Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1852-03-17
INTERESTING STORY.

DR.. Kane, already widely known as one
of the heroes who sailed in search OF Sir
John Franklin with Mr.. Grinnell's Expe.
dition. and who delivered last Tuesday eve-
ming lecture in the Peoples Course at
the Tabernacle in this city, has led a LIE
of unexampled adventure, as the following
account of it, up to his departure upon the
Arctic Expedition, shows. we nave not
recently encountered any narrative so thrill
ling. Why may we not hope for book
from Dr.. Kane, comprising his remarkable
experienced
aNo American, of his age, has ever seen
so much of the perils of the world itself
He was Surgeon of the American Legation
to China, and ON his way to the Celestial
regions, he spent some weeks on loot
tramp through the orange groves OF Brazil,
and about a month in tiger-hunting near
Bombay. Hence, after dozen unsuccsss-
full attempts to smuggle him self in the Tor
bidden lands of China, he went over to the
Philippines, and by the aid OF the good
Monks Of the interior of Mantilla, explored
its Businesses and volcanic wonders. He
was the first man to descend into the great
crater of the Tael, lowered down 200 feet
over the brink by bamboo rope tied round
his middle, and brought back bottle full
of its sulphur waters, burning otfhis boots
in the lava cinders. Leaving China, after
a second visit in which | e encountered
shpwreck, he passed to India as physician
of the Dremendhar Dagore, and was paan-
quined for some three months through the
wonders of its mountain architecture, the
ancient glories of Candy, the stupenous
passes of the Ghaut country, visiting Mad
ras, Pondicherry, and every spot that We
have read of in the trial of Warren Has
tings. Next to Upper Egypt and Aboys-
sinia, crossing the desert on his camel to
the base Of Jupiter Ammon, climbing
at breaknecr risk to the topstone, sound
iag Colossus Of Memnon, and exploring the
tombs of the Pharoahs for a fortnight or
three weeks, with Prof. Lepsius and his as
sociates. Wrecked again while passing
down the Nile, and wounded.i in an encoun-
ter near Alexandria, he pushed across to
Greece, and travcrsed every scene of clas-.
sac interest, climbing to the Hippocrene
Spring, and sleeping on the shore of Mara
thon.
He returned by Italy, France, and Eng
land, only TO rest few weeks, before
cruise on the coast of Africa. Renewing
here some acqualntances which had been
formed in Brazil, he was allowed to inspect
the machinery of the slave trade, and to
pass up into the interior, under the Grman
of Desouza. the great intermediary between
the chiefs of the slave-making districts and
the Brazilian carriers. The coast fever was
his pay for this trip. and he was sent home
by Commodore Read, invalided. Imper-
fectly patched up from the effects of this
visitation, he volunteered for service with
the army in Mexico, and was ordered with
dis a ches, on daredevil race through the
country our troops had lett, to overtake
General Scott. Avaiing himself, at Pero-
te, Of a miscreant escort of jail-bird, that
Gen. Worth had employed as spy COM
pany, he got into series of fights, IN the
last of which he received the swords Of
Generals Gaona and Torrejon, and had his
horse killed under him, and was himself
desperately wounded, while protecting the
live, of his prisoners against his own men.
Since then he has been cruising, and prac-
ticing photography on the Coast Survey,
up to the moment of receiving his tels-
graphic dispatch, accepting his urgent prof
fer of the services for the Arctic Expedi-
ton. He had the rice fever in the Canton
River, the plague in Egypt, the yellow fe-
yer at Rio, the congestive fever at Puebla,
and the African fever on the coast. These,
and wounds, and an organic disease of the
heart which he has had from boyhood, have
been his preparations for the hazards he is
epcounterinu now"