The Native American

Death of Robert Furlong, Jr.—Doubtless all our readers remember well the trial of Richard P. Robinson for the murder of Ellen Jewett, and equally well that the individual whose name heads this paragraph was a most material witness for the accused, he having proved an alibi in the case. In October last he took passage on board the brig Wixford, Captain. Monday, for Porto Cabello, and on the third day out he began to evince symptoms of aberration of mind, evidently the presages of an attack of delirium tremens.

While in this situation he would mutter incoherent sentences about Robinson and Ellen Jewett, and, as his paroxysms increased in violence, his conduct grew more outrageous, and his constant exclamations were, that Ellen Jewett was before him. He got on deck, and could not be persuaded to come below, declaring that Ellen Jewett was in the cabin concealed.

As the attack subsided, he became more calm, and, while sane, stated to one of the officers of the vessel and a fellow-passenger, a physician, that, when on the trial he swore to the fact of Robinson being in his store on the night of the murder, he believed it as firmly as that he lived. He would have sworn to the same thing again, but that now he was perfectly convinced that such was not the fact, and that he was innocent of any evil intention.

On the second day his malady grew worse, and it was proposed to confine him; but he perched himself upon the gunwale of the vessel, and declared if any one approached him he would jump overboard. After several attempts to induce him to come inboard, he sprang into the sea, and a tub and ropes were thrown to him, but he sank without attempting to reach them.

A seaman on board the vessel then seized a piece of plank and jumped overboard, and rescued the unfortunate man; but, by the time he was got on board, life was extinct, and all attempts to resuscitate him proved vain. The next day the body was committed to the deep with due solemnity.—N. Y. Courier.