American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-07-10
ROBINSON CRUSOES.
THE CREW OF THE FLoRINDA FOUND AZ
TER TWENTY SIX YEARS INHABITING A
SOUTH PACIFIC IsLAND--TH EIR FAG1'
LIES STILL LIVING IN NEW ORLEANS.
From the New Orleans Picayune.l

an intense aud growing interest i'll
the fate OF the fifteen or twenty men
who. more than quarter "f a ceh>
fury ago, chartered the schooner
Florinda and set sail tor the golden
shores of Cal fornia. For twenty
six wears the families of the adven-
tIlrers have mourned them as lost.
The last news OF the Flurinda was
received late in the year 1919 from
Rio Janeiro. She had put in at that
port some time previous, and had
then proceeded OH her way, leaking
badly, it was said. Avessel touch
ing at Rio Janeiro shortly afterward
reported having spoken the Fiorin-
.da in the Pacific, just beyond Cape
Horn. From tiiat time forward
nothing more was ever heard of the
Florimda, and it became an accept
ed theory that she had been cast.
away md her crew lost somewhere
OH the South Pacifi: coast. No
ti,lings reached the families of the
Inflated argoliats, and twenty -six
years slipped by without wait or
" Iii -ppr to disturb the melancholy
which had seated the
record of their lives. Their child
rem have grown to manhood aud
woinanhood without the knowledge,
with scarcely the memory, OF a
fathers love. The hopes that cllls-
tered around them have long ago
been transferred to that other world
in which they were believed to be.
Such ia the story as it has passed
current all this time with the gene
raj public and with the greater
lumber of the relatives of the
FloIiHda company. At first, of
course, there were doubts aud fears
and expectations, more or less re-
lactan,ly resigned for certainty |;
but to this conclusion all eventually
came. and The loss of the schooner
with all on board has, Tor fully a
quarter OF a century, been reg trded
as fact about which there could be
no sort of question. The uIfortun
ate men have iseen as utterly given
UP as though their burials had
taken place in presence OF tht
whole community; aud to have told
any OF their families that they were
sti IL alive would have been to ask
them to believe that the dead ha,:
risen after twenty I've years of sep
ulture, and walked forth once more
among the living.
Within the past few days, how
ever, precisely this proposition has
I'm effect been made The strange
land startling statement has tran-
lspired that Harmon Jones and his
fellow. voyagers were not lost as We
have thought, bnt are now alive on
some namelcss and undiscovered
, island in the lower Pacific.
About month ago a friend OF
MRS. Harmon Jones read in an
English paper an account of some
British vessel having been driven
tout of her course in storm, and
lsighted an unknown island. Much
| TO the surprise of the crew, the is
Hand turned out to be Inhabited, and
still more astonishing, by men who
spoke the English language. The
! rest of the story, as given in the
paper referred Ia, is that the cast
aways told the ships company that
they were the Fiorinda party who
[had sailed from New Orleans in
1849, bound for California; thai
tthey had been wrecked on the is
Hand aud had dwelt there ever since
/ it being more'than twenty five years
THAT they had not seen human
face or q sign of the world from
which they were SO utterly elimin
lated. The paper gave the names OF
several, all of whom are known to
have been OF the Florinda's crew,
and in many other ways, according
Ito the version of Mrs. Jones' friend
the identity of the party was estab
Iishcd as none but themselves could
have established it. 1t was further
1stated that the British vessel offer
ed to take the men on board, bul
they declined, saying they had been
lost for u quarter of century; thai
they knew not in what situation,
they would find the families they
hal left, and that they preferred
i staying and ending their days there
rather than venture back 10 such q
doubtful and uncertain fI,ure. This
paper was four months old whrI
! Mrs. Jones friend saw it, one month
! ago, aud the events narrated Were
described as having occurred -four
months previous to the issue of the
paper. 1t is just nine months, then
since the island was discovered by
the British vessel, and at that time
all or nearly all of the Florinds
party appear to have been alive.
1t need not be said that this news
has aroused the deepest interest
To the community at large it re-
calls the familiar occurrence of the
FloriDda's sailing from New Or
leans with it's adventurous com
tpany. To the families of the ill
Ifated meu it comes like a message
from another world, and is al
Though il were the announceme.
of resurrection, Within the pas
few days the relatives have beef
living in u state Of constant excit-.
meut, and many of them. especially
the sons of Harmon Jones. john A
Sidney, and Captain Kenmore, tllt
skipper If the Flerinda, have de
voted themselves to the task o
following the clue given by the
friend who saw the English paper
Exclusive Inquiries are now on foot
and the British Consul has kind,
interested himself III the affair s,