Mr. Van Koughnet, Accompanied By Mrs. Van Koughnet, Was, Unfortunately,
Wrecked Off Anticosti, In The Allan Steamer "North Briton." Happily
Every One, After A Time Of Great Peril, Was Landed In Safety, While
Losing Personal Baggage And Almost Everything Else.
At a critical
moment Sir Allen McNab, who was on board the ship, also on his way to
England,
When the vessel was expected to go down, said to Van Koughnet,
"Come with me and bring your wife, and we will go down together, away
from this crowd of frightened people" - alluding to the mass of steerage
passengers jostling about in panic.
On the 11th November Mr. Howe and Mrs. Howe, and Mr. Tilley arrived:
and I took the delegates to the Duke's house in London on the 14th. The
Duke received these delegates with very great cordiality. He had made,
already, an appointment with Lord Palmerston, the Prime Minister, and
had spoken to Mr. Gladstone. So, armed with a letter from the Duke, we
went on to Cambridge House. We were shown into a room overlooking the
court-yard, and had not long to wait for the veteran minister. He came,
as usual, with his grey - not white - hair brushed up at the sides, his
surtout buttoned up to his satin neck-tie, or, more correctly, "breast-
plate," which had a jewelled pin in the midst of its amplitude. He
said, the Duke had told him our business, which was very important, not
only for the interests we represented, but for the Empire, and
especially so at a time when the "fires were alight" across the British
border.
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