BRAVE WOMAN.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1378, 2 March 1912, Page 10

BRAVE WOMAN.

ALONE IX THE WILDS. It is not often that n woman who con* (esses to tlie home-loving instinct ventures forth alone to the wilder places of the earth. "I wonder sometimes," writes Mrs. Mary Gaunt in her very interesting book "Alone in West Africa," "should 1 lmvo been conlended to lead the ordinary woman's life, the, lil'o of llio woman who looks after her husband and children ? 1 think so, because it grew to ho the life 1 ardently yearned for." It was not until "the homo life I had entered into with such gladness was over," mid her husband was dead and she was homeless and alone, that sho started on the adventurous journey recorded in her book. From tho Guinea coast Mrs. Gaunt travelled u)> the Volta in « cauoo, turninn lior back on the European outposts lor many weeks, even the commercial agents of these, inland regions being black men. "And J was afraid of these men. I may hove wronged them, for they wer» (juito civil, but 1 was afraid. Again and agiiin they inudo me remember, aj the ordinary peasants never did, (hat I was a woman alone and very, very help, less. Nothing would have induced* mo to stay two nights at una of those stations, These men wero half-civilised."

Afraid to go Back. At Labolabo, where she found a soli* tary Englishman on an. experimental cot-ton-growing farm, win*-advised her to go back, she preferred to turn to rht hills in an attempt to cross to German ioguLaiul rather than face tho Volta again by herself. "Oh! But it was lonely, and fear fell upon inc. A wnto mist eamo softly up. so that I could not see bevond the broad, empty verandahs. I know tin moon was shining by the white light, hut I could not seo her, and I felt shut-in and terrified. "Where Grant (a black servant) went to I don t know, but he disappeared after providing my frugal evening meal am i 1 could hear weird Bounds that cam. on of ha mist, and none of the fa. miliar chatter and laughter oftl," ricrs to whicl! I had grown accustomed. , "' lnl , l I know not, but I fcared-tcared greatly. The fear that had como upon me at Labolabo worked his wicked will, now that I was alone on Anum Mountain, and the white mist aided and abetted. I could hear tle dr-ip, drip as of water falling somewhsro in tho silence; I could hear lh« cry of a, bird out in tho bush, but it was the silence that made every rustl* so fraught with meaning. . . n , , o („ Won<icrod ' i fi n Sava K-e-on these occasions one spells savngo with a vcrr nrgo b-did come on (o (he verandah, didi come into my bedroom, what should L liJt ■ thnt , cvo ". a bnsh-cat would be terrifying and having got so far I realised hat a rabbit woiild probably send me into hysterics." ■