Litchfield enquirer., 1875-08-05
From the Chicago Inter-OceAn.l ] STRANGE TRUE.

| STRAHCE IF IRUEs
 Recent revelations have excited an in- tense and growing interest in the fate of the fifteen or twenty men who, more than quarter of century ago, chartered the schooner Florinda and set sail for the gol- den shores of California. For twenty-six years the families of the adventurers have | mourned them as lost. The last news of the Florinda was received late in the year 1849, from Rio Janeiro. She had put in at that port some time previous, and then proceeded on her way, leaking badly, 1t was said. 4 vessel touching at Rio Jan- eiro shortly afterward reported having | spoken the Florinda in the Pacific, just | beyond Cape Horn. From that time for ward nothing more was ever heard of the Florinda, and 1t became an accepted theO- " that she had been cast away and her crew lost somewhere on the Southern Pa cific coast. No tidings reached the fami-
 lies of the ilI-fated argonauts, and twenty six years slipped by without a waif or whisper to disturb the melancholy convic- tioD which had sealed the record of their lives. Their children have grown to man. hood and womanhood without the knowl- edge, with scarcely the memory of fa- ther's love. The hopes that clustered ! around them have long ago been transfer red to that other world in which they were believed to be. Such is the story as 1t has passed current all this time with the general public and with the greater num- Der of the relatives of the FlOrinda com pany. At first of course, there were doubts
 and fears and expectations, more or less | reluctantly resigned for certainty, but to this conclusion all eventually came, and | the loss of the schooner with all on board has fully a quarter of a ceE tuTy been re- garded as a fact about which there could be no sort of question. The unfortunate men have been as utterly given mp as though their burials had taken place in the presence of the whole community ,and
 to have told any of their families that they were still alive would have been to ask them to believe that the dead had risen after twenty-five years of sepulture, and walked forth once moro among the living. Within the past few days, however, pre- cisely this proposition has, in effect, been made. The strange and startling state ment has transpired that Harmon Jones | and his fellow vOyagers were not lost, but are now alive on some nameless and un- | discovered island in the lower Pacific. About a month ago friend of Mrs. Har- mon Jones read in an English paper an | account of some British vessel having been driven out of her course in a storm and sighted an unknown island. Much to the surprise of the crew the island turned out to be inhabited, and still more aston | ishing, by men who spoke the English language. The rest of the story, as given in the paper referred to, is that the casta-
 ways told the ships company that they were the Florinda party, who had sailed from New Orleans in 1849 for California; | HHok lo.I IL
 and had dwelt there ever since. 1t being then more than twenty-five years that they had not seen a human face or a sign of the world from which they were so utterly eliminated. The paper gave the name of several, all of whom are known to have been of the Florinda's crew. and in many other ways, according to the version of Mrs. Jones friend, the identity of the par 1 ty was established, as none but themSeveS could have established it. It was further stated that the British vessel offered to take the men on board, but they declined saying they had been lost for a quarter of a century; that they knew not in what situation they would find the families they had left, and that they preferred staying and ending their days there rather than venture back to such doubtful and un- certain future. This paper was four months old when Mrs. Jones' friend saw it, one month ago, and the events narrated were described as having occurred four months previous to the issue of the paper
 It is just nine months, then, since the island was discovered by the British ves- sel, and at that time all, or nearly all, of the FloriAda party appear to have been alive.
 | It need not be said that this news has aroused the deepest interest. To the com- munity at large it recalls the familiar oc- currence of the FlOrinda's sailing from New Orleans with it's adventurous compa- ny. To the families of the ill-fated men l it comes like a message from another | world, and 1t is as though it were the an- | nouncement of resurrection. Within tine past few days the relatives have been liv- | ing in a state of constant excitement, and many of them, especially the sons of Har- mon Jones, John A. Sidney and Capt. Kenmure, the skipper of the Florinda, have devoted themselves to following the cine given by the friend who saw the Eng fish paper. Extensive enquiries are now on foot, and the British Consul has kindly interested himself in the affair so far as to agree to forward to the War Office in Lor- don full statement of the circumstances, so that the name of the vessel which touched at the castaways' home can be as- certained, and the bearings of the island taken from her log. It would greatly fa- l cilitate this end, however, If the copy of the paper giving the original copy were found. It is still hoped that some one who sees this publication may have mo- ticed the paper, and be able to tell us where a number can be had. On that con- tiDgency depends much that will simplify and expedite the quest; but it is certain that in any case the friends of the FlOrin- da's crew will never rest again until the mystery is fathomed to it's utmost depth.