The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-09-07
A MODERN CRUSOE.
Discovery of shipwrecked Spaniard in
the Everglades of Florida.

Discovery of Shipwrecked Spaniard in
the Everglades of Florida.
From the regions OF the Everglades
comes story so remarkable that were not
the reciters of it men well known. their
statements might justly be regarded with
caution, not TO say ncredulity. -Four gen.
tlemen, one OF them being Spaniard, resi-
dent in Havana, recently undertook to ex-
plore the unexplored region of the Ever
elades. CompIehending the difficult nature
of the task they set themselves, they gave
out that they were going to South Florida
on hunting and fishing excursion of at
least three months duration, and prepared
for their trip by providing themselves with
everything that they could by any posi-
bility need. They sent their outfit to kissim-
NEE. arriving there themselves later. From
there they proceeded to Lake Okeechobee
by steamer, and after two days journey
were landed on the south bank OF that lake,
in the We heart of the Everglades. Here
they made a camp, built a shelter for
their provisions, and went to work-and
work it was of the hardest possible kind.
They mad to literally hew path with their
axes and hatchetS through the solid mass
OF foliage surrounding them, and they
soon learned that it WAS necessary to send
one of the party aloft in order to point out
to his companions in which direction TO cut,
it being absolutely impossible to see more
than q few feet ahead OF them otherwise.
One day while accommodating the landscape
from the top of a tall cypress, one of the
party discovered a hill several hundred feet
high, which bore marks OF cultivation.
Although it looked near from the top
of the tree, it took several days of the
hardest kind of cutting to reach it, when,
for the first time in period of twelve
weeks, the explorers had an uninterrupted
view of the sun and an opportunity to dry
their damp clothing. The hill in Ques-
ton was nearly spherical aud about a
mile in diameter. Scattered over it were
quantities of various native fruits, evidently
cared for. Further Investigation disclosed
human foot-tracks. BY this time the party
were getting excited, but were hardly pre-
pared for the next sight that greeted them-a
white man, clad entirely in the skins OF wild
animals. If it had been an Indian they
would not have been so surprised, although
they had met no human being but them
selves since entering the Everglades bnt
white man there was an Incompetence ible
fact. They piled him with questions, but
the stranger evidently did not understand
them. He, however, becOkned them to fol-
low him, and led them uD path EMPOWERED
in beautiful snrubbery to comfortable log
cabin, around which two children were play
ing. Still they were at loss to cOmmuni-
cate with each other until MIR. ErraziOus,
the Spanish member Of the party, addressed
kHtll III lldt lduSunEC' AhCh WIG uOOuedioo
of speech were opened and the man poured
out strange romance.
His name, lie said, was Hernandez. He
was one of the Cuban insurgents in the re-
belion of 1868 against Spain and was on an
insurgent vessel in the straits of Florida
when 1t was pursued by a Spanish man-of-
war The captain of the vessel seeing that
he could not escape, ran it ashore near
Rogers River, which empties into the Ponce
de Leon Bay. All were drowned but Her
nandez, who was thrown on all uninhabited
shore, where he wandered about for day
without seeing signs of life. Finally, pene-
trating the swamp, he discovered a hut in
which there was young Indian girl, who
made him understand that other Indians in
the neighborh0od would prove dangerous
should he meet them. She undertook to
guide him to safe road. but missed her
way, and fol six days the two wandered
through the swamp, subsisting on berries,
till they CHANGED on the hill mentioned.
Fearing TO become hopelessly lost should
they leave il, they remained. There they
had stayed all those years, living as man
and wife.
Hernandez had lost all count of time, and
had become quite reconciled to his wild and
lonely life. He was easily persuaded, how
ever, to abandon it, and the explorers car
ried him away with them furnishing him and
his family with civilized clothing and with
money with which to proceed to Cuba, where
Hernandez hoped to find his parents living
st. Louis Globe-Democrat.