MAROONED.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 270, 12 November 1923, Page 9

MAROONED.

ON BARREN ISLE. FIFTY-ONE NATIVES FOUND. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, November 8. Fifty-one Malayan men, women and. children were found marooned on a barren Pacific isle" by the steamer Taiyuan, which arrived in Sydney last Week from Hongkong. With a merciless sun beating down on them, and with only the flesh of birds to eat and blood to drink, theirs was a pitiful plight. The castaways were discovered on October 24th. It was a day of terrible heat in the Celebes Group. Not a breath of air stirred through the heat-laden atmosphere. Not a ripple stirred the placid Pacific waters. When passing through Bird Island, a Dutch possession in the Celebes,, according to the Taiyuan's officers, it ib the custom for steamers to go close to the pyramid-shaped land and blow blasts on the siren to stir the numerous birds, which give the island its name. The scene when the birds rise is unequalled. Just before sounding the siren, Captain Hamilton, master of the vessel, was surprised to see whkt resembled a flag being waved from the isl-ind. The Taiyuan was hove to, and a boat sent off to investigate. The crew found 51 darkskinned people dresseJ only in loin cloths lying about the small beach. There were old men and pld women, young men and young women, and even little half-dead children. The Malay quartermasters from the Taiyuan soon had the marooned people's story. They were migrating from one island in the Celebes to another. They had left the island in a large sampan, but the favourable wind had left them. Drifting with the currents, the sampan had struck Bird Island. Six cocoanut palms had been, found, and the fruit consumed. Numerous birds had been caught and eaten, and owing to water running out. the blood of the birds had been utilised to quench the castaways' thirsts. For over a week they ltad been stranded, and three days had gone by without any water passing their parched lips. In their crude bamboo vessels the Malayans got water from the Taiyuan. and supplies of rice were also given to them. All offers to take them aboard the Taiyuan were .declined, and after an hour and a-half the Taiyuan steamed away on her voyage. ■ i