MEN WHO SOUGHT THE UNKNOWN

Evening Star, Issue 22619, 10 April 1937, Page 21

MEN WHO SOUGHT THE UNKNOWN

PEDLAR TO VICEROY Young Ambrose O’Higgins left County Meath for South America hoping to make a living as a pedlar. He finished up by being Governor of Chile and Viceroy of Peru (says a writer in ‘John o’ London’s Weekly’). A Chilean province is named after him, also a street in the capital, a river, and dozens of plazas scattered about the country. A town, too, Balenar—spoken aloud it has a good Irish ring—was founded by him. And he left a son, Bernardo, who followed in his father’s footsteps. O’Higgins is typical of the adventurers to be met with in Mr Charles J. Finger’s ‘ Valiant Vagabonds.’ In his peddling days he pushed on _ through country that was in the mid-eighteenth century largely untrodden by white men. No one knows what he suffered. ... He was “ worried by mosquitoes, nervous about centipedes, soaked by heavy rains, choked with dust, paddling in canoes, torn by jungle thorns, toiling along dry water courses, sweltering in heat, chilled in the morning cold, knowing days of mountain glory, marvelling how by expenditure of directed energy the wilderness could be tamed, hopeful always as he journeyed into the unknown.” “ Into the unknown ” —those were the magic words that acted as a magnet for the valiant vagabonds. They led O’Higgins to fortune; others they led to death. Among the less lucky was Luigi Bartema. He was an Italian, and made some daring journeys in the sixteenth century, which he described in his book, ‘ Itinerario.’ Probably his most notable exploit was to make his way to the holy cities of Medina and Mecca—just as Richard Burton, another incorrigible wanderer, did 300 years later. The stranger-assorted’ caravan of pilgrims did not change much through the years. On foot, riding camels or mules or asses, carried in litters, the pilgrims slowly pressed on “ Strictly the pilgritns were abjured to avoid quarrels, bad language ,_ and all immorality. They were forbidden to take animal life, though it was permitted to > kill the five nuisances—a crow, a kite, a rat, a scorpion, or a biting dog. They could not pare their nails, cut their hair, use perfumes, washes, or cosmetics. . . .” Many other adventures, too, Bartema survived. Finally he decided to pierce the far north: — “ So one day Bartema set off, not anxiously, but eagerly, to see where men lived in lands of snow and ice. . . . Thus he drops out of history, for of him the world heard no tidings.” _ But he had lived a full life, as did the brave O’Higgins and his son and his son’s friends—John Mac Kenna, a fellow Irishman, Lord Cochran, a wild Scot, and a dashing young man named William Miller. Even the Spaniards, against whom he fought, respected Miller. It is recorded that on the eve of one battle for Chile’s independence the Spanish commander, learning that Miller was out of tobacco, politely sent him boxes of the finest cigars under a flag of truce! He would have been a fit companion for Hsuan-Tsang, who about the year 650 left China and penetrated far into India. He actually crossed the Hindu-Kush with a number of elephants, through deep snow, across glassy mountain paths, crevasses, and chasms—an amazing feat. It does one good in these days of speed limits to remember the exploits of these valiant vagabonds. They range from the explorers of ancient China to men of our own day like Roald Amundsen. But one and all felt the power of those three words—“ into the unknown.”