Year: 1877

Appearance of an Individual Who


Claims TO Have Laid the Lost Bar


onets Bones Away on a SOaIh Sea


Island.


San Francisco CALI


There have been many theories
advanced in regard to the Itch
borne case, some plausibls and
some extremely wild, and persons
are discovered in all parts of the
world whose slumbering memories
are suddenly awakened to the fact
that they used to know the lost Sir
Roger, or were on the ship that
picked him up; but, leaving the
"claimant" out of the question, the
fate of the young baronet, after the
wreck of the Bella, has never been
discovered. The testimony of all
who pretend to know anything
about the picking up of the Bella's
boat, containing the shipwrecked
men, leaves Sir Roger at sea, and
the blank that occurs between the
wreck and his supposed arrival in
Australia has not been filled up.
The search for witnesses who could
throw light upon this point has
been so thorough and persistent
for the last few years that it would
seem as if the required link would
have been found long ago if there
were any persons living who coald
say what became of Sir Roger Itch
borne. If he ever arrived in Aus.
tralia somebody must have been
aware of the fact./ In the absence
of all reliable testimony on this
point, the natural and only logical
conclusion among all who dispute
the claimants" pretensions is
that he never arrived there, but
was lost when the Bella went down.
The latest case Of suddenly awak-
ened memory is that of a man in
the Sandwich Islands, who asserts
that he saw Sir Roger die, and
buried him on Sydney Island, In
the South Pacific ocean. George
Claridge is the name of the man, and
the circumstances were brought to
his mind by a picture of the
Tlchborne family in the London
Illustrated News. He says he has
lived for many years in the South
Sea Islands, drifting about from
place to place, and in 1854 he left
a ship at Retuman. While on that
island a schooner named the Annie,
engaged in the beche de mer fish
cry, put into port, having Just
arrived in those seas from some
Atlantic port. The master of the
schooner told Claridge that when
off the river Platte he had picked
up boat containing two men in a
starving condition, one of whom
was an English gentleman. The
Englishman was aboard the schoon-
er very sick, and the master, who
was a Frenchman, told Olaridge
that he spoke French perfectly.
Claridge was engaged to 60 in the
schooner, and in few days she
sailed for Sydney Island, some two
or three hundred miles southeast of
Retuman. Upon reaching the is
land, where plenty of beche de mer
were found, Claridge and some
Others of the crew were put ashore
to collect cargo, and the English
gentleman was also landed at his
own request.


The Annie sailed away, intend
ing to return in a short time, but
nothing was ever heard of her after
ward, and Claridge remained nearly
two years on the island before it
was again visited by vessel. For
some time after landing on the
island the sick gentleman said but
little to any one, but as he got worse
he called Olaridge to him and told
him that he was near his end, and
requested him to procure a quill
from one of the wild birds that fire.
quented the island, to make a pen
Of, He had a scrap of paper, in
which had been wrapped a bit Of
cheese on the schooner, and on this,
with blood from a bird, he wrote
something. This paper he gave to
Claridge, and told him to keep it
sacred, and the first ship that came
to have it copied to keep the orig