FEARFUL TRAGEDY AT SEA.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 356, 3 August 1875, Page 4

FEARFUL TRAGEDY AT SEA.

- r r [From the European Mail."] A dreadful occurrence, rivalling in its details the particulars of the Jefferson Borden mutiny, is reported. The brigantine Mary Richmond, which arrived at Cardiff on June Btb, and has been placed on the gridiron for repairs, sailed from Lagos on the West Coast of Africa on December 30th, with a cargo of palm oil, which was eventually discharged at Amsterdam. There had been several cases of fever on board, but all had recovered. The principal officers were Captain Clarke (a Scotchman), Joseph Hi t sson (the steward), and i eter Van der Horst (the mate); all the rest of the crew were foreigneis. On Good Friday the Mary Richmond was in lat 2916, long 37.13 W. The captain and Van der Horst, after breakfasting in the cabin, went on deck, where everything appeared in the usual order. The steward then went below to breakfast. At this time the chief officer, who had kept the morning watch, had occasion to go down to his berth on the port side of the cabin. He had barely reached the foot of the companion way when the captain was alarmed by loud cries of “ Murder !” He at once rushed half-way down the companionladder, when he found the steward hacking with an axe at the man who was lying on his back on the floor. The captain succeeded in dragging the injured man on deck, and then returned with the intention of arresting the murderous assailant. He was violently attacked in return. The captain evaded a blow the violence of which may be estimated by the statement that the axe penetrated into a beam of wood to the depth of several inches. An attempt was made by the : captain to rush by the mutineer, but being unarmed he was repulsed. He receded from his dangerous position, and managed to secure the folding doors on the top of the companion way. The steward used much violence to burst open the doors, but could hot do so. Hearing the affray the crew rushed aft to the quarter-deck to the assistance of the captain. The man had, however, lodged himself in a position which was far from easy to approach. A portion of the skylight was removed, and the captain endeavored by means of a massive crowbar to bring him to bay. At length there was a prospect that the mutineer would be overpowered. He, seeing this, resolved to commit suicide, and with the axe deliberately Inflected several gashes on his throat, and ended' by striking his forehead repeatedly with the same weapon. At length he threw away the axe, sank down and died.. When attention was directed to the wounded officer, it was found that he was bleeding very much, and that his right jaw had been cut open, part of his left leg was cut off, and the right thigh was nearly out through ; he also had other wounds of a grievous description. As he could not endure the agony of being moved in his critical condition, a sort of rough tent was thrown ovet him, and his wounds were attended to. The steward’s body was sewn up in canvas and cast into the sea. The victim of the outrage for several days was delirious, and in his agitated state tore cff the bandages which had been placed on his wounds. A few days after the murderous assault he died, and his body was also thrown into the sea. After a voyage of 120 days the ship reached Amsterdam. The murdered man leaves a wife and family; and when the ship arrived at Cardiff many of his relatives were waiting at the port to welcome him on his return.

A valuable painting has been discovered at Pompeii, and it is said Us be the most important yet found in the buried city. It represents Laocoon according to Virgil’s description, and the immolated bull holds a place in the picture. The painting is in excellent preservation. The Scotsman says that a remarkable connecting, link with the last century has been broken by the death of a well-known inhabitant of Dumfries, John Brodie, at the age of ninety-six. Brodie, when a boy, was in the habit of running messages for the poet Burns. The Yanna Levu correspondent of the Fiji Times says:—A case of smallpox is reported here to have occurred on Viti Levu, but the statement is by a native who heard it from another native, and must be taken for what it is worth. It should, however, serve as a timely warning to be prepared with vaccine matter, and the Government should distribute supplies of it to planters BO as to get the Fijians vaccinated without delay, A pretty appendix to the measles would be a visitation of smallpox in the present miserable condition of many native towns. The late Sir W. Sterndale Bennett’s library has been sold. Bach Mendelssohn and Beethoven were well represented; Handel and Haydn but sparingly. There were only four or five works by Weber and Schumann, only one of Schubert, and none by the modern composers. Mendelssohn’s Bold well. Autograph copies of the Hebrides overture brought £62, and the quartet in D £36. Thirteen of Mendelssohn’s letters brought £63 ; “ and an album containing a probably unique collection of autographs and drawings, and including specimens of the writing of Beethoven, Cramer, Ferdinand David, Goethe, Sir John Herschel, Hummel, Martin Luther, Mendelssohn, Moscheles, Mozart, Sir Walter Scott, Spobr, and Weber, and drawings by the Callcotts, the Landseers, Sir John Philip, W. Mulready, Mendelssohn, and others,” was knocked down, after a brisk competition, at £73. A telegram from Vienna states that the Danube has taken possession of its new bed, which had been prepared for it by the Danube Regulation Commission, but not quite in the way meant by the engineers. The new bed was dug out in three sections; separated from each other by two dykes which were left, and over which the roads led to the old bed. The embankment had been raised all along the line and partially rivetted with stone; but there remained still a good deal of the stone rivetting to do in the portion between the two dykes. In order to do this more cheaply and expeditiously it was determined to make an opening in the upper dyke, so as to allow the stone barges to pass through. Scarcely was the channel opened when the stream rushed in, widening the gap soon from 12ft to 100 ft, carrying away the bridge which had been constructed, and making its way through the lower dyke. An opening was made in the centre of this dyke, when the same thing occurred as at the upper, the water rushing through and carrying away the dyke right and left, without doing any further mischief. The river has thus taken posssssion of its new bed, anticipating the ceremony which which was fixed for May 16th,