The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-24 00:00:00

A HORRIBLE AFFAIR.

The following extract of a letter from Lahaina,
Sandwich Islands, gives an account of a most horrible
occurrence which recently happened at a neighbour-
ing island, dated March 22 :—" You will have heard
from Captain Green, of the Ontario, that three men
deserted from him last Friday night. To-day two of
them returned ; they were brought to the United
States Consulate Agency, and made one of the most
horrible statements I ever heard. They, as they say,
hired a boat of three natives on Friday eve, and started
for Hawaii. There were three in the boat—viz ,
Walter G. Pike, of New Windsor, Orange County,
New York ; Robert M`Carty, New York City ; and
Jacob Von Chef, belonging to Middletown Point,
New Jersey—the latter a coloured man. They
pulled all Friday night, Saturday, Sunday, and
their nights, and became exhausted, and were unable
to pull any longer. On Tuesday they drifted on the
rocks at Lanai, and, having been without food or
fresh water- the whole time, and having drank salt
water, they were in a state of starvation. They
were not able to get up the pali (precipice), and
agreed to cast lots to see who should die for the
benefit of the other two. The lot fell on Von Chef,
who was killed by blows on his head with a stone;
they then cut his arm and throat and drank his
blood ; after which they cut a piece from his right
arm and ate it. After they became strengthened
they got up the pali, and met with some natives,
who gave them food, and brought them across the
island, and to this place, in canoes. The natives have
been examined, and confirm the statement made by
the men. The dead body was found as they de-
scribed, and buried by them. The governor will
send to Lanai to-morrow for the women they first
saw after landing, and for the remains of the boat."
We are informed by a letter, that these men were
subsequently tried for murder, and acquitted ; and
subsequently tried for stealing the boat, and fined
eighty dollars and costs. Having no means of paying
the fine, they were working it out on the public
roads.—American Paper.

DOMESTIC TRAGEDY.—On Monday last Robert
Hetherington, a carman in the employ of Mr. Richard
Rutledge, of Bishops Mills, by whom he was much es-
teemed for his industry and honesty, committed suicide
by drowning himself in the river Caldew. From the
particulars which have reached us it appears that the
deceased rose on Monday morning, shortly after four
o'clock, and told his wife, who was about to become a
mother, th..t he would go among her relations, and try
to get some one to nurse her. She never saw him again
alive. As he did not return home on Monday, consi
derable anxiety as to his fate prevailed, and, a search
having been made on the Tuesday, his body was found
in the Caldew, about a quarter of a mile from his own
house, having taken off his coat and waistcoat be:ore he
committed the rash act. An inquest was subsequently
held upon the body, before Mr. Carrick, Coroner, who)
the jury returned as their verdict " That the deceased
had drowned himself while labouring under an attack of
temporary insanity." After the deceased had left his I
house on the Monday, his unconscious wife, or the❑ more
probably his widow, was prematurely delivered of a
child, which still lives, and to complete the melancholy
story her delivery took place in the same bed in which 1
her eldest child, about eleven years old, was lying ill of '
fever. The bereft widow, a poor and very delicate
woman, is now left in a most deplorable condition, with
four young children, and without the smallest means of
support beyond what is conceded by the benevolence of
the charitable.—Caylisie Patriot.

Tuari-ouTs.---A strike of colliers has been avoided
at Ashton-under-Lyne, the matter being amicably
arranged between masters and men.—The moulders and
millwrights at Bury still remain out.—The factory hands
at Heywood have given notice to leave their employment
unless their wages are advanced.—One thousand miners
are out at Oldham.—The colliers who turned out at
Tonge-lane colliery, near Rochdale, have resumed their
work, the masters having granted the advance asked for.
—The principal hands at Pilling and Co.'s and Town-
meadow mil are still out.—Prwon Guardian.