The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-10-02

Once she had been line-of-battle
ship and proudly ruled the deep.
Now she was receiving ship and
groaned In the pains of of her old age
and the ignominy Of her mooring
chains at her navy yard prison. Her
omcers were smoking and talking
around the wardroom table after din
ner. They spoke of Panama and of
the stories which come out of the
mysterious region to the eastward of
the canal zone-stories of a noun
tain OF virgin gold and of hidden
region UNEMPLOYED" and the first
lieutenant said: mo. not entirely I'M
explored. Across II in one place
American sailors have gone. You
never heard perhaps OF Strains expe-
dition? Listen and I will tell you a
tale OF forgotten heroism-the story
OF the first survey of an Isthmian
canal
Strain set out from Caledonia har-
Dor, on the Gulf of Darien, on Jan.
20, 1854. The party, all told, num-
bered twenty-seven officers and men,
and included two Colombian commits
sioners. The late Admiral Truxton,
then a midshipman. was second in
command. The party took only ten
days provisions with them and an
ticipated comparatively easy job
1T was March 20 before the rem
nants of the party, a band of ema-
ciated skeletons, clothed only in a
few rags. reached the British man
of-war Virago, lying in Darien harbor
on the Pacific side. OF those who
started out. five became separated
from the main party and turned back
to the ship on the third day out, four
died In the wilderness, one died after
reaching Vavisa, settlement on the
Tuyra river, forty miles above its
mouth, and one, Civil Engineer Boggs,
died after reaching Panama.
AT first they occasionally saw an
Indian, but finally the explorers were
entirely deserted by the natives and
involved in labyrinth of mountains,
thus losing all idea of their where
abouts. The food gave out and suffer-
ing began They tried to support life
upon the young shoots of palm trees,
on an acid nut which they found grow
ing. and on what game they could
shoot. They marched with incred-
ible labor. having to cut their way
in many places through the dense
jungle. There proved to be practi-
cally no game in the region.
Through days which heightened
into weeks. the men dragged them
sselves on, emaciated. dying of star
walton, their bodies infested by an in
sect which burrowed beneath the skin,
their clothing torn to shreds, pricked
and torn by thorns and brambles,
suffering all that human endurance
could suffer, but there was no thought
OF returning. Finally. on the other
side Of the divide, they struck river.
Strain did net forget. even in his
greatest agony. the object for which
he had undertaken the expedition, and
made surveys and Reconnaissance.
They built raft and tried to float
down the river, but the snags and
sand bars made that impracticable.
At first they fished in the stream,
thus adding to their scanty fare of
plain shoots, nuts and monkey pep
per-rcd, strange fruit something
like canteloupe, which they some
times were fortunate enough to find
There was only one fish hook in the
party and that was taken by Strain,
who ordered that no one except HIM
self and Truxton should use it. One
day one OF the Colombian commission
ers became importunate and was al