Year: 1876

Ii bllO ulOu1ll VI OulJ3 lOlO. dll
English ship, the Isabella, sailed
from the port of Newcastle Harbor,
in Australia, bound for Hong
Kong. Either through the ignor-
ance Of the captain, or driven by
adverse winds, the Isabella left the
regularroute followed by ships upon
this voyage, and ran aground upon
some reefs in latitude 10 degrees, |
minute, 10 seconds south, longi-
tude l5S degrees, 27 minutes, 5
seconds east, marked as Brampton
Reefs upon the map. THIS was on
the 9Th Of July, 1875, coward 2
am. The ship was laden with iron
and coal, and consequently all
hopes of setting her aAoat again
had to be given up. The vessel
had to be abandoned, but the cap
tain did not think that enough.
She had beside the crew nineteen
Chinese passengers aboard, who,
after having passed some time in
Australia, were returning to their
country. The captain and crew
abandoned these unhappy people
and went off in small boats to an
island in sight, which they have
since discovered was Round Island
The following day and the one after
passed without the crews return
ing for the Chinese left upon the
reefs. At last, becoming desperate,
ten of the latter jumped into the
water and were drowned in attempt
ing to swim to the land. Mean
while this is what happened upon
Round Island:


The captain, together with the
second mate and eight Of the crew,
left in the gig with the intention Of
reaching the coast of Australia,
leaving upon the strip of sand ten
persons. For provisions they left
them fourteen pounds of bread.
There was absolutely no water, and
for clothes all they possessed was
what they had on. The Shipwrecked
crew accepted their fate with resig-
nation and promised to wait pa
tiently for some passing ship which
would take them aboard. The sec
oned officer, with whom we have
had the pleasure Of conyersing for
a few moments, told us that they
did not deceive themselves while
trying to console one another; in
reality they only counted on some
unforeseen change to deliver them.
They knew, Of course, that they
had diverged from the regular
route. There were scarcely even a
lew tufts Of brushwood upon the
island. These served them as shell
ter, and they went about in search
Of food. The island being too
small to have any game upon it
they were obliged to catch seagulls
and gather shellfsh. Food, how
ever, such as it was, was sufficiently
abundant that was not the greatest
cause of their suffering. What
nearly proved fatal to them was the
dearth of water, and three of the
men perished for want Of it. The
only water they could procure was
rain water, and several times they
passed weeks without being able to
quench their burning thirst. Three
or four times they saw vessels on
their way to China, but they were
at too great a distance for their
signals to be noticed.


After each failure to attract at
tention their despair grew greater,
and the last Of these unhappy be-
ings was nearly at deaths door,
when, for the fifth time, a ship was
in sight, but this time at a less dis
tance than the preceding ones.
Hope began to dawn in the sur
vivors of the Isabella, and their Joy
was without bounds when they saw
the vessel, schooner, come about
and steer for the Brampton Reefs.
If any of the Chinese were still
living they would probably tell their
deliverers that the crew had sought
refuge on u neighboring island, and
boats would be sent for them. They