The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-05-26
TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION.
A TALE OF THE TIDE.


A TALE OF THE TIDE.
The Panama Star and Herald of April
%, 1898, has the following editorials: In
the early part of this year a circum-
stance occurred of so remarkable a ra-
ture rs to desire more than passing at
tention.
On January 5, 1898, on the deck of the
steamer, City of Para,o the Pacific Mail
Steamship Company, was party of
young frienGs-joyous, hopeful and
buoyant. 1t was proposed to write
letter, put it in bottle and throw it into
the ocean; and if ever found the other
members of the party were to be mott
fed. A letter was written in English by
Miss Blanche Fitzgerald, of Washington.
d. c., and duplicated in Spanish by Mr..
e. j. Chibas of New York City. These
with an envelope addressed Mr.. +. r.
Wedekihd, National City, San Diego,
California, whose name was also signed
to the letter, were placed in the bottle,
tightly corked, and cast by the fair hand
of lady into the ocean at latitude 14o,
longitude 95o, about 100 miles southeast
of Jamaica. At Colon the young friends
separated, Mr.. Chlbas going to the mines
of the Caribbean Manganese Company
at Vicente Frio, about 45 miles from
Colon-(of which company he had been
elected superintendent and engineer,
and where he was developing the vast
mineral deposits of manganese that are
owned by his company)-the rest of the
party crossing the lsthmus and taking
the Pacific Mail for California. As the
SAD word goodbye was said the mail
bottle was alluded to, and after many
promises to keep each other posted as to
its fate-if ever found-the party sepa-
rated, all having most pleasant recollec
tions of the trip.
Now comes the remarkable sequel.
On February 8, 1S93-just 30 days there
after--at Nombre de Dios, 40 miles north
east of Colon, one Ascension Martinez, a
native, while walking along the beach
about one mile west of the village, saw
bottle on the beach and picked it up.
Noticing that it was curiously cOrked
and sealed and confined papers, and be-
ing unable to read, lie Immediately went
to the village and consulted with the
school teacher and the wife of the lead
ing merchant there. The bottle was
broken and the contents examined.
When the name of e. j. Chibas was read
all present knew him, and Ascension
was despatched to take the documents
to that man at Vicente Frio, which is
about four miles from Nombre DiOs.
Mr.. Chibas when the papers were hand
ed to him Immediately recognized them
and handsomely awarded Ascension
for they were the papers thrown over
board from the City of Para, and which
the jocund tide had actually carried to
Mr.. Chibas's very threshold.
Now from the spot where the bottle
was thrown into the sea to where it was
found, is four hundred miles direct dis
lance, and the little bottle must have
travelled many miles more than that,
tossed as it was by the tempests, tides
and winds of the wild Caribbean sea.
And this is the singular fact that the
side and entrance to the harbor are so
| flanked by dangerous massive choral
reefs and rocks, that it is a marvel how
the frail little bottle escaped total de-
struction, which must have occurred
had it struck on one of those jagged
! lodges on which the tide everlastingly
piles up the breakers in furious commo-
toni The majority of our readers will
probably remember that Jules Verne,
| whose widest fancies never outrage the
laws of scientific possibility, did not
| allow the bottled document sent by
| Captain Memo to the castaways of "The
Mysterious Island" to really float about
| in an exactly similar position. He eX-
plains that it had not really floated
through the breakers. Here was an
other instance of sober fact scoring on
fictions timidity! The whole stretch of
coast from beyond Colon to Viepte Fria
is conspicuous for its wildness and
grandeur, the sea ever bursting over the
coral reefs and boulders, and had the
bottle struck one, its fate would have
been destruction. But guided by the
current, it landed in almost the only
spot where it could escape destruction.
Moreover the coast is but sparsely set
tied with tribes of Indians who have
little or no communication with the out
side world, and had the bottle landed
among them its fate would have been
oblivion.
Mr.. Chibas has made a map of the
coast of mainland and islands as far as
Cuba, which shows where the bottle was
committed to the tide and where it land
ed. With this he has bad the original
letters, and envelope addressed to Mr..
Wedekind and the letter from the school
teacher in Nombre de DiOs neatly photo
graphed, and copy is now at the Office
of the Star and Herald where it can be
seen by the curious. Mr. Chibas, to
whom we are indepted for this stranger
than fiction story, is native of Cuba,
but removed TO the United States at an
early age. He graduated at the Troy
Polytechnic with honors and distinction
and is widely known, standing ashe does
in the front rank of mining engineers
and having made manganese his special
ty he has occupied many responsible
positions in connection Herewith.
There is no doubt that persons are
often moonstruct, particularly in the