A strange story has been circulated about the Tichborne cant
It is stated in a letter from Honolulu, dated October 8, published in the New York World, that an old English sailor, named George Claridge, recognised a portrait of Sir Roger in the Illustrated London News, and declared that he had buried the original on Sydney Island. He was on Ratumah Island when the 'Annie,' a schooner in the beche de mer trade, came into harbour with a sick man on board, who had been picked up off the River Plate. This was Sir Roger, who, being sick, stopped on shore with Claridge at Sydney Island to recruit, but getting worse, asked Claridge to get him a bird's quill, and with a bird's blood wrote something "on a soiled and dilapidated scrap of paper," which Claridge still retains, and which the British Consul is about to claim. The sick man said his name was Roger Tichbome, and in his delirium talked French, which the French captain of the 'Annie' said he knew perfectly. The 'Annie' has never since been heard of. In lucid intervals Sir Roger stated that he sailed from Rio in a ship which sunk in a squall, that he and seven others were forty days in a boat, but that all died except himself and one other man. He could get plenty of money if he could get to Hong Kong. The story may be true, but it may also be a literary hoax, of a kind common enough in the United States. If it were true, the supposition that the Claimant either was or knew "the other man" would be very strong. If Sir Roger had survived and remained on Sydney Island till now, and then returned, he would have found himself in a singular position. He is dead by Act of Parliament, which states that he went down in the 'Bella,' and bars any other story whatsoever.
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