A TALE OF THE SEA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 232, 29 September 1881, Page 4

A TALE OF THE SEA.

Tlie Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin of 18th June says : — News lias been received of ihe safe arrival of Captain Nelson Huutley, at Buenos Ayres, after a passage of (34 days. The" following will be of interest to a good many, and we will let ihe captain relate it in his own graphic style : — "We had one boy on the passage out, who was taken with hydrophobia, and of all the tempestuous times that I ever experienced at sea that beat them all. For two days there was not "a thing done^ on board the vessel except the steering, all hands being required to take care of him. and sometimes the united strength of four or five able men was insufficient to hold him, and we were obliged to lash him fore and aft. When the spasms were on him he was more powerful than a full-grown hurricane. He would howl like Uncle Jerry Bush's hounds, only a thousand times more savagely; would bark, snap, snarl, yelp, froth r«t the mouth, and bite everything before him. The concentrated agony of a hundred ordinary death-beds would not equal the sum of t? at boy's suffering. We thought he was dyiug a dozen different- times, and during a sane interval between the spasms lie. thought so himself, and called for me, saying he had something to tell me : and now comes the funniest part of the yarn, for I cannot conceive of anyone burdening his soul with such an outrageous lie at the time when lie supposed himself to be drawing his last breath. He said he was Charlie Eoss ; said he remembered at the time he was taken away of crossing a ferry with a lady, and as the chain was let down, and she was leaving the boat, thinking he was behind her, two young fellows that lie knew, brothers he thinks they were, by the name of George and Heny Stephenson, snatched him away in the crowd, and he remembered being taken ou board a steamer and into a state-room, where there was a man waiting for them. They played an accordion, showed him pictures, and gave hi n cake to eat, after which he fell asleep. They were some time on board the steamer, and he remembered the'.r landing at Hampden on the Penobscot. From there he was taken in a market waggon covered with blankets to a farm-house in the country, where they remained through the night. The next day he was carried hidden in a load of hay to Frankfort and to tbe house of a man by the name of Butterfield, who kept a hay and grocery store. Here, he said he was kept for some years, shut in a dark room at first, and never allowed to go out except for a ride sometimes of an evening with the hired man. I wiil Bay this much in favor of the boy's yarn that he has weak eyes, and, although he is intelligent -looking and has nothing of the appearance of one born of ignorant parent?, he can neither read nor write. He says booka and papers Were kept from him. He says his hair was long and curly, and they cut it off and rubbed something on his head every day to prevent it from curling. Butterfield was very cruel to him, and gave him the name of Pinkhatn, by which he has since been known, fie finally ran away, and has since taken care of himself. Now, whether he knew himself to be lying, or was doing it unconsciously, I cannot tell. I merely know he was perfectly rational at the time, and was lying, as we all supposed, at the point of death, and was so weak that he could only gasp ont one or two sentences at a time. If there was any truth in it, and the boy was correct as to dates, there is one way I think he might be identified by his parents. Ke Baid he was not certain as to names, but thinks it was George Stephenson — at least the name was George — who was setting out some fiowera, using a sharp knife, and he enraged him by catching hold of the flowers, so that George struck him, first with the knife on the wribt, and then struck at his breast, and as he put up his left hand to ward off the blow the knife cat his hand between two of the fingers and struck his breast, and there are the scars on his wrist and hand and his breast, and anyone that ever knew him could recognise him by them. Since he got well I have asked him about it, and he says he knows he is the original Charlie Ross, but he could tell me nothing more about it. I suppose he is lying, but I wish that his parents might know of it. He is so blestedly honeßt looking that I have given him up as a conundrum which I cannot make out."