The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-01-08

IBRACED MY NERVES.
many months, and during that time had
discovered a goldfeld so rich that a
miner could dig enough in three days to
make him rich for life. l am only CIV
ing you the skeleton of his story. He
filled in the particulars SO nicely that
nobody could doubt his sincerity, and TO
cap the climax he exhibited several mug
gets of gold, which he claimed to have
secured without the slightest trouble
His idea was to charter ship and take
out 100 gold hunters at so much per
head, but such was the rush Of adven-
turers that two ships were chartered.
One of them was fitted up to carry 13O
men, and the other had 100 aboard.
Cross was bold and heartless villain,
and his story was lie from beginning
to end. He intended to get possession
OF all the money he could and then dis
appear He had no idea Of sailing with
either craft, but circumstances wrought
change in his plans. The gold seekers
watched him so closely that he had no
opportunity to abscond, and when the
day of sailing came he found himself
aboard the ship Magnet, an English mer-
chantman chartered for the voyage.
This ship was TO sail week in advance
of the other and wait for her at point
agreed upon. The second ship did not
get away. The Magnet had been gone
only two or three days when some Eng
lish people arrived at Rio and stamped
Cross as an adventurer and impostor
who had been obliged to fee the coun-
try. Up to this time it was supposed
that the money he had received from his
victims had been deposited in a bank at
Rio, but it was now ascertained that he
had transferred it 20 Paris.
AS to what occurred after the Magnet
sailed much will never be known beyond
a certain date. Four weeks after her de-
parture from Rio her yawl was picked
up at sea 700 miles south Of her course
for the Hottentot coast. There were
three dead bodies in the boat, and they
were fairly identified as those of Cross
and the captain and mate of the ship.
They had been sent adrift without oars,
sail, food or water, and the people aboard
the ship must have been in vengeful
mood to do such a thing as that. Three
weeks after the boat was picked up
craft supposed to be the Magnet was
sighted to the east Of Tristan da Cunha
island. A week later she was sighted
again further to the southeast This
time she was sadly wrecked aloft and
was flying signal of distress, but as
gale was blowing and nighz coming on
no assistance could be rendered.
Nothing further had been reported up
to May, 1867, when the American bark
Ezra z. Davis, cruising for whales south
of the cape of Good Hope, touched at
Marion island to renew her supplies. 1t
was there learned that dismasted ship
supposed to be the Magnet had been
sighted to the south only three days be-
fore. We had newspapers on board the
Davis giving the particulars as have re-
lated them, and when we left the island
1t was to cruise for the lost ship as we'll
as for whales She must be death ship
as well as a missing one. Every drop of
water and every morsel Of food must
have been exhausted in the first 80 days,
and il the ship had touched at any island
or spoken any other craft the fact had
not been reported. We did not believe
that the derelict reported by the island
ers could DO the Magnet, which had not
been heard OF for % months, but never
theless hoped to find the hulk and solve
a mystery.
Forty miles south of Marion island we
killed whale and drifted off to the west
as we tried out the blubber and cleaned
~ W. thar ,ooda hale a 1ox,'s $50, 20
the south and changed our course to tho
east. and Mt the end of the fifth day after
leaving the island we were about 80
miles to the southwest Of it. Half an
hour before sunset the man in the crows
nest sighted the derelict dead ahead, but
a long way of With the going down
of the sun the wind died out, and as
night came down the wreck was still
four or i've miles away. Her bearings
were taken by compass. and @e had no
doubt OF picking her up next morning.
The night was perfectly calm and the
sea quiet, but when daylight came the
wreck was no longer in sight. There
was nothing so very strange in that,
however. us we were both drifting, and
her drift would be the faster. A breeze
lifted the sun out of his ocean bed, and
we ran to the southeast. expecting TO
have the wreck in sight within an hour.
After two hours sailing we knew that
we must have overrun her OF that some
mysterious current had drifted her IN
another direction. Our crew were be
ginning tn shake their heads over it when
we sighted whale. and in the chase ant
capture that ensued the derelict was for
gotten We had the dead whale along
side ami ready to cut in when the boats
we're lowered for . secopda aud three