FOREST AND STREAM. 
115 
of a remnant of a race of men whom the general found 
among them. These people, called the “Amias,” seem to 
occupy a position of serfdom to the Sabarees; they are of 
a lighter complexion, milder disposition, and speak among 
themselves a ‘different language from their masters. They 
are probably descendants, if not the originals, of captives 
of war from some tribe living farther to the-northward. 
These “Amias” are not allowed to participate in the annual 
hunt, nor to bear arms; they are called upon to assist the 
women in tilling the soil, and in everyway are treated with 
•indignities, yet with no positive unkindness, and that they 
Are not of the fiery Malay blood is evident from their con¬ 
tentment with their lot. 
The general had his interview, made his treaty, and re¬ 
turned to his consulate at Amoy, but certain home stayers, 
"“fireside, warriors,” criticized severely his results. The 
British said, and I have heard them:—“It’s all bloody fine, 
you know, but it’s all rot; the beggars will do as they al¬ 
ways have, and the best way to fix them is to kill the lot 
of them.” 
Her “Britanic Majesty’s consul” at Foo-cliow said the 
same thing in official despatches, although his language 
was a little more choice. He -farofe to his government an 
official despatch that an agreement binding upon one tribe 
was not binding upon others; that castaways upon the isl¬ 
and would be slain as of old, and that therefore the work, 
of pacification was an endless one, and that Le Gendre, “in¬ 
stead of being carried away by his dreams, should have, 
with the means at his disposal, punished severely the rec¬ 
reant tribes, and that war alone was the panacea for the 
evils that had existed; annihilation their only cure. The 
savages would not keep their promises. Let Le Gendre 
try it on once and he’ll find a rough time of it, etc.” 
The general, in his official despatches, states that he 
heard of such criticisms. I state that I heard at many a 
dinner the criticisms. Irritated by these ungenerous views 
the general resolved to put his handiwork to the test. To 
use his own official language, “Sixteen months having 
elapsed without any casualty occurring that would test the 
efficacy of my work, I determined to force events. Plac¬ 
ing myself with trustworthy persons in the defenseless con¬ 
dition in which we find castaways generally, I proposed to 
go across the territory of the aborigines, from coast to 
coast, meet them, and return to the starting point guided 
by their own peopfle. 
In short, the general, Mr. Man, the commissioner of cus¬ 
toms at Amoy, and Mr. Pickering, a Dutchman who had 
lived among the hills, and who, having, it is said, married 
a native girl, was proficient in the language, for interpre¬ 
ter, started from Sakao in a native boat for a cruise among 
the savages. With no arms, and no escort but their small 
retinue of cowardly servants, they were indeed helpless if 
the general’s treaties were failures. They sailed down the 
coast to Liang-kian, the nearest seaport to the home of the 
Sabarees, and pitched their tent in a public square for the 
night. 
Liangrkian is inhabited by a race of mixed blood, origin¬ 
ally Chinese. Wives from the half castes living on the 
foot hills have been brought in, and the villagers have at 
this date as many of the traits of the mountaineers as of 
the Chinese. They received the party with hospitality, as 
well they might, for the general was well known to them, 
and possibly enrolled among the list of their deities. A 
year before he had been with them, and I was with him, 
and with us was Tom Dunn, our genial consul at Foo chow, 
than whom a keener shot or more enthusiastic naturalist 
even the Forest and Stream does not rate among its 
readers. We encountered a party of mountaineers of the 
“Boonting” tribe, who had come into barter their game 
and skins for cloth and guns. Never losing an opportunity 
for carrying out his mission, which he considered the devel¬ 
opment of Formosa, the general arranged for a consulta¬ 
tion on business with the chiefs of this tribe, and during 
the afternoon said interview occurred, seated in the open 
air and surrounded with a dirty rabble of villagers, who 
were friendly but annoying through their great inquisitive¬ 
ness, which prompted them to too close investigation of our 
person and apparel, a degree of propinquity which the ani¬ 
mated condition of their heads rendered highly undesira¬ 
ble. The Hillmen, more shy and suspicious, stood warily 
near with their spears and muskets in hand. The chiefs 
were swarthy, truculent looking fellows, with high cheek 
bones, and little narrow, sharp black eyes. Their ward¬ 
robe was limited to the simplest form, consisting of but a 
breech cloth and turban. Pome native wine having been 
sent for by the headman of the village, diplomacy began, 
and while the general impressed the savages with his ideas 
Dunn and I amused ourselves with their peculiarities, and 
puzzled ourselves in a vain search for even a trace of beauty 
in the faces of the motley crowd of males and females who 
encompassed us. We gradually became aware that there 
was an interruption to the harmony of the proceedings; a 
dozen of the lesser savages joined with their chiefs in an 
emphatic negative to some proposition of the general’s, and 
an excited conversation among themselves, and black looks 
at us made it evident that our comfort at least was the bet¬ 
ter secured by the presence of the little gunboat in the har¬ 
bor. They had a keen remembrance of the effect of shells 
thrown from similar vessels during the attack upon them 
when in avenging the murder of the Rover’s crew, the gal¬ 
lant McKenzie fell face to the foe. The general deliber¬ 
ated- sitting with his elbow on his knee and his face par¬ 
tially covered by his hand. His thoughtful, unexcited 
attitude soon calmed the storm, and in curiosity as to his 
next move every eye was centred upon him. 
Dunn and I felt uneasy. A failure upon the part of the 
general was an event never taken into our calculations. 
Presently he removed his hand from his face and arose. A 
shout from five hundred savage throats caused us to start 
and look to our revolvers'; but there was no need. The 
shout betokened astonishment, for there stood the white 
man, and wonderful to tell, his eye was gone! A moment 
ago lie had been as other men, yet without sign of pain or 
struggle he had plucked his eye from its socket. Hardly 
had they fully realized the wonderful change, when with a 
weary gesture the general wiped his brow, and lo! his eye 
had been replaced, and there was no longer a blemish. 
That confederate bullet, that had forced the hero to in¬ 
voke the assistance of art to restore the seeming of Nature, 
had worked a triumph for the United States unparalleled 
in the annals of diplomacy. I have the authority of a late 
assistant Seretary of State, to whom I related this anec¬ 
dote, that no stroke of diplomacy had ever been effected in 
the same manner. From that moment the general was 
looked upon as a supernatural being, and every point de¬ 
manded was conceded without remonstrance, and, as did 
old Tankitok for the Sabarees, these chiefs pledged them¬ 
selves and tribe to assist and shelter and to escort, un¬ 
harmed, to the Chinese village any mariners that future 
gales might cast upon their shores. 
The amount of reverence exhibited toward the general 
during the balance of our stay was overwhelming. Dunn 
and I did hot fare so well. Several of the savages had by 
signs entreated us to also take out our eyes, and as circum¬ 
stances compelled us to refuse this modest request we lost 
prestige, and were compelled to drink, each of us, our 
“samshu” from an individual bowl, while the general was 
honored by the head chief with a ceremony which was 
pleasing to look at—with his arm around the general’s 
neck, and requiring of him the same, a bowl of samshu 
was brought to their nearly united lips, and when the old 
fellow had made a solemn but incomprehensible speech, 
the general’s face not indicating joy at this unpleasant form 
of toasting, they drank simultaneously, and thus pledged 
themselves to everlasting friendship. Dunn remained a 
comparative nobody until the end of our visit. I recov 
ered slightly the lost ground by means of several succes¬ 
sive shots, which I fired -at nothing in particular, without 
seeming to reload my gun; they had never seen a breech 
loader. 
The visit I have just described paved the way for the 
general on this second adventure. The people recognized 
and again wondered at him; and the memory of gay pea¬ 
cock feathers, gorgeous red flannel dilapidated cocked hats, 
and other valuables which had on that occasion rewarded 
the confidence shown by those of the savages who had ven¬ 
tured on board the gunboat—leaving me for a hostage— 
caused full respect for the dispensor of st> much riches. 
Piseco. 
{To be concluded in our next) 
-- 
LEAVES FROM A SURVEYOR’S JOURNAL. 
LOST IN THE WOODS. 
W E were a party of twenty-two, including the two 
teamsters, on the preliminary survey of the northern 
division of the Milwaukee and La Cross Railroad, a pro- 
prosed line at that time from Portage City to St. Paul, or 
rather to Hudson, just opposite on the Mississippi, in the 
spring of 1856. It was my first experience in the woods, 
and dearly I came near paying for the same. 
We were a jolly lot and had some good times, mingled 
with not a little severe labor and a few hazardous episodes. 
We left Portage City early in April, and for three months 
went through the various vicissitudes of an out and out 
camp life 
We had penetrated into the Black river region., and for 
several days the pigeons had crossed and recrossed our line 
in countless numbers. In the morning the immense flocks 
as they came from the west consisted of the redbreasts or 
males; they returned toward noon, and their places were 
taken by their mates. We knew by these movements that 
there, must be a nesting not far from us to the left. About 
two P. M. one day r , having obtained permission of the boss, 
and the loan of the company’s double barrel, I started 
to find the nesting with high hopes of an abundance 
of the delicious squabs. I pointed directly towards 
the sun, for that was the. direction from which they 
were coming and going. In a couple of hours or less I 
reached the place, and what a scene was there; for miles 
and miles the trees were filled with the nests, some break¬ 
ing down with the weight of their newborn oleagenous oc¬ 
cupants, while the sky was obscured with the hurrying 
birds, and the fanning of the millions of wings made a noise 
like the roar of Niagara. I easily secured wliat I could 
conveniently carry of the butter balls and sei out on my 
return. As our line, when I left, was pointing north, I 
thought all I had to do was to put the sun directly at my 
back and go ahead, and I could easily strike it, and then 
follow up to camp, and the next day a party of us would 
come back and get several bags of the young birds. But in 
my calculation I had forgotten two things, and very im¬ 
portant items they proved to be. First, that but a short 
time previous to my starting out we had made quite an 
angle in our line, (which by the way merely consisted of a 
series of blazes on the trees with the brush trimmed out 
sufficiently for a distinct compass view, our teams had gone 
another way.) Before that we had been running west or 
northwest rather, and I had not thought of the sun’s moving 
more or less northward as he sank to rest. Consequently 
by keeping him directly at my back I must have struck 
further south from where I started and beyond the angle. 
Well, I trudged along until I felt sure I had gone f 
enough, but no line was there, no blazes, no broken bu 1 
or signs of that region’s ever having been visited bv ti° S 
“genus homo.” I thought I must have' passed it in 16 
haste; back I went a mile or more, then returned east a ^ 
The Sun went down, the full moon arose in all her J] ^ 
I walked until far into the night, when suddenly the tlioiH 
came over me that I was lost, lost in that wilderness a 1°* 
dred miles from a human habitation, with the exception* 11 ! 
our camp, and that might as well have been as far off f° 
I could not find it. Oh, the helpless, sickening sens-ii'° l 
that came over me; a terrible feeling it is, utterly imno*? 
ble to describe; how the thoughts of home, of father 
mother, of my boyhood friends came thronging on my mimf 
I believe I have an ordinary share of pluck; but for a f ew 
moments I wilted, dropped on a log and just gave rHit u 
prostrated. The idea of dying away out there alone-h 
was awful. The more I tried to reason the matter the more 
confused I became and the worse I felt. It was abou 
eleven o’clock; I had thrown away nearly all my game it 
being too heavy to carry in my fagged out state. I fi )ia]]v 
rallied, reasoning that as I was not dead yet, I would hay 
some supper, get some sleep, and perhaps something would 
turn up in the morning, for ‘ : hope springs exulting on tr'. 
umpliant wiug.” I was then in the midst of a heavy tim. 
ber; I found a huge pine that had been torn up by the roots 
leaving a space under the body of which I could crawl [ 
brought dead limbs and decayed logs until I made, as I 
thought, a secure bulwark on one side. On the other I 
built my fire from the dry tops of a dead hemlock but a 
few rods distant; for my supper I got away with a couple 
of the squabs, broiled on the coals without pepper or salt 
and composed myself for a nap. I had not dropped to 
sleep, for the mosquitoes seemed more than usually vora¬ 
cious, when I was aroused by a gentle pattering on the 
leaves, and then a snuffing at my back; then the rotten 
logs began to move. Good Lord, it was a large animal 
of some kind; another danger to encounter. In my terror 
I yelled out with all my might. Then there was a scam¬ 
pering off until the sound was lost in the distance. Then 
I heard the gentle pattering in front but beyond the light 
of my burning twigs. Then I saw two balls of fire in the 
darkness, then two more; how terrible they looked; then 
they disappeared. After awhile I heard the noise at my 
back, the snuffing and the attempt to pull away my barrack, 
Again my voice tuned up, and the retreat was repeated, 
Again those fiery eyes in front; my fire was nearly out; it 
was several rods to the hemlock, To be sure I had a gun 
and a few charges of powder,) I had fired off most of it ii\ 
endeavorin r to be heard at camp,)But what kind of a show 
would I have had with a couple of full grown lynxs, (I 
presume that was what they were,) with pigeon shot? I 
sent a firebrand in their direction, and, as they again went 
off, with another in my hand, I reached my magazine—the 
hemlock—and having filled my arms, got back in a hurry 
to my fort. 
This kind of fun lasted for an hour or two, until they 
seemed to have left, at least I had heard nothing of them 
for some time. I was pretty thoroughly played out, and 
I dropped to sleep in spite of my fears and the blood-suck¬ 
ing mosquitoes. I don’t know how long I slept, wkenl 
was aroused by a sound so infernal, so demoniacal that 
cold chills struck through to my bones. I sprang from my 
bed of leaves, struck my head violently against the huge 
log or body of the tree above. The blow sent me back 
again to the ground. There was a tremendous ringing in 
my ears, the view of the multitudinous constellation may 
have been grand, but it was attended with exceedingly pain¬ 
full sensations. In my half awakened and confused state I 
thought I was dying; how the ten thousand thoughts rushed 
on my brain! In that moment it seemed that I recalled 
every act of my life, and saw all my friends, both the liv¬ 
ing and the dead, pass before me. I was fast losingcon¬ 
sciousness, when I was brought back to, existence and the 
reality by that horrible sound “hah, hah, h-a, a-h,” I can 
liken it to nothing else than the hideous laugh of a demo¬ 
niac darkey, but so wierd, so unearthly in its tones, my 
flesh crept and my hair rose on end. Again was that 
sound repeated. It seemed to come from the trees above, 
then was answered from below; then there was a rushing 
of wings and that laugh rung out in the stillness of that dis¬ 
mal wood. Then the snapping of bills that sounded to me 
like the gnashing of teeth of a monster in a rage. Good 
Lord, what could they be? My fire had burned down 
quite low. With my gun cocked and pointed outward 1 
endeavored in vain to peer into the darkness. I replenish¬ 
ed the fire with a few dry twigs and as it blazed up, again 
rang out that laugh, and there came a rush of wings, and so 
close that it fanned the dying embers, and a huge body 
with a rush went by. I saw only the shadow, but it seem¬ 
ed gigantic in proportions. A moment more and I saw it 
—the thing—on the ground, indistinctly, by the fitful glam 
of my smouldering fire, a hideous monster with horned 
head and scaly breast. As it gazed at me with those mon¬ 
strous eyes of fire and gnashed its teeth with rage, in my 
terror I distinctly saw .its cloven hoof. My feelings mayk e 
faintly imagined but can be by no possible means describ¬ 
ed. It was but momentary, though “the fiery eyes burned 
into my bosom’s core.” I rallied, my pluck came back, 
and I prepared to fight for what little life I had left. J us j 
then the blaze caught in a pitchy knot, the light streame 
up, and the thing stepped from a log to the ground.. From 
a height of stature of six or eight feet, in a moment it dwin¬ 
dled to two, from a giant in size it became a pigmy in pro¬ 
portions. Those eyes lost their terrible fierceness, the scaJJ 
breast of mail, the split hoof, and the barbed tail were 
