PLUCK AND ENDURANCE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 359, 5 March 1881, Page 3

PLUCK AND ENDURANCE.

There is now in Brisbane Hospital a patient named Chang Wakoo. a Kanaka brought on by the s.s. Coera from one of the Torres Straits Islands who is suffering from a spear wound received in the following manner: —He and several other Kanakas were (says the Cocktown Herald) pearl fishing near Cape York, when wishing to clear their boat of cockroaches, they sank her near the shore, themselves sitting on the' beach. Without the slightest warning of danger they were surrounded by a large body of natives, and had a perfect avalanche of spears launched at them, by which two were killed and three wounded. The whole of the survivors broke through their enemies and took to the water, occasionally diving until they

were beyond the reach ot their enemies. After swimming about a mile, one

began to feel faint, and turned hi* course towards the shoro>, much against the advice of his comrades, who "rested on the water to watch the denouement. The natives helped the poor wretch out of the water, an 1 almost immediately '• waddied " him. The remaining four then turned thtir' faces seaward, in the direction of one of the many islands in the Straits, where they arrived next morning, having swum eight miles. Four poor fellows, two ef them wounded and bleeding, swimming for life eight miles through the darkness and the storm of a lonely sea, tells of courage and endurance in a debpised race which should make us pause when tinging poems about the pluck and stamina of Anglo-Saxons,