Spirit of Adventure.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13367, 17 August 1907, Page 1 (Supplement)

Spirit of Adventure.

- NOVELISTS STIKRIXG CAREER. "Dick Donovan" i-< the p-n name of Mr J. E. Preston Mttdduck. the popular novelist, whoso " L'ag.>; from an Adventurous Life" iGeorge ISell and Sons) is one of the nn.st iritere ting hooks of iittrary memoirs that has appeared for some time. Mr Muddock may be said to have live 1 a double lift! a.-. ail author. In his own nanu> he published a number of romance-, some of them historical, but all teeming with sensational incident and adveruure. As "Dick Donovan" (the name of a RowStreet runner in tho eighteenth century) he wrote some- 40 or 50 volumo; of detective tstories, which in the aggr.-gate have had a very large saL, and been translated into various languages, including Russian. Swedish, and Tamil (Indian). A journalist of note, and a -well-known member of tho Savage Club, he is also doerving of remembrance for his strange adventures by sea and land, in the course of which lie met many remarkable- and interesting person?. THE IXDIAX MUTINY ANT) NANA SAHIB. Mr Muddotk's adwnturorts care r began in his youth. In his fourteenth year ho joined his father in India, arriving :.t Calcutta early in 1857, a few months h3 f nr= the mutiny broke out. The muttering* of the storm were even then audible- to someears, including those of young Muddock'-; father, "who said to him—" Isny. I am afraid you have com? to Inrfb at a bad time, and it strikes me that b'fc.rc yon leave yon will hav.- ■ r>--:- . \i iiinr c-p:r----iences." Tit--- prnphcr prove' . •r"?--t. as a f w weeks aft r th? '.ntbteis . r Mi', rut the "boy" saved him-: It r>n:n b ■':•-, j, mi:rdered by a display of quickness mid resource remarkable in oue so young. In the beginning of February he and his father visited Cawnpere. wh:-rt> the infamous "Nana Sahib." instigator of the horrible mas-saero of several hundred Knglbh women and children, was then living. Hebad an opportunity of seeing and conversing with th? Nana, who affected to b:mnch interested in th-e Knglish lad. fre:-h from his own country. Mr Muddock tlur. describes this atrocious scoundrel:—"The man made a curious impression upon rr.e. He was very pompr.n?, exceniingly fat, with a suggestion in hi-,- walk, his action, and bis voice- of theatricality. He had intensely brilliant, restless eye?, that r.eetn-ed to peer light throrgh you. but he lacked the ponderous solemnity so characteristic of most Eastern potentates. He appeared to be particularly lively -and energetic, with a perpetual smile on his fat, swarthy face. His lips wfen parted revealed the mo«t perfect terth. the whiteness of which was enhanced by hJS oliv? complexion." At this time Nana Sahib was regarded as an. Indian gentleman of wealth and culture (he- had an allowance of £BO.OOO a year from th* East India Co.), and was very popular with the English colony. A weakness of his was as English coach and four, which he drove with great skill. A striking incident witnessed by young Muddock was the dramatis arrest of the King of Oude- at Calcutta. He describes him as a tall, fine-looking man, with a long, flowing whit'' beard, and white hair, but haggard and careworn, with a mournful expression of the eyes. No doubt he knew that, as far as hi was concerned, he had played his last card. At Bombay be saw a, still more tragic scene, the blowing of two Sepoy mutineers from guns. He describes it with the graphic pen of the nov*li«t- Several other ghastly incidentr. are recorded bv Mr Muddock. MORGAN, THK BUSHRANGER. Shortly afterwards he went to Australia, wh?re he had some strange erp:-iknees. Over two years were passed in wild wanderings, his occupations including gold-, (figging" caffle'-tlrmng7 prospecting, sheepfarming and timber-cutting. One evening, when he was prospecting - alone in the bush, a powerful man., with a weatherbeaten, determined face, rode up and grested him.- The strangeT had keen, restless tyes, and seemed constantly on the alert and listening. His mount Avas a magnificent specimen of a bushhorse, and had evidently been hard ridden. Th-e* stranger hitclted him to a tree, rubbed him down, and fed him. The two men had tea together, and the stranger then peremptorily nrderel Muddock to put the fire out. They slepi on the ground together, the- stranger being within reach of his horse, which he had saddled before lying down. Soon after daybreak he left, giving tb-e young Englishman a supply of tobacco, matches, and tea. and a small piece of bacon. "As he shook my hand and mounted his horse." write.* Mr Muddock, "he said, 'Well, matey, you can say you've shaken the hand of Morgan. the bushranger/ " He adds, " I shall never forget his peculiar shifty eyes, and his brutish, determined face." During a visit to China, in which Muddock narrowly escaped being killed by a ijoiler explosion, and failed in an attempt to join tlie- Taiping rebels, who were being thrashed by General Gordon, he made j» trip to N' tt Critic■» :ui.| t:.e adjacent- i=!artos i:t i b i-h-: t!i tiieV fishing fichooner. At New Britain li'- w.ts -niertainerl at a banquet by the cannibal king, tbf chief dish stewed snake, served with putrid shark-blubber sanre, the flavour of which was indescribable. MAYNE REID.

A fellow adventurer of kindred spirit, with whom Muddoek was very intimate in his early elays in London, was Captain Mayne Reid, the popular writer of romances and stories for linyit. What old boy of 50 or 60 bar. forgotten those vronrtrous tales of prairie adventures in Mexico and Texa-\ and their rifle-rangers, tiappers. Reeiskins. and '"yaller bellies;" th-ir '"- grizzly bears, buffaloes and peccaiies? "If ever "thrir vrixs an optimL-tie Bohemian of the good old type." wi iter; Mr Muddoek, ** it was Mayne R-.id. H;> suffered from chronic jnipec-nniosity. for he and money couldn't hold together. He used to say that those who hoarded money only existed. The man who wanted to live spent h'ts money." Muddoek tells a story of Low Mayne Reid once received a erocaed clreque? for several hundred pounds; having no banking account, and being iu a liurry to chink the golden sovereigns together, he had some difficulty in cashing it. until he happened to meet MutUlock. who arranged tin- matter for him. In a moment of geutrosity Reid invited his iriend to make a tour of the world with Lim When it was suggested that the money would hardly suffice for such a journey. Uw gallant captain exclaimed, " Xot "suffice for two men like us, who can sle-p on c-lotlirs-lines and sup off maggotS'' REMARK ABLE I-ROPftECY. in 1376 Muddoek m-t Kir Bartle Fieve. afterwards Governor «f Cape C-ilony. with whom he talked of Forth Aftican affairs. That eminent man a Temavkah <- proph-cv that wa< afterwards fnlfillrd al-rar,-,t to'th- letter. "In less than a qnar-t-f of a centurv." he .-aid. " there will be a great' war hrUvcen thi> country and thDutch population of South Afiica that will tax the vrhnl* r-sour.es of the empire. ' He add*-.!. "Ye-. Aliican affairs will occupy th- attention of the country lor many veir-. to com-, and unhss England is to We her hoid on Af.i.a. th- very highest qualities-, of statvsnuiuship must be brought to b>ar." Tlii-- prophecy was made several vearG before tiu> first Boer war. Of Mr Ht-nrv Stanley, the explorer. Mr Muddock Telates an interesting incident. The sufferan<l hardships of his African joutneys ha7l broken down .Stanleys health. Meet-

irig tli« explo;>r i:i the smoking room of the. Ht.u?c of Commons. Muddock. noticing that h • looked ill ami l>.nl ivfr.s.ed si.niwhisky and water, coked liiin if he didn't -Jsinkthat a little stimulant might he of l):iutit to him. "My d.-ar Muddock." Stan kv replied. "" stiiiiti'imr- would kill me dead. Weak tea i- tho only tiling that I can take, and that pol-ou; in-. 1 knew b fore I came home Africa, had sealed my doom. K is met !"' MR. MUDDOCK AS A JOURNALIST. As a journalist Mr Muddock greatly ilis tingni.-hs-d himself, the newspaper with which Ik- was chiefly connected being "Thr Hour." His mo.-t icmaikab'o exploit \v;i' in coaneoti-'iii with cli 3 Bravo poisoning ease, which caused an i:nmon = e sen-atior. in 1876. At the K;'-t inqucr=t an open vtrdiet was returned, and Bravo was buried in tlie Norwood CVln-etary. The verdict !-arii:;"e;l nobody, and tho Government ordered thai, the-body should be exhumed, and a fresh inquest- held. Stringent regula tions hail b;en made, to pi-Lvent any pres; representative from gaining admittance int) th ■ c.meiery. NevertbeLi s, "The Hour" pvbli-hed an account- of the exhumation. | Mr Muddock manag-xl to get. in as one of th? grave diggers. He describe:: himsAt .'■": :•, touching. ragged!y-dress-d felI>.w. with bin- arms, and wearing a leather it rap round his left wrist. He was smoking n small day pipe, and carried iifs tiisd-. as if to the manner born. An interesting literary secr-et which had hitherto b en strictly kept is revealed by Mi Muddock. After tha r>ublication of Mas OR 1 \s popular bnc.k. "John Bull and his I iai::l." :r: an Er.gVrh version, a counterIdas-, to it and nilisv Alglophnbe works that'were appeirinc in France, was pub .'isherl ir. J.r-ndon. It war. railed '* Join: Bt-'l's X-.igiibour in Her True Light," by a " Brutal Saxon." and had an immerisi s ile both in England and on th? Continent Tt was translated into French. German. Italian. Spanish and Russian. Tho sa'e of the French version was stopped by the Fieneh Government. A few weeks afterwards, Mr Muddock, when nitting 'with friends out-side a Paris cafe, heard ;i French gentleman exclaim. " Saere r.on if I knew who a "Biutal Saxon : was I'd shout him." Mr Muddock now confesses that h.-- is the author of tin work.