The Romance of the Madagascar.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5664, 24 October 1889, Page 3

The Romance of the Madagascar.

The London correspondent of the Otago Daily Times writes:— You in New Zealand will be familiar with the story of the Madagascar, which wa* BuppoHod to have gone down on the coanto< your colony in 1853 with a large quantity of bullion. A paragraph in the bhippiufj Gazette a week or two ago announced the formation of a syndicate in Sydney for the purpose of searching for the wreck of this vessel The Madagascar was never heard of after she cleared Port Phillip Headn, thotssrh many a theory has been framed as to her end. It seems that the syndicate has adopted that which asserts she was wrecked on the coast of New Zealand; but the announcements the Gazette has brought tolizht a critic adveruo to this theory. Captain Law, who is now 90 years old, nareowly escaped beta -a .passenger on the Madagascar on her ill-fated trip, above referred to, and it was only through the Sβ of hie wile that he deferred sailing- The paragraph in the Shipping Gazette having been called toCaptain Law* doubt about the Ssabout to return to England The to England with him. , "The Madagascar, as I have said, wai a magnificent vessel. Sho was to sail next day, and I made up my mind to accept the captain's generous offer, and to get my baggage aboard early in tho morning. 1 tola my wife, of course, as soon as 1 got home that night. That night she had a dream or vision of some sort whion leit a presentiment in her mind that the Madagascar would never arrive safe at home. So fully did she believe this that she begged me to abandon sailing in her, mid do all I could I could not persuade her that her fears were groundless. Finally I yielded, «nd on her account decided not to go. " Wo changed our minds still more, and instead of sailing in another ship for Home ■went to New Zealand and remaintu theru several years, during all of which time we tfd not hear of the Madagascar »It was about five years later when I « o for Ensrland in the Great Britain, Sh was one of the first vessels that went fmm Australia to England by steam. On board this steamer there were a number pSbWesoiher fate. One gentleman,

who was returning from Australia, said he had heard something about pirates bearding the ship. He said an Irishwoman, who with her husband was on board of her, had mado n confession to a Roman Catholic priest concerniiiir the Madagascar. It was to the effect that a number of men- about 21, I bulievo—entered the ship as seamen, and formed pnrt of her crew. Her husband was one of these men. They conspired together to take possession of the ship, to kill all tho passengers and take the bullion, andeither burn or sink the ship. " When in raid-ocean they did as they had planned. They put the bullion in the ship's boats, and went ashore, somewhere near tho coast of Chili, I think near Valparaiso. They either burned or scuttled the ship - so thu Irishwoman stated in her confession. When they landed they de*tioyed the boats, and divided the treasure, and they broke up and went up the country, some going one way and some another. 1 believe some of tho men were afterwards hoard of at the diggings about Melbourne, but lam not sure of this. When in London I enquired of the owners of the Madagascar, and they informed me that they had never heard of the vessel since it left" Melbourne. I do not think it possible that the ship could have trot near the New Zealand coast. I bulieve that the Irishwoman's deathbed confession was true."