A STRANGE STORY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 8, 10 April 1878, Page 2

A STRANGE STORY.

Our readers may, perhaps, remember that a few weeks 'ago a strange story was telegraphed from Dunedin of enquiries being made regarding certain people who were stated to have been captured several years ago when iv a boat to the north of Scotland and brought out to New Zealand against their will. Tbe whole story read so like, a hoax that probably few evel' gave the matter a second thought, and that it had but little foundation now appears pretty clear, but only after a long correspondence, iv which Earl Carnarvon, Sir Henry Bulwer the Governor of the Cape, and a host of minor officials have taken nart' and a searching enquiry by the police in this colony. We have had an opportunity of perusing the whole of the correspondence, from which we gather that the report originated with the Rev. J. McKay, a Scotch minister in the Hebrides who in February, 1877 addressed the following curious letter to Captain Digby, of H..M S. Jackal— where ' she was stationed at that time is not mentioned: — St. Kilda Manse, Feb. 27, 1877. Hon. Sir— l beg to intimate to you that iv April, 1863, a boat left here with a view of going to Harris for a supply of provisions for ' themselves and the rest of the people of this island of which nothing certain was ever heard. It was tbe belief then of people that the boat with its crew had been drowned on their way to the mainland as they were never seen or heard of by any who could inform their dear friends of their melancholy fate. But it has now turned out that they were only taken up or away by some bad ship which met them on their way, as one of the missing men on his death-bed charged Messrs George Preston and George Bancroft to write to his father Lachlau Mackinnon here from Transvll Republic Sydenberg Delegoa Bay S.E. Africa. When the proprietor's ship with our summer supplies arrived here on the vi st last June Lachlau Mackinnon received a letter from the above gentleman stating that this Donald Mackiunon died in the hospital of a fever at the gold ..diggings Sydenburg, and that he ordered them to send him his money, which they did, and Lachlau Mackinnon, his father, acknowledged receipt of the money to the above gentlemen. Since the people heard this in June last they are anxious to know if any other of St. Kiklians had been with Donald Mackinnon when he died, as it was reported that six of the eight are still living. Their names are Mrs Malcolm Macdonald, or Betty Scott— the Duke of Athol called her the Queen of St. Kilda— she was reported to be in the United States of America; Alexander Gillies, unmarried; Donald Gillies, married; Donald Gillies, a young lad, unmarried; Angus Macdonald, married ; Douald Macdonald, unmarried ; Evan Gillies, unmarried. As there is no postal communication' between this and the mainland, pray be kind enough to write a few lines to the Secretary of Foreign Department to see if he has heard anything of the whereabouts of the St. Kilda captives. I write you this at the special request of Malcolm Macdonald, who Jis deeply lamenting the loss of his wife. He was sadly cast down, when I told him that you did not bear anything about the missing St. Kiidians. He had some faint hopes that she migbt have returned to Scotland before now— Poor manl I am, &c, John McKay. Captain Digby, H.M.S. Jackal. On reading the above it is easy to imagine the excitement that reigned in the quiet little island of St. Kilda when the news arrived that one of tbe old residents had received tidings of, and money from, his son, who was supposed to have been drowned fourteen years previously. No doubt the matter was discussed in all its bearings, and formed the theme of conversation for months, a little bit being added to it on each repetition until the people had at last persuaded themselves that there had been piracy on the high seas, and that their friends had been carried off captives against their will to some foreign land. One may also picture the simpleminded, kindly-hearted old minister sitting down in his manse, and by dint of great and continued labor composiugtheforegoingletter in the hope that he to whom it was addressed would " write a few lines to the Secretary of Foreign Department to see if he has heard anything of the whereabouts of the poor St. Kilda captives." Captain Digby did his work well. He appears to have placed himself in communication with the Secretary of State for the Colonies, who enclosed a copy of the Scotch minister's letter to Sir Henry Bulwer. Sir Henry wrote to the Transvaal authorities, who traced out George Bancroft aud George Preston, the two persona named in Mr Mackay's letter, and' received from them letters in reply to their . inquiries. From these, which form part of the correspondence before us, it appears that Mr Preston knew Mackinnon intimately, but he stales that he was of an extremely reserved disposition, and never referrf d to his previous history, all that he ever said about it being tbat he left Scotland several years ago and went to Australia, where he was first a stockman, and then a digger, and afterwards went to the Cape diamond-fields. Bancroft says " There are miners now on the fields who not only knew the late Donald Mackinnon, but were at Dunedin in Australia (sic) when he and others arrived in 862. The Gold Commissioner at Transvaal also made enquiries himself and ascertained from John Sayle that he " met Mackiunon in New Zealand. He says Mackinnon was keeping a dairy at a place called Charleston, Province of JN'elson, aud was also engaged in a crushing machine ou a lead called Moonlight on Charleston diggings. Upon the receipt of all this information the Earl ,of Carnarvon wrote to the Governor of New Zealand on the matter. " Looking to the isolation and poverty of the people interested " he says, " and to their consequent inability to pursue the necessary inquiries for themselves, perhaps your Lordship's Government would be good enough to cause such enquiries to be made at Dunedia

as may throw light on the fate of the survivors, other than Mackinnon whose fate is already mentioned." This letter was received last January, and tbe affair was at once placed in the hands of the Dunedin police, who traced the man to Charleston, aud then banded the enquiry over to Inspector Kiely, from whom we learn that he has ascertained from a Mr Lowe aud Mrs Hatch that tbey were fellow passengers with Mackinnon from home in the ship Sevilla in 1862, that they all embarked from the Tail of the Bank, Glasgow, arrived at Dunedin in November, when they parted with I'ackinnon, who went to the Benmore station, then to the Otago diggings, and thence to Charleston where he kept a dairy in' partnership with a man named Lewes, and in 187.) left for Victoria. From this appears either that the poor people in the Hebrides are mistaken in the year when the boat was missing, which they state to have been 1563, whereas Mackinnon is proved to have arrived iv New Zealand in 1862, or that the Mackinnon who has been, traced through New Zealand to Australia and to the Cape is not identical with the one who was lost in 1803, and consequently the money scut home from the Cape has fallen into the bands of the wrong Mackinnon. The story, however, is iuteri sting as showing that the authorities interest themselves in these matters, and that a man can be very easily traced after an absence of several years.