AN EXCITING VOYAGE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 95, 22 April 1881, Page 4

AN EXCITING VOYAGE.

Mr. Henri L'Estrflnge, who lately lost hip balloon through its bursting in the streets of Woolloomonloo, Sydney, has written a letter to a friend in Me lfoourne, in which be gives the following graphic account of his mishap:— "As I told you before, this was to be my last attempt at sailing through the air, little dreaming it would end so disastrously. I had made arrangements to start at 10 o'clock at night, but the Walloon was filled early in the afternoon, wi*h the understanding that it "was to be kept filled until that hour; bn.fc, unfortunately, the gas company failed to fulfil their portion of the contract, so when the time came for making the ascent the balloon would not lift the car I saw at once that if I did not make the ascent the people, by whom I was surrounded, would destroy the balloon^ and perhaps do me Borne personal injury, so I determined to go at all riske. So, unloosing the car, I made a loop in a rope and, sitting in it thus, I started on my serial voyage. Away I went, straight up about a mile high, and finding there •was no wind, and so many lights under me, I allowed the balloon to go "higher still. I then got into a westerly current that took me out to Bea, at which I determined to come I 'down to mother earth wit bout delay, but picture to yourself my horrpr, when I found the escape valve would not act. 1 tried, with all the strength of the.; one hand I had to spare' to ; niove it,! for wifch the oi her I had lo hold myself in the loop of rope, put all to no purpose, it would not budge an inch.- In sheer I. took the yalve.irope in TbolTa bonds and it opened with a Dang, ]but in the effort I had lost my seat in theloop, falling about six feet, and there I was danging in mid-air, clutching the valve rope, the'gas rushing* out of the ballopn as, though she had hnrst, coining through the air with a velocity that almost took all the windout of my body. At length I succeeded in getting back to my seat, but too late to stop the balloon in her headlong downward course, and here again my old parachute stood me in good need, causing me to drift .along and , Berving to check the balloon somewhat in her rapid descent. ' By this time I began to feel very faint, but my trouble was not half over. I fell on the top of a chimney, and then on a shed "25 feet below. I then cut myself away and canie to the ground, and here the mob got hold of me and run me ' into an hotel and would not allow me to go l iear the balloon, which, in the meantime was seized by another portion of the mob, who dragged it up and down the street, and at last it came in collision with a street lamp, which set fire to it, and then was witnessed a eight Sydney never saw before, and I hope ne?er will Bee again. Eventually the balloon, or rather this huge ball of fire, fell on an hotel and burnt itself out. Only two people were burnt out of the thousands that were present, and they are getting well. Thus ended my ?ery last balloon as< c t."