A MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6099, 4 June 1881, Page 7

A MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR.

A Naples correspondent, writes:—At, ! five o'clock oil the evening of the 24th Marcli, the' steamer Tirreno, belonging to the Florio Company, when on its voyage from Bari, sighted an elegant iwo-oarecL boat "aVoiit'ss off Venice. The captain of theTirreno,surprised ,at finding so small a boat so, far' out-at! sea, made'signals, but received,.no reply. He 1 then stopped thesteainer and' sent some sailors . lora to examine the boat, when it was found that in it lay three persons apparently asleep, one at the prow; and two' at the stern. They were three corpses; in':'an" incipient stiiteof putriifacation. tracerfof violence {were found on the bodies, but at the bottom of the boat, .which 'j was was a small quantity of bloodstained water. The bodies were all those of young men, one dressed in 'thS uniform of. the Austrian iiavy, the others in elegant civil costume. Nothing whatever _.was..foriiid in. their pockets, hut on the "finger of ope were some rather-valuable rings, and two elegant sticks lay in'the ; bottom of the boat. The namo! HOrierite" was painted on the side.:/. The two oars'.were-in their place in the rowlocks.On reaching land, the bodies, unidentified, were buried with all formalities. Afterwards , news came j from ; ?ola.' that oil the 13th March four officers left "that port for a pleasure trip in a rowing boat; One was -the - agent of the Imperial commissariat of the navy, .two others were his pupils, and the fourth a cadet of-the 43rd regiment of infantry. The boat" not:'returning thd same day, the .admiral, sent a "and two steam launches in search,''' b'tit they all turned unsuccessful after a long search. The initials of tho-lineu found on the' three Lbodies; ithe.'narties ofi these officers. : How. they, died} ancl how the fourth has disappeared,-remain a mystery. Perhaps the boat, was driven Cbut to sea'and 'three of the inmates died of hunger and exhaustion, while the fourth, seeing the miserable end of his companions, threw himself: in, despair into the sea". The only hint of possible foul play is/the emptiness of the gentlemen's pockets.