62 
FOREST AND .STREAM. 
[July 22, 1899, 
In Filibuster Days. — III. 
L 
A Story of the Walker Expedition. 
{Concluded- fr^nt i><ige 48.) 
At the risk of outraging all the conclusions of the 
Scientific fellows, I say that the cobra de capello is found 
hi Nicaragua. My brother and I were one day follow- 
ing a path into the forest on the mainland, back of tlie 
town of Bluefields, in search of a stick of hardwood, of 
which to make a crank for a grindstone. When coming 
tu a small open space of soft, wet ground, across which 
the ti-ail ran, near its edge we noticed a snake, new and 
strange to iis, and some 30 in. in length ; and we stopped 
to examine it. 
Its first move was to retreat, but this being prevented, it 
coiled for war, and as we teased it with a stick we saw 
with amazement the skin of the neck immediatelj' below 
its head widen to more than double the . width of the 
head, and a mark of coloration, in shape identical with 
the eye of an old-fashioned "hook and ej^e" of the ladies' 
dresses, grew plainly apparent upon the widened skin of 
the arching neck. 
Plaving read of the "hooded serpent of India," I 
thought of it instantly I saw the strange reptile; but 
•supposing that the word hooded could only be applied 
to a creature with something on the head itself which 
could suggest the name, I dismissed the fancy; and not 
until I had read more carefully concerning it did I con- 
clude that we had really seen a genuine cobra. The snake 
grew frantic with rage, and dropping its coil advanced to 
the attack. ^ As it was crossing the spot of wet ground 
the head of the axe was dropped upon its back, driving 
the middle of its body into the mud several inches below 
the surface, but with the raising of the axe it popped 
up, more eager for fight than ever. Its movements were 
strangely quick, and the possibility of it yet reaching us 
caused the edge of the axe to be used to finish it. The 
townsman to whom we told the story looked grave, and 
informed us that it was regarded as exceedingly deadly, 
adding that had we been bitten we could scarcely have 
lived to reach the village. 
When my father haa finally concluded to return to the 
United States it became necessary to return to Greytown 
in order to meet one of the only line of American steam- 
ships then running to that port, and which would land 
us in New York. The captain of the only avilable 
coaster, learning how important it was for my father to 
reach Greytown by a certain date, charged an exorbitant 
fare, many times more than that of the Jamaican coaster 
which had brought us to Bluefields, and my father cast 
about to find a way to defeat the avarice of the unprin- 
cipled navigator. Learning that the mail for the British 
consul formerly resident at Bluefields had for years 
been brought in a canoe from Greytown by two old 
negro sailors, he sought them otit, and hired tljem for 
the voj'age; and having hired two Mosquito Indians re- 
puted to be skillful sailors, to navigate the canoe which 
I had fitted for a hunting boat, planned to send a young 
man named Henry Reeder (who had lived with us since 
our coming from Greytown) and myself in the boat, and 
under the care of the Indians, while the others rode in 
the canoe of the negroes. 
I3idding good-by to the beautiful village and its kindly 
inhabitants, we sailed out of the harbor before a gentle 
breeze, and the canoe of the negroes proving so much 
the better sailer^ we in the lagging canoe lost sight of it 
as it sped away toward Monkey Point, a motmtainous 
headland twenty miles south of Bluefields; and our Indian 
steersman used the last of the dying breeze to make a 
wide offing in the hope of finding another. As we lay 
becalmed on the glassy sea, some five or six miles from 
land, while the long, hot hours of the afternoon wore on, 
the lazy Indians chewed sugar cane and whistled for the 
wind. "Coom, breeze! Where are you, breeze?" they 
droned monotonously, while Hank Reeder and I fretted 
and fumed at the delay, wondering why the listless 
creatures did not take to their paddles. They had been 
hired to navigate the craft, and we were under their 
orders, 
Finally, when the afternoon was half-gone, a long line 
of low hanging" cloud rose above the horizon to seaward 
atid rapidly approached the land. A breeze came before it 
which rose quickly into a gale, and as the canoe had 
not sufficient keel it drifted rapidly sidcAva^i-s toward 
the lee shore, AA'hile making but small progress ahead. 
Still the gale rose in power, yet so stolid were those 
stupid fatalists in charge of the boat that not until we 
were in the edge of the breakers themselves, half a mile 
off the sandy shore — where the water deepened so gradu- 
ally that the breakers now had the canoe in their teeth — 
did they try to take in the sail which was drifting us to 
destruction. 
An attempt to unship the mast M^as defeated by the 
gale and the raging sea, and the frightened Indians furled 
the sail as best they could, and seieing their paddls bent all 
their strength to the task of forcing the canoe seaward 
in the teeth of the gale. 
Still we drifted on toward the land, while the low 
ctotid to seaward raced swiftly toward us, and from the 
set face of the frightened steersman came the earnest 
cry, "Strong paddle! "Strong paddle!" as Reeder bent 
to the work by assisting them ; and while the canoe and its 
. scared occupants were furiously "rocked in the cradle of 
the deep," I seized a big gourd shell used in bailing and 
paid almost continuous tribute to Neptune in bilge water 
and the different parts of my internal economy, which the 
• i-aging sea was now fast shaking loose inside. 
The ride over the waves was sublime ! Fortunately the 
.sickness — ^which is said first to make one afraid he will 
die and afterward afraid he won't — that now had me under 
full control, had almost robbed the sea of its power to 
affright, and as we rose on the crest of a towering wave 
to somewhere near the sky, and for an awful _ moment 
balanced, where sea and sky and land rose into view— and 
the grandeur of old ocean's rage seemed momentarily 
fit. not only to hold in abeyance the dreaded sickness of 
the sf-a, but almost imperative enough to call back the 
dead to life — and then, with a tilt of the bow toward 
China, raced down the frightful steep into and under the 
crest of the next oncoming wave, which promptly rolled 
half a barrel of brine over our bow, my mission in life 
appeared to be to bail fast enough to free the canoe before 
we met another. 
In the very midst of this struggle for life and sea 
room, while we were in the trough of the sea, a shark 
that looked to be 15ft. in length, sprang free from the 
wave at our stern, and not ten rods distant from the 
canoe, and with his entire length momentarily free in air 
plunged into the oncoming breaker, while the only Mother 
Carey's chicken I ever saw fluttered along the crest of a 
towering wave and dipped its tiny feet into the brine. 
Just when our fate seemed sealed, and when we 
looked to be within forty rods of the beach, the cloud 
overhead raced by, and the wind, no longer drawn under 
its edge, sank to a gentle breeze, and this to a dead calm, 
so quickly that I have never seen it equaled. 
Out beyond the breakers we paddled, and down past 
the rocky face of the first cliff of Monkey Point, into a 
vast cave of which the waves still ran and raged and 
thundered appallingly, and in the last rays of the sun's 
departing light were guided to the beach on the lee shore 
of an island off the Point, by the iiapping sail of the 
beached canoe in advance, now being waved by my father 
to attract our attention. Here we slept until midnight, 
when tlie voyage was resumed; and with beautiful 
weather and favoring breeze we easily reached Greytown 
before sunset. 
The harbor of Greytown was thronged with vessels. 
The whole British West India fleet had assembled at this 
point of rendezvous before taking their different sta- 
tions in West Indian waters. One vessel was destined to 
take the place of the Eurydice, which, to the joy of all on 
board, was soon to return to England. One line-of-battle 
ship and one frigate drew too much water for the 
harbor entrance, and so lay at anchor outside. 
Target practice went on almost continuously, among 
the frigates and gunboats inside, the long, slender cape of 
Point Arenas offering a fine range. Two handspikes were 
planted in the sand, and a piece of canvas some 6ft. 
square, on which was painted a black bullseye about the 
size of a barrel head, was stretched between for a target. 
The vessels lay at anchor in the harbor, from one-third 
of a mile to a mile and a quarter distant from the 
target. Day after day the firing went on, and I never 
knew the target to be struck but once, and then one of 
the handspikes was carried away with a cannon shot. It 
seemed like a small boy throwing brickbats. 
On landing my father was met by an old man named 
Mooney — "Old Uncle Ben Mooney," as he was known to 
his friends — with whom he had become acquainted when 
first he came to the coast, and who had lived in Grey- 
town for many years, and now, with the courtly grace of a 
Spanish Don, he insisted that my father shoidd forthwith 
take possession of the old widower's house, which, with all 
it contained, should be his as long as he remained on the 
coast. My father was still liampered by possession of 
the mill bought in St. Louis, which had remained stored 
on the wharf in Greytown since our first landing; and as 
Uncle Ben noticed that my father's appearance of rugged 
health had changed for the worse since first they met, and 
learning of his purpose to return to the United States as 
soon as possible, and realizing also the danger of fever on 
the sickly coast to which he long ago had become 
acchmated, though loth to lose the society of one who 
seemed a congenial spirit, said to him : 
"Mr. Belknap, go you down to the harbor and pitch 
that mill over into the harbor and say, 'Mill, go you to the 
devil !' ■ and you get back to the North again as quickly 
as you can!" However, the mill was traded for a stock 
of groceries, and Mr. Reeder, who had been with us since 
our landing in Greytown, and who was a whcelright by 
trade, now engaged with its new owner to accompany 
him into the interior, there to build and equip a mill for 
him, while my father planned to return to New York by 
the next monthly steamer. 
And so for a time we swung in Uncle Ben's hammocks 
and listened to his stories of early days in Greytown. 
Dear, quaint Old LTncle Ben ! How charming were his 
tales of the old da)'-s among the turbulent foreign element 
of the population of Greytown, where he had been a 
leader, and where he had become involved in a feud with 
another adventurous character, and the quarrel growing 
into one in which most of the foreign element in the port 
took a part, the Americans siding with Old Ben formed a 
quasi-military organization for his defense, and now, when 
the whole afi^air had faded into history, the old man's 
eye would kindle as he recounted to us the adventures and 
pictured to us the ancient military splendor of the formid- 
able "Twenty-six Ben Mooney Guard." 
And now I myself, the boy who seemed proof against 
peril and sickness, was stricken with the "Panama fever," 
and recovering barely in time to take the steamer upon 
her arrival, was sent aboard with my brother to go to the 
home of relatives living in Ohio, via New York, while 
my father remained in Greytown ttntil the coming of still 
another steamer, as the groceries had not been sold. Our 
return voyage to the United States was a safe and ttn- 
eventful one, and of little interest to the reader. 
A night or two after our departure the streets of Grey- 
town resounded Avith a midnight babel of confused shouts 
and cries, and in the morning my father learned that a 
large alligator on its way to cross from the lagoon to the 
harbor, near the center of the town, had been met by a 
startled negro, who promptl}' gave the alarm, and a swarm 
of natives gathering before the frightened saurian could 
regain the water, it was surrounded, and after a furious 
fight, dispatched with matchetes and axes. 
On board the British fleet, which still remained at 
Greyfield, were two large Newfoundland dogs, which were 
highly prized by the officers of the vessel which carried 
them; and as a party of officers were one day strolling 
along the shores of the lagoon a few days after our de- 
parture, one of them, forgetful of the danger from alliga- 
tors, threw a stick into the water for the dogs to bring out; 
While swimming along at some distance from the shore 
one of the dogs suddenly sank from sight and never re- 
apoeared. It had been taken by an alligator. 
Plans for vengeance were promptly formed. A long 
slender cable chain was brought ashore from the fleet, 
and while one end was fastened to a small tree growing 
on the bank near where the dog had been taken, the other ' 
was fastened to the center of a short piece of handspike 
some 3oin. in length, and then one end of the stick was ■ 
brought round and very lightly attached to the chain, 
while to the other end of the stick was very firmly fastened 
a large piece of meat for a bait, and the whole affair was 
left in the edge of the water. 
A morning or two afterward word was passed through 
the town and the fleet that an alligator was caught. A 
big fellow 17ft. in length, which my father said "looked as 
big round the belly as a four-year-old beef critter," had 
swallowed the meat, stidk and chain, and when it at- 
tempted to retreat the light fastening of the stick gave 
way, the stick came around squarely across and behind 
his jaws, and there he was. A big crowd soon assembled ' 
and the furious brute, lashing the water to foam in his 
struggles to escape, was snaked out on the bank, and after 
a most exciting struggle, thrown upon his back; a spar i 
was laid lengthways along his belly, and one by one the • 
feet and the slashing tail were lashed securely to it ; and a 
handspike being placed crosswise in his mouth to keep 
the great jaws apart, a sailor ran his arm to the shoulder 
down the throat of the' savage saurian, now gentle as 
Mary's lamb, and turned the stick lengthways of his 
throat, when it was withdrawn from his mouth. A rope 
was novir fastened to the jaw of the creature, and a long 1 
line of jolly tars laid hold and gave him a free ride on 
has back through the sandy streets of the town to the 
harbor, where he was hoisted aboard the Eurydice to be 
taken back to England. The trap was again set and 
another alligator, somewhat smaller, was caught, which , 
was killed on the shore. 
And now the long-dreaded fever seized my father, and, 
for a time his life was despaired of. Dear Old Uncle' 
Ben Mooney proved the Good Samaritan who cared for 
him like a brother, sold his remaining stock of groceries i' 
for him, and when the steamer finally came, placed him, 
more dead than alive, on board, and bade him good-by — • 
fully expecting, as did all others who saw him, that be- 
fore the steamer could reach New York he would be 
buried at sea. But the captain of the steamer, seeing hisj 
condition ,gave him one of the cabin apartments on the 
upper deck, where the ventilation was perfect, and with 
the first blessed breath of the cold air of the rugged 
North, new life returned to him, and the voyage home- 
ward was one of rapid recovery. 
When my father was placed upon the bed in the 
steamer's narrow bedroom, the door was left wide open 
for the securing of all the fresh air available, and as he 
gazed wearily forth with half-closed eyes at the crowd of 
returning Calif ornians who swarmed upon the steamer's 
deck, he saw a fine looking young man of about thirty 
years passing back and forth before the open door quite 
often, and each time looking earnestly at the apparently 
unconscious form upon the bed, As the stranger noticed 
finally that the sick man's eyes were open, he stepped into 
the room and said: "Old man, can I do anvthing for 
you?" 
"Yu may get me a drink of water, if you please," ap- 
plied mj' father. 
"I^ook here, old man, I see that you are alone, with no 
friend to care for you, and I want you to let me take care' 
of you. I am returning from California^ and have nothing 
to do on the voyage homeward, and you will oblige me by 
letting me care for you on the journey." 
"Very well, if you wish it," replied my father, who 
afterward told me that no mother ever kept more sleep- 
less vigil over a beloved child than did the young and 
kindly disposed stranger over him : anticipating his every' 
want, caring for him with brotherly kindness, and re- 
joicing finally with him over his recovery. Just before 
reaching New York my father offered money to him, as a' 
slight return for his kindly services. The young fellow' 
laughed merrily, "Why, old man," said he, I have more 
money now than I know what to do with !" whereupon he 
told his histor3^ lie had been a poor boy in the East, 
where he had the fortune to win the affections of the love- 
ly daughter of the mo.st wealthy man in that part of the 
cotnttry, and when the willing girl sent him to learn In's.i 
fate from her father, the paralyzed Crossus nearly fell over 
backward at the outrage to his dignity. Such assurance ! 
The old man nearly had a fit. Returning to the girl he J 
told the story of his ill success. 
"Well," said she, "I cannot marry you without my; 
father's consent, for I am not of age. I promise you, how- 
ever, that I will remain true to you until I am of legal, 
age. If I live until then, and j'Ou still wish it, I will 
marry you." 
In the hope of bettering his fortune, and with the full 
consent of his betrothed, he then set out for California. 
"And," said he, "I went — and from the hour I landed 
everything I touched turned to gold. About the time the 
girl became of age I wrote her that I was deeply involved' 
in business ventures, and that while I stood ready to 
come at the hour if she insisted, if I were obliged to sell' 
at any certain date I feared it would be at a sacrifice, and', 
if she would wait a year or two longer I hoped to retire 
with flying colors. She replied, 'Stay just as long as you 
deem necessary, and come home thereafter as soon as 
3'ou can.' A short time since I sold everything out at a' 
grand figure, and am now on my way home. And the 
strangest part of the whole affair is that while waiting in 
San Francisco for the coming of the steamer I received a 
letter from the girl, stating that in some gigantic specula- 
tion carried on unknown to his family her father had lost 
all his property and was now reduced to poverty. And 
now," added the young man, while his ej^es twinkled, 
merrily, "I am going home, and I am going to set the: 
old man up in business." 
At New York my father bade good-by to the generous! 
young stranger, with best wishes for his health and', 
happiness ; and continuing his journey to Ohio, the family 
was once again united. This was just as the air was re- 
sounding with the shouts of excited and angry citizens' 
bandying the epithets, "Abolitionist!" and "Copperhead!" 
while howling orators furiously saved the country from 
the unspeakable wickedness of the other fellows — their 
neighbors — in the fierce Buchanan-Fremont campaign, so 
typical of the career of the sometimes turbulent but ever' 
glorious Republic. In the tumult and the confusion, the 
far-away land of the bread-fruit, the banana and the palm ; 
where the alligator basked in the hot sunshine among the' 
reeds, and the cobra coiled at the rustle of coming feet; 
