AN AUSTRALIAN HEROINE.

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1057, 6 March 1882, Page 2

AN AUSTRALIAN HEROINE.

I ♦ The death of Mrs Watson closes one of the saddest tales of suffering, and one of the grandest instances of heroic fortitude in the annals of Australian history. She was left on Lizard Island by her husband, a beche-de-mer trader, with a baby and two Chinese servants. On the 27th of September the blacks came, next day speared one Chinaman, and on the 30th speared the other in seven places, but the dauntless woman defended herself so resolutely with fire-arms as to drive them temporarily away. But to remain was certain death, and on the 3rd of October she escaped in an iron tank, with her child, the wounded Chinaman, and a supply of provisions, firearms and books. They floated all night, and next day landed on a bare reef, were she remained till the 6th. > o water there, so she again started, and, reached, tfo, 5 Island, 40 miles away, on the Bth. There, surrounded with water but all salt; with plenty of provisions with her child, only a few months old, dying before her eyes, while she herself suffered the tortures of Tantalus; she died of thirst To the last she thought of others, her diary and the bandages found beside the bones showed she had been dressing the Chinaman's wounds, and each day's entry in the book showed that her baby was her chief care. The diary was kept regularly, and on the last day, the 11th October, it closes with these words, *> o rain. Ah ! Sam. gone away to die. Baby more cheerful ; self not at all well. Have not seen any boats of any description. No water, Dead with thirst' Death could not have been very longafter, for she had thenbeen five days without a drink. And not a word of fretfulness of bewailing over her own terrible suffering ! Her diary was brought to Brisbane, and the Lizard Island blacks have been punished by the Queensland police. In all the records of womanly heroism and indomitable pluck, no instance can be found where death was faced with a braver heart than that by Mrs Watson : Sydney Bulletin.