The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-10-03
ANEW CHAPTER IN THE TICHBoRNE
ROMANCE.

solution OF the mystery which hangs about the
death of Sir Roger Tichborne, should be dis
covered in these Islands. A correspondent of
the ADVERTISER, writing from Hilo, under date Of
the 22d ult., thinks he has discovered in that dis
trict the man who saw Sir Roger die, and who
buried him on Sydney Island, in the South Pacific
Ocean. This island lies Southeast from the isl
and of Rotumah, from two to three hundred
miles, and is occasionally visited by vessels in
quest of biche de mer. George Claridge is the
name of the man who claims to have seen the last
of Tichborne. He is a person of limited educa-
ton, being able to read but little and cannot
write; he is an E~nglishman, and so far as our
correspondent is aware, bears a good name. Re
Gently, in looking at the engrayings of the Itch
borne Family in some numbers of the Illustrated
London Ne1cs, he pointed at that Of Sir Roger
and exclaimed, THAT is the man whom / buried
on Sydney Island - The following is his state
ment:
Like many others of his class in the Pacific,
he had drifted about from one island to another,
and in 1854, as near as he can remember, he left
a ship at Rotumah. After he had been on that
island some time, a schooner named the Annie,
engaged in the hche de mer fishery called there.
On going on board, Claridge found that she was
just AOLAC aAN hHo' IA SH~ NV
she had picked up q boat, containing two men in
a famished condition, and they were then on
board the schooner. The master of the schooner,
who was q Frenchman, told Claridge that one of
the rescued men was an English gentleman, very
sick, and that he spoke French as well as himself.
Claridge engaged to go in the schooner, to take
care of the sick gentleman, and to help get a car
go. He thinks this was in the early part of 1855,
but does not remember distinctly. The vessel he
believes was American, but he remembers no par
ticulars about her, nor the names of any of the
crew.
Five days after leaving Rotumah, they reached
Sydney Island, where they found no inhabitants,
and a plenty of biche de mer. Claridge with some
natives of Rotumah went ashore to pursue the
fishery, and the sick gentleman at his own request
was also put on shore, with everything the vessel
afforded to add to his comfort. The schooner
sailed away, intending to return in a short time,
but Claridge has heard no tidings of her from
that day to this, and conjectures that she was lost.
He was some two years on the Island before it
was again visited by a vessel.
For some time after landing on the island, the
sick gentleman said but little to any one, but as
he got worse he called Claridge to him, and told
him that he was near his end, and requested him
to procure a quill from one of the wild birds that
frequented the island, to make a pen of. He had
q scrap of paper in which had been wrapped a bit
of cheese from the schooner, and on this, with
blood from a bird, he wrote something. This
paper he gave to Claridge and told him to keep it
sacred, and the first ship that came to have it
copied; to keep the original himself, but by all
means to make it public whenever he got to a
civilized land. He then informed Claridge that
his name was Roger Tichborne. This happened
the tenth or twelfth day after landing on the isl
and.
After this, the sick man was frequently deliri-
GUS, until he died about the eighteenth day after
landing. In his lucid moments, he stated that he
sailed from Rio in a ship deeply loaded, that she
went Town in a squall, and that himself and
seven others got into a boat, which drifted about
until all persisted except himself and one other,
who were forty days in the boat before being
picked up. He said that if he could get to Hong
Kong, he should find a plenty of friends and
money.
In his delirium, he frequently spoke of his
father, with whom he appeared to have quarreled,
and he often fancied himself talking to his mother,
whom he addressed in French.
Claridge kept the paper as directed, and show
W ~ " SAC SdBNlAb " liC snip viz NOhSNAob
took him from the island, but it met with no
attention. After getting to Wellington Island, a
New Bedford boy, named Mandell, copied a part
of the writing (some of it being in French) but
Claridge does not know what disposition he made
of it. Claridge kept the original until eight years
ago, when it was lost with other papers by the
u~psetting of a boat.
Such is the plain, and, it appears to us, proba-
BILE story of the man who belives that he buried
Sir Roger Tichborne. Many of our readers have
doubtless become familiar with the remarkable
trial in the Court of Common Pleas at Westmin-
ster IN 1871, entitled Tichborne VS.. Washington,
and the no less remarkable second trial Of the
" Claimant . and his conviction for perjury in
1873. Sir Roger, it will be remembered, left
Europe in March, 1853, for Valparaiso. Arriv-
ing there in due course of time, he travelled across
the continent to Rio de Janeiro, whence he took
passage for New York in the month Of April,
1854. That ship, called the Bella, is believed to
have foundered at sea, the owners and under
writer's having treated her as lost, but no tidings
were ever heard as to the fate of her crew except
that one boat identified as belonging to the Bella
was met with at sea, with no one on board. The
" Claimant it will be remembered, stated in his
affidavit that the Bella sprung aleak and was
abandoned on the fourth day out from Rio, and
three days and nights in the boat, were picked
up by n vessel called the Osprey, and landed at
Melbourne in July, 1854.
TIL Short of a Long Story.