The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-23 00:00:00

FURTHER AFRICAN EXPLORATIONS.

The Dublin correspondent of the Herald, writing on
Friday, says :—" One of the members of the recent
Livingstone Search Expedition, Captain Faulkner, has or-
ganised a private expedition for the purpose of exploring
Lake Nyassa to the northward, and surveying its eastern
shore, hitherto unexplored. Captain Faulkner first con-
ceived this idea in September last, when, with the other
members of the expedition to which he was then attached,
he sailed out of the lake, casting many a longing, lingering
look behind upon the beautiful expanse of water only a few
miles of which had been traversed by the party. He then
formed the resolution of returning as soon as possible, gra-
tifying his curiosity, and at the same time enlarging the
domain of geographical research. Captain Faulkner has asso-
ciated with him in his interesting, though perilous enter-
Frig°, four gallant Irishmen —Captain Norman, late
of the 60th Regiment; Captain Gubbins, late of
the 54th Regiment, an ardenshekarry, whose
death-dealing rifle has ~ften awed the echoes
of the woods of Ceylon ; Captain Casemet, late of
the 14th Regiment ; and Mr. Perrin, an engineer. The
adventurous party have had constructed for the purposes
of their expedition a small iron screw steamer, 50 feet long,
si, deep, and 11i broad. This little craft, which they aptly
call the Faugh-a-ballagh, was launched yesterday from the
yard of her builders, Messrs. Walpole, Webb, and Bewley.
She is composed of 75 sections,put together with 8,000 screws,
so that she can be taken to pieces and carried past the
numerous rapids, cataracts, and shallows that are to be met
with in the rivers Shire and Zambesi. The party intend
to sail from Southampton on the 9th of next mouth, for
Natal, whence they will proceed by steamer to the mouth
of the Zambesi, where the expedition will in reality
commence. They will then pursue the same course to
Lake Nyassa as that followed by the Livingstone Search
Expedition. Having reached the lake, they will make a
careful survey of it, and determine its exact boundary to
the northward. They think it not unlikely that they may
fall in with Livingstone, should he have given up the idea of
coming down the Nile. The enterprise has excited great
enthusiasm in Dublin, as all the members are Irishman.
Captain Faulkner is a native of the county Wicklow, aryl
all the equipments of the expedition are of Irish man
facture. The arms and ammunition are supplied by the
well-known Rigby, while the equally indispensable stocks
of beads, trinkets, mirrors, and other articles for barter
with the natives have been collected from the stores of the
Messrs. Walpole, of this city."

THE MELANCHOLY ACCIDENT NEA

CHRISTCHURCH.

Happily, the task is rare of reporting so sad and deplo:
rable an accident as that which occurred at Mudeford
on Wednesday afternoon. On that day seven young
pupils of the Rev. Joseph Fletcher, Congregational
minister, of Christchurch, went out to bathe, with one or
two other students at the same establishment, and re•
turned no more alive. It appears that the whole of Mr.
Fletcher's pupils, eleven in number, accompanied by the
German tutor, Herr Frederick Geyer, and the French
tutor, M. G uesdon, left the rev, gentleman's house, chiefly
for the purpose of having a bathe off the beach at Mude-
ford, but three of the pupils and M. Guesdon went for
walk to Winkton instead. The remaining nine, includ-
ing Mr. Geyer, proceeded to bathe off the beach on the
eastern side of the old steamer, and opposite Highelill
Castle. The names of the eight boys were Joseph Ne,,.
some Milne ; Henry Atlee Pewtress, aged 15, and ?its
brother, Arthur Howard Pewtress, aged 11, whose parents
reside in London ; Leonard Moser, aged 13, and Horace
Moser, aged 12, sons of Frederick Moser, Esq., of Carberry,
Bournemouth ; George Frederick Johnson, aged 13, of Croy.
don ; James Atlee Hunt, aged 13, son of Mr. Hunt, house.
agent, Southampton, late manager of the English Joint-
Stock Bank, Christchurch ; and William Robert Smith,
son of Mr. Smith, of the firm of Smith, Pumstead, and
Trippe, drapers, Southampton. Of these, all except the
first-mentioned boy, Joseph Newsome Milne, were
drowned. Passing along Mudeford Beach for some
distance toward the cast, one arrives at Highcliffe,
and at this point the waters of the joint rivers Stour
and Avon empty themselves into the sea. The place
selected by the bathers was a little beyond the rivers'
mouth, just -off the bar, or bank of sand, and about
one mile distant from Mudeford proper. At the time
of the boys' bathing, between three and half-past three
p.m., the tide was turning. The bathers, who, excepting
Mr. Geyer, the tutor, could not swim, were in fancied
security on a shifting sand, when a heavy wave came upon
them and carried them into deep water between the sand
and the beach. The place was one which the bathers had
been in the habit of using frequently and with apparent
safety, but the treacherous condition of the sand shewed
itself too clearly on Wednesday afternoon, when the
eight boys were suddenly swept into deep water, and
seven were drowned. Milne fortunately succeeded
in regaining the shore. " The wave," he says, " came
and put us into deep water all at once. It put me out of
my depth ; I saw the wave coming in; it carried me forward
towards the shore, taking me off my feet. As the wave left
me I was able to walk, and walked out. The moment
before the wave came to me I saw some of the others put
ip their hands, and one called for help. When I got out
[ saw nothing of them." These few simple words give,
we think, a tolerably clear explanation of the dreadful ac.
eident. Milne, as will be seen from his evidence given at
the inquest, was, Ile supposed, about fifty paces nearer
Mudeford than the others, and consequently, when the
wave came that sent the other boys to instant death,
Milne, being in the safer position, was washed ashore,
whilst there was nothing to save his companions. Mr.
Geyer did indeed exert himself to the utmost, as his evi-
dence shows, but he was unable to save more than his own
life. He was swimming, and heard a cry of distress.
Looking round, he saw the hands of one of the boys
thrown up, and he swam to his assistance. Mr. Geyer
tried to save the boy, but it was impossible for him to do so.
He was exhausted by swimming, and the boy, terrified at
the prospect of drowning, clung round his tutor's arms
with such tenacity as to disable the swimmer for the
moment, and bear him under the water. The boy, however,
relinquished his hold and perished, and Mr. Geyer then
swain ashore. The dead bodies of the seven boys above-
mentioned were afterwards washed ashore, and were con-
veyed to the Sandford Hotel. Mr. Watmough, surgeon,
was in attendance as soon as the news of the accident
reached Christchurch, but his services were of no avail,
as life was in each case extinct. An inquest was held on
the bodies on Thursday morning, when the jury returnee
a verdict of accidentally drowned, and wished to add
a recommendation that a board should be placed on the
beach at dangerous places, to warn the public. The
Coroner, however, decided that such a recommendation
could not be received, as the subject was beyond the pro-
vince of the jury.

The Attorney-General for Ireland having refused
to fiat the writ of error sought by Mr. Pigott, one of the
press prisoners, Mr. Butt, Q.C., has applied to the Lord
Chancellor to affix the Great Seal to it. The Lord
Chancellor ordered the Crown to receive notice of the
application.
THE LATE VOLUNTEER ',REVIEW.—When' the
whole of the claims on the Portsmouth Review Committee
have been liquidated there will remain a balance. o.f up.
wards of £lOO in hand ; and, as it is the general opimon of
the committee that Portsmouth will be selected next year,
it was resolved that the balance should be appropriated as
the nucleus of a fund necessary to entertain the volunteers
on their return visit.
VOLUNTEER REVIEW IN WINDSOR PARK.—In
addition to the review of Berkshire volunteers to be held
at Windsor on Whit-Monday, there will be a far more
extensive display at a later period. In connection with
this event the following notice has been issued from the
War Office :—" Her Majesty having signified her intent.
tion of holding a review of volunteers in 'Windsor Park
towards the end of June next, the Secretary of State for
War is prepared to receive applications from corps desi.
Cons of attending this review."
Speaking at a Romish chapel consecration in
Dover, Dr. Manning aagured that "a brighter day wax
dawning for the Holy Church." There were "signs of de.
composition, disintegration, and decay" in the Protestant
Church. Such a change, he opined, '• was not of life, but
of death." In contrast with the " dissolution" of the
National Church, Archbishop Manning likened the Roman
Catholic Church to an acorn, which, by slow degrees,
under the lapse of time, grows into a stately oak full of
symmetry and-splendour. -- • .