Year: 1874

/ COHulOu III Jue navy dI tudG bAluO ds
to account for the usually indifer-
ent public's espousing Robert JEFF
frey's cause so warmly; but it did SO,
and made a representative man of
him.


The first authentic news came
from George HaSSel, mariner, who
deposed on oath before the Mayor of
Liverpool that he had just returned
from Beverly, a town in Massachu-
sets, and that a man was living
there who was nicknamed the Gov
ernor of Sombrero, whose real name
was Jeffrey. WhereupOn this JEFF
frey was communicated with, and
in due time a letter in reply, pur-
porting to come from him, was re-
ceived, giving full account of his
! adventure.


When the Recruit had quite dis
appeared, he remained for some time
overwhelmed with despair, but after
a while he grew calm, and felt very
hungry, so he explored his island to
see if there was anything to eat up
on it, but could find nothing except
birds, which flew away, as birds will,
when he tried to catch them. At
last he discovered an egg, but, alas!
it was an election egg-a very good
missile, but not edible. Soon, how
ever, the pangs of hunger gave place
to the severer sufferings of thirst,
which he tried to appease by swal-
lowing the sea water, and that of
course made matters worse. But
Heaven, more merciful than man,
sent him shower of rain, which
lodged in the clevices of the rocks,
and inflicted the punishment of Tan
talus upon him until he thought of
cutting the quills, of which there
were plenty strewn about, and suck
ing up the puddles as we moderners
do sherry cObblers.


In addition to hunger and thirst,
he endured the agony of hope defer
red, for ships were constantly pass
ing, but failed to see his signals till
the ninth day, when some one on
board the Adams an American
schooner, noticed him waving the
stick to which his handkerchief was
tied. The master, John Dennis, sent
boat, and brought him off in an
apparently dying state, so exhausted
as to be unable to speak. With
care and kindness, however, he re-
covered, and was carried to Marble
head, Mass, where he supported him
self by his trade as blacksmith.


This circumStantial account salts
fed people at first, but when the let
ter was shown to Robert Jeffrey's
mother she pointed out that not on
ly was it written in strange hand,
but that it was not even signed by
her son, who could write well enough,
and was very unlikely to make his
mark, as the man who vouched for
the genuineness of this epistle had
done. This objection naturally car
ried weight, and many people sus-
pected that the evidence of George
Hassel and of the letter had been
got up by the Captain, who was
anxious to prove the man to be alive,
and so escape from the odium which
attached to him.


Finally ship was sent to bring
this protesting Robert jeffrey to En-
gland, where he arrived in due
course, and proved to be the right
man safe enough, a certain shyness
and diffidence which he felt in the
presence of the gentlemen who had
drawn up his report being the cause
of his making a cross instead of
signing it. He landed at Ports
mouth in the October of 1910, three
years after the event which had
caused him to become a public char
acter. The Admiralty forwarded
him under the charge of naval Of
ficer to Polperro, where the entire
population recognized him, and his
arrival was made the occasion of
great public rejoicing.


But before settling down in his
native place, he accepted an offer
from the manager of London thea
tire to exhibit himself for a certain
number of nights, and as it became
the rage to 90 and see "Jeffrey the
Sailor" he made rather a good thing
of it. These profits were presently
swelled by sum of &6oO, which
was paid him by the family of the
Captain in acquittal of all claims he
might have against that officer, who
was still liable to civil action, and
in the excited state of public opin-
ion was likely to be cast in heavy
damages.


After the lapse of a few months,
when he cesased to "draw," Jeffrey
returned to Cornwall with money
enough to purchase a coasting
schooner; married, and, if this were
fiction, would have lived happily for
ever afterwards. But the story be-
ing a true one, Robert Jeffrey was
subject to all those ills which affiict
ordinary mortals who have never
been the subjects of popular sympa-
thy or curiosity.


He failed to make his schooner
pay, and he died early of consumP-
tiOn, leaving his wife and daughter
in great distress.