The Shasta courier., 1872-11-09
MISSING EXPLORERS.

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
acertained, of those the manner of whose
death is unknown, or conjectured with
probability, and of those who have tempo
rarily disappeared from observation, among
last which last DR.. Livingstone may happily
now be classed. Romance and mystery
shroud the memories of those who have
disapl cared, "leaving not wreck behind" :"
There is Eric, the good Christian Bishop
Of Greenland, who, in the year 1l2l, start
ed for this continent to convert the red
men but how long he remained among
them, or whether he ever got there, is un-
known to this day. Then there is Prince
Madoc, the son of Owen Owyneth, King of
Wales, who, in the year Il79, went to sea
in search of adventures, 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
agaid started with ten ships full; but
neither he nor his ships were ever heard
of afterwards, and there arc now no traces
of his colony.
In 1902, the Portuguese navigator,
Gaspar Cortoreal, who had already explor-
ed the coast of Labrador, set out on a se-
cond exploration of that country, but not
returning as soon as was expected, his
brother sailed in seach of him no account,
however, of either of them ever reached
| Portugal In 1549 the Sieur De Roberyal,
wealthy Frenchman, who had been in
vested by Henry II. of France with the
empty titles of Lieutenant. General Lord
and Viceroy of all the islands and coun-
tries then discovered, either by the French
or the English, and who had sailed up the
st. Lawrence and built two forts near
Quebec, started on a voyage of discovery,
and was never heard Of again. In 1896
Captain Richard Chancellor, an English
navigator, set out to explore the Arctic
Ocean, but never returned Many years
afterwards the remains of two English
ships were found on the coast Of Sptizber-
gen, but it is not certain that they were
those of Chancellor. A similar uncertain
ty attaches to the fate of the Frenchman
La Pcrouse, who left France in IVA on an
exploring expedition in the North Pacific,
in command of two ships, La Boussole and
II AstrolaJe. lie never returned. Ex-
peditions were sent in search of him, but
no traces of him were found until 176S,
when another French (M. De Lesscps),
landing on the coast of Kamtschatka, dis
covered some articles which had belonged
to the missing ships hence it was con-
jectured that they had been wrecked in
the neighborhood. The fare of Leichardt,
the Australian explorer, is still unknown.
He started on his exploration in 1S4S,
since which time nothing has been heard
of him.
The fate of most other lost explorers has
been ascertained sooner or later after their
death. Without dwelling upon the mythic
instances of the Irish missionary, Ion, who
come over to Massachusetts in the year
lO49, and was murdered there by savages,
or on of the Italian brothers, Nicola and
Antonio Zeno, who, in 1880, 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 conflict
with the natives. Francisco Fernandez de
Cordova, another Spaniard, attempted the
exploration of Yucatan, in 1917, but re
ceived wound there, of which he died on
his return to Cuba. The great Portuguese
navigator, Ferdinand Magellan Cor, more
properly, Magelhens), the first European
who sailed round the world and gave the
Pacific Ocean the name it bears, was killed
In fight with. the natives of the Philip
pine Islands, in 1920. Pampile de Mar
vuaz, commander of a Spanish expedition
in search of a wealthy empire somewhere
in North America, was driven out to sea
by storm, from the Bay of Apallachee,
and drowned. This was in the year 1928.
Fourteen years afterwards the famous
Spanish noble, Ferdinand Dc Soto, after
countless adventures, died on the banks of
the Mississippi. To conceal his death
from the natives, his body, wrapped in a
monte, and placed in rustic coffin, in the
stiffness of midnight, and in the presence
of few faithful followers, was silently
sunk in the middle Of the stream" In
1888, Sir Humphrey Gilbert 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 us to more modern times
In 1779 the illustrious English navigator,
Captain James Cook, was killed by the
natives of Hawaii, while he was engaged
in the humane attempt to stop his men
from firing on them. In 1905, the famous
Scotch traveller, Munge Park, having sx
plored the Niger and reached Timbuctoo,
was attacked by the natives, Gear this mys
terious city, and, in endeavoring to escape by
swimming, he and all his companions were
drowned. This fact was sscertained by
native guide, three months afterwards, but
it was not known in England until five
years later In 1916, John Williams, an
English missionary to the Hebrides, was
killed and eaten by the natives. In
1922, the three Englishmen, Denham,
Audney and Clapperton, with others, ex-
plored the North of Africa, by way of Tri-