MYSTERIOUS FRENCH WOMAN

Evening Star, Issue 25701, 26 January 1946, Page 10

MYSTERIOUS FRENCH WOMAN

HISTORY: *.«I»YTHOLO6¥ ,'Regarding...;tb,e of Campbell Island whiph * were! recalled '.', < by the UariiH's visit,. Mf F. G. 'Hall-Jones, in- His /Historical. Southland;' newly pi)hlißhed,,gives follows the ■ known t'a.,qts' ofthe. island's history, with a reference' vt'q romantic ; speculations based .• upon- -them:—'' !'; In 1810, nearly a century: arid alialf I ago', :th.ere occurred at .Campbell Island ft boating that was'in the course ■■ of' time to .give rise to n strange and' romantic legend. The J6llyiboat,of the was iipii'ftt by a squall over a.mile from shore, occasioning the death of' Captain Haf»Sydney" lad, and a woman riam'ed Elizabeth Farr, a native of Norfolk Island. .One of the crew valiantly, brought the woman through the seas to the shore, only to find that life was extinctj. She was buried on; the island.' but the bodies of the other two. were not recovered; ,'f. Tu 1839-40, a French corvette tbiiohed atVthe island. Ati officer whose linme is not preserved but who •is described'as a ' young, man, of noble birth; '• sickened' dnd ' died. He found hislast resting place beside the gravo which had been dug thirty years earlier. In ; the course of time the cross on the wbmah!s grave disappeared, ahd'on.the other nothing was decipherable but a few.French'words. .." After, 1 the tragic shipwrecks at the Auckland Islands; Government vessels regularly visited throughout the days of sail all-the southern isles lit search bi castaways, the grave on Campbell Island, obviously French and trdditidhally associated: with'a wbirian, was tended to some 'degree.' At last .its Miistory ' : was ; written, and published ■.; in l''f; New Zealand Lone Land ' and in the Pallllall Gafeette. ■■' ■ . ''During the,festivities at Holyrpod in ,1745, Peg Walkinshaw attracted the attention ■ of Bbrinie Prince : Charlie, and after his exile -from Scotland followed ' him-tb France. Death, alone seperated the Ibvers.ta daughter beipg left to fill the mother's place. To.prevent s coniplicoti6hs -in the succession to the British fhroheV cruel; officialdom caused her to be •marooned <ori this lone isle: in' the. watery., wastes.of the southern., seas v . This- was -her grave. ' lv Thus' the nja&ic waiid, of a fairy tale '"> transtormed tlte . sailor'.s Cinderella into, a British Princess! •■'.' -