MISSIONARY'S TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1145, 13 September 1913, Page 4

MISSIONARY'S TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE.

LEiT TO DIE IN THE ARCTIC.

FROST-BITTEN MAN FOUND BY TRAPPERS.

There passed through Auckland by the steamer Makura the Rev. Percy IT. Broughton, a Baffin Land missionary, who underwent experiences in the Arctic that have made him a physical wreck. He was one of the 16 heroic priests who have established a mission station in Baffin Land—a barren insular tract of land adjoining Greenland, in the Arctic region, and while miles away from civilisation is said to have been left by a band of Esquimaux to die. The missionary was far too ill to describe his awful experiences to a Herald reporter, but the story was related by a passenger who had heard the facts prior to leaving Vancouver. The mission of which Air Broughton was a member devotes itself to preaching the Gospel to the Esquimaux, and each individual missionary may spend years without seeing a white man. It appears that Air Broughton set out for an Esquimaux settlement and spent some time among the people. Then he left the settlement to go further inland with a small party of natives, but after proceeding some distance fell ill. Then the treachery with which the people of the Arctic regions are credited showed itself, for the missionary’s party deserted him and left him to freeze to death on a snowfiekl. His plight was terrible, for the dreaded frostbite—the fear of all those who penetrate the Arctic regions-—soon began to do its deadly work. First it attacked the man’s right foot, and he was compelled to amputate all but two toes. It seemed that nothing could save him when a party of trappers came upon him lying at death’s door. He was almost lifeless, but they brought the frostbitten missionary to civilisation, and eventually' he was taken to Toronto to be operated upon. There he underwent twelve operations. Naturally the strain on his nervous system wag appalling, ape} he was delirious for Weeks. To remain in the country which had such painful associations for him, the doctors said wag impossible, and he was told that his last chance was to leave for Australia.

Accordingly lie left Vancouver by the Alakura, and passed through Auckland on his way to Sydney. Air Broughton is 29 years of age, and is engaged to an Australian girl who is waiting for ]iuu at Sydney,