THE MATE'S STORY.

The mate, after thanking God that he has been spared, and has an opportunity of writing his wife again, s^ys :—: — ! " I will give a slight detail of my troubles, and how I have suffered from hunger, thirst, and cold We lost the Invereauld on the 10th May, 1864. The Island we were wrecked on is called the Auckland Tsland. It lie 0 about 150 miles south of New Zealand. We were driven on it by a severe gale of wind. There were nineteen of us got on shore out of twenty-five, and we were on shore but a short time when the ship went to piece*. She was driven in between two very hish clifl3. I suppose they were not less than 3000 feet high. " We stopped at this spot for five days, but all the provisions driven in from the wreck was only about two lbs of bread and as much of pork. lam glad to say, however, that there was a sort of root which we dug out of the ground, and what with this and water we tried to satisfy our hunger. When wp commenced to climb to the top of the cliff, one of the crew was unable to accompany us, and we found that, he died the day after. The rest succeeded in gaining the top. but all very much exhausted. I myelf wai hardly able to walk, and having no shoes, it was very uncomfortable, especially as there was frost and snow on the top. "We began to travel across the island and five of our men went after some wild pigs which we saw, and I am el ad to say they managed to catch some of them. We travelled all that day, and abont dark we began to light a fire for the night, an'l had a little of the pig which was caught. It was a very sma'l one. We then made up a good fire and lay down for the night, but notwithstanding the fire, it was vr-rv cold. We started next day, ai.d travelled along with great difficulty. We arrived that night on ths other side of the island, hut not before another of our company had died of cold and hunger. We here made a sort of shelter for ourselves, and lived on this ?pot for twenty-one days on nothing but roots and water. Seven of our company went back to the wreck, but they never came hick, and we never siw anything more of them. Other four and I marie for the beach, with great difficulty, through the thick bush, and we we rejoiced to find plenty of shell -fish. We sent one of our party back for the remainder, sending a few of the shell- fish with him, and he found two more had died the day after we left. The others came along with him. We here made a sort of shelter for ourselves, and began to look about the rocks for what we could get to eat. We stopped here for six or seven days. A party of five of us made for the next bay, where we found traces of human beings, and the places ; they had lived in. These we found very I comfortable. There were also plenty of shell j | fish in this bay. One of our party went for j those we had parted from. We were now all getting very weak. lam glad to say we now caught a seal, which was of great service to us. We now began to make a sort of raft to carry two or three of us, and about 20 days after we got another seal, but between these times several of our party died of starvation. There was James Sansfield, George Liddle, and a few more whose names I cannot tell. The carpenter died, I think, about September or October. Little Johnnie and the oldest apprentice were drowned at the time of the wreck. Other two and I now commenced to go further along towards the point of the island, and there we found another seal and plenty of fish. Three of us lived for three

weeks on this point of the island, when one left to induce the others to join us, but never_ returned ; and some time after the Captain joined us, and we three were the sole survivors of the nineteen. "I never thought of getting off the island ; and as I wandered about the rocks looking for shell fish, I often thought of you and our dear little ones, while I was frequently so faint with hunger that I was scarcely able to walk. The seal meat was the only meat that did us good. ~ometim ri s they were plentiful, and sometimes it would be three or four weeks between our times of catching them. We dried their skins, and made shoes and leggings of them. We also maJe a small boat out of the seal skins. It carried two of us, and we used to go to the other is'ancjs to s°ek for seals. There are two or three islands close together, with plenty of seals upon them, but itwa3 only on fine dnys that we could go in the small boat. We now, however, built a boat of wood, that carried all three of us, and in it we removed to another island where there were quantities of rabbits, but could only g-t such of them as had been killed by the hawks. We got on pretty well here, having plenty to eat, and here we built a house, and endeavored to make ourselves as comfortable as possible. In many parts of the islands there were human traces, and the appearance of a good deal of work having been done, and this encouraged us to look anxiously for the cominsr of some whaler or scaler — but no ! At length on the 10th May, the Portuguese ship Julian, from China to Callao, being very leaky, made for the island, expecting to find some means of petting repairs. We were takeu on board of her, and were treated very kindly, and have now (25th June) reached Callao in safety, &c "