CAMPBELLTOWN.

Southland Times, Issue 1145, 11 October 1869, Page 2

CAMPBELLTOWN.

(fbom a cobbespondent.) Tuesday, the sth of October, 1869, was to hay© been a day of atorm and flood. Some of the descendants of the original owners of the soil here were so impresped with the correctness of this prophecy, that they abandoned their usual places of residence, and betook themselves to the houses of their friends who were living on higher ground ; others, although not inclined to go this length, provided themselves with a boat, which they kept close at hand, ready to jump into, should the " rising of the waters" take place. Nothing more extraordinary occurred, however, than the return during the afternoon of our pilot boat and crew from Dog Island, with a report that a whale boat with four men had been observed to pass the south side of the Island. The boat was rounded too on the east end, for the purpose, of taking an observation of the locality, which apparently was not satisfactory, as the crew pulled away in the direction of Bushy Point. The boat.

and crew were evidently strangers, and the proceedings' of the latter justified that conclusion* Various were the conjectures hazarded as to who they were, where from, and where they were going to. Some thought they must be " castaways ;" then it was naturally asked why they did not enter the harbor, as the weather was fine, and there was nothing to prevent j them ; others thought they were probably some runaways from a ship at Stewart's Island ; and a few of a rather nervous temperament were sure that they were some scoundrels who had committed mutiny on the high seas, and perhaps murdered the captain and crew, calculating on the probability of being visited by them during the night. However, as the night drew near, the matter was in the meantime allowed to slumber, people being occupied in listening to Mr Wood discoursing on the advantages of annexation. But just at the close of the meeting, some one reported that there was a fire on Tewais Point (the usual signal for a boat afc night). Glasses were soon brought into requisition, and the four men of the mysterious whale-boat were seen standing round the fire. They had evidently run the gauntlet of landing on the ocean beach, between Tewais Point and Toi Tois, which can only be done with safety by experts in very fine weather. A boat was soon despatched to see who those men were who thus despised the usual mode of landing in a safe harbor, and preferred to risk the open beach. Strange to say, when the boat reached the shor^, no men were to be seen, they having evidently made off on its approach. The voluuteer crew therefore returned, under the conviction that they had been " sold." The strangers were also observed by people at the Pilot Station, from whence a. boat was sent over for them, but with a similar result. The following morning the men arrived at the Bluff, when the mystery was explained somewhat in the following way. They were a party of prospectors from Ruggedy, and bound to Invercargill, but got drifted through the Straits with the flood tide, and landed at Bushy Point, hauled up their boat, and walked up to Tewais Point.