We take the following from the Times of Ceylon of the 29th ult.:—Fears have been entertained for the missing P. & O, steamship Aden for some days pasi, and this morning the worst fears were Fealised by a telegram from Aden, which brought the terrible news that the steamer had been wrecked and that the captain, as swell as most of the European crew, half the native crew, and some of the passengers, were missing. It appears that the Indian Marine steamer Mayo left Aden to look for the missing vessel, and returned there last night with the intelligence that it had been found wrecked on a reef at the east end of the island of Socotra. The news that Captain Hill and the others are missing is nob conclusive as to their fate, because they may have landed in boats on the island, but the probability is, we regret to say, that they are drowned. Captain R. E. L. Hill had had command of the vessel since February, 1894, and was regarded as a most reliable man and an able navigator. His European crew, of whom most are reported missing, consisted of four officers, a doctor, four engineers, a head steward, a carpenter, a winchman, "a boiler maker; while the Lascar crew, of whom half are missing, numbered seventy. Wo have already mentioned that she had thirty-four passengers on board for London. In regard to these we can only ascertain for certain that some are missing. Most were women and children, as four only were male passengers, mostly from China, and none from this port. It is feared that many are missing and in a case like this scant news is generally bad news.
Those ofthe passengers and crew who were rescued by the Mayo's boats have been taken to Aden but we are not able to say who they are, beyond that Mr. and Mrs. Gillett and child are with them.
When the Aden left Colombo on. the Ist of this month, laden with a full consignment of Chinese tea and thirty-four passengers, she was bound for Suez as her next port of call, and not for Aden, as has been previously stated. When she became aver-due at Sticz the agents of the P. & 0. Company wired to Aden to know if anything lad been seen of her, and, receiving a reply in the negative, the agents naturally became alarmed as to her safety. Her ordinary course, after passing Minicoy, was to take anorth-westerly direction, so as to pass the island of Socotra 70 miles to the north of it, and, of course, being bound for the Red Sea, she would not be sighted at Aden, and it 3 could only have been a mishap that would have taken her there. Tt seems, however, that, upon nearing Socotra on a dirty night, eatly in the morning of the 9th inst., current had taken her, and the consequence was that she was carried right on to the reef. The S.\. wind, which was pretty stiff, was blowing so as to take hee away from the island, but it would appear from what we have heard that the current was phenomenally strong, because several O. and other steamers lately, which have reckoned upon passing the island at least 70 miles to the north, have found themselves less than 10 miles away with very rough weather prevailing. The weather has been fearful there lately, and all steamers have reported so. Tt appears that the Aden, on the night of Wednesday, the 9th instant, about 3 o'clock in the morning, was caught in a current which has been reported north of Socotra and was wrecked on the rock. It was not until the 26th, or seventeen days later, that the stranded vessel was found by the Mayo, and, as it was then going to pieces on the rock, those on board must have had a terrible time. The weather has been very bad the whole time.
"This is all we can learn up to the present, but doubtless we shall have more parti-colors shortly, and in the meantime we can only hope for the best.
Bohilla, which has set out to make a search,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.