AN AMERICANS WALK ROUND THE WORLD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10265, 17 October 1896, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN AMERICANS WALK ROUND THE WORLD.

THRILLING.STORY OF ADVENTURE. Mn. , C. B. RkkoaUi, formerly a cadet in West Point College, New York, who started from Boston, America, to walk round the world within two years, barring sickness and other unavoidable causes of detention, lias completed, his task, and is at present resting at Shanklin, Isle of Wight, for a few days prior to the last stage of the journey to New York. He was due to reach New York by September 30, and by accomplishing the feat he wins a wager of 25,000d015. He had roached the South of Ireland on his return journey, and booked his passage across the' Atlantic, when his arrival became known to Sir William Hudson, commander of tho Bihar Light Horse of India, who, spending his holiday atShanklin, induced him to return and pass n few days with him, a warm friendship having arisen between tho two gentlemen as the outcome of the traveller's strange experiences whilst walking through India. Mr. Rendall, interviewed on September 2, gave a thrilling account of his wanderings over the globe. The conditions of the contract, he said, were that he should walk round tl e world, starting without a penny or a scrap of clothing. Before leaving Boston he exhibited himself naked, charging a fee for admission. With money so obtained he bought a nowpaper and some pins, and with these made a suit of paper clothing. Then he was engaged at fabulous prices for business advertisement purposes. For instance, among other things, he sat in a shop window at five dollars an hour. Within ten days he had raised a fund of 1300 dollars, and before he left New York ho had £800 in the bank. After walking 4100 miles from New York to San Francisco, he took steamer to Hawaii, arriving on July 4, 181)4. Thence ho proceeded to the Samoan Islands, where ho spent three days with R. L. Stevenson. Arriving in New Zealand he walked from Auckland to Wellington—6oo miles—and on landing in Australia lie walked from Zauesville to Port Darwin— l4o3 miles. He took boat to Yokohama, and proceeded thenco to Thiusiu, China, where ho had a pleasant interview with Li Hung Chang, who gave him a letter to the mandarins, charging all who saw tho document with Eersouairespotisibiliby for tho safety of the enrcr. With this permit he put in about four hundred miles, bub finding things rather rough, he turned back into Japan, obtained an interview with Count Ito, and, obtained from him a letter to the officers of the Japanese army then in China. Count Ito appointed him to the lion, rank of lieutenant in the Japanese army, so that ho might have the right to go with the soldiers into China. He was with the Japanese army threo months, serving as an officer and engaging in twelve different battles. .Mr. Rendall, who is a young man of twenty-six, exposed his legs, showing several bullet and bayonet wounds received while engaged in the fighting against the Chinese He has a nasty gash in his left shoulder, a right rib is broken; so is the frame of his oliest, and on his back is a scar from a deep and broad gash he received from a Chinese soldier. He was shot in five different parts of his body. When ha had sufficiently recovered, he resumed his journey, arriving in Sism at tho time of the Slam-Franco war, and walked from Bangkok to Canbiiri, 500 miles, from Canburi to Rangoon, in Burma, and thenco to Calcutta by steamer. Ho walked over the Grand Trunk Road from Calcutta to Quetta, 3200 miles, and at Quetta was arrested as a suspected spy, and detained for two months. It was hero ho found a friend in Sir William Hudson, who provided him with an escort of 100 army men for the next stage of the journey, a walk of 1000 miles, to Persia. The idea of a man walking rilled the Persians with amazement. The talk reached the ears of the late Shah, and ho sent round to tho British Resident, Sir Mortimer Durand, to ask him if ho would bring to him this strange traveller. Sir Mortimer accordingly introduced Mr. Rendall, and the Shah was more than over puzzled when he found that the pedestrian was ablo to converse with the monarch in his own language. Ho took tea with the Shah, who provided him with an escort of 500 soldiers from Teheran to the Armenian frontier. He arrived in an Armenian town called Julpha on October 1 last, and while he was there the placo was attacked by Turkish soldiers, who hilled 5000 of the inhabitants. He was at Erzeroum on Oc tobet 11, 12, and 13. In one disused stone quarry he saw, tier upon tier, thousands of lifeless bodies of Armenians, old and young of both sexeß, In another village between Erzeroum and Van ib was impossible to find a man of the native class, all having been slaughtered, and what male children were left had been ham-strung, so that the poor things were unable to stand up and had to crawl about. On arriving at Mouel he was imprisoned for four months by the Turkish Government. On regaining his liberty, he proceeded to Bagdad, and crossed the Arabian desert, hiring a cavalcade of camels to accompany him and carry water and other necessaries. Returning to Constantinople, he walked thence through Bulgaria, Koumania, Austria, Hungary, Germany, and Belgium, taking passage to Southampton at Antwerp, and from Southampton walked to Liverpool, steamed from Liverpool to Dublin, and walked through Ireland to Cork. His journey is now practically ended, and out of the £800 with which ho left New York, ho has provided his passage to New York, and has in hand a balance of botweeu £15 and £16. Mr. Rendall had many narrow escapes and thrilling adventures. On three separateoccasions obituary notices of him have been published. In one instance he was overtaken by about fifty armed thieves after leaving Qnebta, robbed and stripped of his coat and ahirb. The coat was afterwards dragged out of a well attached to pieces of human flesh, and a letter addressed to him from his mother and found in the coat naturally led to the conclusion that he had been murdered.