The Cairo Bulletin

WHAT THE WAVES WASHED UP.
The Body of a Petrified Man—A Turtle Once Captured by Lafitte's Men—Fight Between Sea Serpents and a Devil-Fish—Centipedes and Tarantulas—Ins-Damnation of The Petrified Body.

Galveston, October 4th, 1875.

Editor Bulletin:—When the waters of the bay receded from the land, in and around Indianola, thousands upon thousands of the inhabitants of the deep were left upon dry ground. Snakes of every length, color and shape, from the earth and out of the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, writhed and fought over the ground. In one place a devil-fish of monster proportions, held in its embrace a young girl, whose form was white as snow, all the life-blood being sucked from the body by the hideous thing wrapped around it. In another, snakes with long slender bodies, and heads resembling those of monkeys—large and round, with projecting ears, and little pale red eyes, and emitting from their sides a vibrating phosphorescent light, were in combat with a devil-fish. He was absorbing and sucking the blood out of them as fast as his deadly fingers or suckers could reach them. I watched the battle with much attention, and as night came on it appeared evident that the snakes had the advantage of the devil-fish, one of them appearing to have entered the body of the fish near the back of the head. Centipedes by the hundreds, and tarantulas by the thousands, covered the trees and bushes. A petrified man, with golden ornaments imbedded in his form, was found about half way between Indianola and the old town. It measured seven feet in length, the countenance being of an Egyptian cast, and three indistinct representations of pyramids shone on the face of one of the golden ornaments. Directly in the center of the town, under a wrecked building, a turtle, three and a half feet in width, and five feet long, was found—alive. On his back, in Roman letters, was—'Lafitte: Grand Terre, 1819—Role de Equipage.' Then followed a list of names, many of which were legible. The turtle is in the possession of John J. Hand, of the Galveston News, and the petrified man in the care of Mayor Fulton, of this city, and is on exhibition at the custom house. Colonel I. J. Du Pre, editor of the Austin Statesman, arrived here to-day to examine the man. He will escort it to Austin and present it to the members of the Constitutional Convention, in session in his city. The Governor proposes to erect it as a statue in the State-house yard. Its weight is 1,940 pounds. Colonel Du Pre will write a description of it for publication in Appleton's Journal, with fac simile illustrations.