The Story of Paul Boyton - Voyages on All the Great Rivers of the World

Paul Boyton

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• Publié par: nuphong
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 46
• Langue: English

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Boyton, by Paul Boyton
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Title: The Story of Paul Boyton Voyages on All the
Great Rivers of the World
Author: Paul Boyton
Release Date: September 9, 2006 [EBook #19230]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG
EBOOK THE STORY OF PAUL BOYTON ***
Produced by Jerry Kuntz as part of the Lawson's
Progress Project. Digitization effort dedicated to
Enid Fiatte.THE STORY OF PAUL
BOYTON
VOYAGES ON ALL THE GREAT RIVERS OF THE
WORLD, PADDLING OVER TWENTY-FIVE
THOUSAND MILES IN A RUBBER DRESS
A RARE TALE OF TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE
THRILLING EXPERIENCES IN DISTANT LANDS,
AMONG STRANGE PEOPLE. A BOOK FOR
BOYS, OLD AND YOUNG.
To my beloved and gentle wife, whose patience
and help have enabled me to present the public the
story of my life. —Paul Boyton
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.-On the Allegheny. First Attempt at
navigation. The Grey Eagle. Voyage on a coal
fleet.
CHAPTER II.-College days. Bruce's dam. TheFort of the Wild Geese.
CHAPTER III.-In the U. S. Navy. A voyage to the
West Indies. Diving for treasure.
CHAPTER IV.-Wrecking with Captain Balbo. In
the hull of a slaver. A swarm of sharks. Joining
the Mexican revolutionists.
CHAPTER V.-Entering the life saving service.
Grateful people. In the Franco-Prussian war.
Failure of the Cuban expedition.
CHAPTER VI.-As a submarine diver. The
Diamond fields of Africa. A floating Hell. An
escape at Malaga.
CHAPTER VII.-The rubber dress. Overboard
from the steamer Queen. Landing on the coast
of Ireland.
CHAPTER VIII.-Arrival in Queenstown. The first
lecture. In Dublin. Appearance before Queen
Victoria.
CHAPTER IX.-Voyage across the English
Channel. Pigeon dispatches. Landing in
England.
CHAPTER X.-In Germany. A voyage down theRhine. Through the whirlpool of Lurlei. The
press boat.
CHAPTER XI.-A short run on the Mississippi.
The funny Negro pilot. Down the Danube and
the Po. Attacked by fever. Lucretia Borgia's
castle.
CHAPTER XII.-Voyage on the Arno from
Florence to Pisa. Narrow escape over a fall.
Down the Tiber to Rome. Across the bay of
Naples. Knighted by King Victor Emmanuel.
CHAPTER XIII.-The Straits of Messina. Attacked
by sharks. Whirlpools of Scylla and Charybdis.
Lake Trasimene.
CHAPTER XIV.-Quick voyage down the Rhone.
The smugglers' chain. The gambling palaces of
Monte Carlo. Down the Loire. In the
Quicksands.
CHAPTER XV.-On the mysterious Tagus from
Toledo to Lisbon. Over great falls and through
dark canons. Ancient Moorish masonry. The
villianous brigands.
CHAPTER XVI.-From Europe to Africa, across
the Straits of Gibraltar. Preparing for sharks.
Contrary currents and heavy overfalls. Landing
at Tangier.CHAPTER XVII.-Paddling in the ice floes on the
Allegheny. Down the Ohio to Cairo. Queer
characters. On the Mississippi. Strange sights
and sounds. The comical darkies. Alligators.
"Dead man in a boat."
CHAPTER XVIII.-Voyage on the Merrimac. Some
peculiar people. A rough trip down the
Connecticut. Lost in a Snow Storm. A winter in
Florida.
CHPATER XIX.-Off for South America. An officer
in the Peruvian service. Placing torpedoes.
Caverns of the sea. Inca Tombs. An escape from
prison and rescue from a lonely island.
CHAPTER XX.-The Upper Mississippi. The
German Doctor and the negro boatman. Arrival
at Cairo. Hunting and fishing.
CHAPTER XXI.-The longest voyage. Down the
Yellowstone and Missouri. Thrilling adventures
through the western wilds. In the tepees of the
Indians. Caving banks, snags and mud sucks.
Camp of the Rustlers. Arrival in St. Louis.
CHAPTER XXII.-Hunting in Southern bayous. An
interesting voyage down the Arkansaw. Haytien
insurgents. Down the Sacramento. A night on
Great Salt Lake. Down the Hudson. In the ice
on Lake Michigan. Catching seals.CHAPTER XXIII.-Boyton to-day.CHAPTER I.
One bright day in July, 1858, two women carrying
well filled market baskets, were crossing the old
Hand Street bridge that spans the Alleghany River
between Pittsburgh and Alleghany City, Penn.
"Oh, Mrs. Boyton, do look at that child in the
middle of the river paddling around on a board."
"Well," said the one addressed as Mrs. Boyton,
"I'm glad it is none of mine. My son Paul, loves the
water dearly, but I took the precaution to lock him
up before I started for market."
After observing the child, who was evidently
enjoying his aquatic sport, for some time, the two
women proceeded on their way. On reaching
home, Mrs. Boyton, with a feeling of remorse for
keeping her young son so long in captivity, went up
stairs to release him, and to her consternation
found that he had escaped. Three minutes later an
excited woman stood on bank of the Alleghany,
vigorously waving her hand and hailing the youthful
navigator. The forward end of the one by twelve
inch board was reluctantly headed for shore, and
slowly idled in. As the child reached land, he was
grasped by the angry and anxious mother, who
beat a merry tattoo on a tender portion his body
with a shingle.
This was not the first time that the young hero had
received punishment for loving the water. His homereceived punishment for loving the water. His home
was within one block of the clear and swift flowing
Alleghany; and whenever he could escape the
vigilant eye of his mother, he was found either on
the bank or in the water. One day, Mrs. Boyton,
who had a continual dread of his being drowned,
was going on a visit, and she determined to secure
Paul against accident. She took him upstairs,
undressed him and removed his clothes from the
room. She locked the door and went away content.
The day was lovely; the water lay clear and blue in
sight and Paul could hear the delighted cries of the
boys as they plunged into its refreshing depths.
The temperature was too strong. Paul searched
the room carefully and to his joy, discovered a pair
of his father's drawers. He got into them and tied
the waist-string around his neck. Then forcing a
window, he slid down the convenient lightning rod
like a young monkey, and was found in his usual
haunt by his astonished mother some hours later.
From this time on, she gave him more liberty to
follow his natural bent. From early May until late in
October, when not at school, Paul spent most of
his time in the water.
In those days, driftwood, consisting of slabs, logs
and boards, were continually floating down the river
from the headwaters, where the great forests were
being cut down. When he saw a nice piece of
wood, Paul would cut through the water like a
young shark, and swim with it ahead of him to the
shore, where his lumber pile was a goodly sized
one. He kept his mother's cellar well supplied with
firewood and sold the surplus to the neighbors; theproceeds of wich were devoted to gingerbread and
even at that early age to the abominable roll of
tobacco known as the "Pittsburgh Stogie."
Great rafts of lumber were coming down the river
daily and a favorite amusement when he saw one,
was to run up the river bank about a quarter of a
mile, swim off and board it. In this way he became
acquainted with many of the hardy "buck-tail" boys
who piloted the huge rafts down the river. His
knowledge of the different bars that were formed
by the bridge piers was utilized, and often proved
of great assistance to his friends, the raftsmen.
One day, he boarded a raft, the captain of which
was evidently a stranger to the channel in the
vicinity of Pittsburgh, and Paul saw that it was
certain to run aground. He told the captain and was
so earnest in his manner, the course was ordered
changed. Less than 500 yards further down, the
ugly bar showed up not five feet from the side of
the raft, as it went gliding by. The raftsman insisted
on keeping the little fellow by his side until he was
safely moored to the Pittsburgh shore; then as a
reward for his services, presented Paul with a little
flat boat about twelve feet long by five feet wide
and ordered two of the crew to tow it with a skiff to
the Alleghany side.
The generous present was most joyfully and
thankfully received, for Paul's sole and only
ambition for a long time had been to own a boat.
As the two sturdy oarsmen with the boat in tow,
neared the Alleghany shore, Paul stood erect in the
stern, his eyes shining with triumph and