DEAD IN THE AIR. – THE MYSTERIOUS CORPSES.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 1023, 19 November 1872, Page 2

DEAD IN THE AIR. - THE MYSTERIOUS CORPSES.

[NEW ZEALAND HERALD.] Lisbon, July 18. A couple of days ago our beautiful city was thrown into a state of oxcitement by the sudden arrival of a transAtlantic guest, who did not come by steamer but through the air. Some fisherman who were living in a little village two " leguaa" from Lisbon were pursuing their piscatorial occupations early in the morning, when they saw a sight which made them shiver Pro in the west there came, carried by the morning breeze, floating through the air. a huge body. The supersti. tious fisherman thought it was the " Flying Dutchman," or some other thing. So they fled from the shore. The balloon, for such it was, came nearer and nearer the shore, dropping its anchor ir. the waves. On the shore the anchor caught hold, and some courageouo men from the village, who at last dared to approach it, fastened and secured the balloon, in which they

found two dead bodies. That of a young, lovely woman, and of a mulatto man. The head of this mulatto waa penetrated with revolver balls, and his right shoulder was torn to pieces, as if somebody had gnawed the flesh off it. The young woman wns lying on tho bottom of the ear, with open mouth and ghastly open eyes. The coroner was summoned, and an inquest held. On the mulatto there was nothing found which could tend to explain the mystery. But the pocket of the young lady contained sorao letters written in tho Spanish language, and at her side, on tho bottom of the car, was found a book—a sort of diary. The letters were addressed to Signora Angelina Rysworth, Calle de Bolivar, Caracas. By these letters it was shown the balloon had crossed the Atlantic Ocean, as Caracas is a city in the Republic of Venezuela, South America. But the diary contained yet more information, which threw a glaring light over the whole mystery. The diary commenced three years ago. It gives in brief notes a graphic sketch of love and jealousy. The maiden name of the young woman was Angelina Merida. She had many admirers, but did not love any of them. One of the youDg men who was most desperately in love with her was a mulatto, Daniel Fiejnola. The diary tells of bis passionate and impetuous wooing. She did not love him—nay, she hated and despised him. Infuriated by her resistance to his wishes, he determined that she should be his by any means. Once when she went to church she was suddenly lifted up and thrown into a coach, which rapidly drove away. But her loud cries for help were heard by an Englishman named Bysworth, who, with two other men, rushed to her assistance, stopped the coach by shooting one of the horses, and liberated her from the fiendish mulatto. Bysworth was an Englishman as I have said before, and an aeronaut. He made a very good living at Caracas. In a great garden his balloon was fastened to heavy anchors, and let up and down with passengers who wanted to look down upon mother earth from a distance of about five hundred yards, bignora Angelina describes him in her diary as a man of fine physique and rare beauty. His hair and moustache were of the light blonde color, which is so much admired by the Spanish ladies. She fell in love with him and ho with her. They were married. Now the rage of the Mulatto, Daniel jb'iguolo, knew no bounds. He foamed with fury a»d vowed revenge. Tune went on, Eysworth and his wile lived happily together. Signora Angelina used sometimes to go up in the balloon with lady passengers. One day, when she had just stepped into the car, and everything in readiness for an ascension, tho mulatto, ■quick as lightning, pushed his way through the crowd of ladies surrounding the balloon, jumped into tho car Mid tut the rope. It was the work of a moment. The balloon ascended rapidly, amid the shrieks of the unfortunate Angelina, and soon disappeared from the sight of the terrified and thunderstruck spectators, among whom was the aeronaut, Mr Bysworth, almost frantic with grief. Alone in the air with her cruel foe, what a terrible fate for the poor Angelina ? But she was a courageous woman. When the black scoundrel approached her, she snatched a revolver, which vas always placed in a pocket of the car, and blew his brains out. But what now to do ? Alone she was—alone in mid air. The Atlantic Ocean rolling its heavy waves a couple of thousand yards under feet. No one to help her ; no one to free her from this terrible and most miserable position. Day after day the balloon continued its voyage across the Atlantic; day after day the doomed woman hoped to see an end to her miseries, but none came. She had nothing, to eat nothing to drink. "When she bad passed six days and six nights without food the hunger made her desperate; she attacked the corpse of the mulatto, and gnawed the flesh from the dead man's shoulder. But only for a few moments. The odor of the corpse was too terrible. <- Bather die than eat human flesh!" she writes in her dairy. This book was her only solace; she knew that she was going to die, but she wanted that her beloved husband should know her fate ; and that she died with only one thought—that of meeting him, her all, in Heaven. This dairy, written between heaven and earth, is a masterpiece of female eloquence. The corpses of the beautiful Angelina Bysworth and tho beastly Daniel Pignola were yesterday interred in the Church of Souhao. The murdered murderer occupies a grave alongside of his victim.