FEARFUL ADVENTURES OF A CONSTABLE.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 188, 22 January 1887, Page 3

FEARFUL ADVENTURES OF A CONSTABLE.

The Brisbane " Cburier," of 20fch of December, furnishes the following particulars of the wanderings of a constable in the 3* far West of Queensland :— " Constable F. 0 Moran, having been transferred to Isisford, left Arrilalah. for that place at 11 o'clock ™ a.m. on the 2nd instant. Nothing was 1, heard of him until the evening of the 12th I instant, when news was brought to Arrilalah by u casual traveller that Moran had not ts been heard of at Isisford. The officer in & charge of the police here at once despatched a Trooper Quin and a blackboy to find out c wht.t had become of him On the 14th inif stant, Mr Clark, overseer at Westlands, 1 was informed by a boundary rider that he i had observed the tracks of a man in one of the Westlands paddocks, and, from r the aimless manner in which the tracks i seem to go round and about, the boundary y rider concluded the man was lost. Mr b Clark, with praiseworthy promptitude, im- ■ mediately started out to search for the . unfortunate, whoever he might be. Taking i up the tracks where the boundary rider had b left them, Mr Clark, after a patient search, j found a saddle, bridle, and pack-saddle, , all having the Government brand. Mr r Clark immediately galloped into Arrilalah I and reported having found the things, 3 which were at once known by Seniors constable W. Considine to have been in possession of Moran. At three o'clock on the morning of the 15th instant, thirteen days after Moran had left Arrii lalah, a search party started to find his remains, for not one was sanguine enough i to think of finding him alive. Led by Mr Clark, the party soon found the camp where Moran's saddles, bridles, etc., were, and picking up the trucks followed them . peraeveringly, determined, if it were possible, to find him, alive or dead. About 3 o'clock p.m. they found written in large [ letters, on a bare patch of claypan, • A man lost in this paddock,' The writing was not more than a day or so old, and with strong hope of finding poor Moran still alive the party eagerly coutiuued theiraearch. Further on they found freshly-pulled grass and boughs. Finally about halt-past 3. p m. the object of their search waa discovered sitting resignedly on the ground, alive, it is true, but, alas ! what a piteous object to gaze upon- emaciated and worn ! by his terrible last, having besn 14 days without tasting food ; naked, bleeding, and swollen from exposure and bites of mosqui toes and sandflies. The wonder and admiration of the rescuers was excited at the indomitable pluck which alone could have enabled the poor fellow before them to have survived such a terrible ordeal as he had undergone. 11 His account of how he got lost is as follows : — His packhorse, a wild brute, got j away, and it took him all da^ to recover J him. He camped fchefi rat night after leaving Arrilalah at the place where his saddles and clothes were found. The night being close and sultry, he had taken off everything except his shirt. Hearing his horses going by him, he started away without losing a moment to head them and turn them back. It was a more difficult task than he had expected, and before he had accomplished it a terrific storm came on. The rain poured down in torrents. Intense darkness, only broken by vivid flashes of lightning, which, when past, made the darkness felt the more, completely bewildered him. Presently the creeks and watercourses became flooded, and the sound of the rushing waters added new horrors to the night. All night the storm continued. Next morning the water had entirely obiterated all landmarks, and his desperate situation burst upon him in all its terrible reality. Naked, without food ; lost in a place which no one, no matter how good a bushman he might be, could possibly recognise in its present flooded state ; add to this the not remote prospect of being drowned by tho ever-rising waters, and you have a state of things which might well make the stoutest heart quail. For ten days the rain continued, and the unfortunate man, whenever he attempted to strike for where he thought the road lay, was driven out of his course by some creek too wide and swollen to be crossed. He says, and we may well believe, that neither tongue coold tell nor pen describe his sufferings during thosa ten days and nights of agony. After the tenth day his sensations became less acute, as he doos not*retain such distinct recollection of tho last four days of misery. Yet he was [ perfectly coherent and rational when found. He recognised each member of the party, and Baid he had never given up' hope."