STORY OF THE SEA.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 9162, 3 June 1901, Page 4

STORY OF THE SEA.

NINETEEN DAYS DRIFTING ON THE OCEAN. TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE OF A 1 TRADER. J A few weeks ago (says the Sydney Telegraph) news was brought from the New Hebrides by one of the Island vessels that Mr J. A. G. Macgonald, a British trader, who had set out from his station with the view of picking up the Sydney -l steamer -at a neighboring island, had not ■" since been heard of, and was supposed to have beeen-blown out to sea and lost, ( "as yf eeks had passed without bringing tidings of the missing trader. On the arrival of the steamer Mambare yesterday surprise was occasioned by the receipt of information that the missing trader had turned up safely, and was actually a passenger by the steamer on a visit to his home m Sydney. Mr Macdonald tells a remarkable story .of suffering and privation. He set out , from his island station at Efate m an J open whaiebeat, -accompanied by two natives bound for Vila, to pick up the Sydney steamer, and had only been a short time away from the beach when bad weather set m, the boat and its occupants being blown far out to sea. j The jib having carried away m the bad weather made the position difficult, as, owing to the prevailing winds, the boat could not work to windward. For a whole week the bad weather continued, and the boat during this time was m peril of either being capsized or swamped. - She shipped a lot of water, and the ocfcujpants were continually wet. They managed, however, to get a little sleep, i but as they were not prepared for a long boat voyage, there was nothing to eat m the boat. * Mr Macdonald says : "We suffered ter- s ribly from hunger, "but tbis was not the 1 worst. We had no water with us, but j luckily passing showers enabled us to catch a little. I used a tin bets to catch , * the rain water, and had we not had this ;<3 box I don't know what we should have n done." At the end of a week the bad weather * finished, and the boat at this time had s drifted some 200 miles off the islands, o The weather afterwards came m, fine, but the heat was severe, and bared toi the full rays of the sun the sufferings of the occupants can better be imagined than described. Occasional showers kept the castaways supplied with water. There was some copra, m the boat. This the : \ natives eat ravenously, but Macdonald says that he could not touch it, and he a had nothing whatever to eat for 19 days. r "I took nothing with me," he explained, - "as the distance on the run from my island to Vila is only 17 miles. "^ * At the end of 19 days Mr Macdonald I managed, by pulling and sailing, to get 0 back to tbe New Hebrides. A landing was effected at- Santo. It was one of the most inhospitable parts of the island, j and there was nothing obtainable to , c sustain the famishing castaways. j e "After having a look round," continued . Mr Macdonald, "I got hold of a couple of natives, and they took us to another I part- of the island, where, m landing, t the boat got swamped. I however, man- \ aged lo escape with only what I trt ood i m." x ''Here," he continued, "the natives de- c serted me, fearing that the bush tribes p ; would attack them, ood left to myself, \

I wandered round, living principally on gum leaves. At length a native took me to the hill tribes, where I was treated well, and soon recovered my strength. But after some weeks the bush tribes tired of my presence among them, threatened to kill me, and they would certainly have carried out their threat had I not got a letter off to the Rev. Mr Bowie, missionary at Tongoa. The missionary immediately came to my assistance, but the natives demanded a ransom before they would let me go." "After two months' terrible suffering," said Mr Macdonald, m conclusion, "I got on board the Mambare, and came on bo Sydney." Mr Macdonald heard that one of tlie boys that accompanied him m the boat, and landed at Santo, was killed by the :ribes there.