TICHBORNE AGAIN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 18, 21 January 1875, Page 4

TICHBORNE AGAIN.

Our telegrams recently informed us that an old English sailor had made a statement relative to the- death of Sir Roger Tichborne. The Home News gives the following particulars : — The Inman Royal Mail steamer City of Brooklyn, which arrived at Cork on Nov. 17, brings files of New York papers to Nov. 7. The New York World t . of Nov. 5, contains a letter from Honolulu, dated October 8, stating that an old; English sailor has given an apparently irulhful statement with reference to the fate of Sir Roger Tichborhe, according to which he was buried in a desert island, Sydney Island, in the South Pacific, in 1855. This old sailor, George Claridge by name, bears the reputation, among all who are acquainted with him, of being an upright, truthful person and, withal, a man of deep piety. His ignorance on general topics would utterly preclude the possibility of imposition in his statements here given if any object could exist for deception. It is quite impossible that he could have obtained any knowledge of Sir Roger Tichborne or his family except from the lips of that gentleman himself in the manner he describes. As soon as this matter got abroad, Ernest C. Stock, a leading merchant on the Hilo, visited Claridge and exhibited to him a copy of the Illustrated London News containing engravings of the Tichborne family. He immediately pointed out the likeness of Sir Eoger and exclaimed, " That is the man whom I buried in Sydney. lsland." This island lies southeast from the island of Rotumab, between 200 and 300 miles, and is occasionally visited by vessels in quest of beche de mer. Claridge is one of a thousand of his class of "rovers" who drift about the islands of the Pacific and finally settle down in some chosen haven of rest to spend their old age. His statement is to the following o fleet: — "Id the year 1854, as near as he could remember, he left a ship at Rotumab. After he had been on that island some time a Bchooner named the Annie,, engaged in the beche de mer fishery, called there. On going on board Claridge found she was just out from home, and that off the River Plate she had picked up a boat containing two men in a famished condition, and they were then on board the schooner. The master of the schooner, a Frenchman, told Claridge that one of the rescued men was an English gentleman, very sick, and that he spoke French as well as himself. Claridge engaged to go in the schooner to take care of the sick gentleman and to help to get a cargo. He thinks (his was in the early part of 1855, but dce3 not remember distinctly. The vessel he believes was American, but he remembers no particulars about her, nor the names ot any of the crew. Five days after leaving Rotumah they reached Sydney Island, where they found no inhabitants and plenty of beche de mer. Claridge, with some natives of Rotumah, went ashore to pursue the fishery, and the sick gentleman, at bis own request, was also put on shore, with everything the vessel afforded to add to his comfort. The schooner sailed away, intending to return in a short time, but Claridge has heard no tidings of her from that day to this, and conjectures that she was lost. He was some two years on that Island before it was again visited by a vessel. Sometime after landing on the island the sick gentleman said but little to any one, but as he got worse he called Claridge to him and told him that he was near his . end, and requested him to procure a quill from one of the wild birds that frequented the island, to make a pen of. He had a scrap of paper in which bad been wrapped a bit of cheese, from the schooner, and on this, with blood from a bird, he wrote something. This paper he gave to Claridge and told him to keep it sacred, and the first ship that came, to have it copied, to keep the original himself, but by all means to make it public whenever he got to a civilised land. He then informed Claridge that his name was Roger Tichborne. This happened on the tenth or twelfth day after landing on the island. After this the sick man was frequently delirious until he died about the eighteenth day after landing. In his lucid-moments he stated that he sailed from Rio in a ship, deeply loaded, that, she wunt, down in a squall, and that himself and seven others got into a boat which drifted about until all perished except himself and one other person, and that they were forty days In the boat before being picked up He said that if he could get to Hongkong be should find plenty of friends and money. In his delirium be frequently spoke of bis father, with whom he appeared to have quarrelled, and be often fancied himself talking to his mother, whom he addressed in French. Claridge kept the puper as directed and showed it to the, captain of the ship, who eventually took him from the island. It met with no attention. After getting to Wellington Island a New Bradford boy, named Mandell, copied a part of the writing (some of it being in French), but Claridge does not know what disposition he made of it. Mandell was on the whaling ship Miles Standisb, and promised to transmit the paper to the relatives of Tichborne through the first British ship or consul he should meet with. Whether he ever bad that opportunity is unknown." The original paper, written by Sir Roger Tichborne, is now in the possession of Claridge. It is a soiled and dilapidated scrap, and the inscription it bears in

the blood of a bird has almost completely faded out. The signature, however, can still be traced. The remainder will have to be subjected to some chemical process with great care for restoration sufficiently to. be, deciphered. The British consul at this port has already taken steps to secure the statements of Claridge. in official 'form and possession of the paper mentioned.