STARVED TO DEATH. TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES. GOLD PROSPECTING IN WEST AUSTRALIA.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 255, 14 April 1888, Page 5

STARVED TO DEATH. TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES. GOLD PROSPECTING IN WEST AUSTRALIA.

Tnh t\ o men, Beadles and fehea. wlio 10-fc their lr e» in the bu-h at Yilgam. Western Auntval a, appeal 1 to ha\e hail a tenible e\ peiience before death terminate'! then f-trufcfles It had been iuniouie'l about among&t . he men prospecting near.the scene (if Mr Anst ey's hi^t i eet that M r Coh ea\ y had made a good rind. These men, Shea and Beadleslaceording to the " We-tein Mail of 10th March;, act out for the puipose ot finding oue Mr Coheavy'^ v,hcieal>outs. They provided themselves with two bottles of water and three day^' ration-. The start was made on a Thursday, and, athey did not return till the follow my; Tuesday, they were given up for lo.st. Just at that time the whole of the pro&peetoi.were making a rush to the Golden Valley, and were too ea r _rer in seaiehmg that place to give much attention to the lo»i men. Mr Joshua MiUs, being the only Government official upon the held, considered it his duly to follow Shea and Beadles, and endeavour to «avu them. Along with Mr Clarkson, lie set out on horseback, and followed the tiacks, in a .southerly direction. The two men oeemed to have gone on all night tor a considerable distance, and then lost their iiackr-. As .soon as they became lost they .separated. .Shea seems to have walked on and on until he lay down and died beneath a tiee. His body was found by Mi Mills and Mr Clarkson the day alter they .set, <md h< had evidently been dead foi .some days. They butied the body whoie it lay. At this time Mr CLxrkaon was suffering fiom fever and ague, and Mr Mills had to lca\e him and go on alone m seaich ot Beadles. With two aboriginal natives leading his horses all day while tracking, and all on short uitioiks and on very'bhoit water .supply. Mr Mills kept on the tracks of Beadles, until the body was found, by one of the aboiiginals on the following Saturday. Beadles had dug ioi water in the salfc lakes without, ot course, any fcucces^ ; had dug at the roots of the Migra tree lor its bucculent roots, had climbed trees, and had frequently lib fires. Mr Mills thinks that at last he discovered his whereabouts, for the tracks for the last 6 or 7 miles led in the direction whence the fcwo men had started. Near the body were found the ashes of three tires which had evidently been lighted as signals by the poor fellow. The spot at which he was found by Mr Mills is only a mile from a road, and whether he had gone to the right or left he would have got water atadistanceof not more fchan3miles Beadles evidently knew this, but was- unable to go further. The surrounding bush bore pitiable

testimony to Ins agonising death strugelcs. His body was also buried by Mr Mills, where it lay. M r Beadles'sdeath thorewas, vf repot I speaks true, a strange and pathetic feature The gold ot which ho was in teat oh seems throughout; his sullering never to have been absent, from his mind while hib mind was left to him. Carned with him in his Mandolines wote specimens of rich gold-bearing (juait/, which, when the usual madness or insensibility o\ertook him, he grasped tightly in his tmnds, by -which the} weio -till held when the body Mas discoxeied. Sneh 1^ the --lory cm lent ; wbethei correct, or parti} coricct, we know not. It it be true, it i- a sfiikinu; instance ot strong purpose, of oa^oiness ot pm->uit, ot one idea tilling :\ mmiV thouyht^ and shaping hiN instinct e\eu. Beaille U:ul e\vilentlv been dead about (wo da}.- \» hen his body w,b found. Too much credit cannot be given to Mr Mills and Mi C'lirkson tor the humanity, coinage and foititmle dis |ilayod )>y them in (heir search tci the two 10-t men. When he leturned to camp Mr Mills wus thin and worn and tootsoie, hawnu had to bo sati^lied with what water and food he could ean> with him, and ha\ itic, had to tiack on toot da\ alter da\.