Thrilling Adventures by Land and Sea - James O. Brayman
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After waiting some time in suspense, the travelers were suffered to
leave, in charge of a Kurdish guard:
"It soon became evident that we were not on the road to Oroomiah.
Whither we were going, was a matter of painful mystery. At the distance
of more than a mile, as we passed a village, a single Christian, a man
of Akkre, came out in a crowd of curious villagers, to offer his
sympathy. As each of us passed him, he bowed, with his head to the
ground, and with the strongest expression of regard, urged us to remain
with him there, as he would guarantee our safety. It was not for us,
however, to say, and we pressed forward; but Khudhr soon brought us the
intelligence, which he had obtained here, that we were being led to the
village of a Mullah, a very holy man, under whose protection we might
feel entirely secure. He added, that toward Oroomiah it would be quite
impossible to go; our only escape was toward Mosul."
The Mullah received them kindly, entertained them a day in his house,
where all the diseased persons in the neighborhood were brought for them
to cure, and started with them early on the morning of the 30th of May,
to accompany them on their way back to Mosul. On reaching a village,
toward noon, a scene took place, which is of so much interest that we
give Mr. Bacon's account of it in full:
"We were assisted from our horses by a remarkably ill-looking set of
men, whom we supposed to have come out to see us from curiosity. An
unprepossessing young gentleman, with a scar that divided his nose and
his upper lip, and a silver-mounted dagger, took a seat near the Mullah,
and a violent discussion immediately commenced, of the drift of which,
we were, happily, ignorant. Soon, another party of villagers appeared,
headed by another young man, who was quite the counterpart of the first,
even to the scar in his lip; but his dagger-hilt and sheath were of
solid silver, set with precious stones, and the long ringlets which hung
upon his shoulders, were still more daintily curled. The arrival of this
reinforcement renewed the violence of the discussion, between the Mullah
on one side, and the young men on the other. It plainly related to us,
and the fierce looks of the Kurds, as they walked to and fro with their
hands on their daggers, would have alarmed us, had we not had full
confidence in the power and good will of our friend. The controversy had
a good deal subsided, when the approach of still another party renewed
it once more. The Agha himself was coming. He was a man of fifty years,
with a once gray beard, dyed a bright red, and with his lower eyebrows
stained a livid blue-black. He greeted us with a ferocious smile, and
entered at once into earnest conversation with Mullah Mustafa. The
conversation was interrupted, now and then, by one of his amiable sons
leaping from his seat, and speaking violently, to the great apparent
satisfaction of the crowd.
"We soon learned the nature of these discussions from Khudr, who had
been an attentive and agitated listener to the whole. The respectable
old gentleman, it seems, had sent his first son to murder us, placing
the second at a convenient distance to assist him. The latter, surprised
that the business lagged, came up to see to it. And the Agha himself,
finding that business lagged, came finally to attend to it himself. The
Mullah urged the danger of injuring persons of consequence. 'The sword
of the Frank is long,' said he. But this argument was without effect.
Mustafa then appealed to him not to disgrace his hospitality. These men
were under his own protection, and he would not see them wronged. This
argument also failed. He now urged that we were men of influence at
Mosul, and were going direct to Constantinople; that, by securing our
influence against his colleague and rival, Melul Agha, he might secure
a perpetual supremacy in the district of Sherwan.
"This plea gained the case; the eyes of the old savage glistened with
diabolical satisfaction as he thought of the villainous trick he was
about to play upon his rival. He drew from his bosom a letter and handed
it to the Mullah, who read it and handed it to our servant. It was
written by Melul Agha, to Khan Abdul, our present host, directing him to
take the rest of our property, and murder us without fail. This letter
had been written on the blank page of another letter, sent to Melul
Agha, by Mustafa Agha, of Ziba, who resides at Akkre. It was the last
scoundrel who had sent letters in advance of us into the mountains,
inviting them to murder us--and this, all for the sake of making a
little impression on the government at Mosul."
After these hair-breadth escapes from murder, the party returned in
safety to Mosul.
A BATTLE WITH SNAKES.
Since the exhibitions in London of the two Hindoo snake-charmers--the
first we believe who ever visited Europe--everything relating to
serpents seems to have acquired additional interest. Many facts
regarding the nature and habits of the various species have been
published, affording much information and still greater astonishment.
Waterton, in his "Wanderings in South America and the Antilles, in
1812-24," relates some stories of so marvellous a character, that,
coming from a less authentic source, their truth might be
reasonably doubted.
While in the region of Mibri Hill, Mr. Waterton long sought in vain for
a serpent of large size, and finally, offered a reward to the negroes if
they would find him one. A few days afterward one of the natives,
followed by his little dog, came to him with the information that a
snake of respectable dimensions had been discovered a short distance up
the hill; and armed with an eight feet lance, and accompanied by two
negroes with cutlasses and the dog, he at once started to take a look at
it. Mr. Waterton states that he was barefoot, with an old hat, check
shirt and trousers on, and a pair of braces to keep them up. His
snakeship was pointed out as lying at the roots of a large tree which
had been torn up by a whirlwind. But the remainder of the story shall be
given in the traveler's own words:
I advanced up to the place slow and cautious. The snake was well
concealed, but at last I made him out; it was a coulacanara, not
poisonous, but large enough to have crushed any of us to death. On
measuring him afterward, he was something more than fourteen feet long.
This species of snake is very rare, and much thicker in proportion to
its length than any other snake in the forest. A coulacanara of fourteen
feet in length, is as thick as a common boa of twenty-four feet. After
skinning this snake, I could easily get my head into his mouth, as the
singular formation of the jaws admits of wonderful extension.
On ascertaining the size of the serpent, I retired slowly the way I
came, and promised four dollars to the negro who had shown it to me, and
one dollar to the other who had joined us. Aware that the day was on the
decline, and that the approach of night would be detrimental to the
dissection, a thought struck me that I could take him alive. I imagined
that if I could strike him with the lance behind the head, and pin him
to the ground, I might succeed in capturing him. When I told this to the
negroes, they begged and entreated me to let them go for a gun and bring
more force, as they were sure the snake would kill some of us. Taking,
however, a cutlass from one of the negroes, and then ranging both of the
sable slaves behind me, I told them to follow me, and that I would cut
them down if they offered to fly. When we had got up to the place, the
serpent had not stirred: but I could see nothing of his head, and judged
by the folds of his body that it must be at the farthest side of the
den. A species of woodbine formed a complete mantle over the branches of
the fallen tree, almost impervious to the rain or the rays of the sun.
Probably he had resorted to this sequestered place for a length of time,
as it bore marks of an ancient settlement.
I now took my knife, determined to cut away the woodbine, and break the
twigs in the gentlest manner possible, till I could get a view of his
head. One negro stood guard close behind me with a cutlass. The cutlass
which I had taken from the first negro, was on the ground close beside
me, in case of need. After working in dead silence for a quarter of an
hour, with one knee all the time on the ground, I had cleared away
enough to see his head. It appeared coming out between the first and
second coils of his body, and was flat on the ground. This was the very
position I wished it to be in. I rose in silence, and retreated very
slowly, making a sign to the negroes to do the same. The dog was sitting
at a distance in mute observance. I could now read in the faces of the
negroes, that they considered this a very unpleasant affair; and they
made another vain attempt to persuade me to let them go for a gun. I
smiled in a good-natured manner, and made a feint to cut them down with
the weapon I had in my hand. This was all the answer I made to their
request, and they looked very uneasy.
It must be observed that we were about twenty yards from the snake's
den. I now ranged the negroes behind me, and told him who stood next to
me, to lay hold of the lance the moment I struck the snake, and that the
other must attend my movements. It now only remained to take their
cutlasses from them; for I was sure that if I did not disarm them, they
would be tempted to strike the snake in time of danger, and thus forever
spoil his skin. On taking their cutlasses from them, if I might judge
from their physiognomy, they seemed to consider it as a most intolerable
act of tyranny. Probably nothing kept them from bolting, but the
consolation that I was betwixt them and the snake. Indeed, my own heart,
in spite of all I could do, beat quicker than usual. We went slowly on
in silence, without moving our arms or heads, in order to prevent all
alarm as much as possible, lest the snake should glide off, or attack us
in self-defence. I carried the lance perpendicularly before me, with the
point about a foot from the ground. The snake had not moved, and on
getting up to him, I struck him with the lance on the near side, just
behind the neck, and pinned him to the ground. That moment the negro
next to me seized the lance and held it firm in its place, while I
dashed head foremost into the den to grapple with the snake, and to get
hold of his tail before he could do any mischief.
On pinning him to the ground with the lance, he gave a tremendous loud
hiss, and the little dog ran away, howling as he went. We had a sharp
fray in the den, the rotten sticks flying on all sides, and each party
struggling for superiority. I called out to the second negro to throw
himself upon me, as I found I was not heavy enough. He did so, and the
additional weight was of great service. I had now got a firm hold of his
tail, and after a violent struggle or two, he gave in, finding himself
overpowered. This was the moment to secure him. So while the first negro
continued to hold the lance firm to the ground, and the other was
helping me, I contrived to unloosen my braces, and with them tied the
snake's mouth.
The snake now finding himself in an unpleasant predicament, tried to
better himself, and set resolutely to work, but we overpowered him. We
contrived to make him twist himself round the shaft of the lance, and
then prepared to convey him out of the forest. I stood at his head, and
held it firm under my arm, one negro supporting the belly and the other
the tail. In this order we began to move slowly toward home, and reached
it after resting ten times; for the snake was too heavy for us to
support, without stopping to recruit our strength. As we proceeded
onward with him, he fought hard for freedom, but it was all in vain. We
untied the mouth of the bag, kept him down by main force, and then cut
his throat.
The week following, a curious conflict took place near the spot where I
had captured the large snake. In the morning I had been following a
species of paroquet, and, the day being rainy, I had taken an umbrella
to keep the gun dry, and had left it under a tree: in the afternoon, I
took Daddy Quashi (the negro) with me to look for it. While he was
searching about, curiosity led me toward the place of the late scene of
action. There was a path where timber had formerly been dragged along.
Here I observed a young coulacanara, ten feet long, slowly moving
onward; and I saw he was thick enough to break my arm, in case he got
twisted around it. There was not a moment to be lost. I laid hold of his
tail with the left hand, one knee being on the ground; and, with the
right hand, I took off my hat, and held it as I would hold a shield
for defence.
The snake instantly turned, and came on at me with his head about a yard
from the ground, as if to ask me what business I had to take such
liberties with his tail. I let him come, hissing and open-mouthed,
within two feet of my face, and then, with all the force that I was
master of, drove my fist, shielded by my hat, full in his jaws. He was
stunned and confounded by the blow, and, ere he could recover himself, I
had seized his throat with both hands, in such a position that he could
not bite me. I then allowed him to coil himself around my body and
marched off with him as my lawful prize. He pressed me hard, but not
alarmingly so.
ESTILL'S DEFEAT.
In the spring of 1782, a party of twenty-five Wyandots secretly
approached Estill's station, and committed shocking outrages. Entering a
cabin, they tomahawked and scalped a woman and her two daughters. The
neighborhood was instantly alarmed. Captain Estill speedily collected a
body of twenty-five men, and pursued the hostile trail with great
rapidity. He came up with the savages on Hinkston fork of Licking,
immediately after they had crossed it; and a most severe and desperate
conflict ensued.
Estill, unfortunately, sent six of his men under Lieutenant Miller, to
attack the enemy's rear. The Indian leader immediately availed himself
of this dimunition of force, rushed upon the weakened line of his
adversaries, and compelled him to give way. A total route ensued.
Captain Estill was killed together with his gallant lieutenant, South.
Four men were wounded and fortunately escaped. Nine fell under the
tomahawk, and were scalped. The Indians also suffered severely, and are
believed to have lost half of their warriors.
[Illustration: Attack on Estill's Station.]
INCIDENT AT NIAGARA FALLS.
On Saturday, the 13th of July, 1850, as a boy, ten years old, was rowing
his father over to their home on Grand Island, the father being so much
intoxicated as not to be able to assist any more than to steer the
canoe, the wind, which was very strong off shore, so frustrated the
efforts of his tiny arm, that the canoe in spite of him, got into the
current, and finally into the rapids, within a very few rods of the
Falls! On went the frail shell, careering and plunging as the mad waters
chose. Still the gallant little oarsman maintained his struggle with the
raging billows, and actually got the canoe, by his persevering
manoeuvring so close to Iris Island, as to have her driven by a
providential wave in between the little islands called the Sisters. Here
the father and his dauntless boy were in still greater danger for an
instant; for there is a fall between the two islands, over which had
they gone, no earthly power could have withheld their final passage to
the terrific precipice, which forms the Horse-shoe Fall. But the sudden
dash of a wave capsized the canoe, and left the two struggling in the
water. Being near a rock, and shallow, the boy lost no time, but
seizing his father by the coat collar, dragged him up to a place of
safety, where the crowd of anxious citizens awaited to lend assistance.
The poor boy on reaching the shore in safety, instantly fainted, while
his miserable father was sufficiently sobered by the perils he had
passed through. The canoe was dashed to pieces on the rocks ere it
reached its final leap.
A SKATER CHASED BY A WOLF.
A thrilling incident in American country life is vividly sketched in
"Evenings at Donaldson Manor." In the winter of 1844, the relater went
out one evening to skate, on the Kennebec, in Maine, by moonlight, and,
having ascended that river nearly two miles, turned into a little stream
to explore its course.
"Fir and hemlock of a century's growth," he says, "met overhead and
formed an archway, radiant with frostwork. All was dark within; but I
was young and fearless; and, as I peered into an unbroken forest that
reared itself on the borders of the stream, I laughed with very
joyousness; my wild hurrah rang through the silent woods, and I stood
listening to the echo that reverberated again and again, until all was
hushed. Suddenly a sound arose--it seemed to me to come from beneath the
ice; it sounded low and tremulous at first, until it ended in a low,
wild yell. I was appalled. Never before had such a noise met my ears. I
thought it more than mortal; so fierce, and amid such an unbroken
solitude, it seemed as though from the tread of some brute animal, and
the blood rushed back to my forehead with a bound that made my skin
burn, and I felt relieved that I had to contend with things earthly and
not spiritual; my energies returned, and I looked around me for some
means of escape. As I turned my head to the shore, I could see two dark
objects dashing through the underbrush, at a pace nearly double in speed
to my own. By this rapidity, and the short yells they occasionally gave,
I knew at once that these were the much-dreaded gray wolf.
"I had never met with these animals, but, from the description given of
them, I had very little pleasure in making their acquaintance. Their
untamable fierceness, and the enduring strength, which seems part of
their nature, render them objects of dread to every benighted traveler.
"There was no time for thought; so I bent my head and dashed madly
forward. Nature turned me toward home. The light flakes of snow spun
from the iron skates, and I was some distance from my pursuers, when
their fierce howl told me I was their fugitive. I did not look back; I
did not feel afraid, or sorry, or even glad; one thought of home, the
bright faces waiting my return--of their tears, if they should never see
me again, and then every energy of body and mind was exerted for escape.
I was perfectly at home on the ice. Many were the days that I had spent
on my good skates, never thinking that at one time they would be my only
means of safety. Every half minute, an alternate yelp from my ferocious
followers, told me too certain that they were in close pursuit. Nearer
and nearer they came; I heard their feet pattering on the ice nearer
still, until I could feel their breath, and hear their sniffling scent.
"Every nerve and muscle in my frame was stretched to the utmost tension.
The trees along the shore seemed to dance in the uncertain light, and my
brain turned with my own breathless speed, yet still they seemed to hiss
forth their breath with a sound truly horrible, when an involuntary
motion on my part, turned me out of my course. The wolves, close behind,
unable to stop, and as unable to turn on the smooth ice, slipped and
fell, still going on far ahead; their tongues were lolling out, their
white tusks glaring from their bloody mouths, their dark, shaggy breasts
were fleeced with foam, and, as they passed me, their eyes glared, and
they howled with fury.
"The thought flashed on my mind, that, by these means, I could avoid
them, viz: by turning aside whenever they came too near; for they, by
the formation of their feet, are unable to run on the ice, except in a
straight line.
"At one time, by delaying my turning too long, my sanguinary antagonists
came so near, that they threw the white foam over my dress, as they
sprang to seize me, and their teeth clashed together like the spring of
a fox-trap!
"Had my skates failed for one instant, had I tripped on a stick, or
caught my foot in a fissure in the ice, the story I am now telling would
never have been told.
"I thought over all the chances; I knew where they would take hold of
me, if I fell; I thought how long it would be before I died; and then
there would be a search for the body that would already have its tomb!
for, oh! how fast man's mind traces out all the dread colors of death's
picture, only those who have been so near the grim original can tell.
"But I soon came opposite the house, and, my hounds,--I knew their deep
voices,--roused by the noise, bayed furiously from the kennels. I heard
their chains rattle; how I wished they would break them! and then I
would have protectors that would be peer to the fiercest denizens of the
forest. The wolves, taking the hint conveyed by the dogs, stopped in
their mad career, and, after a moment's consideration, turned and fled.
I watched them until their dusky forms disappeared over a neighboring
hill; then, taking off my skates, I wended my way to the house, with
feelings which may be better imagined than described. But, even yet, I
never see a broad sheet of ice in the moonshine, without thinking of the
sniffling breath, and those fearful things that followed me closely down
the frozen Kennebec."
OUR FLAG ON THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
We find the following incident of placing the American flag on the
highest point of the Rocky Mountains, in "Col. Fremont's Narrative:"
We managed to get our mules up to a little bench about a hundred feet
above the lakes, where there was a patch of good grass, and turned them
loose to graze. During our rough ride to this place, they had exhibited
a wonderful surefootedness. Parts of the defile were filled with
angular, sharp fragments of rock, three or four and eight or ten feet
cube; and among these they had worked their way leaping from one narrow
point to another, rarely making a false step, and giving us no occasion
to dismount. Having divested ourselves of every unnecessary encumbrance,
we commenced the ascent. This time, like experienced travelers, we did
not press ourselves, but climbed leisurely, sitting down so soon as we
found breath beginning to fail. At intervals, we readied places where a
number of springs gushed from the rocks, and, about 1800 feet above the
lakes, came to the snow line. From this point, our progress was
uninterrupted climbing. Hitherto, I had worn a pair of thick moccasins,
with soles of _parfleche_, but here I put on a light, thin pair, which I
had brought for the purpose, as now the use of our toes became necessary
to a further advance. I availed myself of a sort of comb of the
mountain, which stood against the wall like a buttress, and which the
wind and the solar radiation, joined to the steepness of the smooth
rock, had kept almost entirely free from snow. Up this, I made my way
rapidly. Our cautious method of advancing, at the outset, had spared my
strength; and, with the exception of a slight disposition to headache,
I felt no remains of yesterday's illness, In a few minutes we reached a
point where the buttress was overhanging, and there was no other way of
surmounting the difficulty than by passing around one side of it, which
was the face of a vertical precipice of several hundred feet.
Putting hands and feet in the crevices between the blocks, I succeeded
in getting over it, and, when I reached the top, found my companions in
a small valley below. Descending to them, we continued climbing, and in
a short time reached the crest. I sprang upon the summit, and another
step would have precipitated me into an immense snow field, five hundred
feet below. To the edge of this field was a sheer icy precipice; and
then, with a gradual fall, the field sloped off for about a mile, until
it struck the foot of another lower ridge. I stood on a narrow crest,
about three feet in width, with an inclination of about 20 deg. N., 51 deg. E.
As soon as I had gratified the first feelings of curiosity, I descended,
and each man ascended in his turn; for I would only allow one at a time
to mount the unstable and precarious slab, which, it seemed, a breath
would hurl into the abyss below. We mounted the barometer in the snow of
the summit, and, fixing a ramrod in a crevice, unfurled the national
flag to wave in the breeze, where flag never waved before.
[Illustration: OUR FLAG ON THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.]
During our morning's ascent, we had met no sign of animal life, except
a small sparrow-like bird. A stillness the most profound, and a terrible
solitude, forced themselves constantly on the mind as the great features
of the place. Here, on the summit, where the stillness was absolute,
unbroken by any sound, and solitude complete, we thought ourselves
beyond the region of animated life; but, while we were sitting on the
rock, a solitary bee (_bromus, the humble-bee_) came winging his flight
from the eastern valley, and lit on the knee of one of the men.
It was a strange place, the icy rock and the highest peak of the Rocky
mountains, for a lover of warm sunshine and flowers; and we pleased
ourselves with the idea that he was the first of his species to cross
the mountain barrier--a solitary pioneer to foretell the advance of
civilization. I believe that a moment's thought would have made us let
him continue his way unharmed; but we carried out the law of this
country, where all animated nature seems at war; and, seizing him
immediately, put him in at least a fit place--in the leaves of a large
book, among the flowers we had collected on our way.