14 AUGUST 1880, Page 3

A mysterious shipwreck is reported from Aden. On Wed- nesday

we heard that the steamer Jeddah,' of Singapore, bound for Jeddah, with 953 pilgrims on board, foundered off Cape Gnardafui on the 8th inst. " All on board perished," it was said, " excepting the captain, his wife, the chief officer, the chief engineer, the assistant-engineer, and sixteen natives. The sur- vivors were picked up by the steamer ' Scindiah,' and landed here." On Thursday, however, we were told (from Aden) quite a different story. "The`Jeddah,' which was abandoned at sea, with 953 pilgrims on board, did not founder, as reported by the master. She has just arrived, all safe, in tow of the steamer Antenor.' " If these reports be trustworthy, the chief officers must have abandoned her when she was by no means in a desper- ate condition, as the result proved. Let us hope that the accounts are not trustworthy. A worse and more cowardly act than to abandon such a freight of helpless natives to their own resources, when pluck and skill might easily have saved the ship, can hardly be imagined. It does not look like Englishmen's doing, at all.