The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-25 00:00:00

GRAVEYARD- OF THE ANGLO SAXON.

The Rev. J. G. K. Houghton writes as follows to
a Montreal paper :—" It may afford a melancholy
consolation to some of those who ha-se suffered from
the loss of the Anglo-Saxon to know something of
the spot where so many victims of carelessness,
want of discipline, and cowardice lie buried. Be-
tween Cape Race and Cape Ballard the land retires
in a semi-circular bay: the line of the shore, how-
ever, is not even, and this bay may be said to be
formed by several smaller bays, the first, the scene
of the calamity, extending from Cape Race to the
entrance of Clam Cove. Within this bay, at about
4} miles from Cape Race, in a recess formed by the
sea retiring between projecting rocks, the Anglo-
Saxon was wrecked nearly at noonday. The ship
lies in between six and seven fathoms of water, and
on the 16th May the masts were yet visible, stand-
ing about six or eight feet from the water. As
nearly as I could judge, at about a mile and a quar-
ter from the wreck bold rocks, covered with trees,
mark the spot where Clam Cove indents the shcre,
and after piercing the land for some distance in a
direct line, turns at a right angle, and runs on for
about 100 yards. This bend is on the sea side bor-
dered by rocks covered with low firs; on the land
there is a level breadth from which the rocks rise
precipitously to the plain above, and these rocks,
like those opposite, are more or less covered with
trees, a deep belt of which surrounds the whole
cove. On this level 134 bodies, as nearly as it was
in my power to estimate, lie buried. It is a peaceful
and quiet spot, and till the rude wooden crosses and
mounds of stones marked the graves, seemed to have
remained undisturbed by the tread of man. Old
men and young men were buried there sidebyansdld
ae
—two sometimes in one; grave, a woman
full
flush
confidencetett
child, a man and a youth. It was a terribloe
or
eo
tw
see the boats bringing in now one, now
dead bodies—bodies of those
ewho had died
h in the
prime of the
prime of life, or in the
al
anndd thewh hopeere t
their
r friends youth, w. thin
waited to gee
a few
darys sail of h
, oree
; them,
where their new future was laid. After my arrival I
personally superintended the burials, and it will
be a melancholy comfort to us all to know that the
rough islanders treated the bodies themselves with
decency and reverence. Although not proof against
the temptation of unholy gain, the religion of even
the wreckers had taught them to respect the dead,
but no persuasions or promises of mine availed to
rescue even a watch or a ring as a memento fir the
living. While one hand reverently swathed the
head with handkerchiefs and linen, the other rifled
the pockets. Some were much changed, but the
countenances generally appeared to indicate that
the last moments had been painless, and that they
had passed away in peace; the eyes even of some
were closed, and the clenched hands, were often the
only evidences of a violent death. The funeral ser-
vice of the Church of England was, I am intormed,
read by the Rev. Mr. Eaton, but as the larger num-
ber had been interred subsequently I myself read it
on Ascension Day, and again on Saturday, the 16th
of May,"