The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-06-16
A CORNISH MURDER.
The Witness of the Crime Reveals 1t After
Fifty Years.
1.-THE Cornishman.l

1.-The Cornishman.l
The writer, then junior in a firm in
London, of which he is now the head, came
TO Penzance in September, 1894, to arrange
terms among local tin smelters. He left
PenZance one evening to visit a friend IN
st. Just, which is about six miles from Pen
zance. On the way there, in a lonely part
of the road, he met two men, when be
heard one say, "That's him." while the
other asserted "No, it is not" They again
faced each other, when the two men said
they had taken him for another person.
Almost Immediately man approached
from the direction of st. just, and the
writer called his attention to the suspicious
character of the two men. The man, who
said he was mine agent, laughed at his
fears and went on his way. He had only
proceeded about couple of hundred yards
when he was seized with nervous tremors.
His legs refused to support him, and he
fell in the middle of the road, but thought
it better not to stay there, and so proceed
ed on hands and knees across the road,
scrambled up small bank, and found him
self on common. He dragged himself to
a heather-covered strip between two
cIumps of furze, and threw himself at
length and closed his eyes. After a little
time he looked around, and the moonlight
revealed to him a newly made mound
Hearing two shots fired he crouched and
waited, and he saw two men just after
bearing the body of a third man.
To quote his letter:
''Once more thrill of horror ran through
me- On they came toward the newly made
grave, almost touching my feet as they
moved past. Then they turned to the right
and threw the body into the pit. The
-, 20 m hApan To
fill it up. They had not lowered the mound
many inches when one of them discovered
me. They bounced upon me and demanded
what L was doing there. l explained, but
all to no purpose. The same pit will do
for him. Yes shoot him. No; cut his
throat Stop, I'll find my pistol again;
don't leave any marks of blood about;
push him in the pit first, and cut his throat
afterward.' These were the horrible
threats, accompanied by frightful impre-
cations, which greeted me. Said one OF
the men to me again: we have decided to
bury you alive; slip off your clothes; it's
hardly worth while burying that good suit
of clothes of yours; it will do for one OF US.
[ pleaded my youth, my accidental and
unprecedented presence, my newly made
wife and only child, and this at last seemed
To touch the hearts of the brutes. We'll,
=
ton that you swear, as you hope for
heaven and the salvation of your wife, child
and friends; you shall swear it, too, on the
Doint of this knife and the muZzle of this
pistol. that what you have seen this night
YOU will never speak of or divulge to
any human being for space of fifty years
from this day, when we shall all be as
this.' at the same time kicking into the
grave a clod of light-cOlored clayey soil.
/ did swear most solemnly. bought my
life on that lonely heath of West Penwith.
[ have kept my promise. 1t is a little over
fifty years ago. 1 was twenty-five years
of age, so you see 1 am an old man now.
These men were middle-aged, from forty
five to fifty, at that time"
On his revisiting the spot, he writes:
"As / approached the fatal spot the road
seemed entirely unaltered. L solemnly be-
ueve that 1 crept through the very gap in
the low hedge of earth which still imper-
fectIy protects the croft; that 1 stood be-
tween the self-same clusters of furZe which
formed my bed-very nearly my bed OF
death-and peep hole as the murderers hid
the result of their accursed crime, and that
knelt on the undisturbed grave where
their victims bones are now mere dust
After half a century 1 kneit again, not to
impIore mercy of man, as l did then, but
of God, lest unwittingly l have sinned in
keeping an extorted pledge, and, to save
myself from harm, have reluctantly shield
ed heinous criminals. L did not at the time
hear of any person connected with the dis
trict being missed, nor have L ever learned
ANYTHING that would help to throw light
on the name OF the victim or the motive toI
the murder"