The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-17 00:00:00

NAME OF RAILWAY.

Week
ending

Jan. 10

Arbroath and Forfar •••• • • • •••• • • • •
Bristol and Birmingham .
Chester and Birkenhead . • • • • • • • • • • • •
Dublin and Dr0gheda............
Dublin and Kingstown • ..... • • • • • • • •
Dundee and Arbroath . • • -
Durham and Sunderland . • • • • • • • - • • • •
Edinburgh and Glasgow . •• • ••• • • • • •
Eastern Counties and North Eastern • •
Glasgow, Kilmarnock, and Ayr • •
0111e;ow and Greenock. • • • • • • • • • • • •
Grand Junction .. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Gravesend and R0che5ter............
Great North of England • • • • • • • • • . • •
Great Western . • • • • •
Ilartlepool • • •• • • ..
London and Birmingham, &c. •
London and Blackwall. • • • • • • • • • • • • •
London and Brighton... • • • • • • • .
London and Croydon .•••• • • • • .. • -
London and Greenwich. • • • • • • • .
London and South Western .........
Manchester, Bolton, and Bury • • • • • .
Manchester and Birmingham........
Manchester, Leeds, and Hull Assoc..
Midland Counties . • • .• • ...... • • • ••
Newcastle and Darlington • • • .....
Newcastle and Carlisle.. • • • • •.. .
Newcastle and North Shields.• • • • .
North Union and Bolton and Preston
Paris, Corbel], and Orleans • ..... • • ••
Paris and Rouen
Preston and Wyre...• • • • • • • • • ••
Sheffield and Manchester..
50uthEa5tern......................
Ulster . • • • • • • • • • • ..
Yarmouth and Norwich
York and North Midland

588
2,556
6,547
1,892
702

124

15,328
1,292
29,434
705
3,203
1,084

5,719

4,09)
5,541
13,256
2,339
1,617
439
1,187

4,670
5,020

394
524
735
255
818
2,134
3,673
1,328
696

.423
1,468
5,719
1,139

12,800

24,916

708
2,829
863

4,648

861
3,088
5,084
11,901

986
1,536

198
1,519
4,077
4,053

6sB
3,342
865
544

4,017

4,337

PERILOUS SITUATION OF

THE

BOATS OP H.M.S. FLY.
(From the Devonport Independent.)
We have been favoured with a copy of a letter from her
Majesty's ship Fly, Captain Blackwood, containing the fol-
lowing interesting details :
"After the Fly's refit at Somabaya, December, 1844, we
proceeded on our surveying ground, and having finished
Torres Straits, went on to do a little to the south coast of
New Guinea, which coast is crowded with a dense population
of naked savages, whose arms are bows and arrows, stone-
headed clubs, &c., and who are a most hostile race.... On the
3d of May, two boats in command of Mr. Harvey, mate, and
Mr. Pym, second master, were dispatched along shore to
finish the coast line, which the Fly could not get close
enough to do, in consequence of the shoal soundings. We
had also our clerk on board, Mr. Millery, who, from love of
enterprise and the interest he felt for the natives of those
unknown seas, had requested to accompany us ; in fact, he
has been very useful in compiling a vocabulary of their lan-
guage on a most excellent plan, which will be published
on the Fly's return to England. The second day after
we left, six canoes, each containing about ten men, paddled
off to our two boats. The ship was then out of sight, and we
close to the shore. Being accustomed to the Torres Straits
natives, who are wore peaceably inclined, we allowed them
to come alongside, imagining their purpose to be barter. As
soon as four canoes had ranged up alongside, and astern of
us, they let fly a shower of arrows; and, fortunately, all
hands on our side were armed with muskets,wand each was
loaded and ready. We let them have it, and great was the
murder done. The natives, scared with the noise of our fire-
arms, and evidently unaccustomed to the sight of such a
vomiting forth of flame and destruction, jumped overboard,
but the noise once over, they were in their canoes again, dis-
charging flights of arrows at us with inconceivable rapidity;
some remained in the water, and, strange to say, under cover
of their canoes, the left arm supported by the gunwale,
actually fired at us in that position ; luckily none were hurt,
although there were some very narrow escapes. About a
dozen arrows passed through our sails, and three were picked
up which were found sticking in different parts of the pinnace.
" Six days' provisions were in the boats, and after the fifth
day we began to get anxious for a sight of the Fly. The
next day, as we could see nothing of the ship, we ran down
among the smaller islands, keeping clear of the larger ones,
which were thickly inhabited, for although the natives are
peaceable enough when the ship is in sight, they have too
frequently proved—most fatally—their treachery to boats
crews, for us to trust them. We, therefore, ran on to anuninhabited island, hoping to shoot birds, and collect shell-
fish enough to carry us on to Booby Island, which is also
uninhabited, where the Bramble had deposited a supply c
salt meat and bread, to succour any of the crews of the
numerous ships annually lost in attempting the passage of
Torres Straits. We landed, each man with a musket and
plenty of slugs made of bullets, cut up, with intent to murder
all the feathered warblers who were presumptuous enough to
hover near our vicinage, for to tell you the truth, we had
eaten nothing for three days, and were getting rather
hungry, indeed it was only on this morning we discovered
our exact position in the Straits, the currents having
carried us out of our reckoning. But the shooting and
shelling party were very unsuceessful, two lanky herons
only being shot, and a couple of buckets of very coarse shell-
fish collected—rather a sorry sight for fifteen hungry men.
We got into our boats at dark, and went supperless to bed,
that is to say, laid down on the stern sheets. Next morning,
long before daylight, we got under weigh, and at half an
hour before dawn ran ashore, in the pinnace, on a rascally
patch of coral, which, unfortunately, lay right in our course.
Here the tide left us high and dry, and as in those parts there
appears to be but one rise and fall in the twenty-four hours,
we passed the whole day in this most miserable condition ;
before the tide rose sufficiently high to float us off. The next
night we anchored half way to Booby Island, and at eight
o'clock the next evening, by the blessing of that God who
presides over all, and who, in his righteous judgment, saw fit
to preserve us from that most awful death, starvation, we
arrived safely in both boats off Booby Island. Anxiou
were the feelings that possessed each breast as we beaded
to look for the provisions, for no one of our party knew
in what part of the Island the Bramble had lodged
it, and as Booby is a large rock with innumerable
caves in it, each of which might have been the one
selected for the purpose, the search in the dark, for we
had no lights, was likely to be long and wearisome. There
was too another horror that presented itself to our imagi-
nations, the probability that the natives of Endeavour Straits
had visited the island, in which case they would undoubtedly
have removed, or destroyed it all. We had then only a little
biscuit dust left full of maggots, and some indifferent suet;
those who partook of it did so with evident disgust ; in fact
some of us had eaten nothing for five days, and so reduced
by. hunger and anxiety as to be unable to sit up many
minutes at a time ; yet, notwithstanding the debility thus
experienced, the excitement which the uncertainty of food
produced, lent us all strength in searching, for it. Thank
God, kind f irtune in one of her good humours soon led us to
Vie spot. The provisions consisted of a cask of bread, one
of pork, another of beef, and a barrel of sixteen gallons
of rum. We opened the bread and pork immediately
and all commenced a small repast of bread, and raw salt
pork. We took off the pinnace a supply of bread, pork, and
the barrel of rum. Most acceptable was a fried rasher
and a glass of grog. Ungrateful indeed must we have
been who did not thank the Omnipotent Spirit for this
providential succour. Next day a merchant vessel passed ;
we frightened him not a little by shoving off and boarding
him. His ship called the Munro (Scotch), Captain Balfour.
When he heard of our distress he gave us a live sheep, and
two bags of potatoes. Vociferous were the rejoicings on our
stood
drnijo 'efihmeneseh;eeprenwleams
ik)eirlletdh,eraenwd
eirneufittftoneenanodf musu.rpThieens
days passed, and the Fly had not made her appearance.
Grub was again getting short. A consultation ensued, and
we all decided that it would be madness to remain on