The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 14, No. 398, November 14, 1829

He saw no more of the animal that night; but when we found Carruthers, he was still lingering about the spot, persuaded that my child was there. We watched the thicket all night, and at the very darkest hour, judge of my trepidation when I heard the cries of a child in the thicket, almost close by me, and well could distinguish that the cries proceeded from the mouth of my own dear William. We all rushed spontaneously into the thicket, and all towards the same point; but found nothing. I cried on my boy's name, but all was again silent, and we heard no more. He only uttered three cries, and then we all heard distinctly that his crying was stopped by something stuffed into his mouth. Before day, we heard some movement in the thicket, and though heard by us all at the same time, each of us took it for one of our companions moving about; and it was not till long after the sun was up, that we at length discovered a bed up among the thick branches of a tree, and not above twelve feet from the ground; but the occupants had escaped, and no doubt remained but that they were now far beyond our reach.

We then tried the dog, and by him we learned the way the fliers had taken; but that was all, for as the day grew warm, he lost all traces whatever. We searched over all the country for many days, but could find no traces of my dear boy, either dead or alive; and at length were obliged to return home weary and broken-hearted.

About three months after this sad calamity, one evening, on returning home from my labour, my Agnes was missing, and neither her maid-servant, nor one of all the settlers, could give the least account of her. My suspicions fell instantly on the Kousi chief, Karoo, for I knew that he had been in our vicinity hunting, and remembered his threat. I and three of my companions now set out and travelled night and day, till we came to the chief's head-quarters. Karoo denied the deed; but still in such a manner that my suspicions were confirmed. I threatened him terribly with the vengeance of his friend captain Johnstone, and the English army at the Cape, saying, I would burn him and all his wives and his people with fire. He wept out of fear and vexation, and offered me the choice of his wives, or any two of them, shewing me a great number of them, many of whom he recommended for their great beauty and fatness; and I believe he would have given me any number if I would have gone away satisfied. But the language of the interpreter being in a great measure unintelligible, we all deemed that he said repeatedly that Karoo would not give the lady up.

What was I now to do? We had not force in our own small settlement to compel Karoo to restore her; and I was therefore obliged to buy a trained ox, on which I rode all the way to the next British settlement, for there are no horses in that country. There I found captain Johnstone with three companies of the 72nd, watching the inroads of the savage Boshesmen. He was greatly irritated at Karoo, and dispatched lieutenant McKenzie, and fifty men along with me, to chastise the aggressor. When the chief saw the Highlanders, he was terrified out of his wits; but, nevertheless, not knowing what else to do, he prepared for resistance, after once more proffering me the choice of his wives.

Just when we were on the eve of commencing a war, which must have been ruinous to our settlement, a black servant of Adam Johnstone came to me, and said that I ought not to fight and kill his good chief, for that he had not the white woman. I was astonished, and asked the Kaffre what he meant, when he told me that he himself saw my wife carried across the river by a band of pongos, (ourang-outangs), but he had always kept it a secret, for fear of giving me distress, as they were too far gone for pursuit when be beheld them. He said they had her bound, and were carrying her gently on their arms, but she was either dead or in a swoon, for she was not crying, and her long hair was hanging down.

A whole year passed over my head like one confused dream; another came, and during the greater part of it my mind was very unsettled. About the beginning of last year, a strange piece of intelligence reached our settlement. It was said that two maids of Kamboo had been out on the mountains of Norroweldt gathering fruits, where they had seen a pongo taller than any Kousi, and that this pongo had a beautiful white boy with him, for whom he was gathering the choicest fruits, and the boy was gambolling and playing around him, and leaping on his shoulders. We applied to Karoo for assistance, who had a great number of slaves from that country, much attached to him, who knew the language of the place whither we were going, and all the passes of the country. He complied readily with our request, giving us an able and intelligent guide, with as many of his people as we chose. We raised in all fifty Malays and Kousis; nine British soldiers, and every one of the settlers that could bear arms, went with us, so that we had in all nearly a hundred men, the blacks being armed with pikes, and all the rest with swords, guns, and pistols. We journeyed for a whole week, travelling much by night, and resting in the shade by day, and at last we came to the secluded district of which we were in search, and in which we found a temporary village, or camp, of one of these independent inland tribes.

From this people we got the heart-stirring intelligence, that a whole colony of pongos had taken possession of that country, and would soon be masters of it all; for that the Great Spirit had sent them a Queen from the country beyond the sun, to teach them to speak, and work, and go to war; and that she had the entire power over them, and would not suffer them to hurt any person who did not offer offence to them; that they knew all she said to them, and answered her, and lived in houses and kindled fires like other people, and likewise fought rank and file. That they had taken one of the maidens of their own tribe to wait upon the Queen's child; but because the girl wept, the Queen caused them to set her at liberty.

I was now rent between hope and terror—hope that this was my own wife and child, and terror that they would be rent in pieces by the savage monsters rather than given up. Of this last, the Lockos (the name of this wandering tribe) assured us, we needed not to entertain any apprehensions, for that they would, every one of them die, rather than wrong a hair of their Queen's head. That very night, being joined by the Lockos, we surrounded the colony by an extensive circle, and continuing to close as we advanced. By the break of day we had them closely surrounded. The monsters flew to arms at the word of command, nothing daunted, forming a close circle round their camp and Queen, the strongest of the males being placed outermost, and the females inmost, but all armed alike, and all having the same demure and melancholy faces. The circle being so close that I could not see inside, I went with the nine red-coats to the top of a cliff, that, in some degree, overlooked the encampment, in order that, if my Agnes really was there, she might understand who was near her. Still I could not discover what was within, but I called her name aloud several times, and in about five minutes after that, the whole circle of tremendous brutal warriors flung away their arms and retired backward, leaving an open space for me to approach their Queen.

In the most dreadful trepidation I entered between the hideous files, being well guarded by soldiers on either hand, and followed by the rest of the settlers; and there I indeed beheld my wife, my beloved Agnes, standing ready to receive me, with little William in her right hand, and a beautiful chubby daughter in her left, about two years old, and the very image of her mother. The two children looked healthy and beautiful, with their fur aprons, but it struck me at first that my beloved was much altered: it was only, however, caused by her internal commotion, by feelings which overpowered her grateful heart.

As soon as Agnes was somewhat restored, I proposed that we should withdraw from the camp of her savage colony; but she refused, and told me, that she behoved to part with her protectors on good terms, and that she must depart without any appearance of compulsion, which they might resent; and we actually rested ourselves during the heat of the day in the shades erected by those savage inhabitants of the forest. My wife went to her hoard of provisions, and distributed to every one of the pongos his share of fruit, succulent herbs, and roots, which they ate with great composure.

Agnes then stood up and made a speech to her subjects, accompanying her expressions with violent motions and contortions, to make them understand her meaning. They understood it perfectly; for when they heard that she and her children were to leave them, they set up such a jabbering of lamentation as British ears never heard. We then formed a close circle round Agnes and the children, to the exclusion of the pongos that still followed behind, howling and lamenting; and that night we lodged in the camp of the Lockos, placing a triple guard round my family, of which there stood great need. We durst not travel by night, but we contrived two covered hurdles, in which we carried Agnes and the children, and for three days a considerable body of the tallest and strongest of the ourang-outangs attended our steps.

We reached our own settlement one day sooner than we took in marching eastward; but then I durst not remain for a night, but getting into a vessel, I sailed straight for the Cape.

My Agnes's part of the story is the most extraordinary of all. The creatures' motives for stealing and detaining her appears to have been as follows:—

These animals remain always in distinct tribes, and are perfectly subordinate to a chief or ruler, and his secondary chiefs. For their expedition to rob our gardens, they had brought their sovereign's sole heir along with them, as they never leave any of the royal family behind them, for fear of a surprisal. It was this royal cub which we killed, and the Queen his mother having been distractedly inconsolable for the loss of her darling, the old monarch had set out by night to try if possible to recover it; and on not finding it, he seized on my boy in its place, carried him home in safety to his Queen, and gave her him to nurse! She did so. Yes she positively did nurse him at her breast for three months, and never child throve better than he did. By that time he was beginning to walk, and aim at speech, by imitating every voice he heard, whether of beast or bird; and it had struck the monsters as a great loss, that they had no means of teaching their young sovereign to speak, at which art he seemed so apt. This led to the scheme of stealing his own mother to be his instructor, which they effected in the most masterly style, binding and gagging her in her own house, and carrying her from a populous hamlet in the fair forenoon, without having been discovered.

Agnes immediately took her boy under her tuition, and was soon given to understand that her will was to be the sole law of the community; and all the while that they detained her, they never refused her aught, save to take her home again. Our little daughter she had named Beatrice, after her maternal grandmother. She was born six months and six days after Agnes's abstraction. She spoke highly of the pongos, of their docility, generosity, warmth of affection to their mates and young ones, and of their irresistible strength. At my wife's injunctions, or from her example, they all wore aprons: and the females had let the hair of their heads grow long. It was glossy black, and neither curled nor woolly, and on the whole, I cannot help having a lingering affection for the creatures. They would make the most docile, powerful, and affectionate of all slaves; but they come very soon to their growth, and are but shortlived, in that way approximating to the rest of the brute creation. They live entirely on fruits, roots, and vegetables, and taste no animal food whatever.

I asked Agnes much of the civility of their manner to her, and she always describes it as respectful and uniform. For awhile she never thought herself quite safe when near the Queen, but the dislike of the latter to her arose entirely out of the boundless affection for the boy. No mother could possibly be fonder of her offspring than this affectionate creature was of William, and she was jealous of his mother for taking him from her, and causing him to be weaned. But then the chief never once left the two Queens by themselves; they had always a guard day and night. Win. MITCHELL.

Vander Creek,

Near Cape Town.

Oct. 1. 1826.

Blackwood's Magazine.

THE GATHERER

A snapper up of unconsidered trifles.SHAKSPEARE.

BEFORE AND AFTER DINNER

When Queen Elizabeth dined with Sir Thomas Gresham, before she proceeded to name the Royal Exchange, Sir Thomas pledged her majesty in a cup containing a pearl made into powder, of the value of £1,000. So runs the story, but we should think Sir Thomas superior to such a piece of ostentatious folly. The display of his grasshopper crest on the pinnacles of the Old 'Change was in much better taste.

The old fashion of transacting public business after dinner is not unworthy of remark and contrast with the present custom. In 1696, the foundation-stone of Greenwich Hospital was laid by John Evelyn, with a select committee of commissioners, and Sir Christopher Wren, precisely at five in the evening, after they had dined together, Flamstead, the royal astronomer, observing the time punctually by his instruments. In our days the only public business transacted after dinner is that of parliament, and the alteration of this to the morning has often been suggested: but if the motto in vino veritas hold good, it were better left as it is.

All public business in England is an occasion of eating and drinking, which gave rise to "wretches hang that jurymen may dine." Gourmands of fruit all flock to the Horticultural Society's dinner for the sake of its dessert; and by a recent regulation, tea, coffee, and cakes are handed round at the evening meetings of the Antiquarian and other societies.

Professor Jameson, in noticing the Berlin Geographical Society, says, "It does not give prizes, nor publish a journal, but confines itself to its meetings, which, agreeably to the custom of the country, are concluded by a jovial banquet." Thus, we are not alone in our festal predilections, and were all meetings of our public societies terminated like those of the Fellows of Berlin, science would become more popular, and the lovers of good living be gainers. Still, we recommend the fellows to keep out of their after-dinner conversations, all such topics as the course of the Niger, or the position of a new magnetic pole.

Q.

BELLS

Bells are for all things, all events:For victories, for fires.For hanging crimes with ill intents,Or law proscribed desires.For this, St. Bride her turret rocks,For that St. Dunstan rings;The last St. Sepulchre so shocks,That all about him swings.Mr. Jerdan—in the Gem for 1830.

Nobody is anybody, until he takes the title of somebody, and is laughed at by everybody.

We are surprised that fifty accidents do not happen every day at the Zoological Gardens—for mothers let their children rove just as if they were in the most innocent company on earth; and due credit ought to be given to the wild beasts in general for their considerate conduct in not eating up half the rising generation that pay their shilling apiece to see the Zoological show.—Monthly Mag.—Apropos, we find there are now seven leopards in the society's collection, and that one day last summer the receipts at the gate amounted to. £108. 12s.

BLUNDERS

Some people mistake the three French Consuls for the three per cent. Consols; quote Moore's Almanac in illustration of Moore's Melodies; inquire whether those two great poets, Hogg and Bacon, were not of the same family; and when asked their opinion of Crabbe, give a decided preference to lobster. Who has not heard Hervey's Meditations and Harvey's Sauce mixed up in a most unbecoming manner; and culprits talking of detaining counsel, whereas the "detention" applies only to themselves.

A JINGLING POET

The good people of Stockholm have a public holiday in honour of Bellman, a Swedish poet, who died forty years ago. We thought our gold-laced Christmas rhymsters were the only poets of that name.

SONG

The Swiss are so much attached to their native country, that a certain song, called Ranz de Vaches, sung by the cowherds and milkmaids, affects them so much, when in a foreign land, that they must return home, or pine away and die!

Oh, when shall I return to stayWith all I love, now far away;Our brooks so clear,Our hamlets dear,Our cots so nigh,Our mountains high,And sweeter still than mount or dell,The ever gentle Isabel,Beneath the elm, in verdant mead,Dance to the shepherd's rural reed.Oh, when shall I return to stay,With all I love, now far away,My father, mother, I'll caress,My sister, brother, fondly press,While lambkins play,And cattle stray,And smiles my lovely shepherdess.

Napoleon, when in Flanders, caused a double row of trees to be planted on each side of the public roads; but the present government have caused them to be cut down (though not at full growth) and others planted.

PHILO-VIATOR.

ANNUALS FOR 1830.

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1

Manual, translated by Gore.

2

Gill's Technological Repository, vol. iv. p. 208.

3

Travels in China.

4

Tour on the Continent.

5

Nat. Hist. Norway.

6

See, for instance, the narrative of an accident from the rising of such an animal, in W. Tench's "Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson."

7

See a remarkable instance in Voyage de la Perouse autour du Monde, vol. iii. p. 10.

8

All this must be understood with some limitations, otherwise we must suppose that all the inhabitants of Egypt had not only learned to write, but that they had sufficient talents and knowledge of the laws, to draw up their own defences, which is not to be supposed. This law then must have been liable to some exceptions and modifications. We must say the same thing of other countries where they tell us there are no advocates, and that all trials are carried on in writing, as in Siam, China, Bantam, &c. Origin of Laws, G.M. Gognet.

9

See MIRROR, No. 390.