Year: 1875

] New Orleans PicayGne. Jane 2s-


Recent revelations have excited an
intense and growing interest in the fatS
of the fifteen or twenty men who, more
! than a quarter Of q century ago, char
tered the schooner Florinda and set sal
for the golden shores of California
| For twentY-six years the families of the


adventures have u6ourned them as lost
The last news of the Flotinda was re
| ceived late in the year 1S49 from Rio
| Janeiro. She had put IN at that pori


some tims previous and then proceeded


on her way, leaking badly, it was said


A vessel touching at Rio JaneiIo short
/ " afterward, reported having spokeI
/ the Florilda in the Pacific, Just beyond
/ Cape Horn. From that time forward
nothing more was ever heard of the
| Florinda, and 10 became an accepted
| theory that she had been cast away
and her crew lost somewhere on the
| South Pacific coast. No tidjngs reached
/ the families of the i'll fated argonauts,
/ and twenty six years slipped by without
a waif or whisper to disturb the mel.
ancholy conviction which had sealed the
record of their lives. Their children
have grown to manhood and woman
hood without the knowledge, with
scarcely the memory of a fathers love.
The hopes that clustered around them
have long ago been transferred to that
other world in which they were be-
heved to be.


Such is the story IS 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 cojirse, there we're doubts and
fears and expectations, more or less re-
luctantiy resigned for certainty, but to
this conclusion all eventually came and
the loss of the schooner with all on
board has, for fully quarter of a CEN
tury, been regarded as a fact about
which there could be no sort of ques-
ton. The unfortunate men have been
as utterly given up as though their
burials had taken place in presence of
the whole community, and to have told
any OF their families that they were
still alive would have been TO ask them
to believe that the dead had risen after
twenty-five years of sepulture and
walked forth once more among the
living.


Within the past few days. however,
precisely this proposition has IN effect
been made. The strange and startling
statement has transpired that Harmon
Jones and his fellow voyagers were not
lost as we have thought, but are now
alive on some nameless and hitherto
unknown island in the lower Pacific.


About a month ago friend of Mrs.
Harmon Jones read in an English paper
an account of some British vessel having
been driven out of her course in a storm
and sighted an unknown island. Much
to the surprise of the crew the island
turned out TO be inhabited, and still
more astonishing, by men who spoke
he English language. The rest of the
story, as given IN the paper referred to,
is that the castaways told the ships
company that they were the FlOrinda
party who had sailed from New Orleans
In 1849 bound for California, that they
had been wrecked on the island and had
dwelt there ever since, 1t being then
more than twenty-five years that they
had not seen a human face or a sign of
the world from which they were so
utterly eliminated. The paper gave the
names of several, all of whom aIe
known 70 have been of FlOrinda's crew,
and in many other ways, according to the
version of Mrs. Jones friend, the iden-
tity of the party was established as none
but themselves could have established
it. It was further stated that the British





but they declined, saying they had been
lost for a 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 a doubtful aud
uncertain future. This paper was four
months old when Mrs. Jones friend saw
1t, one month ago, and the events mar
rated 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 Florinda party appear
to have been alive.


It need not Re said that this news has
aroused the deepest interest. To the
community at large it recalls the famll-
lar occurrence of the FlOrinda's sailing
from New Orleans with its adventurous
company. To the families of the i'll
fated men it comes like q message from
another world, and is as though it we're
the announcement of a resurrection.
Within the past few days the relatives
have been living in a state of constant
excitement, and many of them, espe-
cially the sons of Harmon Jones, JnO.
A. Sidney, and Capt. Kenmore, the
skipper of the FloFinda, have devoted
themselves to the task OF following the
clue gwen by the friend who saw the
English paper. Extensive inquiries are
now on foot, and the British consul has
kindly interested himself in the affair
so far as to agree to forward to the war
office IN London full statement of the
circumstances so that the name of the
vessel which touched at the castaway's
home can be ascertained and the bear
Jugs of the island taken from her log
It would greatly facilitstJ this end,
however, if a copy of the paper giving
the original account were found, and It
is still hoped that some one who sees
this publication may have noticed the
paper and be able to tell us where a
number can be had. On that contin-
gency depends much that viii simplify
aud expedite the quest, but il is certain
that in any case the friends of Florinda's
crew will never rest again until the
mystery is fathomed to its uttermost
depth.