The Sun.
London, England, 1830-05-13 00:00:00

UNION.HALL.

Yesterday a young man dressed in sailor's clothes,
named John Popjoy, was brought before the Sitting
Magistrate, charged with an attempt to break into a
house in the parish of Newington. The investigation
of the case excited very great interest, owing to the
accused having been the means of saving the lives of
forty persons, who were landed on a desert island,
near New Zealand, in August last, from a vessel
called the Cyprus, the crew of which mutinied on
the passage bstweea Hobart•town and M'Quarrie
Harbour.

The evidence against the accused was simply this
—that on the preceding night he was observed in
an empty house by a policeman, who found in his
possession an iron instrument, with a sharp point to
it, and marks being discernible on the brickwork of
the next house, the presumption was that it must
have been done with the view of obtaining an en-
trance and robbing the premises. The policeman
added, that the accused seemed to be the worse for
liquor. The sharp-pointed instrument alluded to
was produced, arid it turned out to be what sailors
call a marlinspike, a very useful appendage on board
a ship, but not at all an implement calculated for a
burglar to go to work with.
The accused, in his defence, said, that having met
with a shipmate, they both entered a public-house
together, and drank very freely until they became
tipsy. At twelve o'clock they were turned out,
when his shipmate and he parted, and it being too
late to attempt to obtain admittance into his
lodging, which was at a considerable distance, he
(the accused), in passing the empty house, went in,
with the intention of "picking" for the softest
plank, to lie down until the morning, being accus-
tomed to hard lying all his life-time. Before, how-
ever, he had time to get well settled in his resting-
place, a policeman popped upon him, and took him
away to the station-house.

Mr. CHAMBERS was inclined to remand the case
until further inquiries were made, when the accused
begged hard to be liberated, and shed tears that he
should have been suspected of such a charge. He
then briefly alluded to his recent arrival in England
from Van Dieman's Land, in which part of the
world he had been instrumental in saving the lives
of 40 of his fellow-creatures. At this juncture of
the investigation, Snow, the beadle of Newington,
happening to enter the office, immediately recog-
nized the accused, and said that he deserved better
of his fellow-countrymen than to be placed in the
situation he then appeared. Snow knew him when
a boy, and at a very early age he went to sea, and
remained abroad for 13 or 14 years, and had not
been heard of until on a recent occasion, he (Snow)
had heard from undoubted authority that he was the
means of saving the lives of the crew and passengers
of the brig Cyprus.
The Magistrate, feeling very desirous of hearing
the particulars of the mutiny on board the vessel,
requested Popjoy to give an account in his own way
—a statement which may not be uninteresting to
many of our readers :—" In August, 1829, he em-
balked on board the Cyprus brig at Hobart-town,
bound for M'Quarrie Harbour, with convicts and a
detachment of soldiers, under the command of Lieu-
tenant Carew, an officer of the 63d Regiment. On
the third day they came to anchor, owing to contrary
winds, in Research Bay, and while lying there
Lieutenant Carew proposed that some of the ship's
crew, together with himself, should get into the
long-boat for the purpose of fishing in shore. Pop-
joy accompanied the fishing party, arid towards the
evening they heard several musket-shots on board
the brig, to which they pulled immediately. On
going alongside, the boat's crew found the convicts
had mutinied, and they were in possession of the
vessel ; they were instantly ordered on deck by the
mutineers, who were all armed, and five soldiers
were lying wounded near the mainmast, and groan-
ing from the pain of their wounds. Popjil was
asked by the mutineer who acted as the captain,
whether he would consent to accompany them to
the coast of Chili, on the promise of his being made
second mate, but he refused the offer, and was sent
below with the ship's company, who at this time
had not been sent ashore, owing to a heavy gale of
wind that had just sprung up. Finding that a con-
vict named Bryan was sentinel over the hatchway,
with whom Popjoy was rather a favourite, he was
admitted upon deck by this man,and under pretence
of going for a drink of water forward, he availed
himself of the only chance of escape from the mu-
tineers, and letting himself gently down by the fore-
chains into the water, he swam to the shore (about
a mile) through a rough and tempestuous sea. On
landing on a barren anti desert shore, Popjoy had not
been long there before lie descried a light at some
distance, and having with difficulty, by -Wailing
a broad river and crossing a swamp, arrived
at the spot, he there found Lieutenant Ca-
rew, his wife and two children, and part of
the crew of the Cyprus, in all about forty
persons, who had been previously landed on this in-
hospitable shore by the mutineers. At day break
next morning, they had the mortification of behold.
ing the brig getting under way, and steering off in an
easterly direction, leaving them on shore to their
fate, without food or the means of escape. They
were at a considerable distance from Hobart-town, to
gain which they had not only to cross an arm of the
sea but also to wade innumerable rivers, besides the

risk from the hostile Indians. Under these dis-
couraging circumstances, Popjoy, being of a hale
constitution, and an expert swimmer, volunteered
with two other men to proceed in the direction of
llobart-town, to seek relief for their companions in
distress, or die in the attempt. The three accord-
ingly commenced the journey, but they had not pro-
ceeded far before they came to a broad and rapid
river, when one of the party left his companions, de-
' daring that he should go back and expire with the
rest, rather than run the hazard of being drowned,
or killed by the natives. Popjoy and his only com-
panion then rushed into the river, and succeeded in
gaining the opposite bank, and then went forward
for about five miles, when they came to another river,
across which they swam with their clothes on their
heads. The moment, however, they got to the
other side they were dreadfully alarmed on seeing a
party of Indians with long spears rushing down a
steep bill towards them ; not a moment was to be
lost now, and the two poor fellows were obliged to
seek safety by flight, and recross the river, leaving
their clothes behind them. They were now three
days away from the rest of their unfortunate compa-
nions and on the way back Popjoy and his fellow-
traveller underwent very dreadful sufferings, both
being naked, and having no other food to subsist
upon except wild berries and a few muscles they
collected on the sea-shore. When they got back
to the place from whence they set out, their miserable
fellow-sufferers scarcely knew either of them. Their
bodies and legs were lacerated in such a manner by
the bushes, briars, and stunted wood, over which
they had passed on their journey. On the return of
this enterprising but unsuccessful attempt to gaits
Hobart-town, Popjoy constructed a kind of a canoe
out of the gum-tree in which he got out a sufficient
distance to sea to be enabled to catch fish for the
subsistence of the whole party. In this manner
they contrived to live for seven days, until the frail
bark went zo pieces, and then they were reduced to
the necessity of living upon a few muscles and a
species of wild parsley. The wife of Lieutenant
Carew and his children now began to droop away
and fall sick. It was at length proposed that Popjoy
should make an attempt to construct a canoe or boat
of some kind, that two persons might venture in out
to sea, arid try to reach Hobart-town. Popjoy set
to work, and having procured some sticks, which he
made pliable over the smoke ofthe fire, be succeeded
in forming the frame of a canoe, and with two ham-
mocks which were brought on shore, he covered
the bottom and sides, and paid it all over with soap,
which some of the people happened to have in their
pockets when they were turned ashore. In this frail
bark Popjoy and Morgan launched out to sea, and
after being buffetted about for five days, during
which they experienced all the privations such a
situation was calculated to produce, on the evening
of the fifth day they were thrown ashore on Par-
tridge Island, the canoe having gone to pieces, and
had resigned themselves up for lost, from the extre-
mity of fatigue and starvation. They had not, how-
ever, been many hours in this deplorable si-
tuation before they heard the noise of a ves-
sel coming round the point, and distinctly heard
the voices of their own countrymen. Providentially
for the two unfortunate men and their companions
whom they had left behind, the vessel turned out to
be the Orelits brig, which was compelled to put in
from sea and bring up at that anchorage, having ex-
perienced a tremendous gale of wind on her passage.
Popjoy and his companions were taken on board in
a truly deplorable state, and treated with that hos-
pitality and kindness which their situation demanded.
They gave information of the state of misery which
their unfortunate companions were enduring in their
desolate abode, and no time was lost in despatching
two of the ship's boats laden with provisions for
their use. The welcomed assistance arrived in time
to save the live' of the unfortunate sufferers, and in
less than a week they were all landed safely in Ho-
bart-town; and at the time of Popjoy's departure
for England were recovering from the effects of the
dreadful privations which they suffered after being
put on shore by the mutineers.

Popjoy produced a letter from the authorities of
Hobart Town, in which his conduct during the try-
ing occasion, was extolled in the highest manner.
It was therein stated that he was the foremost to
exert himself in obtaining muscles and other shell-
fish, for the support of his fellow-sufferers. He swam
out, fearless of the numerous sharks well-known to
abound in those seas, and he it was who constructed
the extraordinary little machine in which a naviga-
tion of forty miles in boisterous weather, a tremend-
ous sea running, with death staring him and his
companion in the face every moment, was fortunately
effected. If another day's delay had occurred, many
of those thus fortunately saved must have perished.
The bare fact of their having subsisted for thirteen
days upon muscles, is a proof to what extremity of
distress they must have been reduced.

Mr. CHAMBERS listened with the utmost atten-
tion to the account given by Popjoy of his and his
companion's suffering under the trying circumstances,
and said that his conduct was entitled to the highest
commendation. The Magistrate regretted that the
poor fellow had bean taken into custody; but
hoped if the vessel he intended to go on board had
sailed, something might be done for him to prevent
his sustaining any loss by a detention on shore.