The de Rougemont Yarns.

Manawatu Herald, 10 November 1898, Page 3

The de Rougemont Yarns.

m " ■ AN ATTACK BY BLACKS. "The warlike and threatening natives had now been left behind long ago, and I never thought of meeting any other hostile people, when just as I had reached the narrowest part of the waterway, I was startled by the appearance of a great horde of naked blacks — giants, every one of them — on the rocks above me. "They were tremendously excited, and greeted me first of all with a shower of. spears. Fortunately, on encounting the first lot of threatening blacks, I had prepared a shelter for myself on deck by means of the hatches reared up endwise, and so the spears fell harmlessly around me. Next, the natives sent a volley of boomerangs on board, but without any result. Some of these curious weapons hit the sails, and fell impotently on the deck but the remainder returned to their throwers, who were standing on the rocks about fifty yards away. I afterwards secured the boomerangs that came on board, and found that they were about 34m. in length, were shaped like the blade of a sickle, and measured three or four inches across at the widest part. They were made of extremely hard wood, and were undoubtedly capable of doing very considerable injury when dexterously and accurately thrown. The blacks kept up a terrific hubbub on shore, yelling like madmen, and hurling at me showers of barbed spears. The fact that they had boomerangs convinced me that I must be nearing the Australian mainland. All this time the current was carrying my boat rapidly along, and I had soon left the natives jabbering furiously far behind me. At last I could see the open sea once more, and that the mouth of the strait was a little island, where I thought I might venture to land. As I was approaching it, however, another crowd of blacks, all armed, came rushing down the beach; they jumped into their catamarans and paddled out towards me. After my previous experience I deemed it advisable not to let them get too near, so I hoisted the mainsail again, and stood for the open sea. There was* a good supply of guns and ammunition on board, ' and it would have been an easy matter for me to have sunk one or two of the natives boats, and so copied their enthusiasm a bit ; but I refrained on reflecting that I should not gain anything by this action." THE SHIPWRECK. Four days afterwards, a westerly course having been steered continuously, the Veielland struck violently on a coral reef. While the solitary traveller was in the rigging taking observations a huge wave came aboard, knocking him down, and rendering him permanently deaf in the right ear. The left ear was affected for a time, but he soon recovered hearing in it. As the vessel began to settle down he determined to leave her, and his departure is thus described : — "Up and up came the inexorable water, and at last signalling to Bruno to follow me, I leaped into the sea, and commenced to swim towards the sandbank. Of course, all the boats had been lost when the pearling fleet disappeared. The sea was still very rough, and as the tide was against us, I found it extremely exhausting work. The dog seemed to understand that I was finding it a dreadful strain, for he swam immediately in front of me, and kept turning round again and again as though to see if I were following safely. "By dint of tremendous struggling I managed to get close up to the shore but found it utterly impossible to climb up and land. Every time I essayed to plant my legs on the beach the irresistible backwash swept me down, and in my exhausted condition . thus filled mewith dlspair. On one occasion this backwash sent me rolling over into deep water again, and I am sure I should have been drowned had not my braye l dog come to my rescue and grasped me by my hair, which, I should have explained, was very long, never having been cut since my childhood. Well, my dog tugged and tugged at me until he had got me half-way through the breakers, and this exertion didn't seem to cause him much trouble in swimming. (To be continued.)