Thibodaux minerva. [volume] (Thibodaux, La.) 18??-1858, 1854-12-16
A Beautiful Story.

a oeduLl1u 0IO1ys
The most beautiful and affecting incident
we know, associated with shipwreck, is
the following:
}. The Grosvenor, an East Indiaman, home
ward bound, goes ashore on the coast of
Caffraria. 1t is resolved that the officers,
passengers and crew. in number one hun
dred and thirty five souls shall endeavor to
penetrate OH foot, across trackless deserts
infested by wild beast and cruel savages, to
the Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good
Hope With this forlorn object before them
they finally separate into two parties never
more TO meet on EARTH
There is solitary child among the pas
sengers, little boy of seven years old, who
has no relation there and when the first
party is moving away he cries after some
member of it who has been very kind to
him. The crying of child might be
supposed to be little thing to men in such
great extremely; but it touches them, and
he Is Immediately taken into that detach-
ment; from which time forth this child is
subimely made a sacred charge. He is
pushed on little raft across broad rivers by
the swimming. sailors; they carry him by
turns through the deep sand and long grass,
he patiently walking at all other times );
they share with him such patfid fish as
they find to eat !; they lie down and wait for
him when the rough carpenter, who be-
comes his especial frind, lags behind. Beset
by lions and tigers. by savages, by thirst
and hunger, by death in crowd of CHASTITY
shapes, they neyer-oh, Father of all man.
kind, thy name be blessed for it forgot
this child. The captain stops exhausted,
and his faithful coxswain goes back and is
seen to sit down by his side, and neither of
the two shall be any more beheld until the
great lost day; but, as the rest go on Tor
their lives, they take the child with them.
The carpenter dies of poisonous berries
eaten in starvation; and the steward, sue
ceeding 10 the command of the party,
succeeds to the sacred guardianship of the
child.
God knows all he does for the poor baby.
He cheerfully carries him in his arms when
he himself is weak and i'll; how he feeds
him when he himself is griped with want:
how he folds his ragged jacket around him,
lays his little warm face with woman's
tenderness upon his sunburnt breast soothes
him in his suferlngs, sings to him as he
imps along unmindful of his own parched
and bleeding feet. Divided for a few days
from the rest, they dig grave in the sand
and bury their good friend the carpenter
these two companions alone in the wilder
ness-and the times comes when they are
both i'll, and beg their wretched partners in
despair. recuced and few in number now, to
wait by them one day. They wait by them
one day; they wait by them two days. On
the morning of the third they move very
softly about in making their preparations
for the resumption OF their journey, for the
child is sleeping by the fire, and it is agreed
| with one consent that he shall not be dis
turbed until the last moment. The moment
comes; the fire is dying; and the child is
| dead
His faithful friend, the steward, fingers
but little while behind him. His grief is
great. He staggers on for few days, down
be reunited in his immortal sprit-who can
doub, it?-with the child, where he and
the poor carpenter shall be raised up with
unto the least of these, We have done it unto
me-"
The WEALTH OF THE INDIAN ARcHIpELa
AGo.-ln this connection, the following
particulars regarding the multitude of
islands forming the Indian Archipelago will
be found interesting:
The islands which form the Archipelago
are New Guinea, Borneo, Sumatra Java and
the Malayan Peninsula, Celebra, Luzon,
Mindanae-these being the largest islands
in the world. next to Australa-and sixteen
smaller islands of the fourth class-Bali,
Sumbawa, Samor, &C., &c. The whole
Archipelago is divided near the centre by
the line Of the equator, and nearly the
whole lies within ten degrees of it. This
great group of islands is doubtless the
grandest and most prolific field on earth for
advantageous commercial operations. 1t
contains population of between twenty
five and thirty millions. The Dutch claim
dominion over thirteen millions and, adj
hitting their pretentions in itsfuHesl extent
there still remains population of twelve TO
fifteen millions inha biting country rich in
every element of natural production, and
offering to the enterprising navigator a far
more profitable field of enterprise THAI
China or any other portion of the East. The
narrow-pinded spirit of Dutch monopoly
has nulified, in a great measure, the am
ellorating tendencies of European civiliza-
ton in the Eastern Archipelago. The
natural wealth of these islands is incalcu-
liable, and furnishes long catalogue of
minerals, coaI,< and anthony. iron, tin,
sicke, quicksilver, and gold in abundance;
diamonds to be found in Borneo equal to
those Of India or Brazil, and probably in
other gems
| Timber Of the most valuable kinds
abounds in the woods of Java and Madura
| The climate is favorable throughout the
Archipelago to vegetation, and the soil
wears perpetual verdnre. 1t is rich and
deep, capable of producing sugar cane, nut
megs in abundance, cinnamon, oranges, and
many other fruits and vegetables not origin
ally found there. The cabbage-palm the
bamboo, the cocoanut, sago rattans, nipali
and other trees, yield the most articles for
native consumption, with rice, so grateful
to the inhabitants of the East Besides
these, there are vegetable tallow and vege-
table wax, and native oil, wood, various oil
seeds, gutta percha, so abundant in the
forests of Sumatra; also, dammer, wild Gin
namon, cotton, pepper, coffee, gambler,
tobacco, numerous dye stuffs and aloes are
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