Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

called Pooneno. This Pooneno is not subject to the king of Wingandacoa, but is a free lord. Beyond this country is there another king, whom they call Menatonon; and these three kings are in league with each other. Toward the south-west, four day's journey is situate a town called Secotan, which is the southernmost town of Wingandacoa,* near unto which, six and twenty years past, there was a ship cast away, whereof some of the people were saved; and those were white people, whom the country people preserved. And after ten days remaining in an out island uninhabited, called Wocokon, they, with the help of some of the dwellers at Secotan, fastened two boats of the country together, and made masts unto them, and sails of their shirts, and having taken into them such victuals as the country yielded, they departed after they had remained in this out island three weeks; but shortly after it seems they were cast away, for the boats were found upon the coast, cast on land in another island adjoining.

Other than these there was never any people appareled, or white of color, either seen or heard of among these people; and these aforesaid were seen only of the inhabitants of Secotan, which appeared to be very true, for they wondered marvellously when we were among them, at the whiteness of our skins, ev

*These travellers n.ust have entered Albemarle Sound;

and the rivers they speak of must have been the Chowan with its branches, the Roanoke, &c.

er coveting to touch our breasts, and to view the same.

Beside they had our ships in marvellous admiration, and all things else were so strange unto them, as it appeared that none of them had ever seen the like. When we discharged any piece, were it but a harquebus, they would tremble thereat for very fear, and for the strangeness of the same; for the weapons which themselves use are bows and arrows; the arrows are but of small cones, headed with a sharp shell or tooth of a fish, sufficient to kill a naked man.

Their swords be of wood hardened; likewise they use wooden breast plates for their defence. They have beside, a kind of club in the end whereof they fasten the sharp horns of a stag or other beast. When they go to war, they carry about with them their idol, of whom they ask counsel, as the Romans were wont of the oracle of Apollo. They sing songs as they march towards the battle, instead of drums and trumpets. Their wars are cruel and bloody, by reason whereof and of their civil dissensions, which have happened of late years among them, the people are marvellously wasted, and in some places the country is left desolaté.

Adjoining this country aforesaid, called Secotan, beginneth a country called Pemouik, belonging to another king whom they call Piemacum; and this king is in league with the next king adjoining toward the setting of the sun, and the country Neusiok, situate upon a

ABOUT RIVER DRIVERS

119

goodly river called Neus (still called by hold, replenished with deer, conies, that name). These kings have mortal hares and divers beasts; and about them war with Wingina, king Wingandacoa. the good, best and fat fish in the world Beyond this island, called Roanoke, and in the greatest abundance.

are many islands very plentiful of fruits and other natural increases, together with many towns and villages, along the side of the continent, some bounding upon the islands, and some stretching up farther into the land.

When we first had sight of this country, some thought the first land we saw to be the continent; but after we entered into the haven, we saw before us a mighty long sea; for there lieth along the coast a tract of islands 200 miles in length, adjoining to the ocean sea, and between the islands two or three entrances. These islands are very narrow, for the most part, as in most places, six miles broad, in some places less, in few more. When you are entered between them there appeareth another great sea, containing in breadth, in some places, forty, and in some fifty, in some twenty miles over, before you come unto the continent; and in this enclosed sea, there are above 100 islands of divers bigness, whereof one is 16 miles long, at which we were; finding it a most pleasant and fertile ground, replenished with goodly cedars, and divers other sweet woods, full of currants, of flax, and many other notable commodities.

Beside this island there are many, as I have said; some of two, of three, of four, of five miles; some more, some less, most beautiful and pleasant to be

THE RIVER DRIVERS.

RIVER drivers; what can that be? you will say when you read the caption to this article. You have heard of cattle drivers, and camel drivers, and slave drivers, and stage drivers; but never, before of river drivers.

A gentleman who has spent some time in one of the backwoods counties of Maine, where the country is almost wholly new, gave me, the other day, the following account of them.

When the rivers and the little lakes of Maine, from which they run, are covered with ice, in the winter, the people who own the land near them, go and fell the pine timber, cut it into logs of suitable length for sawing-say about twenty feet-and draw them upon the ice of the lake or rivers and leave them; and when the ice breaks up in the spring, they float down the river. When they get far enough (that is, opposite to the mills, where it is intended to have them sawed into boards, plank, &c.) they are then "towed" into pens or basins at the sides of the river, whence they are drawn out by the owners.

It is curious when the ice first breaks up in the spring to see these logs floating down the river in such masses. Why, the river is sometimes completely

[blocks in formation]

covered with them, for a long distance. They often belong to thirty, or fifty, or an hundred different persons. How then do they know them apart? perhaps you will ask. The owners mark them in some way before they leave them on the ice; and when they get them into the little pens or basins, I have spoken of, they go and select them out.

But now to my story about river drivers. Sometimes these logs get blocked up in a narrow place in the river, or against some rock, or snag, or bank. When they do, they often pile up in immense numbers, and stay there in these piles, unless removed. The men who remove them are called river drivers.

They go from the shore, by stepping along on the logs, to the place where the obstruction is, and endeavor, by prying, to get the mass of logs loose. It often happens that by loosening a single log, the whole is set free. But this business is attended with great danger; for no sooner is the mass set free than the pressure behind becomes so great that some of the forward logs are often pushed against each other with great violence, and the river driver is fortunate if he escapes with his life. His only chance of getting away is by running on the logs, as swiftly as he can, before they fairly get started.

The gentleman to whom I have referred above, related to me the following anecdote. It is almost enough to make one's hair stand erect, as the saying is.

Two river drivers, a few weeks ago,

went out to loosen a mass of logs in a river of Maine, just above a very considerable fall in the river. The log which caused the obstruction having been disengaged, the pressure was so great as to knock down one of the men and partly stun him; upon which he was carried along amid the greatest danger, over the falls, and sunk deep in the gulf below. When he came up, he had the good fortune to catch hold of a rock which projected above the water, and to climb around the lower side of it, where he remained in perfect safety till the logs had fairly passed by, when his companion, who had narrowly escaped to the shore, came with a boat and took him off. He was uninjured, except by a slight wound on the side of the cheek.

Some of you, I suppose will wonder how it happens that these river drivers will hazard their lives so. But I can tell you how that is at once. They do it partly for the sake of the money and partly because they feel a sort of pride in it. The man I have just mentioned had 1,000 dollars for his job, so I was told; half of which he gave to the other to induce him to help him. He was esteemed the best river driver in all that region, and he knew it; and was very proud of it. He will probably continue to venture, till he loses his life ;—indeed, he says he thinks he shall. But what good, then, will his money do him?

The best physicians are Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Cheerful.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small]

THERE are many sorts of hyænas; but the kind represented by the engraving is the striped hyæna. This ugly looking animal is found in Barbary, Egypt, Abyssinia, Nubia, Persia, and Syria. The following account of it is from the "Bible Dictionary;" one of the volumes of Parley's new Cyclopedia.

"It is about the size of a large dog, and of a brownish grey color, marked by cross strips of dark brown. Its jaws are shorter in proportion to its size than those of dogs, but longer than those of

cats.

"The hyæna inhabits caves and rocky and unfrequented places, and lives on flesh whenever and wherever he can find it. Like the jackal, he sometimes prowls about the country at night, in

herds, doing great mischief. His cunning is scarcely inferior to that of the fox, for if attacked, it is not uncommon for him to feign himself lame for a considerable time; but when his pretended lameness can no longer secure him any good purpose, away he runs as lively as any of his fellows.

"It was once supposed that this fierce animal was untameable; but this is found not so. He has been sometimes so effectually domesticated as to serve all the purposes of a dog in assisting his master while hunting."

I will only add to this account that Bishop Heber saw a gentleman in India who had a hyæna for many years, which followed him about like a dog, and fawned on those with whom he was acquainted.

122

THE HYENA DOG.

NATURAL HISTORY.

number of its ribs it belongs to the dog species; but in its color, its form, and the number of its toes, and especially in the shape of its head, it more nearly resembles the hyæna. In the strength of its jaws, too, which is wonderful, it also

WITHIN a few years a quadruped has been brought from the Cape of Good Hope, in Africa, partaking very much of the qualities both of the dog and the hyæna. In the number and arrange. ment of its teeth, and in the form and resembles the hyæna.

[graphic]

The hyæna dog hunts in troops, and they are called, which are exhibited in is a most formidable enemy to the flocks and herds of the colonists. Multitudes of cattle are annually destroyed by these powerful and ferocious robbers.

this country of late years, are nothing but hyæna dogs. But no matter; they are very curious animals; only I like to have things called by their right

I believe that most of the hyænas, as names.

ANECDOTE OF THE UETTUETT.

A CURIOUS bird in the woods about as they hear the scream they immediSenegal, is said always to set up a loud scream if a man comes in sight, and keeps flying round him, as if its intent was to warn the other birds; for as soon

ately take wing. The negroes call these birds uettuett the French call them squallers.

« AnteriorContinuar »