The free citizen. (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1875-07-17
THE LOST FLORINDA.
New Orleans ricayunc. June %.

intense ana growing interest in the fate
OF tho hftecn or twenty men vino, more
than quarter of Il century ago, char.
tered the schooner Florinda and set sail
for tho golden shores of California.
For twenty-six years tho familic, Of the
adventurous have mourncd them as lost.
Tho last news OF the Florinda WIS rD
ceived late in tho year 1S49 from Eio
JaneirO. She had put in at that port
some timo previous and then proceeded
on her way, leaking badly. it was said.
"A vessel tonching at Rio Janeiro short
~ aTtcrwnro. reported having spoken
the Flori:ida in the Pacific, just beyond
Cape Horn. From that time forward
nothing moro waH ever heard of the
| florlnda, and it became an accented
thcorY that she had been cast away
and her crew lost somewhere on TIN,
South Pacific cmst. Nrtidi,i,,s rcach.l
the families of tho i'll fatcd nrgnnn,ts,
and twenty six years slipped by without
n waif OF whisper to disturb tho mel.
anrl,uly conviction which llat! sealed tho
record of their lives. Their children
ha"n grown To manhood and woman
hood without the Knowledge. with
scarcely the memory OF - fnthera love.
The hopes tbnt clustered around them
have long ago been transferred to tInt
other world in which they wero be-
lieved to br
Such is the story ns it has passed cur
rent all this time, with tho general pub.
lie and with the greater number of the
relatives OF the Florinda company. At
first, of course, there wero doubts and
fears and expectations, moro or less re-
inctantly resigned for certainty, but to
this conclusion NIL eventually cumo and
the loss of tho schooner with NIL on
board has, for fully quarter of II cen
tury, been regarded M fact about
which therc could be no sort of qucs-
ton. Tho unfortunate men have been
rs utterly given un rs though their
b.lrials had taken place in presence Of
tho whole community, and to have told
amy of their families that they were
still alive would have bccn to ask thonl
| TO believe that tho dead hnl risen after
twenty-five ycura of sepulture and
wnlked forth once more among the
living.
Within the past fow days. however
precisely tllis proposition has in effect
been made. The strange aud startling
stute1ncnt has transpireh that Harmon
Jones and Ills fellow voyagers were not
i lost as sE we ..Jli hayc thought, but arc now
unknown island i'll the lower Pacific.
About II mouth ago friend of Mrs.
Harmon Jones resd III an English paper
an account of some British vessel having
been driven ont of her course in storm
and sighted m unknown island. Much
to tho surprise of the crow the island
turned out to ho inhabited, and still
moro astonishing, by men who spoke
he English language. Tho rest of tho
story, ns given i'll the paper referred to,
is that the castnways told the ships
company that they were the FloriEda
party who had sailed from New Orleans
III 1910 bound for California, that they
had been wrecked on the ISLAND and had
dwClt there ever since, it being then
more than twenty-five years that they
had not SrCn Il human fucc or IL aign of
tho world from which they were SO
utterly eliminated. The paper gave the
names of several, oil of whom a,c
known to have been OF Florinda's crew,
and i'll many other wnye, according to the
version of Mrs. Jones friend, tho idcn-
tity of tho party WAS established as none
but themselves could have established
it. 1t WIS further stated that tho British
vessel offered to take tiio men Oil board,
but they declined, saying they had been
lost for quarter Of IL century that
would find The families they had left,
and that they preferred staying AMI
ending their days ti.elc rather than
venture back to such Il doubtful and
uncertain future. This paper was four
mouths old when Mrs. Jones friend snw
1t, one month ago, and the events mar.
rated were described ns having occurred
four months previous to the issuo of
the paper. Ii is Just nine months then
since the island wGs discovered by the
British vessel, and Mt that t,no MI, or
nearly all, Of tho Florndn party appear
to have been alive.
1t need not l'e sail That This news has
aroused tho deepest interest. TO the
community nj large il recalls the faml-
iar occurrence of the Florindn's sailing
from New Orleans with it's adventurous
company. TO the fumilies OF tie i'll
fut.u men it comes like II message from
another w0rld, and il III though it were
the announcement OF Il resurrection
Within the past few days the rclntivcs
have been living in n state of constant
excitement, Gnd many of them, espe
cal!v the Sons Of Harmon Jones, Jno.
Il. Sidney, and Capt. Kenmore, tho
skipper Of the Ti0rinda, have devoted
themselves to tho task of following the
cluc glvnn by the friend who saw the
English paper. Extensive inquiries arc
now on foot, and the British consul has
kindly interested himself in the affair
so fnr NJ to agree TO forward to the war
office in London full statement of tho
| circumstances SO that the name of the
vessel Which touched at the castawny's
homo can ha ascer tanned and the bear
Jugs of tho island taken from her Jog
! 1t would greatly fac!litat this end,
however, If copy Of the paper giving