LIEUTENANT FINDLAY'S ADVENTURE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 6700, 18 May 1900, Page 4

LIEUTENANT FINDLAY'S ADVENTURE.

The Post correspondent with the second contingent writes :—

An accident, whieh was fortunately unattended by loss of life, happened to j a patrol to-day (April 3rd). Lieut. Findlay, with a patrol consisting of Street, Neale, and Cassidy, was sent out to bring in some rebel waggons. They had to cross a river ordinarily dry but now in flood, owing to the bursting of a huge dam, and Lieutenant Findiay's horse got out of its depth and became unmanageable. The rider therefore slipped off his back thinking to swim ashore, but vsas whirled down I stream. Cassidy. seeing his plight, ] plueki'y turned his horse's head and swam after him, reached the Lieutenant and gave him a hand. The extra strain turned Cassidy's horse completely over and obliged bim to let go Findlay, who fortunately clutched at a clump of bushes in mid-stream and dragged himself into safety. Cassidy got his horse, and managed to reach the shore far below. Street and Neale with difficulty got out, and then sent off a galloper for the doctor and ropes. I heard of the accident, and burned down to the river. Sixty feet from the bank appeared the forlorn figure of our Lieutenant, standing up to his knees in water, apparently on a clump of bushes, Major Cradock arrived, and rones being procured, three nigger's essayed to carry a line across current. Three times they tried, and each time were swept down just as they grasped the island. Then the Canadians guessed that it was their turn, so stripped. The niggers having lost half the rope, it was necessary to get from island to island till near enough to allow the rope to reach. This they did very cleverly, one half-caste Indian swimming iffff? an otter. The rope was at last stretched, and reached from Findiay's rest-ing-place to where we stood. The half drowned officer was then stripped and helped from bush to bush up stream, and then, with the assistance of two Canadians, brought across. His watch was lost and a few other things, and he was dreadfully exhausted when he got ashore.

We sot Findlay to camp, but later he had to be taken down to Hospital as tin- muddy water he had swallowed caused him extreme pain. He is all right to-day, but looks very shaken. There is no doubt that Cassidy's pluck and coolness averted a serious catastrophe, and we all envy his good luck at being in the show. Three carbines were iost,_however, and are beyond recovery. I endeavoured to get some milk and eggs, but the owners of the luxury-producing animals said sorrowfully, "It's no use, every hen, goat and cow has a man watching it, and every egg is seized, and every goat milked before one can turn round," Sad, but true. One trooper I found looking searchingly at a minute kid. He remarked, "I guess ihat animal would go right well into a stew." 1 believe it did, but 1 turned my back on what I knew was going to be a tragedy for the kid. Another trooper coursed down a leveret after breaking its leg with a stone, and in a minute that poor animal was skinned and hanging up in the waggon.