The Late New Guinea Expedition.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 135, 11 June 1872, Page 7

The Late New Guinea Expedition.

The story of the loss of the Maria with the New Guinea Expedition reads like the record of a disaster in early days of maritime adventure. The whole of the arrangements at the outset seem to have been of the most haphazard, primitive character ; and except in the possession of six-barrelled revolvers, it does not appear that the expedition had any advantage of acquipment or scientific direction over one of two centuries ago. In a gale that they encountered, the old ship sprang a leak, and the water "was not dropping, but running" into the vessel. It was determined to run for shore, and the frequent display of " corpse lights" at the mast-head added to the depression of spirits and boding feeling of evil at hand. They got entangled in the reefs, with the breakers all around, ran helplessly on a rock, and the vessel began to break up. The mate, while constructing some frail rafts, was "crazy with excitement," and soon afterwards the captain and six men took away the only good boat they had, leaving the rest to their fate. One or two members of the crew seem to have acted with all the courage and calm intrepidity in which Englishmen in times of peril have never been found wanting ; and the second mate, Mr C. F. Andrew, perished whilst aiding w itli his last efforts to facilitate the escape of his companions. Even at this moment of crisis, the occasion was not destitute of elements of quaint, grim humor. A discussion arose about the disposal of the liquor on board, and one of the men on board proposed to his mate that they should take a "big drink for the last," to which the other answered with the strangely-expressed scni] >le, " No, no ; it won't do to go to hell drunk" : herein differing from the sailors at the shipwreck in Don Juan, who, " Ere they sunk, '' Thought it would be becoming to die drunk." In terrible contrast with this incident is the picture drawn by the simple description of the sinking of the ship with those who were upon it: "There was no outcry; only a slight wail from those who were suddenly submerged." Then the subsequent wild vicissitudes of the survivors, their struggling for days through the bush, suffering hunger, thirst, fatigue, and constantly harassed by the savage attacks of the murderous blacks ; while their companions left on the rafts were falling victims to the weather and the sea, and many were floating dead aro.md the few timbers they had hastily bound together—it all sounds as terrible a romance as that given by Kingsley in " Westivavd Ho !" Who is to blame for all this ? what degree of recklessness was shown in the navigation of the ship ( and what amount of official neglect was involved in allowing a vessel of such a character to sail away on such a journey with 70 or 80 men, who by an evasive fiction were enrolled as seamen, but were quite unacquainted with the working of a ship >. —these are questions which may be the subject of authoritative enquiry. In the mean tinu, we have to regret the loss of 3D or 4 '.) brave, enterprising men, who perished in the attempt to push the outposts of civilisation into a region hitherto beyond its influence, and to carry on further the work of exploration in which Englishmen have for the last three centuries been engaged in every quarter of the globe.