The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-10-26 00:00:00

MISSING EXPLORERS.

In connection with Mr. Stanley's great achievement in
discovering Dr. Livingstone, the Philadelphia Public Ledger
vnites

Mr. Stanley, having fairly established his claim to
have discovered the whereabouts of Livingstone has
added a chapter to the melancholy but interesting
history of lost explorers. The list of them is longer
than might be supposed, including in it the names
of those whose fate has never been ascertained, of
those the manner of whose death is known, or con-
jectured with probability, and of those who have
temporarily disappeared from observation, among
which last Dr. Livingstone may happily now be
classed. Romance an 1 mystery shroud the memories
of those who have disappeared "leaving not a
wreck behind." There is Eric, the good Christian
bishop of Greenland, who in the year 1121 started
for this continent to convert the red men, but how
long he remained among them, or whether he
ever got there, is unknown to this day. Then there
is Prince Madoc, the son of Owen G wyneth, King of
Wales, who in the year 1170 went to sea in search of
ad sentures, and is said to have reached the shores of
this continent, and to have left some of his people here.
He went back to Wales for more colonists, and again
started with 10 ships full, but neither he nor his ships
were ever heard of afterwards, and there are now no
traces of his colony. In 1502 the Portuguese navigator,
Gasper Corteral, who had already explored the coast of
Labrador, set out on a second exploration of that
country, but not returning as soon as was expected his
brother sailed in search of him ; no account, however,
of either of them ever reached Portugal. In 1549 the
Sieur de Roberval, &wealthy Frenchman, who had been
inve-ted by Henry It. of France, with the empty tities
of lientenant-general, lord and viceroy of all the islands
and countries then di•covered, either by the Fiench or
lb • English, and who had sailed up the St. Lawrence and
built two forte near Qiiebec, started on a voyage of dis-
covery and WU never heard of again. In 1598 Captain
ltiehrud Chancellor, an English navigator, set out to
explore the Aretio Ocean, but never returned. Many
years afterwards the remains of two English ships were
found on the coast of Spitsbergen, but it is not certain
that they were those of Chancellor. A similar uncer-
tainty attaches to the fate of the French navigator, La
Pen use, who, in 1774, left France on an exploring ex-
pedition in the North Pacific, in command of two
ships, La Boussole and L'Astrolabe : he never returned.
Expeditions were sent in search of him, hut no traces
of him were found until 1788, when another French-
man (M. de Lesseps) landing on the coast of
Kanotschatka, discovered some articles which had
belonged to the missing ships; hence it was con-
jectured that they had been wrecked in the neighbour
Imo I. The fate of Leichardt, the Australian ex-
Plorer, is still unknown. He started on his explora-
tion in 1848, since which time nothing has been heard
of him.

The fate of Inc st other lost explorers has been ascer-
tained sooner or later after their death. Without
dwelling upon toe mythic instances of the Irish mis-
sionary lon, who came over to Massachusetts in the
year 1049, an i was murdered there by savages, or one
of the Italian brothers Nicola and Antonio Zeno, who
in 1380 did the same thing and met with the same fate,
the list beginning with the Spaniard Juan Ponce de
Leon is long enough. He was the explorer of Florida,
and gave that state the name she bears, but he fell in
a conflict with the natives. Francisco Fernardez de
Cordova, another Spaniard, attempted the exploration
of Yucatan, in 1517, but received a woffild there, of

winch he died on hi return to Cuba. The great
Portuguese navigator, Ferdinand Magellan (or, more
properly, Magelhaena), the first European who sailed
round the world and gave the Pacific Ocean the name
it bears, was killed in a fight with the natives of the
Philippine Idands in 1520. Pamplio de Narvnaz,
commander of a Spanish expedition in search of a
wealthy empire somewhere in North America, was
driven out to sea by a storm from the Bay of Apalla-
chee and drowned. This was in the year 1528. Four-
teen years afterwards the famous Spanish nobleman,
Fernando de Soto, after countless adventures died on
the banks of the Alissiseippi. "To conceal Ms death
from the natives his body, wrapped in a mantle and
placed in a rustic coffin, in the stillness of midnight
and in the presence of a few faithful followers, was
silently sunk in the middle of the stream." In 1583
iir Humphrey (illbert sailed from England with the
design of founding a colony on this continent, but his
ship. was wrecked, and all on board perished.

This brings no to more modern times. In 1779 the
illustrious English n svigator, Captain James look,
was killed by the natives of Hawaii, while he was en-
gaged In the humane attempt to stop his men from
tiring on them. In 1805 the famous Scotch traveller,
Mango Park, having explored the Niger and reached
Timbnctoo, was attacked by the natives near this toys•
terions city, and in endeavouring to escape by swimming
he and all his companions were drowned. This fact
was aocemained by a native guide three months after-
wards, but it was not known in England until five years
later. In 1016, John Williams, an English miasionary to
the New Hebrides, was killed and eaten by the natives.
In 1822, the three Englishmen, Denham, Audney, and
Clapperton, with others, explored the north of Africa, by
way of Tripoli, the Great Desert of Sahara, and the king-
domof loran. Andneydiedof diseaseand privation. The
others returned home, but Clapperton, a few months
afterwards, died while exploring the Niger, and his faith-
ful follower, Richard Lander, perished by the hands of
the natives. Major Alexander G. Laing met with a
like fate in 1826. In 1845 Sir John Franklin started
on his fatal Arctic voyage, and he and all his com-
panions were lost; his fate was not ascertained until
1859. The lamented missionary Allan Gardner died of
starvation on Picton Island in 1851. The German
Asiatic traveller Adolph Scblagenweit was murdered
in 1857 by a native chieftain. The bodies Of I3urke and
Wills, and four other explorers were found in the
wilds of Australia in 1861. With them our present
list closes, but it is not exhausted.