find none, and water was nowhere to be seen. The ground and wood were parched and dry. I was so exhausted that it was with difficulty I could make a fire ; notliing but the stimulus which the idea of a prowling wolf, or the loud sniffing of the black bear, gave to my fears, induced me to exert myself. Towards the morning I noticed a thickness in the air, coming up with the wind, and soon perceived the smell of smoke to windward of my fires. At first I hoped it was some party sent to search for me, and therefore discharged one barrel of my gun. What was my horror, however, while listening for an answer to it, when I heard the crackling of sticks and the roar of flames ! The forest was ou fire. In my fear I rushed madly forward away from the flames, but they were evidently fast overtaking me ; and past me on every side galloped deer, wolves, and bears, while birds of various kinds flew before the clouds of pursuing smoke. In the horror of the moment my thii'st was forgotten ; the two dreadful nights I had passed were obliterated from my memory, and I struggled on, exerting all my remaining strength. As I burst through a dense growth of ferns I observed an Indian lad running, not away from the fire, but across it. I shouted, and the boy beckoned. In a moment it occurred to me that my only chance of safety was to follow the lad. Throwing my gun and powder away, I gave chase, and notwithstanding his fleetness managed to keep him in sight. Every nerve was strained, every sense on the alert, for already I |l ! ADVENTURE WITH SPANISH SMUGGLERS. 33 could feel the heat from the roaring flood of flame. Onward I staggered, the smoke now blinding me, and the oppression being so great that I felt my efforts must soon terminate. Still, I fan- cied through the distant trees I could see the fire gleam upon the sea. From this time I know no more, for I reeled forward and fell to the ground. When I recovered myself, 1 was lying upon the sea shore, close to the water, with several Indians squatting by my side. As I recovered, I became aware of my hair having been burnt, and my clothes very much scorched. It appears that the Indian boy told two of his tribe that I was following him, whereupon they had entered the forest in time to see me fall, and had at great peril dragged me after them to a place of safety. These men proved to be Indians of a friendly tribe, who had been despatched in search of me, upon the promise of some twenty blankets if they brought me in alive. They started the morning after I failed to return, and had followed my trail as far as the first night-fires, but could not proceed, the underwood having caught light from them ; and so they were obliged to take to the coast, where they providentially met with the boy, who stated my being close at hand ; and thus my life was saved when lost in the Vancouver Island woods. AD^^NTUEE WITH SPANISH SMUGGLERS. At the close of the year 1850, 1 embarked from Jaffii on board an English schooner, of small tonnage and still smaller accommoda- tions, that had been loading Syrian wheat for the markets of either Cork or Plymouth, whichever port the fickle winds might happen to waft us to. A long sojourn in the east, and a frequent acquaint- ance with fever in its most pernicious form, had induced my ill 36 REMARKABLE ADVENTUHES. medical advisers to recommend a sea voyage ; and a love of home, added to a much-cherished desire to be an eyewitness of the wonders of tlio then widely spoken of Exhibition, pointed out England as the most desirable spot for renovating a nearly broken constitution, and for mingling once more with the delights of civilized towns and sensible companions. Accordingly, witli a sallow face and a bottle of sulphate of quinine — the inseparable companion of my travels — I took leave of the Holy Land, and lent a hand in getting up the anchor and sheeting thj sails home. The schooner being fairly under weigh and making good pro- gress through the waters, I descended into the small and badlylit cabin, which was to be my home for many days to come, there to draw an inference from the features and conversation of my com- panions, as to the probability of my having a pleasant or a dis- agreeable voyage. The close, damp, confined smell of that gloomy cabin — too low to stand upright in — too slippery and greasy to sit with comfort in — too dark to see to read in — too full of lockers filled with miscellaneous stores to hope for rest or quiet in — all these things foreboded sad inconvenience and perpetual trouble ; and such forebodings were amply verified. The accommodation for passengers consisted of two berths of about five feet long, and one and a half broad ; in some parts two feet, in others only a foot, high. Here mattresses, etc., were spread at night; but in the morning they were rolled up, to admit of free access to the bread lockers. The space between these two berths was the sitting apartment, with a small table rivetted to the centre, and a small hatch under it, through which the cabin boy was perpetually disappearing in search of cabin stores. Round the table in a semi- circle ran some lockers, which served as seats, greasy with old age and continual pawing. Off the cabin was the captain's state room, which had much the appearance of a dirty bandbox, full of inde- scribable odds and ends. How he ever found anything he put AIA'ENTrKE WITH SPANISH SMUGCiLKKS. 37 f home, of the ited out f broken lights of , -Nvith a leparablo and lent ne. ;ood pi'O- 1 badlylit , there to nay com- or a dis- at gloomy easy to sit of lockers et in — all trouble ; imodation long, and Inly a foot, lut in the Ithe bread [le sitting id a small erpetually lin a semi- Ihold age iate room, ll of inde- \ct he put uwiiy, or ever found room to put anything away at all, was always a puzzle to mc. A sninll glass skylight admitted the light in lino weather, and the sea to a very inconvenient extent wlicn it was rough. The schooner was caller a clipper, which term signilies, I imagine from the experience I gleaned, a vessel that has never a dry spot on her decks, from stem to stern, be she before or on a wind. Well, so far so bad ; but this is not one hundredth part of what we had to undergo. The berth opposite to the one allotted to me was occupied by a shipwrecked captain, who had lost his vessel in a gale at Jaffa. His mate and an apprentice were also passengers ; but, as there was no room for them aft, they slept with the sailore, and only came down into the cabin at meal hours. This ogre of a man, as I may fairly term him, who had, as he himself declared, been the unluckiest of mortals from his youth up, was always prognosticating something unpleasant to us all. When the wind was fair, he argued that it would not last ; when foul, that it had set in for a fortnight. A squall with him was the forerunner of a gale ; a gale was to increase to a hurricane ; while on a really stormy night, the smallest evil he predicted was the shifting of the cargo, and the sudden disappearance of vessel and all beneath the waves. Our own captain was a timid but very consequential little man, and one that paid great deference to the suggestions and ominous bodings of his passenger. Besides all this, we had in good earnest very dismal weather the whole voyage home, and this was nothing but what was to be expected in the depth of winter. The mate and the men were perpetually wet ; the cabin boy, who was also cook, led a life in comparison to which that of a slave must be quite enviable. The iire in the galley was always being put out by the sea ; the mate gvowled for his coffee, the captain for a dry shift of clothes, and the unhappy boy had to bear the brunt of all. He was punched by IlEMABKABLE ADVENTURES. tho men, cuffed by the mate, roared at by the captain, and never slept, I should think, for whole weeks together, for more than twenty minutes on a stretch. I need not hero refer at length to the miseries I suffered in being cooped up with such unseemly beings; the disgusting meals, the loathsome table cloth, the incessant alarms, both false and well founded; wet men, with dark lanterns, rushing into the cabin at all hours of the night, to see how the time went, or in search of a block, or a marline spike, or a pump tack, or some requisite for the frequently occurring casualties. SufSce it to say, that we had a rich variety of mishaps, and all the ogre's predictions were verified, except the total loss of the vessel and its hands. We sprang a leak; the cargo shifted slightly ; the sails were torn all to tatters ; there was hardly a sound rope left in the rigging; the mainmast had 9j.«ruD.g; the skylight was washed away ; a poor fellow had fallen overboard in a calm, and was drowned ; and, as we neared the Straits of Gibraltar, nightly adventures took place with outward-bound vessels, each one of which seemed bent upon our utter destruc- tion, coming so close upon us in the dark of the night as to cause the greatest confusion and dismay. Thus had we been knocked about and tossed on the ocean for upwards of a month, when at last the winds grew more propitious, and twenty-four hours* fair weather brought us in safety into the bay of Gibraltar — a kind of ha^f-way house to all ships on their voyage from the Mediterranean. We had no sooner passed the rock than the wind chopped round again and blew a perfect hurricane in our teeth. Now was a favourable opportunity to recruit the exhausted strength of the crew by repose and wholesome provi- sions ; but the master was too much afraid of his griping owner at home, who regularly taxed his meagre bills each voyage, to dare to incur the expenses attendant on^'the anchorage— such as harbour and other dues, etc. We had, consequently, the mortification to ADVENTUBE WITH SPANISH SMUGGLERS. 39 §cft wholo fleets of homeward-bound vessels lying snugly at anchor off tlio forts, patiently abiding a shift of wind which miglit render the navigation of the Gut practicable, wliilst wo ourselves were cniising about day and niglit in fruitless attempts to stem the tide, which sets in from Tariffa like a sluice. One night, after we had been about a fortnight at this kmd of work, beating tack and tack up the narrow passage, the wind failing us entirely, it ysi^ found requisite to let go a bower anchor, 80 as to keep the vessel from drifting. Scarcely had the cable been veered out, before we were boarded by one of those desperate Spanish smugglers, who, in spite of the fate sure to attend their detection, make it a frequent practice to visit homeward-bound vessels becalmed in the Gut, to supply them with fresh meat, fruit, vegetables, bread, etc., all which they sell at an exorbitant price ; fis well they may, considering the risk incurred. Now my readers must remember that all vessels from Turkey and Egypt are furnished with unclean bills of health, and hence all communica- tion with them is strictly forbidden, both by the British govern- ment at Gibraltar, and by the Spanish government Though steamers are continually passing and repassing, and Spanish gun- boats cruising about on the look-out, these hardy bravoes set all laws at defiance, and manage, in spite of all consequences, to hold incessant intercourse with homeward-bound British vessels, from which, as may be readily conceived, they derive no small emolu- ment. To be fired upon was an every-day occurrence with them ; and one sinister-looking fellow, the chief of the gang that boarded us, had no less than fourteen bullet wounds in his body, all which he showed us with the greatest exultation. The captain, who had no scruples in breaking the quarantine regulations, gave the smugglers to understand that, if we were detained next day by contrary winds, they were at liberty to bring off a cei-tain quantity L of beef, fruit, vegetables, etc., the whole of which was to cost about Hi;;' I \^ 40 REMARKABLE ADVENTURES. twenty dollars, or five pounds sterling. They perfectly understood the order, although given in broken Italian, and cheerfully pro- mised to be punctual in the fulfilment of the captain's wishes. Intelligence of the expected good cheer sjon got wind amongst the crew, and, tired as they were of sea dvjt, they impatiently awaited the return of the boat. Where a captain sets the example of breaking the law, his crew are not likely to be very particular on the subject. The captain himself, however, as subsequently appeared, having the dread of his owner before him, inwardly hoped that a breeze might spring up and carry off the vessel before the return of the smugglers should compel iiim to disgorge the twenty dollars. The smugglers, however, did return; their boat was laden, too, with many such things as a half-starved sailoi* yearns for. Meanwhile, a fair wind sprang up, and all hands were busily employed weighing the anchor, just as the smugglers' boat reached the vessel's side. The Spaniards made frantic gesticula- tions to our captain to heave to ; but nothing would induce him to do this. Finding this to be the case, they made fast the painter of tbeir boat to the mainchains, and, springing upon deck, vociferated loudly for payment ; and the captain, pretending not to understand Avhat they said, referred them to me, as a person who understood the tongue. Accordingly, on me they fastened, like angry wolves upon their prey. My arguments to prove my innocence in the transaction were useless. One ruffian was handling his dagger in a most unpleasant manner ; and, little doubting but that he would make good use of it if I held out, I was ol.liged to make a pre- cipitate retreat to the cabin. I had hardly reached it, and secured the cabiii door after me, when I heard a violent scuffle ensue on deck. The mate and men, who had been too much occupied at first to observe what was going forward, rushed aft, on seeing one of the Spaniards dive down the cabin ladder after me. In his rage INUNDATION OF THE RHONE. 41 nderstood •fully plo- t's wishes, longst the Ly awaited cample of ticular on )sequently inwardly the vessel to disgorge urn; their ,rved sailoi* v^ero busily rlers' boat I gesticula- uce him to painter of vociferated understand understood gry wolves Qce in the iagger in a , he would take a pre- nd secured ) ensue on ccuTi'ied at seeing one [n his rage to gi'atify his revenge, the chief smuggler placed ten dollars in the captain's hands to obtain his permission to fire a single shot at me through the the skylight. I need not say tliat such a proposition was replied to by the immediate forcible expulsion of the Spaniards, who were bundled unceremoniously into their boat. The vessel speedily distanced them ; but just as I reached the deck again, the loud report of a pistol, aimed at me, rang in my ears, and the splinters from the companion hatch, which the ball had stiiick, flew high up in the air. So nearly was I becoming a victim to the mean trickery of the worthless captain, and to the insatiable revenge of the Spaniards ! The whole adventure was calculated to leave the impression strongly on my mind that, if we venture to do what is improper, as the captain manifestly had done iii breaking through the harbour regulations, and encouraging these reckless men, we can never be 8nre of the consequences. The smallest deviation from what is entail the most serious ai rignt may who yield to it. painful upon A LADY'S ADVENTURE DUEING AN INUNDATION OF THE KHONE. We had disembarked at the great port of Marseilles, the landing- place from the French province of Algeria. My companions took their places at once for Avignon ; but I wanted to see the old town of Aries, a place deservedly interesting, not only for its ancient Roman memorials, but its dearer Christian memories ; I therefore only took mine as for that city, having arranged to join my friends in a few days at their hotel in Avignon. The season was late in autumn, and, were we speaking of India, it might be briefly described as the rainy season ; for such rain, c2 42 EEMARKABLE ADVENTURES. following a summer of extreme heat, has seldom been seen. Even on shipboard v/e had murmured at that disagreeable tautology, rain on sea. Notwithstanding the pertinacity of the skies, however, I descended at Aries. I wanted to see its Coliseum, where gladiators had fought, and martyrs of Jesus had died. I ^^ anted to see, also, the great old cemetery of the Komans, where some of those con- querors of ancient Gaul had been laid in dust. I saw the Coliseum, built by the proud Komans, and saw now, under its grand old walls, the otherwise houseless poor of modern •days had erected their miserable sheds with almost Irish ingenuity. I saw the modem women of Aries, reminding one of the matrons of ancient Eome. I thought of Caesar and of Gaul ; I thought of a greater than Caesar, and of his greater yet lowlier followers. And so, having thought of Christian times and Roman times, in this old city of Gaul, I set off in search of iho metery of its mighty conquerors. The rain fell, sometimes heavy, sometimes light, but always con- stantly. I had no guide, and relied on finding what I wanted by turning the words " Eoman cemetery " into French — a sort of phraseology which much perplexed the kind people who wished to direct me. I saw, however, stone coffins built into rude modern stone walls, as the boundary of fields ; and I saw, beside farm- houses, cattle drinking out of stone troughs that once had held the body of a proud Roman. Morsals of antiquity, put to uses vile, were seen all around ; but it was with much difficulty I r ail out my way to the vast field of the dead, for which I lo . -i, A strangely impressive scene it was — one of havoc and deso; \^ lod.. The antiquary, the moralist, the Christian, might there lind interesting matter for thought. Two reasons made my survey a hasty one : first, the grass was long and wet, among which lay the broken stones of the tombs, and I hid wet from above and beneath ; and secondly, and far more "T IJJUNDATION OF THE IlHONE. 43 Even ogy, rain )weYer, I gladiators see, also, lose con- saw now, f modern ingenuity. 3 matrons ihoug^t of followers. 1 times, in tery of its [iways con- antfcd by a sort of wished to iQ modern side farm- had held uses vile, ir ad; out ), i.o i> A Ideso/ !i.^ ior.. I there iiud grass was Itombs, and k far more effectively, my place was taken in the diligence to Avignon ; and before railways changed our customs, it is well known that tho only unanswerable plea that could bo made for resisting tho entreaties of friends to stay with them, was to say at once, " I have taken my place." So I had taken mine ; and not even Eoman antiquities would have induced me to linger, even if my wet feet had not also felt more ready to hasten back to Aries than to linger in that wilf^ field of the long ago dead. It was in the afternoon that I entered the diligence for Avignon, where I was to rejoin my friends at an appointed hotel. The end of October was approaching, and the torrents of rain that had fallen for some days, had by no means ceased ; but I felt quite comfortable when once seated in the Srst place of the coupe. The rain had increased, and darkness began to gather, when I became sensible that some unusual cause of interest or inquiry had arisen between the rest of the passengers and the conductor, who, at each descent from his elevated seat in the hanquette^ was eagerly questioned by them ; while he appeared as eagerly to question all persons whom he encountered on the road. The further we went the more did this sort of commotion increase ; heads were pro- jected from the windows of " the interior " and the roiondey and anxious inquiries were evidently made ; but I was too secluded in my " first place " to be able to hear the cause of an anxiety, which, indeed, I did not at all share, simply because I thought it could not concern me. I soon began to observe that, at every hamlet we passed, a short halt was made ; tho diligence wae surrounded by seemingly anxious people, and the passengers spoke to them still more anxiously. Our conductor, a fine active young man, had been all along impatient of delay, but he became more and more so ; and each successive driver, who was taken up with each tresh set of horses, was either more and more sulky, or more boisterous and daring. There was evidently sometliing the matter ; but T REMARKABLE ADVENTURES. luul tlio coupe all to myself, and, not caring to open the window and let tlie rain in, merely to hear what sounded to me as a rude jal)ber of foreign tongues, I acted a thoroughly English part, and, drawing myself into my snug corner, listened to the splashing of water around us, and thought it was very well to feel dry when so many must be wet. I saw, nevertheless, that as darkness deepened, my fellow-passengers dropped rapidly away ; luggage, intended to have seen Avignon, was hastily made to descend, amid the entreaties of passengers, the vociferations of helpers and lookers- on, and the indignant exclamations of the excited conductor, who evidently felt each moment of lost time to be more and more haras 'ng. At last he would no longer be delayed by stopping to take Qc uggage ; he let out his passengers, only crying to them that they vould find their goods at a future time in Avignon, and, scarcely waiting till their feet touched the ground, shouted out, Allez ! and on we dashed. The last we thus let down was a Frenchwoman, who had long seemed resolved to share whatever fate might lie before her boxes, which of course contained the robe that few Frenchwomen, under any circumstances, can forget ; but slie, too, finally descended at a poor house by the way-side, saying something of the necessity of trying to save herself, but affirming, in touching though vehement tones, that her trunks were doomed to perish, and without resource. The conductor flinging out his hands in answer, was springing up to his seat in the hanqnette, muttering that he then must perish with them, when a sudden thought must have struck him that something was still in the coupe. He opened the door, looked in, and said with em- phasis — " Will you keep your place ?" " Without doubt : I am going to Avignon.'* " Brave woman ? allons ! — vive les AngJaises !" he cried, clapped the door, and on we drove. INUNDATION OF THE RHONE. 45 window IS a rude •art, and, astog o^ when so leepened, tended to imid the i lookers- actor, who and more toppWAg t^ ng to them ignon, and, liouted out, own ^vas a re whatever ,ed the robe |forget; hut .side, saying it affirming, rere doomed jing out his i6 hanqnettej jn a sudden stiU in the with em- ried, clapped I knew I got praise, and I liked it, especially from a Frendi- man ; but liow I came to deserve it I knew not. The darkness grew intense : deep silence succeeded the recent commotion ; the conductor only spoke at intervals to the driver, and then it was in that deep-toned voice which always indicates tuixiety. I felt, rather than heard, that he exhorted him to sp(3ed ; the driver's voice, in reply, seemed buried in his throat. The sound of water was on every side. Surely, I began to think, it is not merely rain. Our road lay along the course of the Illione — " the arrowy Ehone," so swift and strong ; but, though I knew that, the idea of danger from it had never crossed my mind ; even still I imputed the urgent haste, the anxious voices, or still more anxious silence of the men, to the fact that the heavy rains had made them wet and out of temper. In critical moments, or circumstances of much anxiety, speech is always repressed ; the loud and eager voices of the two men were hushed, and not a human or living thing appeared to be on the road. A low remark, or a brief exhortation to speed, was all that was heard from the active conductor ; wliile our last driver soon ceased to utter the cries, expostulations, and abusive epithets which a French postilion employs in aid of the terrible whip, by whose sound only the horses are driven. Thus, in silence and darkness, I rested content, till a sudden dash of water over the windows of the diligence convinced me that rain was not the cause of fear. I rose to the front windows and looked out. To my astonishment, all that was visible of the six white horses, harnessed three and three f^breast, was just the top of their broad flat backs rising above the water ; even their short tails, wound up in straw, were submersed. "We are in a river," said I to myself; "not in the river, un- doubtedly. But what can be done ? The conductor will not drown himself or me, if he can help it." "^tm 46 BEMAEKABLE ADVENTURES. ii!l w^ INUNDATION OF THE RHONE. 47 W, -. I .i'.-, .^^^'S ;^> '% I drew back to my corner, supposing that we were crossing some part of a river, but never imagining that the river was crossing us. The men kept unbroken silence ; nothing save the splashing and dashing of water was heard : it went over the top of the dih'gence, and streamed down again over my windows, so that I could not see the least bit through them. I felt the men were not asleep, and I began to feel that they were deeply anxious ; I tried if it were possible to open the window and ask what was the matter, but I soon saw it was wiser to let the water stay outside than to admit it in. I rested in the same silence till a slight ascent in our road became perceptible : as soon as this was the case, the voice of the conductor burst out ; he called, he cried, he implored, scolded, promised, urged the apparently sulky driver; he impelled the horses himself ; he seemed ready to jump down and help them to draw ; the driver, too, awoke ; his terribly resounding whip went like a succession of pistol shots ; his voice helped it, loading the poor terrified animals with all sorts of tenderly abusive epithets ; calling them hogs, robbers, little rascals, demons, cowar«'i, inter- spersed with encouragements and formidable threats. The con- ductor was standing up, leaning over and looking round. On we went up-hill, evidently rising out of water, and driving as for life or death. "VVTien, all at once — plash ! — down we went, or else up came the water, I know not which ; I thought we had plunged into the river at last. It was a startling moment, and I uttered a little scream, though no one heard it. The horses were plunging ; even their white backs no longer appeared like a line of light when I tried to see ; and I heard an exclamation from the con- ductor, that went to say something that sounded certainly very like a declaration that we were lost. It was almost time to get afraid, and I had just formed the determination to be so, .d to remain quiet no longer, when a shout burst over my head — a cry not of terror but joy ; it was echoed by the driver ; the foam of water was 48 REMARKABLii ADVENTURES. ., ( lashing over us, but we were iisceiiding. With great dilfieulty 1 got the window partly opened, and called up to the hanquette. "What is the matter, conductor?" "We are saved! we are saved ! Be quiet now ; shut the window," he said ; and I saw the lights of Avignon dimly gleaming through the mist. W^e were closer to it than even he had known. The whip cracked, the horses flew up the rising ground, the water lashing over them : at full gallop we dashed through the old gate of the city ; no revenue officei*s or customary formalities stopped us ; but straight on we di'ove into a large coach-house or covered shed of some sort. Here our conductor was instantly suiTOunded by eager inquirei-s ; anxious faces circled us in a crowd. Breaking through all, he ran to the coupe, took me out like a bundle of goods, and put me down, above my knees in water ; then, finding I could not, or would not, wade on in it, he snatched me up in his arms like a child, ran across a street, kicked open the door of a house, and di'opped me into the passage within it. A woman, with a white face and long thin candle in an equally long thin candlestick in her hand, came to it, and would evidently Jiave kept it closed if she could. By the light of that candle I saw what the good conductor's exertions or anxieties must have been ; he was a strong, active, ruddy-complexioned young man ; but now he was singularly pale, and large drops of what seemed to be cold perspiration were falling from his forehead. His chest heaved, as if from long pent-up breath. He said a hasty word to the staring woman — I only heard him utter " brave woman " as he pushed me in, and, before she could recover sufficiently from her surprise to speak, he had disappeared. I saw her look after him quite aghast, and, turning my head to the street, beheld a crowd of persons flocking to her open door like mosquitoes attracted by the candle. Her face, one might think, was enough to di-ive them back ; but, in addition, all her energy INUNDATION OP THE RHONE. 49 [liculty 1 anqndte. wc are [ saw the VVe were ;ked, tlie tlieni : at revenue ht on we )rt. inquirei-s ; ill, he ran ; me do\vn, would not, child, ran ropped me an equally 1 evidently at candle I must have )ung man; seemed to His chest ty word to ■aan " as he y from her Uy head to in door like [ight think, ler energy was required to get the door closed : she then moved the caudle for mo to follow her, and went up-stairs, ushering me into a dirty, most repulsive, and veiy cold chamber. *'Do you not think I had better go to anothtT house?" 1 said. '• On the contrary, I think you had better stay where you are. You ask me wliat I think ; I tell you what I thinh, but not what I wish" slio replied ; and, lighting a much shorter bit of candle, left it with me and went away. I was wet from head to foot ; cold, and in want of a warm drink, and something to eat : fire, too, was an absolute necessity. I went out on the staircase, and saw her walking about below it, as if attempting to barricade her house. I called down, and requested a fire. The candle waved a negation ; but, in addition to its ex- pressiveness, she added, ** Fire ! No !" and went on. I watched, shivering, till she repassed. " Can I have supper ?" " Supper ! Are you mad ?" and with a doubly negative wave, ;amo back with a chilling emphasis, " No ! no ! a thousand times 10 ! I crept back to my cold, black-looking chamber. The rain had )r some time ceased to fall, and, never having conceived a notion )f an inundation, I was totally at a loss to account for all these wry unusual symptoms. At last the idea of a revolution occurred mo. " Yes," 1 said to myself, " there is certainly a revolution, [nd at Avignon, with all its hideous, bloody memories." I shivered. Jut then I was cold as well as frightened ; and the cold I hoped to it rid of, if I could not the fear. I therefore took off my wet lothes and went to bed. But to sleep was impossible. The house )or was assailed by knocks and loud calls outside. These forced ^y poor hostess to appear at a window, from whence she pathetically iplored the crowd of persons below to consult their own safety. REMARKABLE ADVENTURES. and begone from a house that was certain to be destroyed. This was an additional solace for me. The tumult in the street kept me awake all night. CHAPTEE II. After such anight as that described in the previous chapter, one feels less disposed to rise in the morning. But day had only broke, when my hostess burst into my chamber. The candle was not in her hand, but her face looked even worse. " Mademoiselle, have the goodness to rise instantly." "Why?" " You must leave the house this moment.*' " Why r " Because if you don't go this moment, you will never go at all — no never ! You will be lost. We shall all be lost. We have no provisions. We must shut up all below, and take refuge at the top of the house. We cannot maintain you." " What is the matter ?" I cried, jumping up with more alacrity than I had believed myself capable of. " Is it a revolu " "What is the matter? Are you ignorant, then? — and you travelled last night ^ Go to the door, and you will see." I dressed quickly, and went to the door. The house was a comer one, and the street was rather more elevated than those adjoining it. The day was bright, and all was still. My hostess saw me looking complacently from her door. She caught my hand, and drew me out to the corner of the house, making me look down the next street ; and there, to my surprise, I saw an advancing tide, the water flowing on in a full stream, and people in boats saving some of their goods from the houses. "Are not the waters come?" she cried, in a tone of bitter triumph. ** Now, then, save yourself — ^begone — leave us. We are lost" INUNDATION OF THE RHONE. 51 red. This treet kept jbapter,one only broke, 3 was not in 5ver go ftt all t. We have refuge at tlie more alacrity lu '' a?— and you >» ee. e was a comer Lose adjoining jBtess saw me [my hand, and [look down the cing tide, the ;s saving some Itone of bitter reus. We are " Where are the hotels ?" I asked. " In the waters," was the answer ; and it was a true one, for all the good hotels, being near the river, were the soonest submerged. Many Engli8h travellers on their way to Italy were made prisoners in them. My friends — where were they ? To seek them was im- possible. " What shall I do ?" I said, much more humbly than I had yet gpoken. " Do what you can, only leave us. Be quick — go — leave us ;" land with a wave, as if of an imaginary candle, she disappeared, and 1 1 never saw her again. As I looked round in a sense of forlomness, I saw a young eoun- ^tryman in a clean bright blue blouse, with a countenance that » might be said to carry a good letter of introduction in its frank, ^honest, kind expression. He was talking with an equally pleasant tlooking young woman. I went over to him, explained my position, ;^id I was a stranger, as my speech testified ; that I had narrowly ^escaped being in the waters the night before, and now wanted to Ipnd a lodging where I could be kept out of them. The young woman evidently seconded my appeal, and, after a jw moments' consultation between themselves, he turned to me, )k off his casquette, and asked if I would allow him the honour conducting me to some houses in the high part of the city, where might obtain lodgings. I gladly allowed him that honour. 1 id no luggage, no bag even, to remove ; and, having my bonnet my hand, and my still wet clothes on, I set off with my new ^end. My hostess, indeed, had put my bonnet in my hand, and her retreat closed up her house ; she sought for no pay, and 1 ^lieve my nightly refuge was only accorded to me for the con- ictor's sake. i^Guided by the polite Frenchman, I soon ascended above the Ivancing waters. The streets then were dry, the air quite warm j It 52 IJKMARKABLE ADVENTURES. bu( the aspoct of the sky was curious ; it was not darlc, nor ^i*oy, nor wliat we call lowering, but it seemed so low that, while blue and bright, one might think to take hold of it from the tops of the houses. We applied in vain at sevoml lodging-houses ; they would not tak(^ lodgers now, because provisions might fail ; they hud no firing, or made some such excuse. At last my friendly guide mannged to get me a large clean chamber, at the veiy top of a very high house, in the highest part of Avignon, just near the foot of the vast rocky hill on which stands the citadel. Here, leaving me with a tidy old woman, he took an order for my luggage, with whi(;h, in im- plicit faith, I intrusted him, and went off to seek my late conductor, who had all my worldly possessions. I had eaten nothing from my breakfast the day before : certainly a French breakfast is a nice, as well as a substantial meal ; but, after twenty-four hours* fast, the prospect of its repetition was particularly pleasing. My three wants now were — fire, breakfast, and change of raiment. For the last 1 must bide the time of another ; for the two former I pro- ceeded to ask my new housekeeper. Brer ^t and fire! The iitter astonishment in which my old hostesa xepeated the words almost alarmed me. What! Breakfast and fire, when all the world were in the waters ; when they had no provisions, no firing, and never might be able to get any : did I imagine she was to give me breakfast and fire, because she let me her chamber ? I saw I must moderate my demands, and I took another tone. W ell, just for this time, slie could give me a little coffee, and sugar and boiled milk, and bread and butter, and — yes, if there was nothing else — some eggs would do; I could then make an English breakfast. And she would also give me a fire. She held up her hands, liited her shoulders, eyed me as if thinking whether I was quite in my right mind, and, for a further exposition of wliat I was to expect from her, a\ ent over to a small closet, opened the INUNDATION OF THE RHONE. 58 k, nor ^'py, whilo blno tops of the y Nvonltl not ud no fii'in?, luanaged to high house, LC vast ro(;ky with a tidy vhich, in im- te conductor, , ling from my it is a nice, as ours' fast, the r. My throe ent. For the former I V^'o- id fire! The ,ed the words when all the ions, no firing, uc she was to amber ? other tone, tie coffee, and ■yes, if there hen make au ire. She held nking whether osition of what ;et, opened the door, and showed me it was very neat, and quite empty ; she said I niiL,dit keep my wood there: then to another, and exliibited cups and crockery ware in excellent orc'er ; then on to a really charming littlo scullery, where pots and pans were all beautifully arranged, and where she told me I must wash u}) all the things I used. I repli('d, that all the domestic arrangements for housekeeping in a single chamber were truly admirable and perfect; but my only embarrassment was, that I had nothing to begin my housekeeping with, and I was really desirous to use some of the cups, and plates, and pans, before I washed them. " Do so, then," she answered with a nod, and was moving off. " But I have nothing to use them with." « That is your affair." I began a pathetic tale ; told how narrowly I had escaped from being lost in the waters of the Rhone ; how I was wet, cold, and hungry ; and how much I felt the necessity of hot cafe au lait to i-esuscitate me. " It was truly dreadful," she remarked ; but her eyes spoke of a melting mood — " truly dreadful ; but if people would travel, what else could they expect ? The English travel on the high roads ; they spent their money, and lost their lives as well as their time ; but if they chose to die on the high roads, that was not her affair." ** Ah ! but the French are so kind. I might have been left, at all events, knee-deep in the waters all night, if a good Frenchman had not carried me in his arms into a house." " Well, yes ; it was necessary to be good to foreigners — that was ; well understood," the mollified old dame began to mutter. " Yes ; and then, see now, madame, it was this very reputation I of the French that made me so confident that you would give me I coffee, and such things, till I can get them for myself." '* Well, if you will, for this once." " Yes ; and you will make me a fire ?" m I I REMARKABLE ADVENTURES. *' Make a fire ! Heard one ever the like ?" " At least you will give me wood ?" " Well, yes, it is necessary to be kind to strangers ; — yes, for this once ; but you must make your fire." " Very well, that I will do." I was delighted to find that politeness and good humour really do succeed with the French. My breakfast soon appeared : while I waa enjoying it in came my hostess, dragging a tall bundle oi* brushwood, followed by a man loaded with great logs. This was all stored in the closet, and the good dame told me I might make my fire, but exhorted me to be saving of the wood, as she could not, on any terms, get me more ; all the wood, as well as coffee, milk, eggs, bread, meat, butter, and everything else one wanted, being, with all the world, in the waters. " Now, then, make your fire," said she, putting a box of matches on the table ; " but if you take my counsel, you will not waste the matches, since we can get no more — positively no more." " Are the matches in the waters also ?" " Undoubtedly. Now you speak to me no more — absolutely no more. I have done my duty. It is necessary to be good to strangers. Now light your fire, and warm some water, and wasli up those cupp, and mind you never speak one word to me any more." She went away, dear old thing, satisfied she had done her duty by f stranger ; and I set lo work to obey her directions. But, alas ! after many efforts, I had to call upon her to complete the task. She began to work in her own way — quite a different one from mine — building up the logs in an artistic manner, on scientific principles, and very soon had made me a charming fire while giving me a lesson how to make it. Somehow I never did leani that lesson practically, and each day it was repeated during the whole fortnight that I was a water-bound prisoner in the good J INUNDATION OP THE RHONE. 55 ; — yes, for this humour really 3peared: while tall bundle oi" [ogs. This was 1 1 might make )d, as she could well as coffee, Lse one wanted, box of matches ill not waste the iiore. —absolutely no to be good to vater, and wasli yord to me any i done her duty irections. But, ►mplete the task. Bferent one from er, on scientific ming firo while never did learn ited during the ler in the good dame's house ; and each day 1 had my fire lighted while she was I teaching me how to do it, and marvelling at my invincible ignorance. Just as I had settled myself to the enjoyment of its blazo, and was witnessing the process of evaporation taking place from my garments, in walked my honest-looking Frenchman, as honest as his looks, with my travelling bags in his hand, and followed by a youth with my portmanteau on his shoulder. He congratulated me with real friendliness on being so comfoiiable, assured mo I might rest in peace, as there was no danger, for all the old ,^ woman said, the waters would reach me in my elevated lodging ; Sand of that he was glad, for the conductor had told him I was "'"'a. woman of courage, and my life was worth saving, though ;|^ he had been much afraid it might be lost in the flood the night before. I felt that as men become heroes often by accident, ' womei? may appear to be heroines from ignorance. "But what has caused this flood?" I asked this intelligent young man. " Can the late rains, heavy though they were, so ffect the great river Rhone ?" " It is not our river," he replied, " that is to blame ; but that ery ill-natured one, the Durance. In autumn, when there is ucli rain, it becomes truly wicked ; the snows that melt in the ountains, up there in Dauphine, swell the torrents that pour to it, and then it meets our river, which is good enough by itself, ut when it is charged with these bad neighbours, you see, mado- oiselle, it grows very mischievous. The poor people down below ere will lose all." You, I hope, are not ^"u danger of loss," I said, at the same time iresenting him with soiue money as compensation for his trouble " Pardon me," he said mth a bow, " I am not in the waters, d can take nothing ; I am happy to have served you. The boy ho carried the tnmk will be glad of a trifle." fi ■f i« Ml n REMAuKABLE ADVENTURES. I tliank(>d him gratefully : ho went away bowing and smiliii;j, and saying ho had only done as he would wish one of my counlry peophi to do by him if ho were a stranger in England. I siLjhi.'d as ho closed the door, thinking if it were certain that an Engh'sli countryman would take all tliis trouble for a foreigner, without any notion of reward. Then I oj)cnod my portmanteau, which was only strapped down, without any lock. All was right, and, more surprising, dry within; and I soon luxuriated in my change of circumstances to such a degree, as, with too common sclliishuess, to forget for a time that all the world was in the waters. I got coffee a second time, and an egg for my dinner ; I f ared to ask for more, for even that was obtained with a great deal of manoeuvring. However, the very next day I reconnoitred from my window the position of the house, and satisfied myself that then^ could be no obstacle to my mounting the vast hill of rock on which ray window looked. Accordingly, notwithstanding the warning of my hostess, I left the house, and soon mounted the heights. The view from thence was curious. Avignon, the city of the popes, was called in old time, bef(n-e so many of its churches were destroyed, La Ville Sonnante — tin* ringing town — from the number of its bells; but now even the diminished number of its bells were silent, for the churches weiv inundated, most of them being full of water to the pulpit tops; and the houses in the lower part of the town were almost buried. The deepest silence prevailed : it was like Venice, if tlio voices ol people and the sounds of music were unheard in that water-city ; but tiie jioor people who went about the inundated streets in boats weve quit 3 unlike the gondoliers and the grand canal passengers. As far as one could well see around the town, the mighty Rhone appeared to be the conqueror and possessor of the lunl that had lately held it lU. The tops of the trees on islets wciv covered ; only some of the upper parts of taller trees on its bank^ INUNDATION OF THE IIHONE. 57 my conuU-y L I siiiiuMl an En"2;li^l^ tier, without tteau, \\\nc\\ % ri^ht, aiul, I lUY cluiugo !r3. creat tU'ill of ircd from my lelt* that ther(> roelv oil Nvhicli 10 Nvariiinp; of heights. Tho imc, hcfove so 5omiante — tlx^ now eve 11 tho churches weiv ■e pulpit tops; almost buried, the voices oi ^at watev-city; ;treets in hoais Ll passengers. L the mighty lor of the laivl on islets weiv es on its Ij-^^^^^- wero visible above the flood, and looked liko water-marks to show its extent ; and the spires and turrets of tlio old papal city alone tow(;red up haughtily over tho waste of waters. All traffic ami ti'avelliiig were suspended, business was at a stand, only a few 8hoi)s in liigh situations were open ; and the stillness of this large, ;.busv, and ivputt dly noisy city was almost oppressive." It was , useless to ask lur any one or anything — tho post-office was in tho :* waters ; the letters were in the waters ; all tho world, in tlio brief *sum total of Fr(Mich speech, was in the waters. But my walk ^yielded me more than a curious view. As I descended the hill, 1 f happened to take a wrong turn, and found myself in a nice and t pretty little market. Never was market more grateful to my eyes. 'The people who had goods to sell there looked very gloony, and those who camo to buy looked very cheerful. Tho reason, ^bjy ■itold me was, that the latter got better bargains than they sh juld #get when provisions ought to be so dear; and tho former, hiving me from the country with their provisions, could not sc.dl em beeause customei-s could not get to them. Hero I got the ost deli(.'ious lamb and the sweetest autumn violets. The lamb as so delicate, one could not think it what is vulgarly called lUtehers' ?iioat; neither was it so rich as game. I believe its elicucy arose from the ereatures being fed on the Cevenues ,ount. ins, which are covered with aromatic herbage. At iho end of a fortnight tho rain, whicii for some previous ys had been light, but pretty 'onstant, quite ceasi^d; tho sun me out of its thin shroud, and a breezi; snrang up. 31 y old stess came to give me her daily hsson in lire-making, and nounecd that soon all the world would be out of the waters. I nt out on the hill, and saw the flood was rapidly retiiing; the y ground was seen, where before tho Wir rs had prevailed. The el of the air was the most remarkable 1 have ever known : I can dy compare it to a warm vap ur bath, if you can fancy the sun 'f'l ■l I . i I w REMARKABLE ADVENTURES. shining through a vapour bath. The sky was blue and bright, the air quite stilJ, but both hot and moist — wetting while it warmed you. The aspect all around was most deplorable ; worse, now that the flood was retreating, than when it prevailed: misery was apparent now ; it had been covered before — ruined dwellings and goods ; people knee-deep in mud, trying to gain access to what was so lately their home, or their shop. When I saw the melan- choly looks of so many, my heart reproached me with my laio pleasant and selfish contentment. I soon walked down to the town : I saw many persons cleaning mud and water from houses and churches. The pulpit of one of the latter was quite filled with mud. A melancholy looking English carriage — ^known to be English by having a "lady's maid" seated outside, whereas a femme de chamhre would have been witli her lady inside — drove languidly out from a hotel : an old lady only was in it, and it moved away with the subdued air of a besieged party allowed to retire. I found my friends at their hotel, and waded in through soft tnud and water, to astonish them with my appearance. My house- keeping had agreed with me, and they did not take me for a spectre, though they had, they declared, been horribly uneasy for my fate. I assured them I had been equally so for theirs, as I was told their hotel was in the waters. I returned to my single chamber, to take leave of my kind olii hostess. I assured her, if she ever came to England, it woulc give me pleasure to teach her how to light one of our coal fires. " And that, mademoiselle," she said, "I think you may well do: for it is my belief you would never have known how to do any out thing if you had not been with me, when all the world was in tk waters." And so my teaching time ended when the Rhone and Duranft withdrew to their proper limits. A NIGHT AMONG CHINESE PIRATES. •59 id briglit, the le it wanned )rse, now that : misery was iwellings and ccess to what ^wthe melan- with my lat^ rsons cleaning alpit of one of icholy looking "lady's maid" tiave been with I: an old lady bdued air of a in through soft ^ce. My house- take me for a ibly uneasy foi for theirs, as 1 of my kind oIg Igland, it woulc )ur coal fires. )u may well do; to do any out rorld was in the Ine andDuranct I I have written in a lively strain, for I have recorded on paper #he facts and circumstances of what befell me, simply as they ■furred. Yet it would be ungrateful not also to record an topression of humble and hearty thanks to Him who saveth our Mie from destruction, and also crowneth us with loving-kindness %id tender mercies. M A NIGHT AMONa CHINESE PIKATES. tvERYBODY knows that the coasts of China are sadly infested with ites. Of this ugly fact I was forcibly reminded as I stood on tike deck of the good ship S , in which I was to sail from Hong Kong to Amoy. As we were about to weigh anchor, a i||Dat came alongside, from which several Chinese sailors clambered i||lL deck and inquired for the captain. Having found him, they ^plained that they had been deputed by the captains of eight 18 which were bound for Kap-Ohe, to ask whether he would ^nsent to be their convoy for protection against the pirates. Our ^ptain having a well-armed ship, and being an old naval officer, nothing loth to undertake the task. The two passengers lyself and another) offering no objection, the bargain was soon icluded, and we set sail. As the old barque stood out of the rbour, with her eight clumsy-looking little junks around her, looked very much like a hen with her chickens. The ten gims It peeped out from her port-holes, however, qualified her to act protecting part of the cock should occasion require. i'or the first four days of our voyage the only enemy we had to itend with was the strong head-wind, against which neither we our convoy could make much progress. Every evening at jet we were obliged, in compliance with the timorous usage of Cpinese sailors, to come to an anchor in some bight or bay. To li i! ifiij REMARKABLE ADVENTURES, moil accustomed to travel by steam, this seemed slow work ; yet I did not regret it, since it afforded me opportunities of going ashore to visit several towns and villages on the coast, which are rarely seen by Europeans. Wretched enough these outlying villages looked. With their mud-built houses, their few and dingy sho]).s, their narrow and filthy streets, where fat pigs strolled about, and children, scarcely less fat, were their companions, they gave tin visitor no very exalted idea of the so-called Celestial Empire These sea-coast villages, however, mean-looking as they are, woull in less populous empires rank as cities. They owe their existenc- to the fisheries, which are so industriously prosecuted along tlit whole seaboard of China. But to return to our vovagfe. The wind, which for four dav had so retarded our progress, on the fifth increased to somethim like a gale. Our poor junks, and our puissant selves, had enouL'i ado to hold our own. In the teeth of such a gale, progress \m out of the question, and a safe anchorage for the night was l!i chief anxiety. The only safe anchorage which seemed at a! available, was that marked in the charts as Mico Bay. To reat: that was the object for which we and our junks no'»v toiled hart If we could only get round that headland, we should be safe. Ei no I tack after tack still found us on the wrong side of that bli; cape ; and at last we were forced to come to anchor in a small ai H exposed bight outside of that Mico Bay which had been oi " desired haven." Wliile we were dropping anchor, the ship's carpenter (a Chiii. man) came up to the captain, and with a look of importance in I: face said, " That no good ship," pointing to a strange junk, wlii was just then crossing our bows ; " she a pirate." " Pirate !" exclaimed the captain, taking up his telescope ;i: surveying the junk indicated. " I see no signs of piracy abc her." A NIGHT AMONG CHINESE PIRATES. 61 work; yet I going asliore ch are raruly yii^g villages , dingy sl^^r^- ed about, awl tliey gave ih estial Enipiv'. •hey are, wo\ily toiled liai' lid be safe. ^ jide of tbat bit jr in a small ai |h had been o: rpenter (a Chiv.. limportance in- l:ango junk, wl" lis telescope a'^ Is of piracy abo The carpenter walked off, evidently in a luiff at the little mijortance attached to his warning; and the suspected junk liroppod anchor alongside of one of our convoy. I Kight fell, and as dark a night as evil-doer could wish. About nine o'clock, while I was trudging up and down the quarter-deck ^ith our captain, our eyes wore dazzled by a flash, followed ^stantly by the report of a gun. AYe stood still, looking rather ijiau saying, "What can be the meaning of that?" Presently Mere came another and another and another of these ominous Hounds. Our captain rushed off, mustered all hands, gave orders |p load all the guns, and clear for action. While this was being ifcne — and it was the work of a very few minutes — the firing was llill going on all around us ; though, whether it was directed Ugainst our ship or others we could not tell. To find myself, ace-loving man as I am, thus suddenly surrounded by "war's rms," was not a little astonishing. Nor was my confidence tort d when, on going into the cabin, I found the first mate sied over the open arm-chest and powder magazine, handing it pistols, muskets, cutlasses, cartridges, and other death-dealing cles. Man of peace though I was and am, I selected a cutlass, nking that in an emergency it would be well to have a weaj)on self-defence. hus ai'med, I regained the deck, and found that the firing, ugh less frequent, was still going on. " Fii-e right in amongst m !" was the fiery young mate's exhortation to our old captain. 0, no," replied the captain : " when we can distinguish friends foes, we'll fire ; but not till then." t length the firing ceased, and darkness and silence returned. we retained the impression that pirates were somewhere close in us, and that we must be on the alert, lest, as is their custom, should stealthily approach, clamber up the ship's stern, and us by surprise. All that night the matches were kept lit, the BEMARKADLE ADVENTURES. ii men lay by their puna, and the captain and myself paced the deck. A weary, long night it seemed. But day broke at last. Peering throu«»:h its lirst grey light, we counted our jnnks and found them all there. But where was the stranger which the carpenter had ix)inted out as a pirate ? " There she is I" cried the mate, " hugging the shore and makinof her escape !" The carpenter being called, was asked, " Is that the junk you pointed out last night ?'* •' Yes," was the quick reply. Several guns were soon brought to bear on the fugitive. Tlie word " Fire !" was given, and our first shot skipped along the waves, but fell short. The second was not more successful. Tlie third struck, and disabled the rover for a time ; but she soon righted again, and stood away beyond further annoyance from our shot. The daylight being now clear, the captain ordered a boat to Ix lowered, and boarded one of our junks to inquire into the cause v\ last night's uproai*. He was told that the junk which had jusi sailed away had attacked one of our convoy, but had been beatt ii off with the loss of several men. And so ended our night of anxiety and suspense. But do w: suppose, dear reader, that my story is ended ; for on that same duv we saw a steamer rounding that headland which we had laboum so hard to round and had not been able. What steamer she Ava^ or what was her errand to Mice Bay, we knew not. On our arriv;i: at our destination, however, we ascertained that the steamer it question was Her Majesty's Ship " Media ;" and that her missk to Mico Bay was the destruction of a whole fleet of piratical junk? a mission which she most effectually accomplished. Had wt succeeded in our efforts to get into the anchorage of Mico 13iit we and our convoy would probably have fallen a prey (thoujjl ADVENTURES IN TUE NICODAU ISLANDS. G3 kced tlio ileck. ast. Peering d found them carpenter bad re and makinii b tlie jnnk y ou fugitive 3pcd along The the uccessful. The ; but she soon >yance from our not an easy prey) to the pimtieal fleet. Let this little iiui ADVENTURES IN THE NICOBAR ISLiVNDS. G5 ig to Open it 10 instant, a Slot thinking Imd, in their ft-as by this 1 tiey had done meddled with was attacked ing down my le wound till 1 applied to it bandage ; but aess, I took no veiled, and was into the wort mell; and on was altogether stuff they had ing themselves; out the matter, cause of all the ng split-siiake ,u taking off the ucb wounded I] door, that it ha^ com through U : ogress and yi^ of tbe serpents lant of the causf In consequence o Itold that the hit^ less degree, by ^ «}nsation similar to an electrical shock. Tlio name of split-snako which is piven to this animal, wo considered as descriptive not so much of its split appearance, us of the singular sensation occa- sioned by its bite." Mr. Haensol, in his frequent excursions along the coast, was •ometimes benighted, and could not conveniently return home ; )tut in these circumstances he was never at a loss for a bed. The eater part of the beach consists of a remarkably fine white sand, hich above the high-water mark is perfectly clean and dry. Into [lis he easily dug a hole large enough to contain his body, and he likewise formed a mound as a pillow for his head. He then lay [own, and by collecting the sand over him, buried himself in it up Id the neck. His faithful dog always lay across his body, ready to give the alarm in ciise of the smallest danger or disturbance. Though the Brethren had little or nothing to dread from wild lasts on the Nicobar Islands, yet in their visits to other places they sre sometimes in danger from them. On one of Mr. Haensel's yages, either to or from Queda, a Danish ship hailed the vessel, id approaching incautiously, ran foul of the stem and broke the stafif. Having put into a creek, some of the sailors landed a wood to cut down a tree to make a new one. Mr. Haensel mpanied them, armed with a double-barrelled gun, with the iw of procuring some fresh meat for supper. While they were ork, he walked on the outside of the wood eagerly looking for e game, and soon discovered among the high grass an object h, by its motions, he mistook for the back of a hare. He ediately took aim, and was just going to fire, when the animal up and proved to be a tiger. Overcome with terror, his arm (limtarily sank down ; he stood perfectly motionless, expecting the animal would instantly spring at him and tear him in Providentially, however, it seemed as much alarmed as lelf, and after staring at him for a few seconds, turned slowly f 06 REM.VRKABLE ADVENTURES. ilid round, and began to creep away like a frightened cat, with hig belly close to the ground ; then gradually quickening his pace, fled with precipitation into the distant recesses of the wood. It was some time before Mr. Haensol recovered sufficient pre- sence of mind to trace back his steps towards the beach, for his heart still trembled within him. As he approached the shore, there was a piece of jungle or low thicket before him, and he was turning to the left to pass round by the side opposite the boat, hoping he might yet find some game, when he observed the sailors labouring hard to drag the tree they had felled towards the water, and therefore he changed his course and went to their assistance. No sooner had ho entered the boat, than he discovered on that side of the jungle to which he was first going, a large alligator watching their motions, and which he would certainly have met had he gone by the way he originally intended. Thankful as he was for this second deliverance, he could not help discharging his gun at the animal's head ; and by the sudden plunge which it made into tlio water, and the appearance of blood on the surface as it wa? swimming to the opposite shore, it was evident the creature wa^ wounded. He saw it reach the land and crawl tliroi:Q:h the mud into the jungle. After the officers and soldiers who had accompanied the Brethren to the Nicobar Islands w^ere all dead, and it was know.i that tlie missionaries would not abandon their post, the government a; Tranquebar required that one of them should act as the royal Danish Kesident. This office was frequently a source of miicl vexation, and even of danger, to them. The Danes, when the^ formed their first settlement on one of these islands, which thef called New Denmark, had conveyed thither a considerable numbt of cannon ; but after the death of all the soldiers, the can-iagt^ rotted to pieces, and the guns were suffered to lie on the ground On one occasion, a Nacata, or general of the king of Queda, as I ADVENTURKS IN THE NICOBAR ISLANDS. r>7 t, with hia r his pftce, [)0t\. fficicnt pre- ach, for l^is I the shore, , and he was ito the boat, ed the sailors i-ds the water, ,eir assistance, .d on that side rator watching et had he gone ,e was for this ^is gun at tlio xnade into tV face as it wa> xe creature wi^ .o-hthe mii^ ,■^0 cnment a roval Led the Brethren [know-A that tlie gover ict as the I source of uinc^ anes, ^vhen tk! ands, which tk! Isiderable numbe: 3rs, the camag(- on the gro^^i of Queda, as ^ stvlcd liinisolf, nrrivod at Xanoair.vory with a lariro prow, and five of tlio f^ms on board. Mr. Pfaensel boinj^ infonnod of this, con- sidorod it his duty as Eesident to protest against the robbery, and Rp(»ko to him concerning it. Tlio Naoata flow into a violent rage, and began to use threatening language, pleading the orders of his t^BOvereign. Mr. Ilaensel replied, with all the simplicity of tmth, that his priiico knew very well, that as he had laid nothing down there, he had no right to take anything up, and that he would givo %otice of it to the king of Denmark. He then loft him, but after- |v'ards heard that the Nacata threatened to kill him, and thus prevent him from reporting what he had done. The natives also lissured Mr. Haensel that it was the general's intention to murder him ; but that they would stay and defend him. They, accord- ingly, stopped till late in the night, when the Brethren desired jtiiein to return home, but could scarcely prevail on them to go iway. \fter they had gone, and just as the Brethren were preparing to (tire to bed, they heard a noise without, and immediately after a [oknt knocking ot the door. On opening it, Mr. Haensel was irprised to see it surrounded by a great number of Malays ; but lougli he was much afraid, he a«"' ~ned an authoritative air, and ipt his station at the entrance, as if determined not to let them The foremost, however, pushed by him, and then the Nacata self came forward. The Malays immediately crowded into room, and sat down on the chairs and on the floor, closely hing him, armed with their creeses or daggers. Though Mr. nsel preserved a firm undaunted look, yet it is impossible to ribe his feelings on this occasion, as he expected every moment 11 a sacrifice to their fury. The Nacata then told him that ho come to ask, " Whose property the cannon were to be, the iident's or his ?" To this question l^Ir. Haensel replied to the wing effect: "You have come to the wrong person to make m GS REMAUICABLE ADVENTUIIES. ill that inquiry : for I am only a servant of the king of Denmark, a^ you, accordinp; to your o\m account, are the servant of the king^ of Queda. Neither of us, therefore, can determine who shall have the cannon. Our respective masters, and they only, can settle that point. You have told me that you have received orders to hring them ; fj.nd 1 can assure you that I have orders to piotest against it. We have both, therefore, only done our duty. All now depends on this point, whether my kii^ or your king h;w th* best riglit to give orders on these islands, and to claim the property in question." On receiving this answer, the Nacata became quitr furious, and be«:an to talk of the ease with wliich thov could kill them all. Some of them even drew their daggers, and showed tlic missionary how they were tipped with poison. On a sudden the} all rose up, and to his imagination seemed to rush upon liim ; bii instead of this, they quitted the room, one by one, and left hii;i standing alone in utter astonishment at their conduct. As soon as they were all gone, and he foinid iiinidelf in safet} Haensel fell on his knees, and with tears in his eyes returntt thanks to God Almighty, who had so graciously heard his prayerv and saved him from tiie hands of his enemies. His brethren, wL had fled into the wood when the Malays first burst into the hous- row returned, and they mutually wept for joy to see each oth^^ still in life. The Nacata said afterwards that the Danish Eesident at Nanr;)! wery was a very great sorcerer, for he had tied their hands tb, th^y could do nothing to him. m A FEIIALE CRUSOE. GO Denmark, a^ [ tlie Vm^ of 3 shall have r, can settle ved orders to rs to protest ir duty. All king hiv» th« i the property became quite b(.y could hill iid'showed tin- a, sudden the} ipon liim ; hii; , and left hiii^^ •t. ^elf iii safety , eyes returnee ird his prayer' is brethren, wL into the hous' iee each oth^ ,dent at Nanr-.iv their hands tli. A FEx\IALE CRUSOE. One of the earliest travellers on the overland route, in search of tlie north-west pt^issage, was Mr. Hearue, who, during the years from 1769 to 1771, made three several journeys towards the Copper- mine river, in full expectation of finding a northern ocean, the existence of which, it was inferred, would establish the fact of a sea route noith of the great American continent. In those journeys he encountered the most frightful perils and underwent astonishing haidsliipsj not a whit less cruel than the worst of those endured by modern travellers ; and ho manifested unparalleled fortitude in con- tending agaihst them. The third journey to some extent established tlie fact, the verification of which was the cliief object of his expedi- tions, and moreover corrected some importiint errors in the reports of preceding explorers. But we have nothing to say on that subject here. Mr. Hearue's expeditions have long been a dead letter; and we refer to them only for the purpose of introducing an episode in his adventures which strikes us as affording, perhaps, the most [ronuirkable instance of female resources and self-reliance ever reeorried. \Vh*^n Mr. Hearue, with a company of Indian guides, was travel- [iw^ m thf- arctic circle, not fiir from the Lake Athapuscow, one of he guides came suddenly upon the track of a strange snow-shoe. .sio;:ish/'d at the sight, in a region supposed to be hundreds of liles from aLv liuman habitation, the Indians followed up the rack, and after pursuing it for some distance, arrived at a small it or ('ai>in, formed of snow and driftwood, where they discovered \oung woman sitting alone. She understood their language, and il not newl much persuasion to induce her to return with them the traveller's tent. Here, c?> being interrogated, she told her )ry ; when it cam^ out that she v as a native of tlie tribe of Dog- '' \ 1 r? ii It I 1 ii :i i' '' r mmmMltllllHm i i i M i I '0 REMARKABLE ADVENTURES. ribbed Tndiaiis, who wore, or lifid been, at fend with the Athapus- cans, and that at an inroad of the latter, dnrin^^ the summer of 1770, she had been taken prisoner and carried off to shivery. In the following summer, when the Athapuscan Indians were travel- ling the country, she watched her opportunity, and, on arriving near the place where she was found, managed one night to give them the slip, intending to find her way back to her own people. In this, however, she was disappointed. She had been carried away in a canoe, and the twistings and windings of the river were so many and intricate, and so often intersected each other, and there were so many lakes and marshes, that she found it impossible to pursue her route. In this dilemma, instead of resigning herself to despair, she set about building a dwelling for a shelter during the winter, and having completed it, she calmly tcok up her abodi' and commenced her solitary housekeeping. She had kept an account of aU the moons that had passed ; and from this it appeared that for seven months she had not seen a human face, and had subsisted in this desolate region entirely by her own unaided exertions. How had she contrived to sustain life ? When asked that question, she said that when she ran away from her captors she took with her a few deer sinews. With these slie made snares, and caught partridges, rabbits, and squii'rels ; she had also killed a few beavers and porcupines, and was not only not in want of food at the period when she was discovered, but had a tolerably good stock of provisions laid up for future use. When tlie snares made of the deer sinews were all worn out, she ^mm ready with another stock manufactured with sinews drawn from the Jegs of the rabbits and squirrels which had fallen victims to her cunning. But tliis *' exemplary female " had not only well stocked her larder by the exercise of industry and forethought, but had ah taken equal care of her wardrobe. From the skins of the various animals she had caught she had made up an excellent winter suit. A FEMALE CRUSOE. 71 e Athapn?- siimmer of lavery. I^^ were travel- on arriving ght to give oNvu people. )een carried .6 river were li otlier, and it impossible fining herself belter during up bcr abodo i passed; and id not seen a on entirely by to sustain life' ran away ii'oui VVitb these sk squirrels; she as not only not Ted, but bad a i-e use. When •n out, sbe Ava> ws drawn fron^ n victims to her nly well stodeo bt, but bad alsi Ls of tbe varioiv" lent wmter suit 'm wbicb was not only warm and comfortable, but, according to Mr. Ilearne, was put together with great taste and exliibited no small variety of ornament. " The materials, though rude, were curiously wrou'^ht, and so judiciously arranged as to make the whole garb have a pleasing though somewhat romantic appearance." Her working implements consisted of the broken shank of an iron arrow-head, and a few inches of iron hoop roughly sharpened into a knife ; and ^yith these she had^ constructed not only her dress, but a pair of substantial snow shoes, and several other useful articles. The keeping up her fire had given her most trouble. With two sulphureous stones she could, by dint of violent friction and con- tinuous pounding, raise a few sparks so as to kindle a handful of loose fibres of wood carefully picked small ; but the labour was wearisome and long ; and to avoid the necessity of it, she had not suffered her fire to be extinguished for many months. She was never idle. When fatigued with the toils of the chase, or when she was not under the necessity of limiting, she occupied hei-self in peeling ofT the thin inner bark of the willow trees with which tho •spot abounded, and twisting it into a species of twine. Of this sort (of line she had already accumulated several hundreds of fathoms ; in length ; and it was her intention to make of them a capacious inet for fishing, as soon as the frost should break up and the streams [become practicable. Of this remarkable female, Mr. Heame, in his journal, says: She was one of the finest women I have seen in any part of I^ortli America." It would seem that his Indian guides were of le same opinion ; and that, while they admired her for the comeh- less of her person, they were by no means insensible of the value her multifarious accomplishments. There was not a man among lem who did not desire to have her for his wife ; so, according to le custom of their tribe, they put her up to competition, id wrestled in the ring for her — the strongest of the party, m im m 72 EEMARIvAIU.E ADVENTURES. after ho had overthrown all the rest, having her duly assigncxl to him. Wc might add a whole volume of reflections upon the cheerful, active, womanful spirit of this female Crusoe, uncivih'zed as sh*.' was, as contrasted witli the desponding helplessness which we too often witness among women, and men too, who, with every motive* to industry and activity, and every encouragement to exert both, lose all self-reliance imder the Ihst shock of adversity, and pass their days in useless indolence and repining. We forbear, how- over: such a history is better without a set moral, and carries its own comment. ^.N ADVENTUiiE IN THE DESERT. I WAS engaged, some thirty or more years ago, in a military expe- dition into /irabia Felix, tho recollections of which, coming upon me througL this long vista of years, are so vivid, that I cannut help hoping they may possess some attraction for others, especially as encounters have been rare between European troops and tin children of the desert. We became, if I recollect right, first engaged in a contest witli an Arab tribe — the Wahabees — through our ally, the Imaum ol ^luscat. This tribe had made frequent incursions into the terri- tory of that potentate, carrying off the flocks, and committing greai depredations. They had also made war with a Bedouin tribe in close alliance with the just-named chief; and for these and other offences, which had been persisted in for many years with impunity, the Imaum determined to attack them in their stronghold, Ben- Boo-Ali, about sixty miles in tho interior, on the borders of tlu Great Desert. Of this expedition, as it comes not within my personal recollcr AN ADVENTURE IN THE DESERT. 7:^ assigned t<> lie clicerful, t/ahI as 8h«! a\icU we too jvcvv motiv<' ) exert botb, ity, and pass forbear, lio\v ftd carries \\^ , military expf- . coming npou , that I cannot hers, especially roops and tlu a contest witV the Imaum ol into the terri- ommitting great 3edouin tribe in these and other >vithimpnnity- strongUold, Ben- borders of tW •8 e irsonal rcco Hot tion, 1 Kliall only say that, though rominanded by an able I'ritisli ofticcr, to whom no bhimo lias been attached, it signally failed. About five hundred Sepoys were surprised by alxnit two thousand Wahabees and massacred, and tlio whole enterprise was thus defeated. It was to retrieve this reverse of the I>ritish arms that the Bombay government resolved to send a rather formidable expedition against the offending tribe. It was, if I can ndy upon ^my memory, composed of two European regiments, the GOtJi and |the 47th, and of two native r<^giments, a force altogether of about lAhree thousand men, with several jjieees of heavy and light artillery. |The command was given to Colonel Warren, of tlie (J.Oth regiment. I A delightful sail along summer seas, in summer weatlier, brought us, in little more than a week, to the sjKjt of our disend)arkation on the Arabian coast of the l*ersian Gulf. A little town, or rather a «|arge straggling assemblage of huts, called Zoar, was the first habil- le spot we passed through. Our first encampment was in its mediate vicinity. Being very young at the time, I liad received, somehow or other, impression that Arabia Felix was, as the term seemed to imply, arkable for the beauty of its landscapes. Barren mountains d arid plains, the blazing sun and interminable desert, the Arab his troops of camels, are, to be sure, images of alhux^ment to fancy, that have been made familiar to us all. But I had cted that these grand naked outlines of nature and of life, turesque as they are, would have been filled uj) by details of a T charm ; and my disappointment was complete. As there are periodical rains here to refresh the earth, as in India, verdun.' e is naturally none, except that of the date groves, which g up green out of the desert, and defy the heat of the sun to or to wither them. Plains of sand, varied only by hillocks of , bounded by scorched mountains of baked earth, rifted here there bv the heat into wide chasms, down which one mi«;ht D -J 'ill ii ' ' REMARKABLE ADVENTURES. •i'i !i' imagine, at one time or other, torrents had forced their way, fatigued the sight by their sterile monotony. The Arab and the vulture could alone, I thought, live in the midst of this desolation ; and the latter would doubtless soon wing its flight from sucli sterility, but for the human carnage with which the sands of Arabia are so often moistened. The Arab village is always built, or rather pitched, in the midst of a date grove. There was one, a little to the rear of our encamp- ment, in which Zoar lay refreshingly sheltered. This was a;i attractive object, that gave relief to the eye, and afforded an extremely grateful refuge from the united power of the sun and tlir burning sand. Zoar, with its little circuit of vegetation, and it^ garden-plots, which were kept constantly irrigated by rude artificial conduits of water running in all directions from the wells, was. after our first march, as a spring of life in the waste. Two or three mud towers, and a larger construction of the same material, callei! the palace of the Sheikh, ga\ e to the place, at a little distance, ai air of some pretension. The palace had been turned into a bazaar where Scindian and Surat merchants sold shawls, attar of rose? and various valuable kinds of cloths and silks, to be conveve thence into the interior. This close juxtaposition of barbari splendour and barbaric rudeness — ^this display of some of the cos; liest luxuries of civilization glittering in the midst of the mo: primitive simplicities of life — this evidence of wealth and commerc among a people whose wants are the fewest, and whose existenc is the wildest — is a peculiarity of many eastern nations, but, mo? than all others, of the Arabs. The contrast it presented to tt rest of the scene before us, piqued and excited the imaginatio very delightfully. Among the numerous huts huddled promiaf ously together, the men were wandering listlessly about, with « air of indolent fierceness, or lying stretched out at length in tt shade ; whilst the women were mostly employed in spinning ti AN ADVENTURE IN THE DESERT. 75 their way, •ab and the desolation; from s^cli lie Bands ol in tbe «iin ^'"f "^j v^,t degree novel and exc.tu-;: the princil-al ohjeets, were m *« ^.g ^ ^.j f^„^ „„, p,,. fo tU >v'uo co«.d^;«l;^^^ he .ho e,^^^ ^^ ^^^,,^^„,, ,,,, , „ic repast-the g""''"'^""; " • t,„es under our eyes. . the strange livmg and movmgPK.t.^^ ^^_^^ ^, « t In this e'«=''"P'"'"^"^ rrtribe of Bedouin Arabs. We felt tended, waiting to be jmned by ^ *« °^„ ;„ .rf^n at Bombay: Uere as perfect a ^'='=""*y;.,;;:,y Carried so far, that, in order t„ ,„d this feeling v^'as ""^0^"?^^'^ ; ht alarms, ^vhich had once o, prevent the recnrrenco of "> « "J ^,,, ordered not o load, Lice disturbed our c»!"P' *\^^ ^'^eh till the Imaum of Ito. Our commandant remamed ^^"Tes^mo^. arrived, .ho accompan.ed us on our^^p ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ , That Arab pnnce ^^^ ^'^''^ ,„,ro„nded us. His tents w the grotesque human scenery that sn ^ ^ no symbol . *:cLd agoocl^loaMo our rea iW^^^ ^„, embroidery,.. Ugniflcence other *-";J^'/^'^° their summits. But the pnn. the yellow banners Aat"""**'^ °^'' ^ constellation of splendoiu himself ..as, on all f^^^X^ occasions, on a visit of ee. Wl worth seeing. On one <^ J^^ y^ ,t^ff, he received to ^onymade to him ^Y °« - W an ^^ ^^^^^^^,,^,^ ten, . -x oUfiticr on a mat at tiie uun^*" - gj;, visitors sitting on i* *" . , jy q\^x man, oi » *" He was represented to "- J/^^^J^iiy are, profusely decc complexion, much darke than Arab J^ ^^^^^^ ^ ^ rated all over with 3««clle.7- ^^ j^^ atones, audk head-piece ; his sUppevs -^V'^^Ia with other sparkUng ge. Wt and the lult of his sworc»t ^^^^ ^^^^ ^ principally diamonds. He mu^ bespangled all over w> h .1 Leous idol in a pag*"^ ["^J' -phe „ll salads, usual pP :Xi:--'Strh..donmats,theu^ 1 AN ADVENTURE IN THE DESERT. 77 ,<> and varied g camel v-v. °and excitu^:: from our pie- itional zest i !S. as at first in- rabs. ^Vefe\l 311 at Bombay, at, in order t.> ;h bad once oi ;d not to load laum of Huscai Lotbci feature oi His tents ^YC^ .d no symbol n embroidery, m^ . ButthepriiK on of splendour a a visit of cere f he received lil cierate-sized teni man, of a must ., profusely decc ,lazed a dianiow )us stones, ami li: er sparkling g^^ very ra^^^.f\ all over with U tlaams, usual pip« ;, tlie usual silona and the usiiol few words of hyperbolical couiplimont on pn.vsontation and on leave-taking, constituted the wholo solemnity. It was tho subject of talk among the natives and our camp followers during the remainder of our stay at Zoar, and wonderful were tho stories we hoard of Arab wealth, Arab prowess, etc. Thus passed our time away in o pleasant sort of dreamy weari- : somcncss, star-gazing at night on picket, and during tho day tiuio ? wandering among l)eings who had belonged hitherto, in our minds, only to fable, and listening to fables from their mouths (througli interpreters) very like their own history. We were aroused out of this delicious sort of reverie by an event by no means so agreeable, ut which acted as an efiective specific against dreaming for tlio ^Vest of the campaign. The pickets, as I have said, were not allowed to load their pieces. mi)roving on this order, the captain of one of them had not suf- fered even his sentries to load. The consequence was fatal. Tho ahabees had sent spies into our camp, and liad become fully formed of the defenceless state of the outposts. Seven of these ies had been captured and hanged a few days before, by order of e Imaum. Yet no alarm seems to have been occasioned. Taking vantage, then, of our security, and profiting by as dim a night as cVrabian sky ever affords, a large party of Wahabees, mounted camels and horses, were borne with silent celerity over tho toste; and before the moon, which rose late, could throw any trusive light on their movements, they were in the immediate ighbourhood of the aforea^^id picket. As this outpost was corn- ed of Sepoys, it is very possible some spy might have learned ,t on this spot the very sentinels were virtually disarmed, fving left their horses and camels a good way behind, the abees crept along the groimd from sand hillock to sand [t)ck, burrowing absolutely among the sand, in which their ies were nearly concealed. Tho first sentry whose eyes were Ji''l < i (4 i 11 78 REMARKABLE ADVENTURES. directed towards them saw only what he thought a moving sand- Iicap. Before ho had time for closer examination, the Arab had hold of his musket, had wrested it out of his hand, and cut him down. Resistance was, of course, vain. Tlie picket was driven in, and, with a wild " hurrah !" several hundred Wahabees followed close at their heels. They had evidently no plan of attack. It was merely one of their nightly forays of destruction and depre- s, which seemed to have as mucli of imagination as of reality hi them, had lost their charm of novelty, we were on the move. The breaking up of our camp wj\s a stirring spectacle. Tents taking down, camels loading, regiments forming into line, officers mounting, the motley variety of Indian, Arab, and European cos- tumes, formed some of the details of its organized disorder. Oiii- sultry marches that followed, with a tropical blazing sun on our heads, and the burning sands under our feet, were the only real suffering we had to endure, but it was by no means a slight one , The fatigue itself of marching fifteen or twenty miles a day, in sucli a country and climate, was much severer than that of a marcli double that distance in Europe. The first day sufficed to peel tlu skin off most of our faces, which wo were obliged to invest in our silk handkerchiefs, to keep them from further scarification, till they got inured to scorchings. In crossing the ghauts (mountains], three of our men, who were in charge of some elephants that haJ been procured to drag a few heavy pieces of artillery through a very difticult pass, died of the heat, which was more than oucc intensely aggravated by a delusive refreshment which sometimes cheated our senses. Once I recollect, during a day of more than AN AlA'KNTLllE IN TIIK DKSEIlT. 81 L) wliicU i\\v. »d, very vvfH cU J! meter of Sepuvalin-: : behind Hi'* liiuidl'ul!* "i" cs with tlieir They would 3 prostrutious of the setting c appearand, liavo as iniuli .rm of novelty, jctaclc. Tents bo line, officers European cos- disorder. Our ng sun on our 3 the only real [18 a slight on( . s a day, in sucli lat of a mardi ccd to peel the ,0 invest in our icarification, till uts (mountains), phants that liaJ ^iUery through a more than ouco ;vhich sometimes ay of more than wsiiiil fatl^'iic, a sndoo-Ali. We had nightly apprehensions of attacks on our Jftutposts, but were allowed to advance quite unmolested ; chiefly wing, I believe, to the scouting watch our J5edoiiin allies kept up V us far round about in all directions. At these outposts the |fh(!er on iirhood of three of the larjiest date groves wt* liad seen, and was sheltered by a fourth, -^vhich lay in tho mitl.st of them. It might bo considered as the great- metropolis of tlie wliole Wahabee tribe in this part of Arabia. Several towers, three or four of them of ample circurafercince and of gi*eat height, rose u]) from among the trees. From the tops of two of them wo dis- cern(Hl the flickering of arms, and men moving about, and were immediately afterwards saluted by a discbarge from one of our owii guns, taken from Captain J . At this time the bones of poor '{' 's men, whi(»li lay scattered about, bleaching in the sun, tho skulls grinning horribly through their white teeth i]X)u us, were at our feet ; and our martial ardour was not a little m(;ved thereby t't retrieve tho fonner disaster. This, however, would not have been a very easy task, had th-? Wahabees, trusting less to their personal bravery and prowess, dis- played but ever so littlo skill in mihtary tactics ; and for tli ■ following reason. In order to attack the enemy, or to bring o\v: guns to bear on their to^vn willi any eflect, it was neces. traverse th(j largest and most thickly planted of the groves I havo mentioned, hi doing this, it was impossible to pvcserve even au }i|)p(ntrance of rank or order. The trees stood so close togi'tlx r. and the .vands were so Iieavy, that we were obliged to scramlil'' througb tl>era, man by man, the best way wo could. But to thcN natund imp<^dim(mt,s tlio Wahabees had mor<; than suflicient tiii;-^ to add artificial ones. They might have cut down tho trees t»r tliruwn up barricades to block our way ; or, sliouhl sucli precauti('ii be considered too scientific to have been expected from them, thoy AX ADVENTURK IN THE DESERT. te spoedily clistance it !, bare, m> ,vus situated to groves ny;' the mit-lst of of the ^vllol(' ors, three or light, rose u]) hem wo (lis- ut, and were me of our oww )Oiies of poor I the SUB, tlu> on us, were at red thereby to task, had tb-) .1 prowess, dis- aud for tlv.- to brhig our „s ncees:^iiry U' proves I have gcn've even iiu close tog«'tb*r, [kI to scram1)l>' But to th<'^< sumcieut tiiH'' n the trees ur lUeli prceiiutK'ii 1-om tiieui, tlu': iniicht ut least have planted ainbuslies in the grove, and have kept I up a most deadly fire on m in our passa^ro through it. Tljey suf- Ifered us, however, to advance without the slightest opposition ; and even when our men issued out, one by one, from the entanglement of the wood into the adjoining plain, which was fived right oppo- site by another grove, they continuc'l quite passive. .^ Our whole iVirce was drawn up in two lin^-^ — the Europeans in fr«>!it and tlio Sepoy-} in the rear— -on this plai);, before we saw aught of the enemy. And then, it was «vdy by getting a view of them throngh teh'soopes, from one of th(.'ir towers which we had left Ix'liiud u.<, that wi; found out where th>-^y were. There they were — a thrilling spectacle — in the grove just fronting us, their dark ligures mjide apparent by the glitter of th^*ir arms — a whole trilx', for the last time under the congenial gloom of their own ,. shades, coiled up tor one Ihial spring of desperation, and doomed to M^ within a lew minutes. «' A little tiring from a riile comj)any soon brought them out upon ^s. It was a sight to move pity, to behold the wild sortie of tlie )or creatures from their shelter. Th<"r rushed forward, a confused "i^wd, in a frantic manner. At fir witli \vlioni they had already been engaged, that tliey were seized with a panic, flung down their arms, and fled. In little less than lialf an hour the whole affair was over. Of our men, about sixtv were killed and wounded. Of the Waliabees, we counted next dav nearly five hundred, dead or dying on the field of action. AVithout further opposition A\orth mentioning, we took possession of Ben- Boo- Ah. Wo slept that night in our cloaks, under the walls. The next morning we visited the place in detail. It was only a larger Zoar ; but its desolation was most melancholy. Jt> empty huts ; the scattered housewife's implements ; the signs of recent habitations, where there were no iidiabitants ; the idle wells: the water-courses unsupplied with water; the trampled gardens, but yest<'rday neat and flourishing ; the desi)air preceding imme- diate destruction, that had thrown everything hither and thither; the groves themselves, so bereft and solitary ; all seemed to mourii tlie sudden catastroplu? ; wliilst our prisoners, huddled tog<3ther, ii wretched band in deplorable plight, looked on with lack-lustre eye at the spoliation of all their household goods and treasures, by thei! careless, joyous, laughing, and joking victors. Everything ])ort- able, of suflicient value, such as spears, kreeses, swords, and sliickl? some of which were inlaid with silver, rewarded the searchers alter such spoils ; and all the large stores of dates, rice, and dried fisli, of late the common property of the whole Wahabee settlement with their hoard of coin and precious stones, by no means imon- siderable, were disposed of to the Imaum, and so converted foni^ into prize-money. The stronghold itself, before we left, was set tin LOST ON THE FELLS. 85 Q into tliree bo kept up, place. The ras not until dy of fifteen i need, t"lios(> ; were seized ttlo less tliau 1, about sixty ated nei.t day ion. ook possession ks, under tlif detail. It was 3laneholy. It^ ; the signs of the idle wells; iiplod gardens, •eceding imme- er and tliitliev; reined to mourn lied tog(itlier, n lack-lustre eye- easures, by thoii everything l^ort- )rds, and sIucIiIn le searchers aftir J, and dried ii^li. abee settlemci^t no means incon- •onverted for u^ left, was set tin < to and razed to tlie ground by order of tliat princ<\ To gratify ' hiui, we remained before Ben-Boo- x\li till the live liuudred <'()rp8e8 of the slain, bloated to an enormous and frightful size 1 »y the heat of the sun, sent forth an odour that would have bred a fever in our camp, had we remained much longer. On picket at night, one ■; iri^'ht see flights of vultures descending on the bodies, flapping Htheir wings over them, whilst their busy beaks were at work. iSuch are the horrors of war, even on a small scale. Sunning themselves on the ramparts of Bombay, about a year [afterwards, I saw some of our Wahabee prisoners, and, among jotliers, one of their chiefs, with Avhom I had made some acrpiaint- ^ance, and couhl communicate by signs. As the bird in its cage jsings happily of fields and groves, so the Arab, in his captivity, ■golaces himself with the recollection of his arid sand plains, liis .waste ocean desert, and the green spot on its border, his niglit skies 'Aof transcendent splendour, liis nightly forays and onslaughts, and all the rude simplieities of his wild life. So, at least, I interpreted the kindlinar eve and animated sresticnlation of the old Arab chief have alhided to, when I spoke to him of Ben-Boo-Ali. Tliis is ly last reminiscence of my military adventure in Arabia. LOST ON THE FELLS. ?HE traveller on the Newcastle-on-Tyne and Cai'lisle Puiilway, saving th(.' line at Ilaydou-bridge, will, if he turn towards the )utli, find liimself very shortly in the midst of sceneiy for wliich railway journey will have little prepared him. Instead of the tile and well-wooded vale of the Tyne through wliich he has just «'(!, a region bare and bleak appears before him. On every side real ridges of hills, or, as they are called in that district, " fells," iu gloomy grandeur, their tops often, even in the height KEMARILVBLE ADVENTURES. of sumincr, covered with snow. As he passes aloiip^ the seein- in^^^ly iutermiiiablo road, a few stray houses, or a smoky smelt-iiiill. are the only signs of life that appear ; and so bare and sterile does evciything seem, that he finds it diflicult to imagine that wealth oi any kind can bo gathered from such a region. Ihit riches, vast and incalculable, are there hidden — beneath the surface of tlic eartli, it is true, but only waiting the jDcrsevering energy of man in be brought forth and turned to good account. He is in the great Allendale mining district, from whence is extracted all the cele- brated lead, which, stamped with the distinguishing letter- *' W. B.," finds such a ready sale in every market. After travelling for many miles along an ever-rising road, Ik will reacli the little hamlet of AUenheads, the centre of the miniui; district, and the highest village in England. The inhabitants of tlu's strange corner of the world are distinguished by a primitiw .simj)licity of manners, which very few would imagine could be found in busy England no'"-a-days. It is not my purpose, how- over, to dwell upon tlieii* characteristics. The following narratiw relates one of the incidents which are unhap[>ily ccmimon in Allendale. The snow gathers every winter to an enormous dej>tl; on the sides of the "fells," so that the roads are nearly, if iKt entirely, impassable ; and from tlie deej) " doughs " which abound, it is almost ctTtain death for any one to wander in a snow-storm oft' the proper track. Many unwaiy travellers have thus perished: and thougli the following adventu^'o hap})ily did not terminat. f.itally, its history may nevertheless be of interest to some wlm are entu-e strangers to such scenes, and who, perhaps, could net believe them possible in England. About ton o'clock one wintry evening, in the middle of Ihe gro.it snow-storm of December, 18(i0, one of the engineers h-l Allen- heads mines-office, and proccn-dod to his lodgings, a short (^istanc from it. On arriving at them, liowover, he for. . his landlady LOST ON THE FELLS. 87 npr the secMn- vy smelt-mill, id sterile tloi > Lluvt wealth el it riches, vast urtace of the ivrv of man to p. 3 in the great all the cel- ishing letter^ •ising road, lu' . of the miniiii: inhabitants c»!' by a primitive igine could bt.* f purpose, hoNY- Aving narrativt ly cimimon in enormous deptli ) nearly, if net which abound a snow-storm thus perished; not terminiit. ;t to some wln' laps, could iioi dU^ ()f the gi'oat leers le ,1 Mlen- a slu>rt (^istaniv iiis landlii>i} ijluno-od in the deepest distress. It appeared that her husband, I >vh() had only recently come into the district as a mine inspector, '% and who was quito unacqnainteil with tlio locality, had gone over ? tlie fells into A\'est Allendale about mid-day; and though lie shouhl . liave been at home by six or seven at latest in the evening, he had ' .ing given, le l)and of searchers, to the number of t' n, set forth (m their illniit undertaking. Shortly alter leaving the village, they re- ^ww^ S8 nEMARKABLE ADVENTURES. I' I ceived an accession to their strength in the persons of three young men, who joined them at a little nest of cottages called Lo^v Houses. Here their anxiety was somewhat relieved by the intelli- gence that the missing man was not alone, a mason employed at the mines having accompanied him on his journey. Toiling on through the snow, which was everywhere very deej), the party arrived at a place called Swinhope Head, where a house afforded them a few minutes* shelter. Here a halt was called, and a consultation held as to the most advisable course to pursue. It was resolved to divide the party ; the first six of them to go over the fells to West Allendale, and the remaining seven to stay wher( they then were, unless they received intelligence of the missini: men not having been found, when, refreshed by a few hours' sleeji, they were to i^roceed on a general search. The first party at once commenced their explorations ; and now their real difiSculties began. As they ascended, by the aid of their dimly burning lanterns, the snow-laden side of the fell, they had to exercise the greatest caution, lest they themselves should be over- come by some hidden peril. In many places the snow rose like ;i A\'all of dazzling whiteness right across their path, to a sheer height of more than twenty feet ; this, however, was a visible danger, and not therefore so much to be dreaded ; but in other places, where the surface of the snow seemed perfectly level and harmless, deep " cleughs " were concealed, in which the whole party might have lieen easily swallowed up. Often the drifting of the snow had beei. so great, that they were compelled to pass through places wliert they sank in it up to the middle, and from which they coidd only be extricated by the most vigorous exertions, or the assistance oi ^ each other. On the top of the fell, a halt was again made under slielter of a lofty snow wreath ; and the feeble lanterns havin^^ been once more trimmed, and a few minutes' breathing time allowed, the descent was commenced. An exclamation from oiu LOST ON THE FELLS. 80 three young called Low ,y the intelli- employed at ire very deep, rhere a hous(; ras called, ami to pursue. It em to go over L to stay >vher( )f the missing sv hours' sleep, ions ; and no^v the aid of their ■ell, they had tc khould be over- low rose like a a sheer heiglit ble danger, and jr places, where harmless, deep vrty might have e snow had been gh places when thev coidd only ho assistance oi ain made under lanterns having breathing time mution from oiu )f their number drew the attention of the otliers to the spot where ife stood ; and there, to the heartfelt joy of all, some almost )bliterated footprints were discovered. An old hand in such rattors, warning the others from approaching too near, knelt iown and carefully blew the freshly fallen snow from one of the rints, and, as the result of his exertions, wtis able to see that ho (ho had made it had been travelling in an opposite direction to lat in which the searching party was going. From the number footprints made, there could be little doubt that the track so )rtunately discovered was that of the missing men ; and the marchers at once turned round and began rapidly to follow it up. heavy fall of snow commencing at the same time, warned them li lose no time in doing so, for ere long the marks would be itotirely Iiidden. 1^ But though they had thus hit upon the track of the lost ones, leir anxiety for them was by no means relieved. Tliey saw from how much they had been fatigued ; and from the way in which [wandered about in all directions, thev knew that the unfortunate m had become quite confused in their geographical notions, and )uld, therefore, be unable to move steadily in the right way. lother circumstance added to the anxiety of the searchers. They themselves lost tlieir way, and had only a very vague idea of sir position. Without more than a passing thought to them- res, however, the gallant little band pushed actively on in suit of the track ; here and there it became straight and steady a short distance, and then resumed its old crab-like mode of ression. In these cases they knew that the fall of snow must lenly have ceased, and by a momentary glimpse of the stars in frosty skies, the two lost ones had been enabled to move more lily than usual. le lying snow was now very deep, and what was of more con- lence, so soft that tlioy sank in at every step. Suddenly, as 'Wfr ^r I' 'I 00 KEAIAKKAliLI-: ADVENTUKKS. they were moving on, one of tlioir number guve a loutl cry, aiid immediately disappeared iKmenth the surface, and was quickly followed by another, tliougli in a diirereut direction. A sml moment was that for the brave little band, for they knew tlicy hud fcitumbli'd among the " peat-pots," * which abound at one part (.: the fell-side. liy dint of vigorous exertions, the imfortmial biurowers were rescued by their happier comrades, thouiih i: no pleasant plight, for the "pots" were more or less filled wit; water, whicli, Avhcn exposed to the keen night air on the dresses o. the party, at oncci froze, and by no means added t'^ their comfort. Innumerable Mere the falls of this description which they Lai now to encounter, but they boldly persevered, and discoveiv another trace of the objects of their exertions, in the shape of *• j)eat-pot," into which it was evident tiiey had fallen. The siiu in it was seven feet thick, and at the bottom was a water draii. Had only one man been crossing the fell, he would have had 1 1: jittle chance of saving himself, if he had fallen into such a chasu The " peat-pots " had done the searching party good service, liov. ever, in one respect, for they had sufficed to point out to them tlui real position ; and so, after a few niiuutes' sharp walking, tin recovered the turnpike road, wliich they had the satisfaction ' seeing had also been reached by the missing men. This discovery greatly allayed their fears ; and though, c arriving at a lonely cottage, they learned that notliing had U there seen of the wandt}rers, they nevertheless had now good hoj« of their safety. They went on to Carshield, where they thoiij:! it pi'obable they might be found, but without obtaining any tidiij. of them ; at last, however, after a further ^\•eary walk along the n but snowed-up road, they reached the small village of Coalcku: about half-j)ast four a.m., and there, to their intense joy, found tl * The " p«'at-pf)t3 " aro luriro pits in the ftll-.sifU's, from whioli the pc;it — wl.k' aliiiubt uuivLTiiilly used fur fuel iu the Uistrict— luw Lccii (lu^j. LOST ON THE FELLS. 1)1 oud cry, and ^vas quickly tion. A sail :new tlicy luu. :it one part*; uufortiiiuU ,es, thoivuli i; icss filled ^vit: 1 tlie dresses u .lieii- comlbrt. kliieb tliey liu> [ind discover^ the shape of leu. The sno a water draii 1 have had li; ,o such a chasL: lod service, hov- ,ut to thoui tlui 3 \valking» tin. satisfaction '. and thouj;h, c- )thing had U' - now good hoi"- re they thougi ning any titliii- alk ak)ng the ;> ^^0 of Coalcleu: so joy, found tl h the pciil— whkl. hjects of all their labour, safi'ly house'd; one of t hem, indeed, was lui; in bed, and ko sound asleep that it was with great dilli<'ull y that he could bo roused. AVliile the worn-out explorers were imrtakiu*:: of some doubly Vccrptublo refreshments, and, in doing so, learning to appreciate the \ahio which all aretie voyagers place upon jjjood tea, they leurd the stoiy of the two missing men, who, it appeared, had lost he track when only a short distance from their destination, any tiie accident with which they had then met, they shoilly after- mrds commenced shouting for help, and, being ha})pily heard by %omQ men dwelling at a little distance, had been rescued by them, 4uid after six hours* wandering conveyed in safety to the place rhere they were novf found. They could not believe that they had jturned into West Annandale, for during all their peregrinations ley had been under the impression that they were gradually learing their homes, instead of receding further from them. How my times the kind and ever-watchful providence of God had 5cued them from death during that night no mortal can ever low; but it needs not a fellsman to appreciate all the ix^rils, rriole dangers, and " haii'-breadtli 'scapes" wiiich it was then ^eir lot to encounter. After an hour's rest, the whole party set out on their way home- rd, and on the top of the fell discovered the remainder of the ;inal searching party, who, alarmed for the safety of their n Hides, had set out to seek them. A little further on they jountiU'ed, at short intervals, two more strong bodies of men n Allenheads, bent on the same errand ; for the whole of the labitants of the village had now become thoroughly alarmed, only for the safety of the two lost ones, but of the gallant tie party who had risked their lives in seeking to recover them. ff 'IWf "l '^ 1)2 IlE M AUK A IJ LK A D V KNTU R KS, 'I'lieir spirits riiiscsl by tlio hearty chcors >vith wliich tlicy wciv greeted, tho weary travellers stepped briskly forward, and had tli( [)leasure, at eight o'elook, of restoring to the auxious wives tlicii missing husbands, after having spent nine hours of tho long winter nigiit in recovering them. ii'i ^IIJ! NARROW ESCAPE FRO]M A SNAKE LITE. "One summer evening, as I walked alone through tho woods, ,i noise, some yards off to the left, suddenly arrested my attention. I was walking where I had no expectation of meeting with aiiv human being, yet I thought I heard tho voices of people con- versing. I stopped short, and looking round, saw a party a travellers, with a packhorse, passing along among the trees, in ai oi)po8ite direction to myself, about fifty paces on my left. Just;; that part a packhorse was an unusual thing, bullocks bcin: generally used for this mode of conveying baggage. My curiosit- being thus excited, I still continued to gaze. Suddenly I hear tho peculiar rustling that a large snake makes in passing throuff very dry grass. It was as distinct as if my ear were laid close i it. I looked. It was at my very feet. A long brown snako w. uncurling himself and stretching away his lithe and hateful s]i,'i|> from off the very spot on which my right foot would have bee placed at tho very step I was about to make. The bite of tl: species is considered to produce death in two or three hours, an to be so rapid in extending itself through the system as scarcely' leave any hope from tho most speedy excision of the part. 3i consciousness was instantly all about me. I saw that there h been but a sound between me and all that comes after deatii, ! that what it might. It was coming very close to the brink oft: i^ NAr.r.OW ESCAl'K FROM A SNAKH lUTE. 93 1 tlioy wcr.^ and ^uu\ tlu I wives tbi'iv 5 Imip; wiuUr BITE. 1 the woods, ,i y- attention. 1 (ting with niiy of peoi^le coil- jaw a party (> the trees, in ai lyleft. J"8ti:: bullocks bcini ludden pass |cr pri kI IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) / O *<.^. ^ MP ut anotlior picture still forces itself on the imagination : how often in raging storms, while the good ship, laden with the treasures of the East, and crowded with passengers, has bcdi labouring in the trough of the sea, in the blackness of night ; while | the captain has been pacing the deck anxiously, looking out to ascertain his distance from that dreaded lee shore, a vivid flash has lighted up the towering headland in all its ghostly whiteness! Woe, woe betide the unhappy ship that in such a night has not miles of sea-room ! If once she approaclies that frightful precipice, her doom is sealed. At each successive flash of lightning the stupendous wall of chalk is more vividly revealed ; while sheets of foam are tossing themselves half up the height, and the thunder of the sm-f is heard mingling with the thunder of the clouds, and the booming note of the guns fired as signals of distress. A moment more, and the noble vessel is lying a helpless wreck at the foot of the rock. Such calamities have, alas ! been frequent ; and it was off this point, about three years ago, and within sight of the cliff, that the unfortunate " Dalhousie," bound to Australia, foundered in deep water, when all on board perished except one solitary seaman. The height of the clifl" has been already mentioned — it is five hundred and eighty-eight feet ; but some readers may form a better estimate of its elevation by comparing it with some objects familiar to the eye. Well, then, the cross of St. Paul's Cathedral appears a great height, as you look at it from the foot-pavement in St. Paul's Churchyard — it is three hundred and forty feet ; and the burnished top of the Monument of London is two hundred and two feet from the ground ; but if some magician could take tlio Monument between his fingers and thumb, and place it on the top of the cross of St. Paul's, the height would still be forty-six feet less than the top of Beachy Head, and he must put a good four- story house on the top of all before the altitude of the mighty cliff would be attained. With these preliminary remarks, we will now AN ADVENTURE ON BEACH Y HEAD. 97 •ion: liow Avith tlie has been Tht ; while ing out to d flash has -svhiteucss ! ht has not I precipice, ;htning the le sheets of thunder of ids, and the A moment t the foot of • and it was of the cliff, foundered one solitary entioned — it begin our narrative of one of the most miraculous and merciful escapes from deatli on record. It was on a fine afternoon in September, in the year 18 — , that three friends, young men, set out from the village of Eastbourne to waliv to Beachy Head, the distance being about a mile and a half. One of the three was a collector of fossils, and he took with him the little hammer which he commonly used for breaking the lumps of chalk which so often contain specimens of antediluvian shark's teeth, echini, and shells. Arriving on the beach belo>/ the cliff, they found the sea almost calm, and wandered about for soine time searching for agates and pebbles ; and one of the three — the fossil-hunter — found among the shingles a large spike-nail, a relic, perhaps, of one of those fearful wrecks which are not uncommon at this awful point. Perhaps he held the old superstitious opinion that it is lucky to pick up and preserve any piece of old iron. At all events, the spike-nail was safely deposited in his pocket, and he wandered on, intently searching for fossils along the base of the cliff, which frowned above his head. Presently he came to that spot where a portion of the topmost strata of chalk has crumbled away, and fallen like an avalanche upon the beach below, forming a sloping rugged wall, to the height of about four hundred feet, with numerous crags and fissures, which might tempt a chamois or a hunted fox to search for a pathway, but which offered no likeli- hood of a hold for human foot. But our narrative will perhaps I proceed more easily and naturally in the language of the adven- iturer himself. " I was so occupied with my search among the masses of chalk Iwhich lay at the foot of the cliff, that I had for a full half hour [parted from my companions ; and when I raised myself from my jstooping posture to look for them, I was surprised t find that I tad gradually climbed a good way up a narrow shelving track, diich seemed to present no obstacle to my further progress. ]\Iy Um !"'-5l If'' ■ ^1 98 REMA11KA15I.K ADVJ'.NTUKES. friends woi'o not in sight : iliey luid probably ^^m^^ along tliti beacli b(>yond tho projoctiou of tlio lu-ndland. It wan of no conseijuonce ; I shcridd SCO tliem presently ; and so I continued my ascent, finding ironi time to time specimens which absorbed my att(Mition, and made mo quite regardless of the increasing dilliculties of my path. On a suddlim who had preserved me thus lur, I made up my mind to tlie necessity of spending the niglit where I was, with the faint hope tliat at daylight I might bo able, by hoisting a signal of distress, to obtain assistance. " But now a new difficulty began to press upon me : hunger, tliirst, and fatigue were taking hold of me ; my hands, swollen and wounded, and my finger-nails, worn down to the quick by grappling with the rock, caused excessive pain. Yet in spite of all this, I began to feel a drowsiness which I dired not indulge; for there was no friendly branch or twig to which I could fasten myself, and to fall asleep on that narrow shelf of rock, would be to fall into the sleep of death. " From this imminent peril I was preserved in a manner whicli, Avhile I live, will, I trust, ever dwell in my memory, and serve to raise my aspirations of gratitude to Him whose merciful providence is over . 1 his creatures, and who in this hour of misery and distress sent me help in the form of a friendly sea-bird. A scream, and tlien the flapping of a seagull's wing, roused me from my stupor. It came and went as the bird wheeled round me, and then sailed away far, far below. Another came and went, and came again; and thus the pair hovered about me in the darkness, through the ^^■eary hours of that fearful night, and their screaming notes and the flapping of their long wings, so near me at times as to fan my i'ace, became as music in my ears, bidding me look up to Him who alone had the power to save me from destruction. No doubt thej poor birds had their nest in some crevice near me, and their natural i efforts to scare away an invadei= of their territory, proved thej means of safety to me. And so my eyes were • held waking,' aii(i| I gazed on the deep blue sky, 'fretted with golden fires,' anJ watched the great constellations — the Bear, and Orion, and Cassio- peia — as they moved around their central star, and saw the planet | Venus rise from licr ocean bed and walk the sky in silent beauty | AN ADVENTIMJE ON UK ACHY HEAD. ID! j: hunger, wollen and y grapplin?; all this, I . for tbere myself, and fall into tlie inner wbicli, and serve to il providence r and distress scream, and f 1 my stupor. i then sailed g came again; , through the ng notes and as to fan my J to Him who Ho doubt the [their natural I r, proved th8|^ I'waking; andi [en fires,' m >n, and Cassio| .aw the planer I silent beauty." I looked wistfully toward the caKst, and iongod, oh, how cai'nestly ! for the day. " At length the first streak of liglit appeared, and from tliafc moment my eyes were turned constantly to the beach below, in the hope of descrying some fisherman, for I knew that they were often early at their work. The light gradually increased, and I was just able to distinguish objects at that distance, when to my irroat joy 1 saw a man close to the water's edge. Hajjpily therc; was little or no wind, and I had the better chance of making my- self heard. I ^vaved my hat and my white handkerchief, and shouted, using my hands as a speaking trumpet; presently the man stopped, and turning slowly round, stood gazing at mo. 1 renewed my shouts, and was answered. The sound of his voice rose distinctly to my ear, backed as I was by the reverberating rock. " * Hold on a bit,' he said, * and I'll tell the coast-guard people.' *' Here was a ray of hope ; but how could they help me ? There was but one way that appeared possible — they might lower ropes from the top of the cliff; but should I have the courage or the I strength required for the ascent ? Yes, if it came to that, T Qmist jfind resolution to meet a danger which scarcely equalled that to [which I had been already exposed. I knew not how long a timo lelapsed, for I had neglected to wind up my watch, but it seemed [hours before I saw or heard anything of the promised assistance, it last I heard, through the still morning air, a voice above my lead, and, looking up, saw the heads of two men projecting over the edge of the cliff; they were lying on their faces, and were [owering a rope ; it looked but a thread as it swung gently back- ward and forward in the morning breeze, and when at last it cached the place where I stood, it was swinging more than a yard rem me, because the edge of the clifl* projected so much. It was 'm vr I i I 102 RKMAnKAHT-R AnVENTTTUES. shftkoii, liowovor, by tho mon, [iiul ntill swinpjiim; l)ackwav(l u\u\ forwiinl. Watcliiiiijf my opportunity, I niu^h( tlio end and drow it towards me. It laid a looj) tied in Hailor's fashion, and J know //<(// Nvould not slip; but, alas! tho Jino was hut snuill, and 1 nincli doubted if it woukl boar my woight — ]K5rha}>8 tho mon had nndor- ratod fh((t — I'or T was near six foot lii^li, and woifj^liod nearly lour- loon stone. .1 shouted to the men, ' AVill it Ix^ar mo?' " ' Ay, ay,' was tho answer : * have you ji/u^A; •=" *' * Ay, 1 hopo so,' was my re[)ly. *' ' Then make it last round your body, and Hwhip,' yourself (piii^tly off — steady now I' "I question wla^ther any crimin.al, when 8ubmittinf>; his neck iv the ii'eudo {ittentions of the hangman, ever experienced a moiv deadly sensation than I did at that moment. A cold damp stood on my bi'ow, and my ht;art beat audibly as I passed the cord round my chest, and secured it in front with the best knot I was master of Then I knelt and looked up to the clear sky, and in a few ierv(Mit words convmended myself to the Divine i>roteetion. *' The men above called out : — *' ' Say when you're ready.' *' I l()ok(Ml up, waved my hand, and cried : — " ' Now !' and feelinj^ the rope tightoninj:^ and lifting me, swrmr myself off from the ledge, keeping my eyes fixed on the clift'asl felt myself slowly rising. Presently there was a stop, and, lookiiiL' up, I found that I was still about a hundred feet from the top. 1 i could see but one of the men's heads, and he was in the act (;1 removing a large fragment of chalk which had been disturbed bv the friction of the rope, and which, if it had fallen on my head must have killed me instantly. He did succeed in removino: it;I but, as I afterwards learned, I was held by his one companion alone while his hands wore so occupied. Again I began to ascoiidj and hope returned. I heard the voices of my deliverers as thy AN ADVKNTITR?': OX PKACIIV IIDAD. 103 pivo oju'li othor tlio Avord to linnl to^oUicr; uiul I roao, and roHc, niid Mt lust \\'\\ Tiiy wi'ists sci/cd liy a IVioHlly {lM>V(Mi Ironi i\\o Lonl. will) IimIJi nmtIi IIum) will not hI(m»|>. The Lord liiiusi'lf is (liy kiM'jJor, t\w Lord in thy dcrcnci* upon thy ri^ht Imiul.' " ( K()BniN(; Till-: \)\]\\\ A STNnUTiAU train of cinMiinslarn (^s occnircil in mo, many yoarw au^o, which may 'mmto 8 of lu>)ivy |>nslonil lahonrM, I d(Md HlnMij;lh by Ji chanfj^o of air and Hcrnc, and wns indnccnl lo pay a visit to one whom to hear wa'-s !o adiniiv, antl whom to know was to osl(H'm — my valued friend, tlu> U(>v. W. M , of K . Tlu^ good nam welcomed mo with his nsnnl hos[>itality, and in the evening soim* hours w(M*o passed in various important discussions. In the course of the conversation T men- tioned a remarkahlo instance of what a[>peared to he an interposi- tion of lVovid(Mice, to which my fri(Mid agreed, adding tliis ohserva- tion : '* The man who watches tho leadings of IVovidenct^ will novcT want a providenct* to watch." Some months afttn'wards I was again a visitor at tlio house of my fri(M\d, and said to him, "Do ycai reuKMuher tho ohs(M'vatioii yon mad(^ when I last saAV you — *Tho man who watches tho h'ad- ings o( IVovidence will never want a providence to watch ?' " '' Certainly I do ; I remember it well." " Then, if you please, I will regard that sentence as your text this evening, and I will ofTer the commcnitary. You uttered what I regard as an important truth, and the circumstances that arose out of the events of that evening will contirm you in your opinion. While we were conversing together that evening, if you remerabor, iW)MniN(j Tin; i»i:,\n. Ut:> on I niiny y<'«^''^ it, aiWisjiM'* an will novi I tlio Borv/mt cuino into llio room t** in«|iiin< Cor liow rnniiy visitoivi rlminltcrH wrn^ to l»o pro pared. You roplij-d, *J<\nir,' iiiohtionin^jj Ar('lid<»Mvon II , Mr. V , and two otJHT ffontlonMrt, wIhiso namoM I now forgot. I iinnx'diatoly oxy a proviouH appoint- nicnt.' Tim auHWor waH, ' Yoh, and tlioy cannot urrivo until a lato hour.* * Thon,* was my roply, 'your Iiouh(» will liav<( onon^li to do to ])rovido for all tlioHc^ ^uoHtH ; and, in conipaHHion to yon, as I am a .self-invited viuitor, I will chan^o n«y [jImii, and not Htay licro thin (ivcnin^.' NonaouHo, my doar hIt ; I am doli^lit evening paper. " * I am sorry, sir,' said tho man, ' hut tho paiK3r3 are gone ; it is after the hour at whi(;h wo d(\s|)at<'h them.' " * Never mind ; do not take any trouble about it.' " The waiter withdrew, and in about a quarter of an hour entered tho room with a paper in his hand. " * In one of the supper rooms, sir, I have foimd a paper ; it is about ten days old, but I thought you might possibly like to see it, so I have brought it down.' " * Thank you ; it will do very well, I have no doubt, for the I short time I have to spare.' e2 -Hi. . 1 lOG REMARKABLE ADVENTURES. ||f! ifli >i: nil " I bogan to read, and the first paragraph attracted my attention by its singular heading, namely, * Robbing the Dead.' Its sin- gularity led nie to read il. It was to this effect : That an examina- tion uad been carried on before one of the police magistrates in London, in consequeiKM) of a robbery committed at sea. A gentle- man from Honduras, in a delicate state of health, had taken his passage to England, and during the voyage he became exceedingly ill, and died. Shortly after his death, the cabin-boy observed tho mate enter the gentleman's berth, and, induced no doubt by curiosity, the boy watched the mate, and saw him take a bag, whicli ]ie supposed to contain money. This bag the mate secreted in the hold of the vessel. The cabin-boy immediately informed the captain, a search was made, and a bag of dollars was found neai* tlie spot described. The mate was put into irons, and when the vessel arrived in the river, was handed over to the police. The evidence before the magistrate being conclusive, the offender was committed for trial. "J'he deceased gentleman was a stranger to tlie captain and the crew, and was known to them only by name. 1'lus name, mentioned by some of the witnesses, was one that was very unusual, and it occurred to me as I read it that I had heard it before, and that a family bearing it, or something very like it, lived in my neighbourhood; I therefore copied the paragraph into my pocket-book. " Early the next morning I proceeded on my journey, and arrived at my own home about mid-day ; but feeling very mucli impressed by the paragraph, I lost no time in proceeding to that part of the parish where the family I had in view resided. It con- sirtted of an elderly lady, the widow of an officer, and her daughters. I paid them a pastoral visit, and in the course of conversation 1 remarked, 'I think I have not the pleasure of seeing all your familv ?' *0]>, no,' was tho reply; *but I hope you will see tliem nil. ROBBING THE DEAD. 107 attention Its sin- examina- strates in A. gentlc- takcn hi^ tceedingly served the doubt by bag,wbicli eted in tlie ormed the found neai* i vrhentbe )olice. The ffender was stranger to ly by name. ne tbat wa? had beard very like it, •agrapb intu and tliat veiy soon, for I am expecting my noble and darling son home.' " ' Indeed; then he is abroad, I presume ?' " ' Yes ; and we have had charming letters from him ; he lias been employed by the British Government, and he tells me that the authorities have made honourable mention of his name, and, as a mark of their approbation, that they have presented him with iive hundred pounds for a very difficult survey which he has recently accomplished. In his last letter, which was from Hon- duras, lie tells me that he is about to return to England, that he may again see his mother and sisters ; and I cannot express how anxiously we are longing for his arrival.' " I made no remark, but immediately withdrew, and dispatched n letter to a relation of the funnily, living a few miles distant. In this letter I gave an outline of the circumstance, and requested his attendance. He arrived, after some delay, and in great tribula- tion ; at tlie same time telling me he had searched for the paper I had named, but that, although it was not a fortnight old, he could not ])r()cure it, and there was no mention of the affair in other ne\vs[)apers. At length, by the aid of a friend, he had found a copy of the journal, and saw at once that my fears were too well founded. He entreated me to proceed with him to the lady's liouse, and to make known, in the most prudent manner I could, the sad intelligence that would bring the bitterest sorrow into their household. I accompanied him as he desired, and made the com- numieatioii, guarding it in every way that truth would permit ; but th(^ instant tlie object of our visit was conjectured, the aged mother fell to the floor, and the sisters of the deceased officer were scarcely I less aiitated. "A\'hon the sufferers had in some degree recovered from the |Bhoek which this blow to their fondest hopes had naturally caused, the cpiestion aros(\ What is the Ix'st thing to be done ? I urged 108 REMARKABLE ADVENTURES. that their relative should proceed immediately to London, apply at the police office, make himself known to the magistrate, learn all the particulars, and take the proper steps to secure for the widow and her daughters whatever property there might be in the vessel belonging to the deceased. The advice commended itself to the approval of all ; and the gentleman took his place to town by that night's mail, and the next day had an interview with the magistrate, who was disposed to render his aid, but required some additional evidence of identity. In this perplexity the relative produced my letter, which, as it professed to come from the incum- bent of the parish, and bore the proper post-mark, the magistrate accepted as satisfactory, and ordered an officer to accompany the gentleman to the dock, where the vessel was expected to be taking in her cargo. " The vessel was found preparing to sail. On the authority being exhibited, the captain stated that he had taken possession of six- teen packages which the deceased had brought on board the vessel, and that, as he knew not the officer's connections, he had fixed his seal upon all of them, that they might remain without loss until a claimant was found. These cases were immediately placed under the charge of the police officer, and in due time opened before proper authorities. Among the papers of the de- ceased was a memorandum as to some funds belonging to him iii the hands of Messrs. C and Co., army agents. When the due forms of law had been complied with by the widow, as the nearest j of kin, the funds in the hands of the agents and the valuable con- tents of the sixteen packing cases became the property of thej bereaved family; and I have reason to believe that it was found i large enough to make a very desirable addition to the income of his] weeping mother and his sorrowing sisters. " Now," I concluded, " all this appears to have been gained for] them by the circumstance of my hearing your servant's inquirjJ EOBBING THE DEAD. 109 m, apply ite, learn e for the be in the id itself to ,0 town by with the lired some tie relative the incum- ) magistrate DBipany the to be taking ^lority being fssion of six- board the ions, he had nain without immediately in due time :s of the de- ^g to him iu hen the due [s the nearest | aluable con- jperty of the | it was found income of his ken gained foi (ant's inquiry,! and then, in spite of your entreaty, resolving not to remain that night as your visitor. Thus, he that watches the hand of Provi- dence will never want a providence to watch." CHAPTEE II. After the accession to the widow's income arising from the dis- covery of her son's property, which I had been providentially the means of securing, I became a more frequent visitor, aiid was at times consulted upon family affairs. The eldest daughter, a young lady of pleasing manners and personal attractions, gave me to understand that she thought of accepting an offer of marriage which had recently been made to her by a gentleman who visited at the house with her mother's sanction, and she added that all points were satisfactory save one, and that one was a source of uneasiness. Her suitor was a confirmed Unitarian, and she men- tioned the subject to me as her pastor, asking for my advice ; but at the same time hoping that, as her mo'her highly approved of the proposed alliance, I should not deem his religious sentiments a fatal obstacle. The mother and the young lady were evidently anxious to obtain from me a favourable opinion. My reply was : ** If you are in earnest in religion, how can you expect the Divine favour to rest upon such an alliance ? No worldly advantages can, in my judgment, compensate for the dangers of such a step. Any person believing in the Divinity of Christ and the atonement offered by him, falls i^to error by forming an alliance with a gen- tleman, however amiable, who spurns the doctrine of the Trinity and the Divinity of Christ: therefore, if my opinion be of the slightest weight in your estimation, I am bound in sincerity, but in all courtesy, to express it, by declaring that I am, and must continue to be, opposed upon principle to the marriage." After this expression of my sentiments, in obedience to their :!i:' . 'i no REMARKABLE ADVENTURES. request, I still continued ir./ visits as a pastor, but soon perceived that, liowever politely these might be received, th(iy were less acceptable tliaii in former times. Yet, as a clergyman's duties must be discharged in the shade as well as in the sunshine, under painful as much as under pleasing circumstances, I continued tlio visits as before, aiid made known to the young lady the arguments which are employed by our learned divines to confute the errors of Socinianism, and to prove the Divinity of Christ. These arguments, confirmed by reference to the Scriptures, were not without a good effect. Not long afterwards sickness entered the family, and the young lady was coniined to her chamber and her couch. I attended daily for a considerable time; at length, observing from her remarks that a favourable impression had been produced on her mind, and that she no longer regarded the arguments which assailed the plan of redemption and the Deity of the liedeemer as innocent, I said to her : " My dear young friend, your views of the i-tedeemer and his great work are far more scriptural than they formerly were ; but they are still defective. I am sure that this illness has in- fluenced your mind, and is, possibly, one of the ways by which Providence is guiding you to a correct knowledge of that which relates to your eternal welfare. You are in earnest, and I fully believe in your sincerity ; and under the conviction that ' none shall seek God in vain,' I declare to you this day, in the name of the living God, that peace of mind and eternal life shall be yours, if you will accept them on the conditions given in that very book which now lies by your side ; and these are the conditions — iiiith in Christ as God over all, and the making a solemn surr'^^der of yourself, and of all that relates to your welfare, for time and for eternity, into the hands of Christ as your Kedeemer. On the following day she informed me of her firm determination to relinquish the acquaintance of her Sociuian suitor. Time aftci- ROBBINa THE DEAD. Ill wards proved tho wisdom of this decision, for other reasons besides that of his creed. After this declaration of licr Christian faith, the sufferer appeared to make rapid progress in the knowledge of divine things. Among her acts of piety was a deep anxiety, pru- dently manifested, for Iho spiritual welfare of those around her. Our duties were now changed ; and I, who was wont to go to her couch as her pastor and teacher, went to leam from one who appeared to live above the world while living in it : a heavenly atmosphere seemed to be shed around her chamber, and even a visitor felt constrained to say, " Surely this is the portal of heaven." Though unable to move from her couch, her faculties were not only uiiimpairad, but they became more vigorous. Her time was passed in prayvT, in studying the Scriptures, and in very pious and liap- j)ily expressed exhortations to her mother, her sisters, and her friends ; and by the beautiful manner in which slie exhibited piety in her own person, she proved a comfort to those who came to comfort her. Some time after I said to her and her friends : " You must lend me to some other people for a short time, for I have received an offer of preferment ; and I am c .lious, before I decide, to visit the place." She exclaimed, " You are not going to leave me ?" " Only," I said, " for about ten days." '.rho next evening being Saturday, I arrived at my destination ; and on the Sunday I undertook the duties of the church, intending to do the same on the following Sunday, and return at the end of the ten days. The reception I met with from the patron and others was kindness itself, courteously expressed; there was everything to make the visit agreeable to me ; yet on the following morning I arose greatly depressed, and I announced to my kind host that, although I was perfectly well in healtli, I was so unhappy from some unknoNvn rca-on, that T felt it my duty to return home imme- 112 llKMAUKAni-K ADVMNTlIinW. |)|)(m1 for a limo at tho largo town of J\r : A (linirulty lioro ])roHpntcMl itsolf. At a Rliort distanco from tho town thoro resided a lMMi(>volont man, who folt an intoroRt in our pchools, and having somo relatives residing in my parish, I thought it ])ossil)lo that he would give me live pounds towarda the infant sehool if I cimld only sec him, as he knew tln^ efforts 1 was nuiking and the need there was of funds. I walkcvl to an'o are delighted you have come home : tho young lady lias been sending almost hourly this evening to know if you had returned." " S(>ndini;* every hour I" I exclaimed ; " how is that? I stated to the family that I was to bo absent for ten days. Thoro could be no niis\nul(n*stunding, for they all knew it." " True ; still, so it is : they have been sending, at the sick lady's voquost, almost every hour." Hearing this, without any regard to tho time, I started for my frienil's house, and reached it about one o'clock in the morning. 1 found the family all up, and assembled round the couch of the sick lady. The instant I entered, the invalid, gently raising her hands io heaven, siiid, " Thank God, thank God ! my prayer is answered. 1 foil sure } ou would come. I am dying ; but I have prayed to my ItOimiNO TIIR DKAP. 11.3 lif'dYonly Fnflirr flint, lin would not hi mo dio until you rrtnmod, Ihnt 1 niif^hi tlinnk yoii JMrforo [ dio." Sli(» JIh'U ifiquoHtcMl tlififn to raiso hor a littlo ; and takinf^ my liandH within lu^r own, and looking at mn moflt fiarnoHtiy, nho cricfi, in a voico ro Rolnmn, ho canH'st, yvi bo affnctionato, that it thrilled through my heart, " Oh, my Hpintual father, my hrother, my friend, may the f^ood and great (iod hIeHH you for what you liave done for me. 1 am dying ; yoi I am full of joy and f»eaco. May every mercy and (JVf^ry hleHsing deHcend upon you in this world ; and, Tuy b(^Ht r>f friendn, may you and I Hit down together at the marriage HU])per of the Lamb." 'J'huH saying, she reclined her head on her couch, and died. With palpitating heart I returned home, filled with joy, though borne down with Horrow. How great the privilege to receive the fervent blessing of ono whose gentle spirit was jus entering tho regions of light ! In tho morning, at an early hour, I again visited the family, and described to them tho sensi) of desolation which I had experienced during my late absen(;e, explaining that, although among the most attentive of friends, this feeling of sadness had caused me to change all my plans, give up my visit, and without loss of time return home. I mentioned also ray deliberation as I passed through the town of M , and my resolution, although it might be a loss of five pounds to tho school, to go home and try to comfort one of God's servants, trusting the care of the school to God's providence. I then produced a letter whi(;li tho postman had put into my hands as I came out of tho house that morning. The letter was from the merchant I mentioned as likely to contribute five pounds towards the school, if I could have called upon him, and explained our position from want of funds. The loiter was very short, and simply said that he had heard of my being in M , and that as I had passed through his town without coming to see him, he would Hi wMMAiiKAiHJ-; ai»vii]ntuim;h. |Minisl) mo for niv no^IrM'f — whicli li(» (\'u\ l»y ruclosiiip; mo (llfy l^onnds. \\\u) slinll sny Ihnl <^hI will not proviMo lor liJM own work? I flion nllndod y ({odw inflnmco npon tlioir n\inMriiartrayor to Christ for his IMvini^ hh 11 (^ssmg n]>on tho survivors, askm that wo mi f>ht I )or()me ]>ai V rt of Christ's holy family, and ho intor<^stod in all tho moroic^a of (iod, obtainod for {h<^ pouit(Mit and bolicning throujrh tho atouonuMil. As (tod works by moans, and as ])rav(M- was otV(Tod to liim vvlio ap- ])oiuton trite lioart and th(» di^sin^s of thorn that woro ]>onitont"' wovo hoard and answon^l on that oooasion; for from lliat day vho atlliotod mothiM* and tho W(V^ping sistorn W(To, in tho mi(ist o( t1\(nr ariof. mad(^ partak 1 last was your guost?" '* I grant it most roadily." said iMr. M . " But 1 havo not yot tinishod," was my reply, "for I have a thiid part io add." " \Miat was it? 1 long to hear it, ibr ono laet tolls more than a hundred jirgunK^nts." *' As you may sup}>i>se, tho litYy iH>uuds ooming to u\o at that inomoT'1. and ur.dor thc^so eirenmstauoos, caused mo more ploitsmv ItOHDiNn IHK hi Ah. llfj mo iil'ty liiK own by <^»'^ (M'(\ wiii» |)(»n ll><»iv )Ul OhriHl to l»riiuj; his Divine ne V"''^' *'^ 08 of (Jo thorn tlii<< ; Tor iVoui ot^\ i»^ ^^^*' r H joy. able train |li;in I «'im ('xprcsM, nnd I'xr rrion* tlmii Hit' doiKitioii itst'll' conld cnnlrr, I MUi not vny lond ol' HJIriit n;ruliliid(' : it" vv(! I'crl lliankfid In (Jud or In man, \v«> (Hi^dil, to sliow it, ycai know, f tliankod my licncvolmt friend, of cniiiKf', l)ut F did not. cMid hnro ; for, b^fin^^ ilt'li^djtcd wijh \m ^<'iio?'()Rity, [ niado known in rny pastoral visit?* lliiH kind act, to bo addod to many othorH whioh i\ui |M'0))Io of tJio lown l\ad rccpivod ni bis liandn. Not many monthtt after ttjo nM'(»i(»t of \m b»ttor, a va(aT»py orcnrred in tbo r(!pr(!Rontafcion of l|j(^ fown in parbafncnt, and I nr^od thiw kind-boartc^d man, an I know bo poHRCHMcd (^xporioneo, Joinnn?, and amplo mratiH, to offer liiniMelf as a, earididato; and althon^b I eoiild take no part in tbo clooiion, I lioaHily \viMlieost introdiiotion to tho following romurkublo narrutivo will bo tlio l(>ttor of tho clorgymaii by whom it. is communic^atod. **Ono ovoning," ho says, "during tho rociMit snow stonns, 1 rolatiMl tho story which aocompanios this iioto to a large party of frionds. This lod to a jiroposal that I should writo tho narrative for tho Roligious Tract Society. I was unable at once to complete the manuscript, and desired to make the details as accurate as I could. I fhid the story is given, with some variations, in Hone's * Every-day l^ook ;' but I have reason to believe that my narration, with more details, is the most correct. Many a winter evening has been be- guiled, when I was a boy, by the story of Elizabeth Woodcock, from the lips of my now venerable mother, who ' served ' Mrs. W. on thjit well-remembered day, w jus personally acquainted with all the persons mentioned, and heard the story of the dream and the finding of Mi-s. W. from the lips of the dreamer himself, and to whom I have submitted this written account." It was still bleak winter on Saturday, February 2iid, 1799. Tho bare hedges and nearest skeleton trees, flecked with partial white, sto(xl out with their branches and stems looking hard and dark against a imiformly leaden sky; the more distant objects of tho landscape assumed the striking spectral tenuity which is observable in a misty atmosphere before the fall of snow ; whilst " the extreme distance," as artists call it, could not be seen at all, the distinction between cloud-land and solid earth being lost in impenetrable vapour. On such a day, few persons would wish to quit their homes ; but the claims of the market were imperative on country farmere or their wives. Produce must be sold and provisions laid in for the coming week. In all weathers it was their habit to go. I mTTMRI) AT.IVK IN Till) HNOW. 117 Amon^ tho mark(»t-p;<)iiipf "vvomon, oii ihut day, wns Mrs. Eli za- l)('tli Woodcock, tho wilo of a fiirmcr at Jiiipin^'toii, in ( 'ainl»ii(l i]\o (Vii>ntl)\ ^vM^MiM•>, nl" Mr. II . 'Jh' Ihthi'II' Unvfooh «>f n Rimilur " Iii»n1." Ainnuii llic ^wimoih ]iiiwh( wih u niniMtor looluM}!: Pt'iH^n'''. ^^ll•» n'^^i^lcil \\rv Im iMljiiMf ccrluin pMcIv n^c"^ on liov IhM'HP. inwl wiis Ml»on< (()f>i\(' lur i\ IhmhI Im imninl. Snoh |>oli((>n('M« «l<l\ iniMoJnnl, MpiinMl llii' wi'mIIut, fjln* i)n>nn1!i< on Imt iMMnownnl jonnu'V. 'I'lii' snow «'Mnu» (lown in iiu^wi wwirlH «lrivon Itv iho win])1)onr. tins ronjvli nif^ht ?" '• I'm «>oinf> 1o loo)< lor Hojiy." mms llio reply : *' hIio Iimm not ycl, •vol homo ihmx niMrKot." "()h."*snil)( «'fionoli |»v i\}\i\ h\. TMonn\vliil(\ ronio nn " jin invifii- lion linl ioo rosulily !\nN^]><(>(l : lor. h;\i\ ho \vo\il«l most likidy hnv(^ l»rr,\igh< ])t\oU \m wil'o tlint niaht. Aflor M >vhil(\ iho hovso owmo homo without his niiRtrosH. i\\u\ iho lMisl>Mnvith rt ronipHnion minM ho Und : no tidinju.M conld ho (^btflin : ovon t\\\or pMUg to t''}nnhriurs woro ronsod, }«orvants S("'nt out, and ss(\Mr<'h nnvthinir tliat others conld toll : Mi'i'ini* Af,ivi IN 'IFr^; know. 1lf» lu>vm'ir WIH II, inonnl. \\\<^\ I"" rr. mIi'' ilimlin}^ nvivinp: h\ until on. nw'l WlnllMr ( n(»i V l»y li\ invilii- ori^innl luM \vil<* nnxioUH •n \vlH>n llooU liif^ -COVCMTtl |l niu'l^l. ivhnt b«> Ilia toll ; v»'l Im> Irfii'iioil tut niMi"* lliMii liM hru'W l>««(i(i«>. ^'ofijcfftno wrm IniHy. Vnr H<'V«'nil dny^^! Hif rniintiy wmh rx|»l<»if>r|, (ind wnrcfi wmm iiiimIp ill III'' i|tHi'H, MH il nvmh (Iikmi'IiI |»'iM^ilil«> flint sorrwof fill' ii'slli'MH liilic iiii('lil liii\f' Im f'li |ffii|il(»l Id |Im> f|»iiili|i> criirM' of kiKIm'iv iiihI miinl»'i. 'I'lu- hIimhi,^''!' who Iih'I mccm 1VI|'<. VV, rcprivM iiioiH'y. wlio IiimI Iwi'm •• lr»'Hf<(l " lor Ihm |ioliffin'H4, wIio Imil HHsiKh-d lln> IohI. woinim in lior Miwltllr, mimI who hnd not. \u'ri\ H(n<'f« acfu or lipurd of, wiiH HnM|UM'1«'<| III' Imvinif; Wfiyhiid nri'l iriiir'l«'r«'d fho fni- vi'lh'i lor Iho RiiKo ol' hor imrRc; niid mm (hJH Him(iinori h(I'1hi<\ fo hi' jiIiiiiHihh' onoufdi. n liiic tiiid «'iy wmh rnis^d Mf'l« of the -W attempt to leadlrt^tl^rhl: "i^l" -" -^ "■ "orn and weary with 4j 122 REMAEKA13LE ADVENTURES. \m exertion, the left foot almost frozen in consequence of having lost her shoe, she felt that she must vest a little. Not pliilosophie enough to know or to fear the consequences, she put rlown her basket from her arm, sat clown (only for a minute) beneath the bank, a little aside from the road, and, letting go the biidle despair- ingly, spoke to the horse. " Tinker," said she, " I am too tired to go any further ; you must go home without me." She then ex- claimed, " Lord, have mercy upon me ! What will become of me ?" In this condition, from the effects of the cold (to say notliing of the drops and treats), she was, no douljt, overpowered with sleep, tliough she fancied she slept but little. Tinker, finding the rein loosed fj-om the hand of his mistress, like a wise beast made the best of his way home, and gave the first assurance that his rider had been lost. Had the snow ceased, it is nearly certain that ]\Irs. Woodcoclc would have slept her last sleep that night ; it continued, however, to fall in steady profusion " like wool," so that what had occasioned her danger became her best defence. The sleeping woman was speedily and completely covered with a smooth and stainless coun- terpane, the bank beJiind her causing a drift over the place where she lay, or sat, some six feet perpendicular in depth from the sod. and between three and four feet above her head. What wonder that her husband did not find her as he passed ? On awaking from sleep, though her featliery packing yielded to the motion of her arms, she found herself unable to rise. Her clotlies and one leg, Avhich had probably been stretched out wlieii sleeping, were frozen fast to the ground, whilst her breath had formed an opening through the snow. She knew it was Sunda}' morning, because she heard the Chesterton church bells merrily ringing for service. She could plainly hear the voices of pas.sen- gers along the road, and, among others, distinctly recognised tlio voice of her husband. She failed, however, in every effort to ivialco BUKIEP ALIVE IN THE TSNOW. 123 ng lost osopliit' wn Ik'' ath tli<> despair- tired to hen ox- come ol' notliiivj; ith sleep, tlic rein nude tli(5 his rider ^Voodcoek however, ccasionecl oman was ess coun- lace where the sod. lat wonder delded to use. Her out when :eath had is Sunday Is merrily )f passen- Inised tlio It to r.iako lieiself lieard. As time wore on, she perceived the darkness of the closing night, and tlie light of each returning day. She gradually scooped away the snow, and fed herself with it ; thus at length forming a sort of cave corresponding in size with the reach of her arm. With difficulty she took from her pocket an almanack, to dis- cover the time of the new moon, deriving some hope and conso- lation from the prospect of relief which she supposed the chang(^ would bring. She also ate a few lozenges she had with her, and occasionally refreshed herself with a pinch of snuff from a box she always carried. Day after day and night after night she dwelt in her frost-built hut, distinctly noting the alternations of light and darkness, hearing the morning and evening bells of her own and neighbouring vil- lages, listening to the bleating of sheep, the barking of dogs, and the sound of carriages along the road, besides overhearing a con- versation between two gipsies about a donkey they had lost. When her left hand began to swell, she carefully removed two rings (she liad been twice married), and put them along with some money into a small box to take care of them. She frequently shouted ; but the snow so stifled the sound that no one heard Ik.^', not even the gipsies, who came nearest of any. On the second Sunday after her disastrous journey, when the Cliesterton ringers struck out their peal, she knew that the eighth day of her imprisonment was come, and almost despaired of deli- verance, when Mr. M. turned aside to look for the place of his visionary game. Unable to reach with her hand the opening in the snow^, she broke off a twig beside her, and thrusting it through with the appended kerchief, thus gave signal of her miserable plight. About the time the congregations were breaking up, the tidings reached Cambridge that j\lrs. Woodcock had been found alive in a U .) VhM pit:' I, li,.. ! i 124 REMARKABLE ADVENTURES. m snow-drift. The excitement on this news exceeded that which hud been occasioned by the report of lier being lost, so that crowds resorted to the spot where she had lain, to verify what they had heard. For a time the case of this remarkable patient was not consi- dered desperate ; but, unfortunately, she became " the lion " of the neighbourhood. Troops of visitors thronged the house, to see the woman who had passed so many days under the snow. The excite- ment occasioned by too much company was itself unfavourable, rendering the sufferer liable to fever. Each visitor leaving some gratuity, encouragement was given to " drinking healths " and cups of congratulation, probably tempting the patient herself to indul- gence ill suited to her condition. Be this as it may, the feet inflamed fi'om the violent effect of cold and frost-bite, and mortifi- cation afterwards supervening, she lost all the toes, and the inte- guments from the sole of one foot. In this mutilated state, though her life was saved, she was quite unfit to attend to domestic duties ; and her constitution had been so much injured, that in five months from the time of her living burial she was consigned to a longer sleep and a more permanent grave than beneath the snow. She died on the 13th of July, 1799. This story was regarded by many as a newspaper fiction. Only a short time after its publication, Mr. Sole, of Caldecot, being in an inn at Bath, heard a company of travellers express more than grave doubts about the newspaper reports ; but when he assured them that he lived in the neighbourhood, knew all the persons, and was acquainted with all the facts, his statement was met by roars of derisive laughter. " You must not expect," said his fellow- travellers, " that we are so simple as to swallow such an incredible tale." An odd scrap of a ballad made on the occasion has been pre- served : — AN ADVENTURE IN ARRAN. 125 " She was in prison us you see, All in a cave of snow ; And she could not relieved be. Though she was frozen so. Ah, well-a-day ! " For she was all froze in with frost. Eight days and nights, poor soul ; But when they gave her up for lost. They found her down the hole. Ah, well-a-day ! The reader may perhaps inquire whether so mar\^ellous a deli- verance from speedy death was not followed by penitence and prayer, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as a preparation for eternity. Her restoration must have been like " life from the dead," and it would be pleasant indeed to know that, in the best sense, this buried woman had been raised up to " walk in newness of life," and through Jesus Christ to enjoy life eternal. Of this, however, I can say nothing. Let those who read see that they do at once what they think Mrs. Woodcock ought to have done : — "Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead." 1 AN ADVENTUKE IN AKRAN. It was early on a lovely autumnal morning, in the year 18 — , that Ronald M'B , a small sheep-farmer in the northern district of the Island of Arran, in the Western Highlands, left his home,, attended by two faithful collie dogs, for the purpose of gathering some sheep, which were pasturing on a secluded hill at the distance of several miles from the farmstead. Though early in the fall, there was just sufficient sharpness in the atmosphere — the result of the slight frost of the previous evening — to render the exercise of walking pleasant and exhilarating. Ronald felt and appreciated the influence of the time and scene ; for he was a man of much m m * 1*11 126 REMARKABLE ADVENTURES. !i|. more than the average intelligence of his class, and a devout ad- mirer of natm-e, with which, in many a solitary vigil, he often held communion on the lonely hill-side, in the romantic glen, or by the desolate mountain tarn, surrounded on all sides by the dreary, monotonous dun hue of the moorland waste. On the present occasion, the scene was eminently calculated to arouse his sympathies with the beauty and grandeiu* of external nature. His road lay towards the western side of the island ; and, as he turned a shoulder of the hill which he had been for some time climbing, he came full in view of the sound of Kilbrannan, which separates Arran from Argyleshire, heaving and glittering in the rays of the morning sun like an expanse of molten silver. To the south-west he could distinguish the Mull of Cantire, blue and indistinct through the haze ; while, still further to the south, the Ci'aig of Ailsie reared its huge form amidst the waters, with its rounded shoulders and precipitous sides admirably adapted to with- stand the utmost fury of the billows of the Atlantic. Sailing craft of all sizes spread their canvas to woo the gentle morning air ; though seen from Ronald's elevated point of view, they seemed like mere dots on the burnished surface ; while here and there in the distance a long pennon of black smoke gave token that omni- present steam had tl.ere its representatives, giving an additional aspect of liveliness and animation to the scene. In his immediate neighbourhood the prospect was one of wild and sterile grandeur. On either hand hills rose into the air, clothed, about two-thirds of their height, with a short, rich, velvety grass, producing unequalled sheep pasturage — the remaining third being composed of lofty, jagged peaks of granite, emerging from their verdant covering, and frowning defiance and destruction to all bei^eath them. Nor did the threat seem altogether a vain one; for all down their sides, and along the glen through which Ronald now took his way, huge masses lay singly imbedded in the soil or heaped to- ^^ ADVENTUBE ,N AKliAN. S^^^^ev, as at diftoronf . • i ^^'^ Formed tin J, ■'• ■"'''" »"<1 '■'nt. ^« '"-■ Stepped st,„. 1 '""•"'■ '"""°'"""-" ^■"■'T inspinuioi,, and fee J, t "'?'"■"" '''"•' "^'"'li-ff i . akl, v , ' ■■'t every s(,.n «• • ""-""S ^"8 e lest ev,„„,7 . , ,". ''"" Wth 'tiii'tled by the ('lli()ni>li1 iiini of liiM Itiitlilul (M»IIi(; lor sonio nn^tniM of ndiovinj^' liiin, rcfnrninfi: ovory now nnd lli(M» lo Onvn n]>on Itinv und lick his 1'mcc, in fokcMi oClhcMr jiflcclion nnd Hvnij^ntliy. Callinuf lln'ni to Inin now, In* <'nd('iivonr(Ml lo mjiko thoni conn)ichcnd 1 hat lie wished Ihcm to sot ofV for home, ho|>in!>' that Ihoir arrival 1h(>n' would servo ns a means of alarming* his family as lo tlu* cvu^o of his continued ahsence. For a loufj^ time his elVorts wow. unsuech wIumi scolded away they retr(>at(>d for a short distanc(% thoy n^turned timeafthnisuro. Almost de- spairing, at length it occurred to him that his youngest boy was th(^ constant ]ilaymate, and (^onsequcMitly sj)ecial favourite of the oldest collie, Jiaddie, which had been rc^arcd on the farm from a puppy. Addressing him, tluM'i^fore, in sheplK^d phrase, ho exclaimed : *' Hie away Mide, good Laddio, hie away wide ; se(dv AUistor, good dog, seek Allistor;" and his heart throbbed with renewed hope when ho saw the sagacious animal's eye light up with a look of pleased intelligence, and at the same moment, pricking up his oars, w itli a joyful bark and a bound he set off at the top of his speed. Left thus alone, Konald hopefully reflected that " man's extremity is God's o})port unity." Arrived at the farm-stead, honest Laddie found his master's small household busily engaged conveying home and stacking llic last portion of the season's peats — the Highlander's staple fuel — which, having been cut about the month of June, are allowed io dry and harden on the surface of the peat -moss until a later period of the year brings sufEcicnt leisure to have them carted home and *'y «f™y k „,.„,.!„ told T , ""'"'''• 'iiiic'f on I'l, K- , ' "'^'' ''xliiniHtpt sfiii I • 1^™ .„„.„•!" , "' '*™ff« 'I'-mnoo. A,n cl f "'' '" ^'■■'•n-.son.o r- - X <- :'s:;r ■« «- "r„;:;;t,: ">« wck, and the droad 'f w, '-"'""^ *° "'« F'"'lero„.s s,W i;:l| t?'i||f 1 'M ll'i 11^ r 132 KEMARKABLE ADVENTURES, his owu directions, this objot^t was li}i[)pily a('<'oini>li.she(l ; ami, pl{icinf( the patient upon a litter, he was caretiilly convoyed honii^ and put to bed, wliere he lay many days under medical attendance before he was sufficiently recovered to resume the active duties of life. AN AWKWARD ADVENTURE. One evening in the autumn of 185 — , during a temporary stay at a muddy little fishing station near the junction of the river Avon with the Bristol Channel, an adventure befel me, which might have been attended with very untoward results, and whicli I shall relate as briefly as may be. I had taken my residence ibr a week or two in the neighbourhood, for the express purpose of holding oommunieation and exchanging occasional visits with an old friend and schoolfellow, the captain of an Indian trader then lying at anchor in the roads. We generally spent our evenings together, either on board his vessel or at my lodgings, but always separated about an hour before midnight. The old boatman, who two or three times a week rowed me oft' to the vessel and brought me back again, happened to be out of the way one evening at the accustomed hour ; and while I was waiting, almost ankle-deep in the brown sludge which the receding tide leaves upon the coast, expecting his appearance, a decent locking middle-aged man pulled towards me in the merest cockle-shell of a craft, and, touching liis hat of glazed tarpaulin, volunteered to supply his place. Without hesitating a moment 1 stepped into the boat, and, seating myself in the stern, pointed to the " Bhurtpoor," lying about a mile and a half in the offing, and told him to pull away. The season was approaching the equinox, and, the wind blowing fresh, my appetite for dinner sharpened as we got clear of the mud- AX AWKWAHI) ADVENITRR. bnnk.s, whid, as tlio ff 1 ^^^ '!rr'T''^'''''^'"''^>^^'^r:^vX ""'" !"■"»'• "•»* •"- f'o level of the ,nom.t«iu to > i ,' I '"" '""' «""k ■"•■■rlv to f, ""''^ before a dark olo,,,! n.»iTf\ ""' ""'Proceeded 'he wind blew, rapidly e„rt„i" I, 'It'' ''"^l' ^«'" ^^hieh q,„.rter "" """•■' '"-o -xWenly than „ t / "a'^l'!' ?'' *""'V"''' -"'e ]'--een..or of „„ a„.,y i„„_ andl 'conn "."''' ^''"'"^ '^"^ «'« »™d glooming over tie waters n f ''""''■" "'« «'lv,moin- ■•'•'->' the notion of being elZun it ""• f' '"^"""'<'- ^ ''''• "" t - "S"al, a heavy shower Jrll^^rf. '! T "'* •■"'-"•>•".- '"'.' I urge,I the boatman to pu a«fv "L 'n '""' "" ''^'"-"^^ *«I he, tngging at the oars " Zlt^ T "" "'"• " ^.v, ay. sir " l^ard without a wet jaetet » "" '°'" l'""'"^ ^^ honiur a- -f'or about two miuuton ih^ lu^i i -.creased exertions, daneed for^a 1 It 't' ""'^"' ,*''« ""l-'ns of I could see the hands on boardZe t*, ^^ ' ™'^- ^^'''^"•'y 00* sails, which, as the ves'ent ^ T" ''"^^ '■"rf'"K «o,no ^t down for the purposej pl^'j?^''^' '^T' P''>'""'^- ''-» 'ke evolutions of the crew, Zll^ '™**'"S ""^ ««""""'- d-sappearanee of every «.' of ll ,"^ "* ^''^ 'nstantaneons -varethat «y companL had stonlrd "" ' '^"'^^^ «"''« ^'a^prng the oai. to his brel 1 S' 'f' ^'"^ '^'"^ arms, e^^ were darting from theirt'ckets '/"; "^'^ " '''''''■ » « °ngh M an agony of terror b f '""^ "" "» ^^es as spluttered forth foam at the co^e, ■"?'*' ^^'^ ^"^^ ^st. ye - of a livid black CO Jr.r ^reVet StT^ ^^*^' veins 01 h,, forehead stood out t> 'f ' f^ • li I ffTT 134 REMARKABLE ADVENTURES. I i! . m like an iron net-Avorlv ; while tUo perspiration streamed off his head in a perfect toiTent. AVhat to do I did not know. I concluded that the man was in a lit of some kind or other ; and I feared momentarily lest, in some sadden paroxysm, he should flounder overboard, and perhaps upset the boat, causing the destruction of us both. I would have given much to have had a friend with whom to advise, but advice was out of the question. While I sat deliberating, the squall burst upon us with unmitigated fury. The floods came down a perfect Avaterspout, and the winds tossed us about among the chopping billows to such an ugly tune, that in a few minutes the boat was nearly half full of water, and I was fain to take to baling out with jdl my might, making use of an old saucepan, rusty and shorn of its handle, which lay amongst the loose planks in her bottom. 8till there sat the wretched waterman, rigid as a corpse, and appa- rently insensible to the assaults of the tempest. By this time it was so dark that I could see neither the " Bhurtpoor " nor the coast, and, what is more, did not know in which direction to look for tliem. I could only see my companion's face by leaning forward and Ininging my own almost in juxtaposition with it ; and whenever I did this, the same horrified aspect met my view, and he invariably resented my curiosity by the utterance of a frightful guttural sound, expressive, if of anything, of terror lest I should lay a hand upon him. The squall Ibrtunately soon mitigated in intensity, and seemed to settle down into a heavy rain. When I had baled out the water sufficiently to remove present uneasiness on that score — and it seemed to me that I had occupied liours in accomplishing it — I unshipped the rudder, and, by dint of no inconsiderable labom-, padtllcd with it so effectually as to keep the boat's head to tlie Avind. ^riiat was all I could do, and I could not do that veiy well, as an occasional sea that broke over the gunwide convinced mo a AN AWKWARD ADVENTURE. 135 dozen times at least. After tossing about in tliis miserable condi- tion a considerable time, wliicli seemed to me an age, I looked at my watch to see how long we had been out, and was amazed to find that not two liours had elapsed since we liad started. I should hardly have been more surprised had the sun risen on the other side of the channel and ushered in the morning. My troubles seemed to have endured longer than the whole of the past day, and yet there were eight or nine hours to pass before another would dawn upon us. I began to fear that we should not survive the night ; we were probably several miles from the nearest land, but in what direction it lay I had no idea. All that I knew was, that we were drifting down channel, and that down we must continue to drift till the tide turned, which I judged would not be for several hours, I bawled to my companion as loud as I could halloo — bantered him, consoled him, encouraged him, reasoned with him : all, however, was to no purpose; not a response could I elicit. There was, therefore, nothing for it but to sit still and wait the issue. I was wet through to the skin — as thoroughly sodden as it' I had been fished up from the bottom of the sea ; and every now and then a terrible presentiment haunted me that to the bottom we were doomed to go before the morning, How long I. sat in this state, alternately baling v/ith the rusty saucepan, paddling with the rudder, and gazing moodily at tlie grim figm'e of the boatman, now half shrouded in the darkness, i have no distinct recollection, but it must have been a very con- siderable time. My reflections were none of the pleasantest. J'lie vision of the captain's comfortable cabin, and his wrll-spread table furnished with the game we had shot togetlier the day before, rose to my imagination with tantalizing force ; and there was I, trans- formed from a delighted and favoured giuost to a miserable cast- away, at the mercy of a motionless image, mIio, iov all I knew, miidit woke up into a niging madman, or die and stiften in tlie 130 REMAEKABLE ADVENTURES. position in which he sat, leaving me in the unpleasant predicament of having to account for his fate .should I happen to survive him long. Morbid thoughts began to rise in my mind and to mingle with unworthy terrors, both of which I had a difficulty to shake off. At length I began to revolve the matter determinately, with a view to action of some sort. I could bear the horrible perplexity of my position no longer, and determined to do something, if possible, to bring it to an end. But what ? — that was the question. I stood up and looked around. I fancied I could see a glimmering of light far away to the left, and thought that if I could get posses- sion of the oars I might succeed in making the land in that direc- tion, particularly as the wind had now abated and the storm had ceased. I cautiously laid my hand upon the man's shoulder, and felt for his fingers : they were hot as those of a person in a IJ A\ . rrer. I endeavoured to loosen the oars from his grasp, but I nugiit as well have tried to snap them in pieces with my fingers : they were firm as though gripped in an i:'on vice. I felt his face and hair ; both were hot and bathed in clammy moisture. In spite of the poor fellow's aflliction, I grew exasperated with him for venturing out to sea, with the knowledge which he must have had that he was liable to such fearful visitations. Half in anger and half inspired with a sudden idea, I groped in the bottom of the boat for the old sauce- pan, found it, filled it with the cold brine, and dashed it suddenly in the fellow's face. The shock was instantly followed by a '- c^ sigh and a rather violent gasping. Distressing as these sci.: i-. usually are, they were now grateful music to my ears, and, withoui waiting more than a minute, I repeated the experiment. Directly afterwards I heard the oars rattle in the rullocks, and saw, as plainly as the gloom would permit, that the man was addressing hii^self again to his work, though in all likelihood he had hardly yet recovered his full consciousness. I spoke to him, but rc> dved AN AWKWARD ADVENTURE. 137 him lake with (xity g, if rtion. ering 3sses- iirec- 1 had no answer. I again filled the rusty saucepan and sprinkled water r * er his face with my fingers. At length he threw off his hat with one hand, shook himself, and with difficulty stammered forth, " It's all right now." "All right, do you call it? Whereabouts are we? and what o'clock do you suppose it is? and whereaway lies the *Bhurt- poor?'" " Very sorry, ^^our honour — how long is it we've been out ?" " Four or five hours — perhaps six : a pretty scrape you have lot me into !" " Very sorry, your honour ; but we'll get picked up before long. Here's a smack a-coming — she'll be down upon us in tw^enty minutes, and we'll be snug enough on board of her." I could see nothing of the smack whose approach he announced ; but as he assured me again and again that she was fast bearing down upon us, I was but too glad to believe it true. Sure enougli, in ten minutes later I could discern her broad white canvas loom- ing forward like an apparition ; and soon my companion hailed her hoarsely, and received a reply perfectly unintelligible to me, through the captain's speaking trumpet. She did not, however, heave to, but came dashing past at five or six knots an hour, and seemed about to abandon us to our fate, with a coarse jest flung at us in passing. I had begun exclaiming against this abominable inhumanity, as I supposed it, but the poor boatman interrupted me with, " It's all right, your honour ; we'll board her in two minutes." With these words he lifted something white into the boat, bawling out, " Heave-ho !" at the same moment, with the full force of hu Jungs. The something white was a floating buoy attached to a long line which the smack had dropped for our convenience, and which, on hearing the signal, they, now began to haul in with astonishing rapidity. For two minutes we cut through the water like a rocket, and the next ascended the hull of the smack, and F 2 'iv,\ r*-5 m wm i 138 REM ARK ABT,E ADVENT HRE?5. f dived down into her cabin, where a few rashers of Welsh bacon and a cup of steaming coffee restored our exhausted strength and spirits. It was past ono o'clock when we boarded the smack, and nearly three when she arrived at an adjoining seaport, the place of her destination. I was fortunate enough, through the recommendation of the captain, to find accommodation for the night in a house near the quay, where I retired immediately to bed, and happily escaped any serious injury from the dangerous enterprise I had so unwillingly achieved. Next morning I encountered the unlucky boatman, still pale and haggard, upon the quay, and sought to obtain some explanation of the wretch i experience of the previous night. He was, however, most unwilli) speak on the subject, and, but for the conscious- ness that he ov, ^d me some reparation for a wrong unintentionally done me, it was plain that he would not have uttered a word. As it was, my curiosity was but half gratified. He acknowledged that he was subject to occasional fits ; but he had his living to get. He denied that he had had a fit last night, asserting that if he had, he should have gone overboard immediately, as it would have required three or four men to hold him still. He said he saw me and all I did during the whole period, and heard, moreover, every word I spoke, which he could not have done had he been in a fit. From all I could understand of his description of the agonies he had himself undergone, he had felt the symptoms of an approaching attack, and Knowing that, if it mastered him in the boat, it must inevitably result in his destruction, had wrought himself up to a determined resistance, and in the danger and darkness of that sudden tempest had manfully battled it out with the dreadful malady, that might else have merged us both in one common doom. The more I questioned him and revolved his answers in mv mind, the more I became convinced that this was the truth. Doctors may, for aught I know, pronounce such an effort to be •on md ick, the the the y to srous A TWILIGHT ADVENTURE. 130 altogether vain ; but I describe the facts of the case pretty much as they happened, and must leave those who differ with me in opinion to deal witli the matter as ihey list. I had been angry enough witli the poor fellow the night before, but the interview of the morning banished my resentment ; and as he rose from the heap of iron ore upon which he had been sitting when I came up with him, and staggered feebly towards the vessel in which he had been offered a gratuitous passage home, I could not but feel that there were qualities in him worthy of respect. He would accept nothing for his services, but returned the offer with a dolorous glance of the eye, and a significant curl of the upper lip — and so we parted. Health and peace go with him i mi s ivr «| 'M. I A TWILIGHT ADVENTUEE. AN APPARITION EXTRAORDINARY. About the centre of a great dreary common, distant some three miles from the little towm of C , and just at the meeting place of two footpaths, which may be traced far over the sombre waste by their weary whiteness, stand three lightning-scathed elms, bat- tered and seared by fire and storm, barkless, livid, and ghost-like in the dim twilight. And oh ! the oppressive soHtudo and silonet^ of that spot at such an hour. It was just when the twilight of a September evening lay deepest on the border land of day and night, that my homeward path led me past the blasted elms. The friends I had just left were such as Percy, or Ritson, or Scott would have loved to commune with — full of old ballad lore. Quaint old words, breathed in the soft sweet voice of tlio mistress of the house to a quaint okl melody, m ■jiji^pir 140 llESrABKABLE ADVENTTTER. still rang in my ears. And this was the burden that haunted me: — •• As I was walking a' nlane, I heard Iwa corbies makin' a mane ;* The ane unto the t'other did say. Where sail we gang and dine the day?" The words of the ballad were well enough remembered, and I was trying to recall the air ; but the fourth line baffled me. I could not get it to run rightly at all, and in vain did I repeat over and over — •* Where sail we gang and dine the day ?** in different keys, now higher and now lower. Wholly intent upon this vexatious interruption to my musical reveries, I drew near to the goblin trees, and, for aught I know, might have passed them unnoticed, had not my little dog Trot, who was trotting quietly on, nose to ground, as was his wont, a yard or two in advance, suddenly stopped short in my way, so that I almost stumbled over him ; and he then slunk cowering at my heels. At the same moment there reached my ears a faint rustle as of footsteps through the heather, or perhaps merely the rush of a startled rabbit into the gorse. But be this as it may, ye lovers of the marvellous, what a spectacle met my eyes, as then, for the first time, I lifted them to the blasted elms ! From a huge broken limb of the central tree depended an object that bore the semblance of a living creature, yet altogether unlike any that I had ever seen or read of. It loomed out from the dark background of cloudy sky, likest to one of those vast vampires which travellers have described as sometimes seen in the depths of the South American forest. Like them, it hung by the hind feet to the branch, swaying slowly to and fro. But tlien it was white — a livid white, like that of the barkless tree — wliite head, and body, * I lieard two crows making a moan. A TWILIGHT ADVENTURE. lil and logs, and wide-extended wings. The A\ind, too, wafted from it a ghoulish odour, indescribable, that told a talc of fresh-spilt blood. Confess, now, candid reader, long you not, as I did, to know something more of the monster ; to be rid of such a nightmare of doubt ; to be able to call it by some known name ; to find out whether to laugh or weep, to clap hands or to tremble ? How, then, shall I dare to tell you the whole truth, and to call upon you to let your curiosity be as easily satisfied as mine was ? How per- suade you to think with me, discretion the better part of valour, and to wait with patience equal to mine the possible denoument of time ? The fact is that, after a very brief deliberation, I deter- mined to give the tree and its " uncanny " burden a wide bertli, and so arrived at home unhai-med, though somewhat startled and confounded by what I had witnessed. This is, I am willing to admit, a very unromantic, and therefore improper, conclusion to my story. Had I described my horror at the sight — how my very hair rose on end till it lifted my bi^^ad- brimmed straw from my head, and how I fled, fear-ridden, awe- spurred, and terror-winged over the wild waste, pursued by un- earthly howls, and the flap, flap, flap of strange wings, mitil I fell half-dead, and so on — this would, of course, be far more interesting, and a more proper and normal termination to my adventure. Of all this I am well aware; but then you see, discerning reader. Truth contradicts oftentimes, and flatly, the notion that ho is " stranger than fiction," and in this case brought a very romantic story to a very unromantic end. * ♦ * # About a week had passed since the evening of my mysterious adventure, when, on taking up the county paper, a cer i para- graph caught my eye, and, ere I had glanced far down it, the mystery of my twilight apparition was solved. "A Daring Sheepstealeh. — On Tuesday last, a sheep was llLi IIEMAKKABLE ADVENTUllES. 1| hitolou from a field about two miles from this town (C itself), ill the occupation of Blr. J. D. That gentleman's shepherd counted llie sheep, as usual, soon after half-past seven o'clock on that evening, when ho discovered that one was missing. Supposing it had got astray on the common, he did not mention it to his master that night. Next morning, by five o'clock, he was out on the common looking for it. When he reached the well-known * blasted elms,' near the centre, he discovered evident signs, both on the trees and on the ground below, that a sheep had been hilled, or at least cleaned there. He followed the traces of blood as far as the large chalk hole near H Wood, where the skin was found concealed under the bushes, and there all trace was lost. It is clear that the villain or villains, who have so far eluded pursuit, were old and daring hands at the business, as the theft must have been committed before dark, and the sheep cut up close to the footpath that leads from P to C . This path, however, is but little frequented, especially after dark, owing to its bad repute among the country folk." ADVENTURE AMONG THE HUDSON'S BAY FUK-HUNTEKS. Our brigade of four boats lay moored on the banks of the great Saskatchewan ; which river, taking its rise amid the mugged steeps of the Rocky Mountains, flows through the great prairies and woodlands of the interior of Rupert's Land, and discharges into Lake Winipeg. The men were ashore at breakfast. On a low gravelly point that jutted out into the stream, smoked three large fires, over which stood three rudely constructed tripods, from wliich depended >lf), ted Lhat g it ister the isted L the or at 3 the found It is irsuit, have to the sver, is repute |e great steeps les and js into point (s, over [pendcd ADVENTURE AMONG THE HUDSON'S BAY FLR-IIUNTERS. \\'\ three enormous tin kettles. Robbiboo was tliedeloctabh^ snbstanci^ contained in these kettles. Pemmican is a compound of di-ii d buffalo meat, melted fat, and hair — the latter being an accidental ingredient. J\Iix pemmican with flour and water, boil and stir till it thickens, and the result will be " robbiboo." Around these kettles stood, and sat, and reclined, and smoked, about thirty of the Avildest and heartiest fellows that ever trod the wilderness. Most of them were French Canadians ; many were half-breeds; some were Orkneymen; and one or two were the copper-coloured natives of the soil. But Canadians, Scotch, and savages alike, were servants of the Hudson's Bay Fur Company ; they were all burned to the same degree of brownness by the summer sun ; they all laughed and talked, and ate robljiboo more or less — generally more ; and they were all clad in the picturesque habiliments of the north-west voyageur. A loose-fitting capote, with a hood hanging down the back ; a broad scarlet or parti- coloured worsted sash round the waist ; a pair of cloth leggings, sometimes blue, sometimes scarlet, occasionally ornamented with bright silk or bead- work, and gartered at the knees; a pair of chamois leather-like mocassins made of deer skin ; a round bonnet, or a red nightcap, or a nondescript hat, or nothing; such is the outward man of the voyageur. " Ho ! ho !" shouted the gruff voice of the guide, as the men, having emptied the kettles, were hastily filling and lighting their pipes — " embark, my lads, embark." In five minutes the boats were afloat, and the crews v/ere about to shove off, when the cry was raised, " Mr. Berry ! hold on : where's Mr. Berry ?" Poor Berry ! he was always late, always missing, always in the wrong place at the right time and in the right place at the wrong time. His companions — of whom there were two in charge of the boats along with himself — called him an " old wife," but qualified h'^ \ 144 KEMARRABLR ADVENTURES. ' ( tho title with the remark that he was a " good soul," nevertheless. Aud so he was — a beardless youth of twenty-two summers, with a strong tendency to scientific pursuits, but wofully incompetent to use his muscles aright. He was for ever falling into the water, constantly cutting his fingers with his knife, and frequently break- ing the trigger of his fowling piece in his attemi)ts to discharge it at half-cock. Yet he was incomparably superior to his more " knowing " comrades in all the higher qualities of manhood. At the moment his name was called, he sprang from the bushes, laden with botanical specimens, and crying " Stop ! stop ! I'm coming," he rushed down to the boat of which he had the special charge, and leaped in. Five minutes more, and the brigade was sweeping down the Saskatchewan, while the men bent hastily to their oars, and filled the shrubbery on the river's bank and the wide prairies beyond with the ringing tones of one of their characteristic and beautiful canoe songs. The sun was flooding the horizon with gold, as it sank to rest. The chorus of the boatmen had ceased, and the only sound that broke the stillness of the quiet evening was the slow and regular stroke of the heavy oars, which the men plied unceasingly. On turning one of the bends of the river, which disclosed a somewhat extended vista ahead, several black objects were observed near the water's edge. " Hist !" exclaimed the foremost guide, " they are buffaloes." " A terre, a terre !" cried the men, in a hoarse whisper. A powerful sweep of the steering oar sent the boat into a little bay, where it was quickly joined by the others. " Now, then, let the crack shots be off" into the bush," cried the gentleman in charge of the brigade. " Away with you, Gaspard, Antoine, Jacques. Mind you don't waste powder and shot on old bulls. Hallo ! Mr. Berry, not so fast ; let the hunters to the front." ADVENTURE AMONG THE HUDSON'S BAY FUU HUNTEUS. 145 0.' " Ah ! Misser Berry him l)erry bad shot," ronuirka J :•■ -i-A I! hii ]|v(M', Ihou'ih soniowhfd shiilccn hy tho iail. Tho choico inoiscls of t1i(* (^Piid IhiIVmIoos wcro ('111 olVliytho in«Miwithan adroit ('(Verity that wns (piitc^ inaiTcdlnnH, nnd in a vory Hliort tiiiio th(» honts \V(»ro a}::Min rM|>i* Ma/od with unwoidcd powtn* a!iroiound sil(Mic(\ Each man, liavin*!^ smoked bfs l'ip<\ s(d«>ct(Ml for his couch tho softest spot of P'onnd \\o coe.ld tind, and, wnippiiiii; himself in his blanket, laid ]n*m down to iwst. The de(»p broathiniz; of nntronblod imbor was tln^ only sound that floated from tho land and min with the ri]ipliiij2: oi' the rivor; and not a hand or foot wtis moved until, at daybreak, tho loud halloo of th(^ nuido aroused the sleepers to their daily toil. A w(h:'I\ or two passed, and wo had loft tho lands of the buffalo far behind us, and wore sailiuLT over iho broad bosom of Jiake AVinip(^g. It was calm and polished na a shoot of glass when wc (Mitered it, but it did not remain loii": thus. A breeze arose, th(> sails wore hoisted, and away ^ve went out into the wide ocean of fresh water. Ljdce Winipog is a veritable ocean. Its waves rival tliose of the salt sea in naiznitude, and thoy break upon a shore composed in many places of sand and })obbl(>s. If we sail straiglit out upon it, tho shore behind us sinks in the horizon; but no opposite shore rises to view, and the unbroken circle of sky and AhVKNTI IM; AMONO TIIK IU'DNON'h UAY I'lJU III Niints. 1 17 'tinti; bull 1 wim st i)t' li tli(^ iifiiiU)- hourrt man, put of <^,, laid n* was li tho til, at ii tlieir DuiValo J iixkv bu \vo fc, tho ian ol' rival shore |r aight \nt no and wut(U* irt ph'Hoiilcd to our ;^'a/.<', as it appcarn on 1h«< fijicut^K'cjiii ils(>ir. 'rii(i wind roM(^ ahnost to a palo uk wo carcorcd over tlic hilloWM, iind llic iiwii had to kocp up inci'HHant baling. It waw jdiuost loo iiMudi for ns ; but no oiu^ luunnuiod, for, had Iho wind hrcii alicud, wo nii^ht luivo bt'on obli^»!d io ]mt awhoro and ronmin then' inac- tivo I'ur numy dayH. Ah it was, wo niado a rapid run aci'osH tlu; hd\o and (uitijred tho rivor, or rather th(^ Hystcni of iakoH and rivors, whioh convoy its watora to tho ucMjan. Jludson's ii»iy was our ^oal. To this point wo wore convoying our furs for sliipinont to En