'Cbc Conservative. 9
then for days wo sailed along the cast
coast of Sumatra. One morning the
breeze died down ; back and forth we
pulled the yard arms , tacking ship every
few minutes. By evening we sailed up
to a low , green mountain. At its base
was a lighthouse ; out from the shore a
short distance lay the wreckage of an
English bark , her ropes , spars and rig
ging scattered about in tangled heaps
upon the deck. The chain went scream
ing through the wildcats , and we were
anchored at Angie Point off the Java
coast. It was on the thirteenth day
out.
Java.
And now I will tell yon the tragic
story of Angie how in 188G it went
down during earthquake caused by
the now famous Oraok-a-too volcano ,
and nearby another island came up
which , in less than three months , was
covered by a jungle that even the
southern sun could not penetrate. Four
teen years ago Oraok-a-too showed signs
of activity , but nobody took much
notice of it , when one day the sea began
to roll , the rooks tumbled down the
mountain side , and the fair oity of
Angie , with thirty thousand souls , sank
beneath the waves. Since that day the
old volcano has always been rumbling
or throwing out dense black volumes of
smoke. I will never forget how it
looked , for one whole day I watched
the molten matter run down her
furrowed sides and sizzle as it struck the
sea.
To ride peacefully at anchor above
where so many are silently sleeping
makes one feel queer. I saw a skull in
the shallow water along the shore. It
had lain there so long that the sea-moss
was thick upon it. Some little fish had
made this place , once of living thought ,
their home , and were swimming in and
out the strange abode. The sky was
.just as blue , the hills were just as green ,
and the waves seemed to laugh in the
white sunlight , but the story of yester
day shone from those bony sockets and
told me the tale of the aftermath , and
my mind went back to that line of
wooden crosses by Manila where the
music is soft and low , and says : " today ,
tomorrow , forever. "
That evening several boat loads of
native Javanese came out in their bum-
boats. They had bananas , cocoa nuts
sparrows and monkeys for sale. 1
traded an old coat for eight cocoa nuts
and three bunches of bananas. We
stayed there several days trading with
the natives and taking on provisions , the
weather being perfect. One of the boats
which came to visit us had a bob-tailed
monkey which had lost his tail some
way. He would go scampering np into
the rigging , jumping from spar to spar
All at once he would forget that his tail
was gone , and would try to swing from
some rope , with the result that he would
come down with a bang upon the dock.
On January 18th , the wind blew
trong from the west sending the white
caps booming upon the shore. Again
we went singing around the capstan ,
pulled the yards square , and sailed into
ihe Indian ocean.
Over the Indian Ocean.
For the next twenty days the breeze
was light and we did not average over
five knots an hour , so we tarred down
the rigging , holy-stoned the deck , which
mocked the skin from our knees and
made us lame all over. Then we scraped
; ho rust from the iron work. About
this time the Japanese cook began to
feed us on salt meat hash which alone
was enough to kill a man , but the pure air ,
the deep green and the pale blue sky
above compensated us for all our misery.
It was a typical southern sea , and the
hot sun beating down upon the deck
made the pitch melt and stick to our
bare feet.
Caught at Last.
One afternoon the breeze freshened
up , some dark clouds rose above the
horizon and came swiftly towards us ,
and soon they covered the heavens.
"Every bloody one of you aloft , " sang
out the mate. In less than ten minutes
the typhoon struck us with a mighty
boom. Seventeen thousand feet of good
canvas went in shreds , ropes and blpcks
came down from aloft making dints in
the deck. Clinging to the starboard
rigging , I looked down into the trough
of the sea which looked a half mile
deep , while great waves swept over the
deck , carrying all loose materials over
board. I could feel the ship tremble
beneath me and see the forward house
slide bock and forth. Every moment
expected to see her go to pieces , and in
all that din of flapping canvas , twang
ing rope and creaking timber , I heard
the mate's clear voice shout to the cap
tain : "Sir ! I don't believe she will
ever weather this gale. "
( TO BE CONTINUED. )
ANNIVERSARY OP LEWIS AND CLARK
EXPEDITION.
The two weeks following the 21st of
July have a peculiar interest to those
concerned in the early history of our
state , and especially to those in the oities
along the Missouri. In 1804 Lewis and
Olark arrived at the mouth of the Flatte
July 21 , and began their labor of inter
viewing the different Indian tribes ol
the plains. Extracts from the journa
of the expedition will be of interest , and
also should arouse local attention to
certain localities , which might be suit
ably marked for the benefit of future
generations. In a sense , this expedition
bears a relation to the Louisiana pur
chase somewhat similar to the early
landings of Pilgrims and Puritans in
New England.
Now for the records. "July 21. * *
The wind lulled at 7 o'clock , and we
cached , in the rain , the month of the
jreat river Platte. The highlands which
md accompanied us on the south ( west )
for the last eight or ten miles stopped at
about three-quarters of a mile from the
entrance of the Platte. Captains Lewis .
and Olark ascended the river in pirogue
'or about one mile. They found the
current very rapid , rolling over sand ,
and divided into a number of channels ,
none of which are deeper than five or six
feet. "
( Note by Elliott Ooues : "We com
monly use the French form of the name ,
but the river has also often been called
the Nebraska and Flat water. " )
"At its junction the Flatte is about
600 yards wide. With much difficulty
we worked around the sandbars near
the mouth and came to above the point ,
mving made fifteen miles. A number
of wolves were seen and heard around
us in the evening. "
July 22. "This morning we set sail ,
and having found , at the distance of ten
miles from the Platte , a high and shaded
situation on the north , we camped there ,
intending to make the requisite observa
tion , and to send for the neighboring
tribes. "
This camp was on the east side of the
Missouri , and there the company re
mained until noon of the 27th. It prob
ably was near the boundary between
Mills and Pottawattamie counties of
Iowa , perhaps opposite Bellevue , Neb.
It is described by Oaptain Lewis as fol
lows : "Immediately behind is a plain
about five miles wide , one-half covered
with wood , the other dry and elevated.
The low grounds on the south ( west ) ,
near the junction of the two rivers , are
rich , but subject to be overflowed. Op
posite our camp the first hills approach
the river and are covered with timber. "
There may not be sufficient topograph
ical data in this description to identify
the locality , but it would repay careful
scrutiny of that locality to discover if
any remains or mementos of the expedi
tion are to be found. Here they spent
their time drying provisions , making
oars , preparing maps and dispatches.
Two men were sent out to hunt up the
Indian chiefs of the Otoes , Pawnees and
other tribes , and invite them to a confer
ence. They caught a white catfish , an
incident which led them to name the
camp White Catfish. Sergeant Floyd ,
in his curious diary , says that it rained
and the wind was "very villant from
the southeste. " At noon , Friday , the
27th , they swam their horses over to the
south ( west ) side , and the boats passed
an island at three and one-half miles
from their camp , on which were springs ,
and three miles further another island.
Probably both have either disappeared
or become part of the mainland. "At
ten and one-half miles from our camp we
saw and examined a curious collection
of graves or mounds on the south ( west )
