The Press., 1890-06-26

thy, lost all track of time and did nothing but eat and sleep. He must have lived a sort of wild beast life for two or three years, and perhaps have been out of his right mind much of the time. What finally aroused him was the sight of ship sailing past his island home one day. She was too far away to be signaled, but the sight of her inspired hope and ambition. He had had fire off and on, producing it by flint and finder, but after this he made signal pile and kept fire constantly burning, to be ready for any pass ing ship.
 It was like awakening from a long sleep His hair and beard had grown to great length, his clothing was about worn out, and he found that he had gained enormously in flesh. He prepared a set of rules to govern his future actions. He got up at certain hour, went to bed at certain hour, and put in so many hours day at work on his raft. Such craft as he finally completed could have been knocked together in a day by a sailor with the proper tools, but as he had only his bare hands his progress was slow. The foundation consisted of four logs or beams, about twice as long as broad. These were foot or more thick, and he burned holes through them and fastened them by means of pins. Then he built up with blanks and boards until he had platform about thirty inches above the sea.
 It was after the raft had been completed that Capt. Harsen began to dread a voyage on it. He realized what great waste of waters the Indian ocean was and the perils he must encounter in leaving his island on such float, and he tarried month after month in hope some ship would come to the rescue When forced to provide himself with clothing he taught himself to weave mats from the long grass so plentiful around him, and the skirt or kilt he had on when we found him he had worn for year or more. After he had stepped a mast and made a sail he set out on short voyages with his raft, and he would not have trusted himself to it entirely had he known his exact location. When he finally did set out it was with the expectation of soon landing on some other island to the south.
 The captains provisions for the voyage consisted of roasted birds and fruits. The only thing he had to hold water was shells, and by filling four or five of them he cal culated on weeks supply. One day, when a fair wind blew from the north and the weather gave promise of holding good for several days, he cast loose from the island and began his perilous voyage. He had been four days out when we sighted him, and there was no land, except his island, within 1000 miles. His supply of water was gone, his provisions within a day of it, and even the light seas encountered had almost racked his raft to pieces He figured that he had made 100 miles in the four days, and when we came to look at the chart we came to the conclusion that he was out of his mind. No such island was put down-indeed, no land of any sort-for thousand miles in any direction. He insisted on the truth of his story, however. There was his raft, and that was ill his favor. It was against com mon sense to believe that he had come from Madagascar or Australia on such float as that. |,
 The whole story was gone over many times before we reached Melbourne, and was there given to the papers and to the government officials. It was so strange that no one be- lieved it, and we were seeking to get around it by denying that the man was Capt. Har- sen, when 10! the man that had been his first mate and sailed the ship home arrived in port as mate of a Scotch ship and identified his old commander at once There was a govern ment survey ship in port at the time, and, after some delay, she set off with Capt. Har- sen on board to locate and chart this solitary island. We could give her the location within g hundred miles, and, after sailing to and fro for week, she made discovery. While she could not find the island, she did find shoal or bank in midocean to mark its site.
 Further than that, trees and other drift stuff were encountered in that locality to prove that some queer thing had taken place. On spot about a mile square soundings showed depth of from thirty to sixty feet only, while all around it the lead would take down milo of line While Capt. Harsen could not show them an island, he could point out the site of one, and in their report to the government the officers of the ship took the theory that the island had sank into the sea from whence it sprang. The spot was placed upon all the charts issued the next year, and foot note warned navigators to give it wide berth. Capt. Harsen reached home in good health to sail many other voy- ages, and died only about ten years ago. While the truth of his story has often been questioned in newspapers and on shipboard. the preponderance of proof was in favor of his veracity. Not the slightest reason existed for misstating the real facts-New York Sun.