Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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^ * fn |iriitgtnbtnt jfamiig jtlusgapcr: jar % ^rmnotion rf % political, Sacral, ^griroltaral attb Comaitrtial |itofe of % ^ "VOL. 15. YOEKYILLE, S. C., THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1869. 3STO. 9. Original f octrg. FRIENDS AND FRIENDSHIP. True friendship's claims, are pleasant yokes When mutually borne in love Their burdens sweet, when they're imposed With the consent of Him above. To sever but one tie, which binds Each heart as truly as its own, Would seem astho1, no words could tell, Or pencil paint what's therein shewn. 'Tis as a tree, of forest growth Whose roots, the soil around entwines, Prepared in drouth, or storm to live Or grasp the sunbeam as it shines. It's fruits are pluck'd for present use And part laid by for future store, That friends may of their strength partake, While journeying o'er life's rugged shore. How sweet to meet with those we love; How happy is their greeting too; How painful is the thought, that soon, We must bid them, we love?adieu! Friends part in body?not in soul They hasten from each other on, And on life's tempestuous sea They're tossed, until the harbor's won. And with the flag that's braved the storm And's kept their buoyant hopes alive, Whose tattered parts they have preserved Their drooping friendship to revive. They?at their meeting do present As trophies of their constancy, As well as of their mutual aim, Social love, and true sincerity. Friends will not faltei, nor despair Though distance may, them intervene And time drag slowly, till they meet; They know?that what they once have seen ; And what their hearts have felt within, Will once again their portion be, To soothe and cheer?and consummate A calm, serene, felicity. They're met to part?to part they meet? But parting does not always sever The hearts which once have been entwined, For they will grow more closely?over? Until the warmth of their desires Will?in one effulgent ray, illume mu. J 1 a. -1?. J ...UUU AWSOA IOC UHrKl'Sl/CiUUU, YYiuuu aiaj aiidu Their early Friendship to consume. W. W. BRIOG. ^0waoti( Jpfoentowsi. "genuine crusoes. To be monarch of all one surveys, and one's own builder, carpenter and Jack-of-all-tradea to boot, seems an agreeable sort of thing as set forth in the great masterpiece of realistic fiction, where genius lends enchantment to the view; but Crusoeing in reality is both physically unpleasant and mentally unprofitable, even where the voluntary or involuntary experimenter can "Rest In a golden grove, and "bask In a Summer sky" in some virgin naradise seemingly formed by nature in an extravagantly luxurious mood. Such i paradise is Juan Fernandez, the very headqrarters of Crusoedom, famous as the scene of Alexander Selkirk's verse-glorified solitary life. Not that Selkirk was the only man who tried the experiment there; nor was he the first either. Eighty years before he took up his abode upon the beautiful island, three gunners and three soldiers belonging to De Witt's fleet were left there at their own request; but how long they staid, or what was their fate, is utterly unknown. When Dampier visited the place in 1081, his pilot told him that many years before, a ship had been cast away upon the island, and only one man saved, who lived alone there for five years. The buccanier captain little thought he should supply Juan Fernandez with another such tenant, but he did so; and this is how it came about. The unexpected approach of some Spanish men-of-war, bent upon upsettiug the bold Englishman's calculations, compelled Dampier to depart in such haste, that William, a Mosquito Indian, then busy hunting goats, was left behind. The Spaniards landed, and finding tokens of his presence, tried hard to come to a closer acquaintanceship, but the Indian took good care to avoid such an undesirable meeting. Not that they could have robbed him of much except hi3 life, since his entire belongings consisted of his clothes, a knife, a gun, a few shot and a small horn of powder. His ammunition was quickly expended, so that he had to content himself with seal-fish when he wanted a meal Not liking such a limited dietary, he converted his knife into a saw, with which he divided his gun-barrel into several pieces. With one of these aud his gun-flint, he kindled a fire, and by dint of beating, hammering and sawing, made the rest into lance-heads, fish-hooks, and a long knife. Lines he manufactured out of seal skin, and with this armory managed to vary his food by the addition of fish, fowl and goat-flesh. Clothing did not trouble him much, a piece of seal skin arouud his waist, satisfying his requirements that way; the same material serving to line Lis hut and form his bed. For three years, two months and eleven days, the Indian lived in this fashion, with no intruders on his privacy, when his old captain, coming again to the island, took him on board. Three years afterwards, Davis, another buccanier paid a visit to Juan Fernandez. Five of his crew, having gambled away their share of plunder, and being loth to return home without something to show for the dange rs they had encountered, resolv1 A- -A *hAW nravo An t Vli* olinnOA fjf } IP 0Q 10 SISy W UYJkV? IUCJ1 Tf tlV/j VII tliV VMMUVV v* wv ing able to join some other advenfurer; and four negro boys were left with them. This party were ? pretty well provided, Davis giving them a salt-pan, a porridge-pot, ropes, tools, muskets, powder, shot, and a small cannon. They divided the island into districts, and lived pretty amicably together, having no lack of supplies for their table, to say nothing of turnip tops for vegetables, and goat's milk with which to temper their water. They were not quite unmolested. The Spaniards made two attempts to clean them out, but failed ignominiously revenging their, defeats by dropping in every now and then, and harrassingthem, until, heartily tired of their life of independence, they were taken off the island by the Farewell, in 1690. Dampier's consort, the Cinque Ports, commanded by Stradling, put in at Juan Fernandez, in August, 1704. Of this ship, Alexander Selkirk was master. He and his captain were not upon good terms, and Selkirk resolved to stay upon the island, Jlis resolution wavered when he saw the ship about to leave, but Stradling was deaf to his entreaties to be taken on board again; a fortunate thing for the Scotchman, as he thereby escaped falling into the hands of the Spaniards, as his late comrades did, and experiencing the by no means tender treatment they accorded to buccaniers. Ungiftcd with provision, Selkirk, however, thought himself the most miserable of men, sitting day after day with his wistful eyes turned sea-ward, until darkness forced him to his lonely bed, to toss uneasily to the melancholy music of the howling sea-lions on the beach. In this moody fit he was nearly bringing his adventure to a speedy and suicidal end, and it took eight months to reconcile him to his solitary life. Yet he was not, all things considered, in such very bad plight lie had a good stock of clothes, a tolerable supply of boots, a musket and ammunition, a kettle, a few pounds of tobacco, a Bible and other books, and his mathematical instruments. There was plenty of good water to be got; and when he succeeded in striking a light, Indian fashion, by rubbing pimento sticks together he had the means of varying the cookery of his victuals. His table was furnished with seal-flesh, sea-lion and nine-pounder crayfish, with goat, and with kid. If he lacked bread, he had plenty of vegetables?cabbages, turnips, parsnips, radishes, water-cresses, parsley and sorrel, with pimentopepper by way of seasoning. The climate was splendid, with a two-months' Winter, and that of the mildest description. Selkirk built himself two huts of pimento-wood, lining them with goat-skins, and covering them with grass. The smallest of the two contained his culinary utensils, and served as a kitchen; the larger one he used as a living and bed-room. Steele drawing upon his imagination, describes this as a most delicious bower, wherein the owner lay fanned with continued breezes and gentle aspirations of wind, making his repose, after the fatigues of the chose, equal to the most sensual pleasures. In truth, it was a long time before he could repose there with any comfort, by reason of its being the favorite rendezvous of a multitude of rats, who nibbled his toes und gnawed his clothes. After a time, however, he got round him a band of tame , cats, who, mounting guard in his bedchamber, scared the rats away. His invaluable friend, the pimento-tree, supplied him with candles and fragrant ftiel. Goats abounded everywhere in the island, and by dint of practice, by the time his ammunition was used up, he had grown so fleet of foot, that he could run down his game when he wanted a dinner. To provide against contingencies, Selkirk reared.a large number of kids, taming them and teaching them and his cats all sorts of tricks. In this way he insured a supply of food, < in case he should be prevented hunting?a thing that only happened once, when he was laid up for ten days by falling over a precipice while pursuing a goat Of course, the rough life soon wore out his clothes; but he contrived to make himself a suit of goat-skin, which was serviceable, if not becoming. Shoes he failed with, although he had learned the art of making them. During his sojourn in Juan Fernandez, he saw several ships pass, but only two entered the harbor. From them ! some Spaniards landed, who, catching sight of Alexander, gave chase; but he easily outdistanced them. He was not disturbed in his privacy again until he received the visitors with whom he left his little domain forever, after a residence of four years and four months. In 1708, some Bristol merchants, persuaded by Dampier, sent the Duke and the Duchess, Captains Rogers and Dover, to the South Seas, Dam- j pier himself acting as pilot On the last day of * January, the expedition arrived off Juan Fernandez, and while they were yet four leagues from the land, Dover determined to go ashore with the pinnace. Captain Rogers says: "As soon as it was j dark, we saw a light ashore; our boat was then about a league from the island, and bore away for the ships as soon as she saw the light. We put out lights aboard for the boat, though some were of opinion the light we saw was our boat's light; but as night came on it appeared too large for that. ' We fired our quarter-deck gun and several muskets, showing lights in our mizzen and fore shrouds. j About two in the morning our boat came on board. ' We are all convinced the light is on the shore, and ' design to make our ships ready to engage, believing them to be French ships at anchor; and we must fight them or want water. All this stir and apprehension arose from one poor naked man, who passed in our imagination for a Spanish garrison, a body of French, or a crew of pirates.'' The light was a fire Selkirk had kindled, in the belief that the ships were English ones. When the vessels stood in, he waved a white flag, and received his countrymen with joy, entertaining them with the best his larder contained. It required some persuasion to induce him to go on board, only consenting upon receiving a promise that he should be allowed to leave again if he chose; but "he found such entertainment as made him no longer fond of his solitary retirement." liogers describes him as a man clothed in goats' skins, looking wilder than the first owners of them. Dampier gave him a ' good word, and he was offered and accepted the mateship of the Duke. The Governor, as the sailors dubbed him, could at first hardly make himself understood; he seemed to speak all his words by halves; but he soon felt himself at home among his messmates, and was eager to leave the place where he had so long lived alone. Some ten years afterwards, the island was again occupied by ' four runaways from an English ship, but they only remained there two months. In 1720,-the Speedwell was wrecked off Juan Fernandez, and the : crew staid there some months till they built a bark when they departed, leaving behind them eleven : white men and thirteen blacks and Indians, who are supposed to have surrendered to the Spaniards as two years afterwards no signs of theiu were to be seen on the island. Peter Serrano, the Spaniard who bequeatiled his name to the sterile island-rock in the Caribean Sea upon which he passed four years of his life, was not so favored by fortune as Selkirk. The sea was his only purveyor?its cockles, shrimps and turtle, his only food. Undaunted by the prospect, Serrano, like a wise man, made the bost of circumstances. His first care was to provide against any ccs- i sation of supplies by drying as much turtle-flesh : as he could get; the larger shells he converted into water-jars, filling them by ladling up the rainpuddles by means of the smaller ones. Soon becoming tired of eating his fish diet raw, he set his wits to work to get a fire; a steel he had in his pocket-knife; but although he traversed this island from one end to the other, stones he found none; so he took himself to his storehouse, the sea; and after diving again and again, brought up a couple of flints, which he found would answer his purpose. Tinder he procured by robbing his shirt. Then he gathered .together sea-weed, shells and ships' planks, and made himself a fire, which he protected from rain by a wall of turtle shells. Although lie managed to shelter his fire, his ingenuity failed him when he sought to shelter himself from the heat of the sun ; and he was compelled, when its rays grew unbearable, to plunge into the sea. His clothes soon wore out; and being unable either to replace or repair them, he did as Adam had done before him, went without. In this way he lived for three years and eight months, the smoke-signals he sent up to attract the attention of passing ships, only serving to make them give the rock a wider berth. Then came a visitor who had floated thither from a wreck. If the new arrival was astonished, the old inhabitant was equally so. Considering the appearance Serrano must have cut with his naked body covered with coarse bristles, and a beard reaching to his waist, the new comer's dismay was excusable; but Peter was actually the more frightened of the two?he thought Satan himself had come to see him; and it was not until the fresh castaway had shouted out a few crcdocs that Serrano recovered himself sufficiently to do the honors of the occasion, by setting before him the best meal at his command. One would think two men in such a forlorn plight could have lived , together without quarreling ; but it was not long before they fell out, and set up separate establishments. However, they made up matters again, just before a Spanish vessel came to the island, and released them from their dreary durance, which i Serrano had endured four years. His companion died on the voyage, butPeterlivcd to reach Spain, where crowds flocked to see him, and to be presented to the Emperor, Charles V., who gave him a pension, upon which he retired to Panama, where he died some years afterwards. I We remember a clever cranky schoolmate of ours running away from his pastor and master in order to play Robinson Crusoe upon one of the pond-islands of Claphara Commons. The idea of anybody living in such fashion anywhere within the limits of the United Kingdom seems ludicrous enough, but such a thing was possible two. hundred and fifty years ago, as a poor fellow found to his cost. In 1615, the ordinary passage-boat between England and Ireland fell into the clutches of a French privateer, which was compelled by a strong gale springing up to cast off its prey. When the tow-rope was cut, the boat contained three occupants, who were left to the mercy of wind and wave, with nothing but a little sugar to keep life in them. Death soon carried off one of these, and the wretched survivors grew too feeble to do anything but wait for some relieving hand. Their boat was driven upon a rock near a small island between Ireland and Scotland, upon which they managed to land. A survey of their place of refuge did not inspirit tbeui much?not a tree, not a blade of grass was to be seen; a couple of long stones supporting a third were the principal objects visible, and under these they crept for the night As they became better acquainted with their inhospitable home, they managed to eke out existence upon sea-dogs, sea-mews and the eggs hidden in rock-crevices, drinking what fresh water they could find in the cavities of the rocks, which was but little, and even that supply was stopped in stormy weather. Out of the remains of their boat they built a rough dwelling-place, aud so lived for some six weeks, when one of them* mysteriously disappeared; his disconsolate friend could only surmise that he had fallen into the sea while searching for eggs. Soon afterwards, the solitary man lost his only food-providing weapon, his knife, and was obliged to fashion a substitute out of a nail taken from one of the hut boards. Winter found him without clothes, and "When the mesmerlser, Snow, Willi his gauds' sweep, Put the earth to sleep," he was compelled to remain indoors for days together, at the risk of starvation ; he escaped that by thrusting a baited stick through a crevice in his wooden walls, and so catching a few hungry sew-mews. Eleven months went miserably by, when a Flemish timber-ship, commanded by Pickman, the recoverer of the Armada guns, luckily grounded near the island. Some of the crew landed, and climbing the rock in search of eggs, caught sight of the castaway, but taking him for a pirate, hurried back to the ship with the news. The obieot. nf their fear followed, and made siens for them / w to return, which at last they did. Although they were taken aback at seeing a black, hairy, naked ireature, whose hollow eyes and meagre visage scarce gave assurance of his being a living man, they took him on board, when a wind immediately rose, that sent their vessel into deep water, and enibled them to make their way with speed to Lonion, from whence their providentially found passenger soon found his way to the home he had despaired of ever seeing again. Some sixty leagues from Providence Island, near the gulf of Nicaragua, are some rocks and sands known as the Roncadories. Here, in 1638, ten passengers of a shipwrecked vessel landed; but fight of these, having the fear of famine strong up)n them, preferred to try their chances at sea igain?with a result not recorded. Of the two who thought a dry death the best, one soon found it, and was buried in the sand by his comrade, who, thanks to the tameness of the sea-fowl was ibie to keep himself alive there until he was rescued by a passing ship after two years' sojourn. About the year 1600, a Dutch merchantman calling at Mauritius, then uninhabitod, found a Frenchman there, stark naked and stark mad, of whom we have no further information, save that it was supposed he had been there at least a couple of years. Crusoeing, like colonizing, does not 3uit our gallant neighbors. St. Pierre tells us how the philosoper Leguat and his companions became the first inhabitants of the isle of Rodrigues, where cocoanut trees were unknown; "but precisely at the period of their residence there, the sea threw upon the coast several cocoauuts in a state of germination ; as if Providence had designed to prevail upon them, by this useful and agreeable gift, to remain on the island and cultivate it." They planted the nuts, and remained long enough to see the trees attain a height of four feet. At the end of eighteen months, spite of the entreaties, arguments and remonstrances of Leguat, they insisted upon leaving the island in search of some happier spot where female society was attainable, thereby incurring a series of misfortunes which few of them survived. St. Pierre characteristically observes: "For my part I entertain no doubt that, had they reposed in Providence the confidence they ought, He would have sent them wives to the desert island, as He had sent them the cocoanuts." In 1S09, Captain Lake, commanding II. M. S. Recruit, was dismissed the service for leaving a seaman, named Jeffrey, on the island-rock of Sombrero, in the Atlantic archipelago, as a punishment for making free with some spruce-beer intended for the captain's private delection. Nine days the poor sailor spent, seeking shelter from the torrid sun, and finding none, and living upon birds' eggs and limpets, when he was rescued from his barren prison by an American schooner. Long prior to this, when St. Helena was unpeopled, a Dutch seaman, condemned to death for some offence committed on the return voyage from the West Indies, was put ashore there, instead of being hung at the yard-arm, the ship putting into the harbor for the purpose of burying an officer. The Dutchman, however, was no sooner left to himself than ' - j J ne opened mu ijew-muue giavc, uuwumcu mo dead superior, carried the coffin down to the shore, and, having launched it, jumped into his strange boat, and by using the lid as a rudder, made his way across the waves until he overtook his ship, which, thanks to a calm, he was not long in doing. He was taken on board by the astonished' captain, and received a pardon for the pluck he had displayed. The solitude-hating Dutchman would have voted the Irishman mad who voluntarily took up his abode on one of the Gallipagos Islands, living there for several years in a hovel of his own building, exchanging for rum the potatoes and pumpkins he raised whenever a ship visited the place. One of the same group was the scene of the Crusoeing experiences of our next subject.? They were experiences of a limited duration; but another day of them would have brought a tragic ending. Lord, a young fellow of seventeen, belonging to a South Sea whnler, that put in for wood and water, was despatched with a small party to search for those necessaries. He somehow got separated from the rest, and wandered about until night surprised him, tired and hungry, in the mazes of the forest, where he was fain to find a grassy bed. As soon as it was light, Lord was up and moving, his first care being to provide himself with a stout stick, in hope it might help him to a meal. Ere long, he turned it to some accouut in disabling a large snake, before the reptile had made up his mind how to treat the disturber of his slumbers; but after that, Lord roamed hour afler hour without discovering any outlet or seeing anything upon which to wreak his hungry valor. When darkness set in, the unlucky sailor, fearing to wake snakes again, clambered up a tree, and there roosted. In dropping from his uncomfortable lodging next morning, he knocked down a large owl th;. had taken up its quarters in the same tree, and of it he made a raw and better breakfast. Another day passed, bringing him, at its close, to the foot of a mountain, where he slept, to wake drenched with the night-rain and hardly able to drag himself up the hillside. Upon reaching the top, the sight of the sea invigorated him for a time: but, to his dismay, his ship was nowhere to be seen, although he could plainly see the bay in which she had lately ridden. A brig was still there, evidently about to sail. Almost mad at the thought of losing the sole chance of deliverance, Lord tore down the hill, through bush and brier, to reach the beaoh, and see the brig but a speck on the horizon. This realization of his fears was succeeded by a stupor making him oblivious of everything until day had far advanced, when a craving for food aroused him to exertion, and he hobbled along the , shore in search of some fish, but was obliged to content, himself with such a repast as he could 1 gather from the shrubs vpthin his reach. The next day, managing to take a seal unawares, he ; ravenously ate its liver, the result being a violent , sickness. As soon as he got the better of that, he rambled on again till he fell in with a tortoise, upon which he made a good meal, giving him heart to return to his seal, and strength to out it up and , lay it on the sands to dry. Upon this, Lord lived as long as it lasted, sleeping in the woods and rov- , ing about the shore during the day, and then returned perforce to his vegetarian diet. He knew there were plenty of fish in the sea, and many a plump bird flew tauntingly above his head; but he might have parodied Master Tommy Tucker, and sang: "How can I ?hoot them without e'er a gun? How catch any fleh, hook and line having none?" His monotonous life was only relieved by the strange bedfellows misery brought him?at one time a snake; at another, a huge seal, which he found lying cheek by jowl with him on the sand. When he awoke to the latter discovery, Lord had mislaid his trusty stick; but resolved to get a dinner at any hazard, he giappled boldly with the seal, and rolled into the sea with him, getting decidedly the worst of the bout, and thankful of being able to scramble on land again. On the ' twenty-first day of his Crusoeship, he crawled up ' hill once more, with very little hope of ever coming down, and could scarcely believe his eyes when he saw a dark speck upon the ocean grow and grow into a large ship making for the bay. At last, doubt changed to blessed certainty; Lord J rushed headlong down the mountain, and, staggering upon the beach, saw her enter the harbor, drop anchor and lower a boat. Th*o he fainted. Coming to his senses, he found himself surrounded by . sympathizing seamen, who answered his cries of 1 "Water, water I" by handing him a can, from which he drank till he swooned again, when his J * .. i i ?? j ?i _ __j l:_ i deliverers toou nun up lena^ny, anu carrieu imu , onboard, just in time t^ save his life, and give J him cause to bless the accident that had brought Captain Cook to his rescue. 1 Upon the lava-island of Tristan d'Acunha there ] landed in 1810, three men?an American named Lanibat, a Portuguese half-caste, and a native of ' Minorca. Of this small party, the first was the 1 chief. He voted himself king, drawing up a for- J raal instrument, setting forth, that in order to provide himself with a competency beyond the reach J of chicanery, he took possession of Tristan d'Acun- ' ha for himself and his heirs; by the same deed, binding himself, and those he ruled, to receive all | comers with hospitality, and supply them with everything his dominions yielded, for a fair consideration. The palace of this self-constituted 1 head of a very limited monarchy was a grass- 1 thatched hut; his domain, some three or four 1 hundred acres of cultivable land. With the aid of 1 his two subjects, King Lambat raised potatoes, cabbages, onions, lettuces, turnips, carrots, radish- J es, parsnips, and geese, fowls, ducks and turkeys; 1 and collected seal-oil and seal-skins. For food, the 1 little community relied principally upon their 1 island's native resources, living upon grampers, sea-elephants, mackerel, cray-fish and sea-fowl. ' In 18J2, Lambat disappeared in a mysterious man- ' ner, never to be heard of again. His deserted ' people suffered considerable from the depredations ' of American privateers; but when the Falmouth 1 frigate arrived, in 1810, to lake possession of the [ place for the British Government, they still pos sessed forty sows, two boars, twenty acres of vege- ] tables, and three roed-roofed houses. Upon the 1 arrival of the English, the half-caste took the first ! opportunity of departing, but the Minorca man < remained, to give the soldiers the benefit of his 1 experience, and excite their suspicions as to Lam- 5 bat's real fate, by dropping self-criminatory re- 1 marks whenever his libations loosened his tongue. 1 This happened very often, for old Thomas was ' very flush of cash, though where his bank was no ] one could guess. He promised to divulge the sec- 1 ret some day, but was suddenly struck by death, ' and died without making any sign;, and although ' every likely and unlikely place was examined by ^ eager treasure-seekers, the storehouse was never .i:? UlAWVCIWUi In 1814, an English vessel was wrecked off one J of the Falkland group, called New Island. The passengers and crew escaped to land and were hos- 1 pitably cared for by an American captain, named \ Barnard, wl promised to crown his kindness by taking them on board with him, and landing them 1 at some Brazilian port. At this time, England 1 and America were at war. The Englishmen, * doubtful of the American's intentions, and deter- ' mined not to give him the chance of handing them over as prisoners of war, took advantage of his ab- 1 sence hunting in the interior, to cut the cable and ( sail for North America, forgetting, in their hurry, f to leave any supplies for their unsuspecting host. ' The victim of this scurvy ingratitude was naturally ' astonished when he awoke to his predicament, but, 1 like a sensible man, lost no time in vain grumbling, ' but set to work to make himself and four compan- 1 ions in misfortune as comfortable as circumstances admitted. They built themselves a stone house < strong enough to resist wintry weather; made f themselves clothes of seal-skins, stored up albatross ] eggs and potatoes?these last had been planted i long before by the captain himself; and their dog i now and then brought in a pig as his contribution 1 to the common larder. It was not long, however, i ere the men, impatient of control, stole away in a 1 boat, leaving their commander alone on the island; 1 and alone he remained for some months, tailoring and food-collecting, until the runaways, finding j they could not do without him, returned. Their i return was no addition to Barnard's comfort; he ^ only discovered that one of them intended to mur- t der him, just in time to frustrate the deed. The ] would-be assassin was exiled to a small island in | Ouaker harbor, where his own company soon work- ] lid him into a penitent frame of mind. The causers of this involuntary Crusoeing were not quite so bad as they seemed. At their instance, a British man-of-war was despatched from Rio Janeiro expressly to take off the Americans, but, by an unlucky chance, failed to find them, as they were away on a foraging expedition; and a couple of years went by before they were able to say good-by to New Island from the deck of an English whaler. In 1818, as the Queen Charlotte was passing a rock some miles northwest of Novaheevah, in the South Seas, the attention of a seaman was attracted by the smoke of a sea-weed fire, a thing to wonder at in such a place. Upon the boat's crew being sent to the spot, they found the desolate rock had an inhabitant, in the person of an American sailor, who, with three others, had landed there to collect feathers, and been left by their ships. His i friends he had lost in a very short time, but had I managed to keep life in his body for three years, i feeding upon the flesh of the few feathered visitors to his barren home, and drinking their blood out of the only vessels at his command?the skulls of bis dead messmates. In 1855, the St Abbs, a ship whose name has been made familiar by newspaper correspondents, was wrecked on a reef off San Juan de Nuov'a. Of the eight and twenty people on board, six contrived to reach land. One of these, Cadet (now Captain) Ross, thus relates their experiences: "It was a low flat island, about a mile in circumference, all sand, and covered with birds and their eggs: we sacked some raw eggs and passed a miserable night. Next morning at daybreak we went to see if we could render the other poor fellows any assistance ; but during the night the ship had broke up, and all the poor fellows must have perished. There was no water in the island, and we could not make a fire, so that we had to eat raw birds and suck eggs. The birds were in thousands, and quite tame. We were four days without a fire, hnt at length snneeeded in nuikinff one. We also picked up some wine and spirits, but we tiad no water; however, we drauk champagne, and so kept ourselves alive. Every morning, some men went on the reef, and picked up what they could, but we could get nothing eatable except a few preserves, which were not of much use. We lived in this manner for fourteen days, when being full moon, we determined to try and walk across the reef at low-water to the other island, which appeared larger and better. We set out early in the morning, and dragged a raft; across the reef, with all our Btock of wine and spirits. The distance was about seven miles, over sharp coral rocks, and as we had no shoes on, it was fearful work. The island turned out to be a large one?about fifteen miles long. We then knew it to be Juan de Nuova. Next morning we explored for water, and the skipper and another man came back with the news that they had found a well and a hut at the very end of the island. Next day we went there, and found a good well, and a small hut built of bamboo and leaves. There were plenty of birds, and we found some turtle made fast in a hut in the sea. We had plenty of water now, and could cook broth and boil birds and eggs. We lived in this style for another fortnight, when a small schooner hove in sight; we made all the signals wo could, with 3hirts, &c., and she observed us. She had come from the island of Mahe for the turtle. She remained six days at San Juan de Nuova, when we 3ix embarked for Mah6, and arrived safe and sound. Cruising among the nature-favored Marquesas in 1852, Mr. Lamont found the lovely little speck, Harvey Island, occupied by a white man and his family of two wives and sundry children. When this man, George, took up his quarters there, he bad a companion of his owu sex and complexion; but a deadly quarrel arising between them, George retired to an adjacent island until his foe quitted the place, when he returned to Harvey Island to live a contented life of ease, where bananas, cocoanuts, and sweet potatoes grew without care; living upon them, sea-fowl, eggs and fish, supplemented occasionally with other food obtained from passing vessels in the way of barter. The proneness of men thus thrown together, to quarrel, was turttier illustrated by the last two of Captain Musgrove's party, who were taken off just as they had resolved to paft company. How the castaways of the Grafton, lost five years ago among the Auckland Isles, lived for eighteen months, has already been told, in an account closing with the strange truth that two, if not three, sets of Englishmen were, for more than a year, in close neighborhood, without being conscious of each other's existence. The latest Crusoeing story we know of is dated October, 1867, when H. M. sloop Chanticleer, being off the coast of Patagonia, a party left her on 1 shooting-excusion. Of this party, Riddler, second captain of the forctop, and an able seaman named Henley, returning to the ship in a boat, were driv3n out to sea by a gale, and eventually cast upon the rocks, with their clothes in tatters, a few biscuits for food, an oilskin and pair of blankets for jovering. Under the last, they huddled on the mow-covered ground; but spite of all they could 3o to keep warm, one lost his toes from the frost. For a month, they kept themselves alive upon mussels and shell-fish, when they saw a ship passing through the Strait of Magellan, but failed to stay her in her course by their signals. Another lreary fortnight passed, till, worn out by cold and ;vant, all hope left them, and, looking for death's speedy coming, they swore to each other that, let ivho would die first, the survivor would not let starvation tempt him to play the cannibal. Two aours after this compact was made, the Shearwater luckily passed near. Some of the crew thinking they saw two savages on the rock, a boat was owered ; and the naked castaways soon found diemselves once mtire among friends, and bound ?or home. A Mathematical Prodigy?Blind Ben., the Calculator.?Bidder and Barnum's famous 'Lightning Calculator"?the one for years the wonder of all England, and the other of America, ire both eclipsed by a negro boy in Richmond. The former had sight, instruction, and other advantages, while the latter is a poor negro boy, ivho cannot see a wink, has lived two-thirds of his vears in slavery, and never went to school a day in lis life. The name of our prodigy is Ben. Stevens. He s a native of Caroline, and was formerly a slave if Dr. Morris, of that County. In 1SG4 he first ihowed his skill at figures, but when he learned :he multiplication table, we are informed, he soon istonished the people of the neighborhood by his emarkable quickness at adding, subtracting, mul:iplying and dividing, but only lately did the story each Richmond. A day or two ago he was brought to town, and m Tuesday evening, in presence of a number of gentleman, gave an exhibition of his wonderful powers. Upon first sight of the illy-clad creature's jrinning mouth, retreating forehead, and cver olling, sightless eye-balls, one would be most ikely to put him down as an idiot. But give him i "sum," as he calls a mathematical problem, and re pricks his ears, opens his mouth, and shows that ie is sensible enough. On the occasion referred to, every example propounded, Ben worked out quickly and correctly, without resorting to pencil or pen, of the use of ,vhich he is, indeed, as ignorant as of the use of ;he camera obscuro, or oxy-hydrogen blow-pipe. r * t .1 1 i!._ L Ln several instances ne gave me solution ueiure ;he bystanders could work it out on paper. Long ows of figures (tens, hundreds and thousands) vere retained upon his mind, and in every case jorrectly added. In subtraction, though perfectly gnorant of the common arithmetical nomenclature, lie was equally quick; and the same may be said )f his exercises in multiplication. Finally, he was :ested in square and cube root; and in that, too, showed his proficiency. A stranger asked the :ube root of 117,649. In a lew moments Ben. promptly gave the answer, to the astonishment of the spectators.?Richmond Dispatch. "Do let me have your photograph," said a lashing belle to a gentleman who had been annoying her with his attentions. The gentleman was delighted, and in a short-time the lady received the picture. She gave it to her servant, with the question, "Would you know the original if he should call?" The servant replied in the affirmative. "Well, when he comes, tell hira I am engaged." fUadteg. i COTTON CULTURE IN EGYPT. THE KINDS OP COTTON CULTIVATED. The following article appeared in the last number of the Hearth and Home, It is from the pen of a South Carolinian who has resided in Egypt for several years. We transfer it to our columns, deeming it will be read with general interest: The Egyptian cotton crop has attracted much attention during the last six years, and exaggerated ideas have prevailed as to the quantity, quality, and character of the article which can be produced there. In journals otherwise well informed, absurd and erroneous statements are frequently made in regard to this important matter; for although cotton can no longer be styled "King," as formerly, the dethroned potentate is still powerful. It is proposed, in a series of short papers, to give the results of careful observation, and long residence in Egypt, and to show wh^t is the character and possible extent cf Egyptian rivalry to the cotton growing region of our own country. The cotton plant is indigenous to Egypt, and has been cultivated time out of mind on the narrow strip of fertile land which fringes the Upper Nile, beginning at Thebes. But this native cotton is of inferior quality, short in staple, coarse in fibre, and fit only for the manufacture of the coarse stuff worn by the Fellahs, or peasantry.? Its cultivation was very limited, and, until the year 1819, it was the only kind grown in Egypt, and was exclusively used for home consumption. In this year, when the energetic rule of Mehemet Ali was reviving old Egypt from its ashes, a Frenchman, named Jumel, walking in the garden of Mako Bey, at Cairo, observed a curious plant, the leaf and flower of which were unfamiliar to him. He questioned the gardener, and learned it was a cotton plant, a few specimens of which had been brought from India,' to give variety to the ornaments of the garden. Seeing the great superiority of this plant to the common kind cultivated in the upper country, M. Jumel brought the matter to the attention of the Viceroy, and, by his aid and co-operation, succeeded in making its culture general in the fertile lands of the delta of Lower Egypt, whence the great bulk of the crop is now obtained. It was not until 1840 that the experiment of introducing the American Sea Island cotton seed was attempted. Since that time it has been largely introduced, and the yield has been fully equal to that of our best Sea Island. From some peculiar quality of the soil, however, or possibly from the system of irrigation adopted, it has been found necessary to procure new Sea Island seed every two years, and the Jumel or Mako cotton has therefore been preferred by Egyptian cultivators. There are, therefore, three species of cotton nrmarn in PVvnf oiV,,M " ?asr 1st. The native cotton, short staple, coarse. 2d. Mako or Jumel, long staple, fine. 3d. American Sea Island. These varieties are all perennial, but are sown annually, except the Mako, which will last two years. The Mako is greatly preferred, although the cotton it produces is not quite equal to our best Sea Island, but rather better than our best Upland cotton. The two latter species alone are exported; the first, or native cotton, cultivated on the Upper Nile, being used chiefly for stuffing divans, the Egyptian substitute for our chairs and beds, and which serve the double purpose of seats by day and couches by night, even among the richer classes. It is also used to make the "Nigam," or soldiers' uniforms, as well as the single blue shirt which constitutes the entire toilette of both the male and female Fellah. The culture of this species is not extensive, nor are these fabrics now manufactured as largely as formerly. Mehemet Ali, who entertained the idea of manufacturing on a large scale,* established twenty-four large factories, employing twenty-four thousand operatives, but it was soon found to be unprofitable; so that in 1852 all that remained of his great enterprise were, one large mill, worked by steam, and three small ones, worked by ox-power, manufacturing chiefly army uniforms, and consuming, on an average, not more than ten 'thousand bales of cotton per annum. The great buildings erected by Mehemet Ali, ahd filled with expensive machineiy,.both for cotton and silk manufacture, were abandoned, with the usual improvidence of Eastern administration, and the writer has frequently wandered through their large, empty halls, filled with the remains of the machinery left there to rust away. The rapidity with which the cotton culture developed itself after M. Jumel's walk in the garden of Cairo, may be inferred from the following statement of exports: In 1821, Exports were 60 bags of 100 lbs. each. T" 1 flOO PVnnrtc uroro .Vtft hncna 100 lbs. PJUih. in 1823, Exports were 1,200 bags of 100 lbs. each. In 1824, Exports were 1,500 bags of 100 lbs. each. This, too, while Mehemet Ali's experiment of manufacturing was goiDg on, consuming an amount of which we have no means of judging, as statistics are a modern innovation in Egypt. In 1852, the annual exportation of cotton had risen to about 44,000,000 pounds; in 1856, to 57,000,000, and in 1865, to the maximum of 560,000 bales, of the weight of our own. Beyond this point, I do not think it probable the Egyptian production will ever pass; nor is it at all probable that it will keep up to these figures when the extraordinary stimulus lately given it is withdrawn. The reasons for this opinion will be fully stated in conclusion. From 1862 to 1865, the production was almost doubled, in consequence of the American war, and the increased value of the staple. In 1854, the quantity of cotton consumed in this country was estimated at about 6,000,000 pounds; and the usual price of the ginned cotton fibre in the villages in which it was grown, or at Alexandria, varied from $12 to $14 or $15 the hundred pounds, which would give from 6 to 8* cents per pound net ou shipboard. The cotton used formerly to be sent down from the villages in large, loosely packed bags, each weighing 100 pounds. Now, however, all the modern appliances of culture, of pit- i paration, and pressing are in use in Egypt The ; export of cotton-seed rose in 1865 to the second i rank of values. This cotton seed was shipped to England chiefly < ? i ? 1 ? _1_1_ . for manufacturing au oil lound to De aamiramy < adapted to lubricating machinery, and also for use i as a valuable fertilizer. This is a new exportation from Egypt, due to the < enterprise of a speculative Englishman, who Srst , conceived the idea of utilizing a hitherto worthless ] product, for in most parts of Egypt the only fertil- i izer needed is water, the rich soil requiring only moisture. Without this, under an ardent sun, it j cracks open into fissures and dries up. Hence, < rains being unfrequent, the chief care of the Egyptian husbandman is to supply that important es- : sential, and his mode of irrigation cannot well be improved. In aid of the ancient system, which is : almost, if not quite as old as the Pharaohs, the appliances of modern science are brought to bear upon the tardy movements of the Nile, and steam pumps are now to be seen along the banks, in some instances, of American manufacture. Ismail Pacha, the present Viceroy, is a very large and very successful cotton gr9wer, owning actually, if not nominally, not only vast tracts of land and whole villages, but the labor and very lives of the Fellahs who work them. THE PHOSPHATES OF S. CAROLINA. The fact that since the war the vast deposits of (phosphates of lime with which the vicinity of Charleston, S. C., is underlaid, have attracted such attention as to lead to measures to develop their commercial value, is now tolerably well known. Baltimore capital and enterprise have, to a considerable extent, been enlisted in the work; the phosphates have been brought to this market and are entering into the manufacture of fertilizers, and laborers are at work there upon the deposits. Shortly after the discovery of the phosphates a company of capitalists in Philadelphia conceived the idea of having the monopoly of them, and after securing by purchase and lease some twenty ttwvnaarid umn frtnnri fn their CTlP.f and astonish ment that they had scarcely made an impression on the enormous deposit Three large manufacturing establishments are now in successful operation in Charleston, finding an ample market in the cotton States, and several thousand ' freedmen" find labor adapted to them in the trenches?paid by the ton for excavating?working generally, it is stated, four days in the week, making from $1.50 to $8 per week?feeding themselves. Among others, the Ashley Mining and Phosphate Company, having a Baltimore connection, are engaged in mining and selling the phosphate in a crude state. Not only does the article now come North, but large quantities are being shipped to Europe. A good deal of that sent to England goes as ballast in cotton ships, and scarcely a vessel now leaves Charleston for Europe without this as a part of its cargo. -The New York Evening Post "declares that it is hardly too much to say that the effeot of these deposits on the commercial prosperity of Charleston, and on the wealth of the State, will far exceed all that Sea Island cotton accomplished in its palmiest days." This is, perhaps, rather extravagant An interesting history, in pamphlet form, of the discovery and development of these phosphates has been published by Dr. N. A. Pratt, late Professor of Chemistry and Geology in Oglethorpe Univer- , sity, Georgia, who is now Chemist of a phosphate company m Charleston, of which C. G. Memminger, Secretary of the Treasury of the late Confederacy, is President It is to the credit of South Carolina that years ago, and before any other State of the Union had attempted anything of the kind, she attempted, by a geological and agricultural survey, to render available the labors of competent scientific men, and to utilize the facts of science by putting them in tangible form, so far as they related to the native resources of the State. As earlv as the year 1824 or 1825, Mr. Lardner Vanuxem was commissioned for this purpose, and in his report predicted the discovery of marl valu- ' able for agricultural purposes. In 1842, the late venerable Edmund Ruffin^ of Virginia, was appointed to make an agricultural survey of the State, and Professor Pratt concedes that to the labors of Mr. Ruffin is due the interest since evinced in the subject of "marling" lands, and also the discovery of the calcareous marls of that section.. Other surveys followed, by Tuomey, and by Lieber, and explorations by Professor Agassis, and Sir Charles LyelL In 1855, Professor Tuomey and Professor Holmes commenced, and in 1860 concluded the publication of their great work on the fossils of South Carolina. Though the theories as to the origin of the phosphate deposits are not entirely satisfactory, it is looked upon as plain that many species f animal, land and marine, have been attracted?perhaps as to a salt lick, or to a fresh water spring?to this region, and they must have remained here sufficiently long for their exuvia to form a considerable clement of the accumulation which their remains have helped to make. Since the character of the material referred to has been discovered, it has been traced from its outcrop on the Ashley river across the Cooper river on the North, and beyond the Ashepoo on the South, while the physical indications are that it is not limited even to this wide field. The region is said to be entirely free from stones, and everything harder than the soil itself a part of the valuable deposit, so that a simple washing suffices for the rejection of all worthless material. It is estimated that, making due allowance for the earth that fills the interstices between the nodules and their imperforations, there are probably more than 1,000 tons of the phosphate jo each acre'that it underlies. Whatever the origin, there is no doubt of the enormous value of these fossil remains. The larger part of the material which ia now excavated is said to contain from fiftv-five to sixty-five per cent. of true phosphate of lime, and it is doubtful . whether any of it falls below fifty per cent The reported richness in "phosphates" is much larger than this?sometimes nearly seventy per cent; but this includes phosphate of iron and phosphate of alumina, both of which are probably without, value as manure, and are not separated in the ordinary process of analyzing fertilizers. It is thought safe to estimate that such of these phosphates as will be sent to market contain fully one thousand pounds of pure phosphate of lime to the ton, or one million pounds to the acre, the deposits averaging thousands of acres. This is that element of the soil whose removal has been the chief cause of the destruction of its fertility since the foundation of the world. Prof. Pratt expresses the opinion that the calcareous beds of South Carolina contain an element of fertility which is destined to remodel our system of agriculture, and it is thought not unreasonable to expect that, just as ships from every part of the civilized world have flocked to the Chincha Islands in search of Peruvian guano, so will they before long crowd the wharves of Charleston in quest of that element of guano found there which has the most lasting value. These deposits are the raw material, and before being used, the phosphate must be rendered soluble by the action of sulphuric acid, which converts it into the superphosphate of commerce. Thus it is that new elements of wealth are being constantly developed in the South. If its political prospects were only as bright as those of a material character, how hopeful would be its future! To Young Housekeepers.?Be satisfied to commence on a small scale. It is too common for poung housekeepers to begin where their mothers ended. Buy all that is necessary to work skilfully with; adorn yoor house with all that will render it comfortable. I>o not look at richer homes, and covet their costly furniture. If secret dissatisfaction is ready to spring up, go a step further, and visit the home of the suffering poor; behold dark, cheerless aparments, insufficient clothing, and absence of all the comforts and refinement of social life, and then return to your own with a joyful spirit. You will then be prepared to meet your husband with a grateful heart, and be ready to appreciate the toil of self-denial which he has endured in the business world to surround you with the delights of home; and you will co-operate cheerfully with him in so arranging your expenses that his mind will not be constantly harrassed lest his family expenditures may encroach upon public payments. Be independent; a young house-keeper never needed greater moral courage than she does now, to resist the arrogance of fashion. Do not let the A.'s and B.'s decide what you shall have ; neither let them hold the strings of your purse. You know best what you can and ought to affoid. It matters but little what people think, provided you are true to yourself, to right and duty, and keep your expenses within your means.