Narrative of the sufferings and adventures of Henderick Portenger, a private soldier of the late Swiss regiment de Mueron, who was wrecked on the shores of Abyssinia, in the Red Sea / by R. De May.

  • Portenger, Hendrick.
Date:
1819
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Narrative of the sufferings and adventures of Henderick Portenger, a private soldier of the late Swiss regiment de Mueron, who was wrecked on the shores of Abyssinia, in the Red Sea / by R. De May. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Next day, having gone out towards the sea-shore to collect some cherries, I perceived something at a distance, which, on a nearer inspection, proved to be a large fish, completely dried by the sun ; full of joy, I called St. Julien, who was at some distance, to show him what I had found, expecting he would be equally delighted with our good fortune; but, on the con¬ trary, he was seized with great consternation, supposing that this fish must have been left there by the natives. I confess this reflection had escaped me; however, we resolved to apply our new-found treasure to our own use, which we did imme¬ diately ; but found it so salted, and the meal we made upon it excited such a degree of thirst, that, not being able to quench it, we were obliged to proceed and look out for water to allay it; we, however, took care to carry our fish and a provision of cherries with us. We went round the foot of the hill, and stopped at the first place where we had the good fortune to find water ; after which we went on, meeting sometimes with hills, sometimes with flat ground; and, wherever we found water, we made a halt for a few days, lighted a Are, dressed a small part of our fish and some of those thick leaves already mentioned, which we generally found growing wherever the ground was marshy. In this manner we subsisted until we had consumed our fish. We had travelled onwards about a fortnight since finding the fish, when we came to, and entered, a considerable forest of thorny trees ; we had not penetrated far into it when we saw, to our great fright, two very large wolves, or hyenas; we im¬ mediately hid ourselves as well as we could, that they might not perceive us, and fortunately we soon lost sight of them. These were the only ones we ever saw. I repeat again, that till then we always kept as near to the sea-shore as possible, for three principal reasons; first, because we were more likely to pick up something to eat on the shore, than in the desarts we were traversing, such as crabs, shell-fish, and other pro¬ ductions of the sea, cast on shore by the waves, and of which we generally picked up a little almost every day; secondljq to wash our feet and refresh them in the sea, which was as neces¬ sary to us, burnt and blistered as they were continually by the burning sands we were walking on, as eating or drinking; and thirdly, in the hope , of seein g some vessel pass by, and be delivered by it from our dreadful situation. We were three days in traversing this forest/* After we got out of it, we found again an open country before us, having the sea on our left, and some hills on our right; we saw, at a great distance off, a chain of very high hills, stretching right across our read. Seeing, therefore, that we could not
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