ROMANTIC ADVENTURES OF A PAISLEY MAN.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 6, Issue 347, 11 April 1884, Page 2

ROMANTIC ADVENTURES OF A PAISLEY MAN.

Under this heading, the following tall yarn has been going the round of the Scotch papers :— " Some seventeen years ago a young man, a native of Paisley, a son of a most respectable tradesman, went to sea. His vessel foundered, and with one bo Atary exception, all on board perished. The sad intelligence was soon brought to Paisley, the fam ly went into mourning, and for seven teen long years, if they had not forgotten the sailor, they had ceased to think of him, as one about whose fate there could not be the slightest doubt. The other day a letter made its appearance there addressed to the young man's father, who several years ago had retired to the West Coast to enjoy the otium cum dignitate of a green old age. As he had long been out of Paisley the post office folk had forgotten him, and could not find the party to whom the letter should be delivered. It was sent to Edinburgh, and, after being tossed about from one office to another, was opened at London, and thence redirected to Paisley with instructions ' that every effort should be made to discover the owner. The contents soon led to his discovery, and it now appears that the young man supposed to have been lost at sea was the one man saved. A person at present in New Zealand, in the course of his peregrinations, heard that a white man was living far up-country, and he determined to search him out. On arriving at the Native village the white man's hut was pointed out to him. He entered, and found a comely-looking Maori woman with two or thj-ee healthy half-caste children nestling about her. She was able to speak a little br-oken $ng#sh tp the yisitpr, tejjl him the Christian name pf her husband, and said that she expected him home shortly, at the same time inviting the stranger tp await his return. By-and-by, the husband arrived, tatooed and dr3ssed as a Maori. The two men, of course, were not likely to have recognised each other, even though they had been previously acquainted ; but after comparing notes it came out that they were both natives o£"3?aislpy, and had been at school together some twenty-five years ago. The surprise and astonishment of the stranger may be we.ll conceived. As for the host, he explained that he had been picked up from the : wreck of the ship by a ' passing vessel, and, after many curious escapes and adventures,' found himself in the interior of NeV Zealand, far from any settlement. There he married a chief's daughter, by "whom- he has had a faintly, and with whom he has been living very happily. He feels quite comfortable in his adopted land/ lik.es bis mode of living ext-

remely, and has no desire to return to Paisley. He cannot tell how long he has been in New Zealand, not having adopted Kobinson Crusoe's expedient of noticing the time. After a long talk about Paisley and " auld lang syne," the stranger bade him adieu, and on his ret/urn to a British settlement wrote the letter above referred to.'