Connecticut western news., 1884-08-20
THE TICHBORNE CASE.
4 Review ot It. Suggested by thc HrIcnsc
 ot the Claimant.

As the Tichborne case will assume new importance in a short time it may be interesting to look to the course taken by the real Sir Roger Tichborne before his disappearance, and the only evidence brought forward to show that he was dead. He left France in a vessel called the Pauline, which rounded Cape Horn and arrived at Valparaiso on the 10th of June, 1853. Here strange fact turned up on the trial. 1t was shown by the report of a commission sent out by the prosecution to take tes- timony in Valparaiso that the claimant, who Is now m prison, was there in 1853 and for two years previous thereto, or that at least Arthur Orton. was there, so that he probably met the real Tichborne then. Orton lived for time in a town called Melipilla, near Valparaiso. where he met Don Tomas Castro, who was such an important witness in the trial. and whose name he assumed when he went to Australia. Castro never heard of Tichborne but knew Arthur Orton. After staying at Valparaiso about Q month Hchborne went to Lima, Peru. Here he visited and sent home descrip- tions of the magnificent churches, bought paintings and curiosities which he dis patched to England, and constantly communicated with his relatives and friends at home. He had a great pas sion for travelling and left England to be gone three years; he aspired to be a member of the Travellers Club in London, and intended writing book about his wanderings. He was kind of amateur naturalist, and bought all sorts of strange birds and had them stuffed and sent home. He purchased small yacht which he stored with pro- visions and started with his servant up the river Guayaquil, and was for several days under the Equator. He also visited and explored copper mines, writing full descriptions thereof to England by every mail to his mother, his attorney and others. He returned to Valparaiso with his servant, Jules BerraHt, and after staying there awhile rode in one night ninety miles to Santiago. Again he started with muleteers and servants on the difficult and perilous journey over the Cordilleras, and then crossed the Pampas to Buenos Ayres and Rio de Janeiro. In April, 1854, there lay in the harbor of Rio a vessel hailing from Liverpool called the Bella, about to sail to Kingston, Jamaica, on her way to New York. She was a full-rigged ship of nearly 500 tons burden, clipper built and almost new. Tichborne wanted to go to Kingston, where his remittances from England had been forwarded, be- fore making trip in Mexico. Glyn X Go. were his bankers there, and they had money waiting for him. Persons who saw him go aboard described him as a young English gentleman m half nautical costume, pea jacket. round hat and wide trousers. He was Drowned by the tropical suns and bore the ap. pearance of a man who had travelled much in rough lands. He had no money and could not pay his passage till he got to Kingston, but Captain Burkett, of the Bella, decided to take him along At that time there was great excitement Ill Brazil about runaway slaves, aud no vessel was allowed to sail with stranger on board without an official license, which Tichborne could not get, neither having the time nor money to procure one. Tichborne was so brown that he might have been taken for half breed, and the Captain underwent some risk in taking him. He was slowed away in what is called the "Lazarette," and so escaped the eyes of the Government officials. The Bella sailed April 20, 1854, passing the narrow outlet from the grand harbor of Rio and spreading all her sails on her voyage northward. Six days afterward vessel traversing her path found tokens of a wreck, straw bedding, a water cask and long boat bearing the words Bella, Liverpool. ' The night before had been gusty, but there had been nothing of a storm. She was never heard from again, and it is supposed that her cargo of coffee had shifted and that she had gone down in tdeep water, though the crew might easily have escaped in a boat. Tich. borne's letters to England stopped, and his allowance of 5000 a year was paid to Glyn < Go. But no draft on it was ever presented at their counters. The insurance on the Bella was paid to the owners, and in time she faded away into the great shadowy fleet of ships that have put to sea and never come home again.