The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-20 00:00:00

.EXLRAORDIN.4:72,I DBLIV_ERAN C.E.

An officer of her Majesty's ship Topaze, writing to a
friend resident in Plymouth, under date of September 30,
1861, from Esquimalt Harbour, Vancouver Island, after
stating that their ship haxl made a fine passage of 43 days
from Callao, arriving at Vancouver Island on the 20th of
September, gives the following statement :—" On the morn-
ing of the 7th of Sept. a boat under sail was reported to the
captain who at once ordered the ship to be hove to, in order
to let the boat come alongside, as the wind was blowing from
her towards us, when we gave her a tow-rope. There were.
only two men in her, ono of whom turned out to be an
American and the other an Irishman. The boat was a
sloop of about 12 tons, with a deck on her, and at the
masthead was flying the Yankee flag upside down. The
men on coming on board seemed nearly famished, and they
ate greedily the food we gave them, until at length the doc-
tor had to forbid their eating any more. We towed the
boat astern for four or five days, but one night, when we
were going very fast through the water, she parted the
hawser and broke adrift. When the men came round a
little—for at first they were quite bewildered —we gathered
from them and the log they had kept the following particu.
lars :—They were in the employ of an Englishman who has a
manufactory of cocoanut oil on an island called Fenning's
Island, about four degrees north of the Equator. He sent
the sloop with the captain (the Yankee), a cooper, an Irish
and two Kaneko. or Sandwich Island lads, to go b Washing-
ton Island, distant about 24 hours' sail, for the purpose of
procuring staves to make casks for the cocoanut oil. They
could not see the island for a fog, and then adverse winds
drove them out to sea. They tried to reach Fenning's
Island again, but could not on account of strong currents
and foul winds. After having been many days out they fell
in with a French ship, from which they obtained their lati-
tude and longitude. They could not make out whether the
Frenchman said 156 or 166 deg. longitude. However, they
worked by one of the two, and found themselves so far to
the north that they tried to get to the Sandwich Islands.
When they had been between 50 and 60 days out the two
Kaneka lads died, one soon after the other. I think it not im-
probable that the white men murdered them, as they must
have been very short of food, having only taken away with
them 30 days' provisions, and, besides that,they occasionally
caught a shark or some other fish; and they also had some
rain, and managed to catch the water, or else I expect they
would not have been alive so long. The last shark they
caught was with a piece of Kaneko flesh for bait. In the
hold of the sloop we found a cask containing pieces of this
flesh salted down like pork or beef. When we picked up
the two men they had been out 90 days, from June 9to
September 7. Poor fellows, they must have had a terrible
time of it I How providential it was that we should have
came right across their track I The day after they were
saved (Sunday) our chaplain returned public thanksgiving
to Almighty God for their safe deliverance from the perils
and dangers of shipwreck."—Plymouth

RES FOR 1862.
TART.

25
CJI.
Liverpool S ll
Shrewsbury S .. 27
'BIL.

Newmarket C 2l
Catterick Bridge
Think

Salisbury
Bath
Harpenden 3O
!NE.

I
Ascot
Newcastle
Hampton
TLY.

Abingdon
Pontefract
Hungerford . '7
Nottingham
Southampton 22
Stamford 24
Marlborough
Goodwood
UST.