| Show j ON THE BRINY AYESA I A Sailor Who Was Absent for Fiftysix Years A LIFE FULL OF ADVENTURES The Bean Brnmmel America and the End of a Gay Existence in the Home For the Aged In the good old time when the aged of today were reading their earliest story books two sorts of tales outthrilled all otherstales of life among the Indians and I ties of shipwrecked sailors lu the latter line the romance o the story books has c been outdone by the plainand painful facts I in the life of William Mann who has just returned t his native place in Essex Eng land after an absence of fiftysix years In L that time ho has been sailor and captive adopted savage and sailor again is tattooed I in the highest style of native south Pacific art and carries scars that frighten the children Not the least curious part of it i that nearly all he relates can b confirmed At the age of fourteen he got into some trouble and the magistrate in kindness procured I him a place on the Falcon a Pacific wlial WILLIAM ring r-ing vessel carrying thirtytwo hands I After many experiences in the sperm whale line he va with tho Falcon in 183G he being be-ing then twenty years old when she was wrecked on one of the Caroline islands The details of the long contest between the seamen and the natives are terrible the captain mate and several others were killed but Mann and the remainder escaped to adjacent islands A British manofwar opportunely arrived ar-rived took signal vengeance on the natives and rescued all the sailors but Mann and three others who were on a remote island and were not found There tho four men lived a savages for two years using cocoanut cocoa-nut leaves for clothing and the nut for food till the natives found them One was killed and Mann received a slash across the face and neck which would have killed most men and had two fingers cutoff cut-off Being left for dead the other two sailors who had escaped rescued and restored re-stored him setting his broken jaw in rude fashion At lastan American whaler picked them up and when he reached a regular surgeon Manns face was partially restored though one tooth stuck through his cheek Thereafter he engaged in every sort of venture to all ports of the Pacific till age rendered him unable to < work and the British residents of Hong Kong sent him home Strangely enough the papers of the murdered captain of tho Falcon were available to corroborate part of his story and relatives learned for the first time the fate of the four lost seamen |
