UNKNOW

Waikato Times, Volume VII, Issue 342, 23 July 1874, Page 3

UNKNOW

imftUj&iß? uafOi, ami lu-i.'tt'Jiio'C") dffjm minute* 'J.i-,t, Swout'tbo middle of Fubniai 7 lost, when thy captam and %®t£tfy)ilA. to take to their boati. Ono of the boats, with tho " cKitf. officer vaA four roeo, arrived at Cochin on the 17th March, and subsequently the captain and eight men managed to make their way in tho long boat to Aden. Tho third ' boat, the pinntoe, with, the iecond officer and four meu, has now arrived at Calcutta, having been picked up atsi'a by the City of Manchester. \ passenger Iby the laltsr ve3jel furnishes the Frhnd qf India with the following particulars, whioh were obtained from the second officer : " The three boats kept together until Friday night, the 20th February, when they lost the captain's boat. After this they soon lost tight of the mate's boat. They mended the boat's side at well as tbey could ; bnt she leaked so badly that they had to keep one man constantly bailing. Had it not been for this necessity, for constant work, Mr Webster thinks he could never have kept the men from killing each other. One of the men accidentally broke the compass. They had no chart, only a sextant. Mr Webster kept the boat by the -wind, and hoped to make the Maldive Islands. 9th March, he wrote, ' Divided the last morsel of bread and water between us.' Two days after one of the old sailors, Davis, ,proposed catting lot*. The mate refused to hare anything to do with it, and told them, as always afterwards, that there should be no man-eating in that boat while he lived. The same day, in the afternoon, while Mr Webster wa* asleep, the four cast lots, and the short lot fell to the younger boy, Billy Homer. He went apart to say his' prayers, bnt as Davis was preparing his knife to kill him the mate awoke and prevented him. After that he threw over- , board all tho knives but two, one for' himself and one for the older boy, and made Billy stay beside him' in the stern of the boat all the time. The two elder sailors, Davis and Layford, plotted to kill the inato, and tried to do so more than once ; bnt the older boy, Francis Stobie, warned him., After that the mate and the boys kept alternate watches, so that the men could do nothing unobserved. Mr Webster read to them from the Bible and Spurgeon's Morning by Morning, and prayed with them every day. This seemed to <juiet the men for a time, but they would grow discontented and mutinous again with spells of delirium. Oue day Davis •wore he would either kill the boy or sink the boat in twelve hours. He bad already tried to do both, besides refusing to work repeatedly. The mate felt that he ought to shoot him. He raised his gun and snapped it at him, but it did not ex* plode. Two minutes after just us he had put a fresh capon, a bird flew over the boat, and ho shot it dead. The men rushed for it. It quickly picked up, divided and devoured, inwards, bones, and all, but tho feathsrs.; Davis then returned to 'his deity. The day before they were rescued was the worst. Layford knocked off work, and' told DdTJo that be wished he would kill him when bo was asleep. 'Very well,' said Davis. A few minutes uftef, Davis struck him twice on the head with a marling spike. The blood gushed out, and Davis drank it eagerly, giving Stobie a little. A struggle ensued for the marlingtpike. Layford got it at last, and throw it overboard. Then they tried to kill each other, bruising and biting each other like wild beasts. Both were too weak to succeed. When exhausted they would ask forgiveness, shake bands and kiss each other. Soon the delirium would return, and they would begin again. The next day would have decided the ' fate of one or twe probably, had they not been picked up." *