* * * * *
Captain B---- tells a story of an immense turtle which he saw at sea, on
a voyage to Batavia,--so long, that the look-out at the mast-head
mistook it for a rock. The ship passed close to it, and it was
apparently longer than the long-boat, "with a head bigger than any dog's
head you ever see," and great prickles on his back a foot long. Arriving
at Batavia, he told the story, and an old pilot exclaimed, "What! have
you seen Bellysore Tom?" It seems that the pilots had been acquainted
with this turtle as many as twelve years, and always found him in the
same latitude. They never did him any injury, but were accustomed to
throw him pieces of meat, which he received in good part, so that there
was a mutual friendship between him and the pilots. Old Mr. L----, in
confirmation of the story, asserted that he had often heard other
shipmasters speak of the same, monster; but he being a notorious liar,
and Captain B---- an unconscionable spinner of long yarns and
travellers' tales, the evidence is by no means perfect. The pilots
estimated his length at not less than twenty feet.
* * * * *
The Grey Property Case. Mrs. Grey and her child three years old were
carried off by the Indians in 1756 from the Tuscarora valley in
Pennsylvania.
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