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Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1796, 8 May 1874, Page 2

On yesterday morning's tide the Dispatch took to sea the schooner Cleopatra, bound for Hokitika with a cargo of coal. < t the same time the Titan towed out the schooner Lizzie Guy. She is bound for Wellington, t^\A ia enmflntert tojgtgh^W.k Alnait of pipes The p.s Wallace, from Nelson &c, arrived at the wharf yesterday. She leaves to-day The Waipara arrived from Hokitika yesterday with a large quantity of machinery for the Greymouth Coal Co, and also the Greymouth portion of the cargo transhipped ex Alhambra. The schooner Zephyr is announced to leave for Melbourne direct to-morrow. She has excellent accommodation for a number of passengers. The schooner Isabella, from Dunedin, arrived at Hokitika in tow of the Waipara on Wednesday. , ,T The following is an extract from a letter written by Johnßob*itson, and published i>< the Sydney Morning Herald of Ma^ch 4: — *f On February 8 a fisherman named Henry Bornan, a Dutchman, deternvned to try for the first time the first-class fishing boat Mermaid! which he had lately rented. «nd with him there went forth to sea Emanuel Je.-son otherwise Jacinto, a Portuguese; John Blanket, a Maori; and Patrick Humphries, an Australian, and a native ot Watson a Bay. The severest northerly gale known on our coast since the settlement of the colony, overtook them, a»d complete'y swamped their boat, which, from the weight of the Stone ballast she earned, sank from under their feet to the bottom. I shall not attempt to describe the terrible position of the four unfortunate men. Nearly two miles from shore, boat gone, and the sea raging mountains high I. They were good-swimmers all of them, and instead of desponding they bravely determined to battle to the last for dear life. They had but three oars, two of which having floated near to Jesson and Bornan respectively were seized by them as eotne slight means of aid in their calamity. The other reached at the s <me time the hands of both Humphries and Blanket; while to nnly one of them could it be of the slightest use. Then, in that boiling sea. those two men acted toward each other with bravery- and generosity*— -Blanket said to Humphries, 'Pat. you take the oar, you have a wife and little children; I have no wife, no children, am an old man; never mindine.' To which Humphries replied, 'No, Blanket; you are, old and weak, lam young and strong; you keep the oar' Humphries remained with the oar the shortest time necessary to enable him to get his clothes off. and then-darted away, leaving it with Blanket Nothing but their glorious heroism had these two men in c mmon —one, an aboriginal native of New Zealand, between 60 and 70 years of a*e ; the other a young Australian, of European parentage,, of about 29 years. After three hours 7 battling with the sea. Humphries landed: about three or four/ miles north of North Head. Bornan landed about 20 minutes after Humphries, and Blanket 11 minutes after Bornan, all near the same plac6 ; but poor old Jesson was never seen more."