A MOVING TALE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 1814, 22 July 1891, Page 5

A MOVING TALE.

The diary of the unfortunate man F. Greenwood — who supported life on an island for forty-five days on raw fish, grass, and eggs — is curious, and in parts affecting reading. He seems to have started it at the very commencement of his long and trying experience. It will be remembered that he was looking for work. A black boy gave him directions as to the road, and in attempting to follow these Greenwood got on a sandhill surrounded by creeks, and the latter rising prevented him from going any further, and in fact cut him off from the world. The diary starts off by telling of his looking in vain for the black fellow, who had promised to join him, and then of his attempts to cross the creeks. Day after day the record tells of growing weakness, of suffering from cold and hunger, and the spark of hope becoming more and more feeble. The following entry is dated a fortnight after the commencement of his lonely imprisonment: — "April 21 — Perchance this should be useful to anyone, I have kept a true account. I get up at sunrise, wash, drink a pint of water, then gather trefoil grass and a weed with a cotton flower and eat as much as I can. Then Igo and try to catch some fish, which I clean and take all the bones out, then eat them. What I have*had have been about 6in long, in quantities as you see each day. Then I lie down, or have a sit on the top of the hill and look out ; then another feed of weed ; then bed and sundown. I have done fifteen days now on this food. To-day I caught three fish ; the water is rising fast : but it is a fine day, though cloudy. Flies and mosquitoes terrible. I have had a look all round but no signs of anyone. There are countless wild fowl of all descriptions." Let anyone try to imagine this kind of existence day after day for forty-five days, with occasional spells of cold and rainy weather, and no shelter except what could be made out of a few flags. It is evident that Robinson Crusoe had a prince's life on his island compared with that of poor Greenwood on his little water-locked sandhill. As the diary proceeds we get such entries as the following : — " April 24—1 get weaker every day ; I can feel it ; I stagger when I walk. Ido hope someone will come," "April 26— Am very sick to-day; as much as I could do to walk to the top of the hill " " April 27 — Am very bad with dysentery. I begin to lose hope : the time is so long now." "May 3— 1 cannot get warm night or day." " May 19— No better signs, and cannot sit up." " May 20— No news. I can only trust in God, who has watched over me, and who won't neglect me in hour of need. Cannot walk." The darkest hour is just before the dawn. On the day before he was discovered and rescued, the unfortunate man seems to have at length made up his mind that he was to die, and to have resigned himself to his fate. He writes :— " I think I can make up my mind to die, as all hope seems gone. I think I have been spared this long so that I can make my peace with God, which I have tried my best to do. May he take and do with me as it seems best. I can hardly stand up." On the very next day, however, light breaks in upon the situation, just aa it was at its gloomiest. Thus we get the following entry : — " May 22— Found by Joe Manilla, blackboy to Mr Kidman, of Kapenida, S.A., who gave me every attention, and drove me in his buggy to Billoo Downs." There are many stories jof endurance and human suffering in the history of the great island continent ; but this will hold its own with most of them in point of painful interest. We can only rejoice that the ending was not so tragic as that of a good many of the t*her narratives.

" If a man bequeathed you LIOO would you pray for him?" asked a school board teacher of a pupil. "No," said he, "I should pray for another like him." The Rising Generation,— Folk getting up ia the morning.