The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-11-21 00:00:00

THE END OF ROGER TICHBORNE.
(From Wettnesday's Timm)

The Inman Royal Mail steamer City of Brooklyn,
which arrived at Cork at an early hour yesterday
morning, brings files of New York papers to the 7th
inst. The New York World, of the sth inst., contains
a letter from Honolulu, dated October 8, stating that
an old English sailor has given an apparently truthful
statement with reference to the fate of Sir Roger
Tichborne, according to which he was buried in a
desert island, Sydney Island, in the South Pacific,
in. 1851. This old sailor, George Claridge by
name, bears the reputation, among all who are ac-
quainted with him, of being an upright, truthful
person and, withal, a man of deep piety. His igno-
rance on general topics would utterly preclude the
possibility of imposition in his statements here given
if any object could exist for deception. It is quite im-
possible that he could have obtained any knowledge of
Sir Roger Tichborne or his family except from the lips
of that gentleman himself in the manner he describes.
As soon as this matter got abroad Ernest C. Stock, a
leading merchant on the Hilo, visited Claridge, and ex-
hibited to him a copy of the Migrated London Nees
containing engravings of the Tichborne family. He
immediately pointed out the likeness of Sir Roger and
exclaimed, ' 'That is the man whom I buried in Sydney
Island." This island lies south-east from the island of
Rotumah, between 200 and 300 miles, and is occa-
sionally visited by vessels in quest of bechc de Incr.
Claridge is one of a thousand of his class of
" rovers " who drift about the islands of the Pacific
and finally. settle down in some chosen haven of rest to
spend their old age. His statement is to the follow.
jog effect :
"In the year 1854, as near as he could remember, he
left a ship at Rotumah. After he had been on that
island some time a schooner named the Annie, engaged
in the beche de flier fishery, called there. On going on
board Claridge found she was just out out from home,
and that off the River Plate she had picked up a boat
containing two men in a famished condition and they
were then on board the schooner. The master of the
schooner, a Frenchman, told Claridge that one of the
rescued men was anlEnglish gentleman, very sick, and
that he spoke French as well as himself. Claridge
engaged to go in the schooner to take care of the
sick gentleman and to help to get a cargo.
He thinks this was in the early part of 1855, but
does not remember distinctly. The vessel, he believes,
was American, but he remembers no particulars about
her, nor the names of any of her crew. Five days
after leaving Rotumah they reached Sydney Island,
where they found no inhabitants and plenty of beche de
mer. Claridge, with some natives of Rotumah, went
ashore to pursue the fishery, and the sick gentleman, at
his own request, was also put on shore, with everything
the vessel afforded to add to his comfort. The schooner
sailed away, intending to return in a short time, but
Claridge has heard no tidings of her from that day to
this, and conjectures that she was lost. He was some
two years on that island before it was again visited by
a vessel. Some time after landing on the island the
sick gentleman said but little to any one, but as
he got worse he called Claridge to him and told
him that be was near his end, and requested him to
procure a quill from one of the wild birds that fre-
quented the island, to make a pen of. He had a scrap
of paper in which had been wrapped a bit of cheese,
from the schooner, and on this, with blood from a bird,
he wrote something. This paper he gave to Claridge
and told him to keep it sacred, and the first ship that
came to have it copied, to keep the original himself,
but by all means to make it public whenever he got
to • civilized land. He then informed Claridge that
his name was Roger Tichborne. This happened on the
10th or 12th day after landing on the island. After
this the sick man was frequently delirious until he
died about the 18th day after landing. In his lucid
moments he stated that he sailed from Rio in a ship
deeply loaded, that she went down in a squall, and
that himself and seven others got into a boat which
drifted about until all perished except himself and
one other person, and that they were forty days in
the boat before being picked up. He said that if
he could get to Hongkong he should have plenty
of friends and money. In his delirium he frequently
spoke of his father, with whom he appeared to
have quarrelled, and he often fancied himself talking
to his mother, whom he addressed in French. Claridge
kept the paper as directed and showed it to the
captain of the ship, who eventually took him from the
island. It met with no attention. After getting to
Wellington island a New Bradford boy, named
Mandell, copied a part of the writing (some of it being
in French), but Claridge does not know what dis-
position he made of it. Mandell was on the whaling
ship Miles Standish, and promised to transmit the
paper to the relatives of Tichborne through the first
British ship or Consul he should inset with. Whether
he ever had that opportunity is unknown."

•
The original paper, written by Sir Roger Tichborne,
is now in the possession of Claridge. It is a soiled and
dilapidated wrap, and the inscription it beam in the
blood of a bird has almost completely faded out. The
idgnattire, however, can dill be traced. The remainder