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

of tho fifteen or twenty men who, more
than quarter of Il century ago, char
tered the schooner Florinda and get sail
for tho golden shores of California.
For twenty-six years the families of the
adventurous have mourncd them as lost.
Tho last news of the Florinda was re.
ceived late in tho year 1S49 from Rio
Janeiro. She had put in at that port
some time previous and then proceeded
on her way, leaking badly, it was said.
A vessel touching ut Rio Janciro short
ly nfterward. reported having spoken
the Flori:,da in the Pncific, just beyond
Cape Horn. From that time forward
nothing more was over heard of the
FIorinda. aud it became an accepted
| theory that she had Ercn cast away
and her crew lost somewhere on the
South Pacific cpnst No tidings reached
the families Of tho i'll fatcu argnnauts,
aud twenty six years slipped by without
4 wnif or whisper to disturb tho mel
nnrholy conviction which hnh sealed tho
record Of their lives. Their children
haze grown To manhood and woman
hood without the knowledge, with
scarcely tile memory of q fathers love
The hopes that clustered around them
have long ago been transferred to that
lieved to bn.
Such is the story ns it has passed cur
rent all this time, with the general pub.
lie and with the greater number of the
relatives Of the Florinda company. At
first, of course, there werc doubts and
fears and expectations, moro or less re-
iuctantly resigned for certainty, but to
this conclusion all eventually came and
the loss Of tho schooner with MI on
board has, for fully Il quarter of cen
tury, been regarded M a fact about
which there could be no sort of ques-
tion. The unfortunate men have been
RS utterly given up is though their
buriais had taken place in presence of
tho whole community, and to have told
amy of their families that they were
still alive would have been to ask thom
to believe that the dead had risen after
twenty-five years Of sepultrro and
wnlled forth once moro among the
living.
Within the past fow dnys. however
precisely tllis proposition has in effect
been made. The strange and startling
stntemcnt has transpired that Harmon
Jones and his fellow voyagers were not
lt9 oSt 1s as aS we haye thought, but are now
unknown island in the lower Pacific.
About n mouth ago friend Of Mrs.
Harmon Jones resd in al English paper
an account Of some British vessel having
been driven out of her course in storm
and sighted an unknown island. Much
to tho surprise of the crow tho island
turned out to be inhabited, and still
moro astonishing, by men who spoke
he English Iangunge. Tho rest of the
story, rs given in the paper referred to,
is that the castnways told the ships
company that they were the Florirda
party who had sailed from New Orleans
i'll 1S49 bound for California, that they
had been wrecked on the island and had
dwGlt there ever since, it being then
moro than twenty-five years that they
had not stcn Il human fucc or Il Sign of
tho world from which they were SO
utterly eliminated The paper gave the
names of several, all of whom ale
known to have been Of Florinda's crow,
and i'll many other wnye, according to tho
version of Mrs. Jones friend, tho iden-
tity of tho party WAS established as mono
but themselves could have established
it. 1t wns further stated that tho British
vessel offered to take tho men on board,
but they declined, saying they had been
lost for II 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
uncertain future. This paper was four
months old when Mrs. Jones friend saw
it, one month ago, and the events mar
rated were described ns having occurred
four months previous to the ISSUE of
the paper. IL is Just nine months then
since the island was discovered by the
British vessel, and at that timo nll, or
nearly MI, Of the Florinda party appear
to have been alive.
1t need not l'e sail that this ncws has
aroused Tho deepest interest. To the
community at large il recalls the famil-
iar occurrence of tlls FIorinda's sailing
from New Orleans with its adventurous
company. 70 the families Of the i'll
fut.J mcn it comes like message from
another world, and is IN though it were
the announcement OF Il resurrection.
Within the pnst few days the relatives
have been living in state of constant
excitement, ami many of them, espe.
CHILLY the Sons Of Harmon Joics, Jno.
A. Sidney, aud Capt. Kenmore, tho
skipper of tlle Florinda, have devoted
themselves to the task of following the
clue given Ivy tic frien;. WHO saw tho
English paper. Extensive inquiries aro
now on font, and the British consul has
kindly Interested himself in the affair
so far al to agree 10 forward to the war
| office in London Il full statement of the
| circumstances SO that the name of tho
vessel which touched at the castaway's 3
| homo can he ascnrtaincd and the bear
Jugs Of the ialaud taken from her log
1t would Gr,atly iaclitat this end,
however, if copy OF Tho paper giving
tho original account were found, and it