Weekly Trinity journal., 1873-10-18
MISSING EXPLORERS.

obOusS VI tCAs AAhNihSoNOhSf h"S NNN-NN. -
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 asccrtained of those
the manner of whose death is known, or
conjectured with probability, and of those
who have temporarily disappeared, from
observation, among which last DR.. Liv-
ingstone may now happily be classed.-
Romance and mystery shroud the mem
ories of those who have disappeared,
"leaving not wreck behind"
There is Eric, the good Christian Bish-
op of Greenland, who, in the year 1l21,
started for this continent to convert the
red men, but how he remained among
them, or whether he ever got there, is un-
known to this day. There is Prince Ma
doc, the son of Owen Gwyneth, king of
Wales, who, in the year 1870, 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 colo
nists, and again started with ten ships
full, but neither he nor his ships were
ever heard of afterwards, and there are
now no traces of his colony.
In 1902, the Portuguese navigator,
Gaspar Cortereal, who had already ex-
plored the coast of Labrador, set out on
second exploration Of that country,
but not returning as soon as was expect
ed his brother sailed in search of him.
No account of either, ever reached Por-
tugal. In 1549, the Sieur De Roberval,
a 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 English, and who had sailed up the
st. Lawrence and built two forts near
Quebec, started on voyage Of discovery
and was never heard of again.
In 1896, Capt. Richard Chancellor, an
English navigator, set out to explore the
Arctic ocean, but never returned. Many
years afterwards the remains of two Eng
lish ships were found on the coast of
Spitzbergen, but it is not certain that
they were those Of Chancellor. A simil-
ar uncertainty attaches to the fate of the
French navigator, La Perouse, who, in
1774, left France on an exploring expedi-
ton in the North Pacific, in command of
two ships he never returned. Expedi-
tions were sent in search of him. but no
traces were found until 1888, when anoth-
er Frenchman, M. De Lesseps, landing
on the coast of Kamtschatka, discovered
some articles which had belonged to the
missing ships hence it was conjectured
that they had been wrecked in the neigh
borhood. The fate of Leichhardt, the
Australian explorer, is still unknown
He started on his explorations in 1913,
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 came over to Massachusetts in
the year 1919, and was murdered there by
savages, or one of the italian brothers,
Nicola and Antonia Zeno, who in 1880
did the same thing and met with the same
fate, the list, beginning with the Span
lard, Juan Ponce dc Leon, is long enough.
He was tho explorer of Florida and gave
that State the name she bears but he
fell in a conflict with the natives. Fran
cisco Fernandez do Cordova, another
Spaniard, attempted the exploration Of
Yucatan in 1547, but received wound
there from which he died on his return to
Cuba. The great Portuguese navigator,
Ferdinand Lagelan, Tor, more properly,
Magehaens,) the first European who
sailed around the world, and gave the
Pacific ocean the name it bears, was kill
ed in fight with the natives of the Phil
lippine islands in 1920. Pampilo de Mar
vuaz, commander of a Spanish expedi-
ton in search of wealthy empire somo-
where in South America, was driven out
to sea by storm from the bay Of Apal-
lachee, and drowned. This was in the
year 1888. Fourteen years afterwards
the famous Spanish noble, Fernando dc
Soto, after countless adventures, died on
the banks of the Mississippi. To conceal
his death from the natives, his body wrap
ped in a mantle, and placed in a rustic
coffin, in the stiffness of midnight, and in
the presence of few faithful followers
only, was silently sunk in the middle Of
the stream. In 1888, Sir Humphrey Gill
bert 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 1906, the fam
GUS Scotch traveller, Mungo Park, having
explored the Niger and reached Timbuc-
too, was attacked by the natives, near
this mysterious city, and in endeavouring
to escape by swimming, he and all his
companions were drowned. This fact
was ascertained by native guide, three
months afterwards, but it was not known
in England for five years later. In 1916,
John Williams, an English missionary /
to the New Hebrdes, was killed and eat
en- by the natives.
Tn 1920. the three Englishmen, Den