JAPANESE BRAVERY AND HUMANITY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3215, 19 October 1881, Page 4

JAPANESE BRAVERY AND HUMANITY.

The London Times says:—The British barque Ella Beatrice owned in London, was •was wrecked on the Northern coast of Japan on the 7fch of February last, as already reported by telegraph through Lloyd's agency. The vessel prior to being lost, had experinced gales of great violence and intensely cold weather. Tbe seas which she took on board froze in five mirmteson the deck, and several of the crew were frostbitten. The shore on which she struck was a sandy beach on the mainland, about fifty miles from Hakodadi, ■where she soon became a wreck. The following interesting particulars of the behavior of the natives toward the shipwrecked crew are furnished by Lloyd's agent afc Yokohama:—. " Abonfc 300 nativei were seen on the shore,

two of whom bravely swam through the cold surf with a small rope, and climbed up the ship's side. One end of a heavy rope was then made fast to the ship's side, and the other end given to the two Japanese, who swam ashore with it. The mariners were eventually landed in safety, but all they had on board was lost. The Japanese, as soon as the wrecked barque was discovered, made a large shed of mats in which was lighted an immense wood fire and as soon as each of tho shipwrecked mariners was hauled through the surf he was carried to the fire. The shipwrecked crew, having been well warmed, were conducted by an officer to a Japanese house, where a repast of fi«h and rice awaited them. They had not had a full •neal for a couple of days. The local government immediately sent word to Hakodadi, and on the sixth clay after the wreck, VI r Thompson, shipbuilder at Hakodadi, who had been despatched by Mr Consul Q.uin, to the scene of the wreck arrived with two Japanese officials. A couple of days afterwards the captain and crew of the Klla I'eatrice took their leave of the hospitable people among whom fate had cast them, and proceeded to Hakodadi.