Johann Orth's Romance

Horowhenua Chronicle, 19 September 1910, Page 4

Johann Orth's Romance

A FRENCHMAN'S STORY

If the story of a Frenchman now residing at Charleville is correct, there seems to bo really some solid ground for believing that the missing Archduke Leopold Salvator, who went to South America in 1890 on board the San Margareth, did not perish with that ship 011 its return voyage to Europe. The effort to settle the mystery once fo rail makes the statement of the Frenchman in question, M. Alfred Benaiix, all the more intereesting. M. Renaux had been in the Argentine Republic fora long number of years, and returned to France to live in retirement. On various occasions he had already stated that he wa spositive that tho famous Johann Orth was still alive. A correspondent of a Paris contemporaiy went to interview him, and the following is M. Renaux's statement:—

In .May, 1890, I was inspector of the port works of La Plata. A ship, the San Margareth, arrived with a cargo of cement. I was obliged to' see to the unloading. n., P -1' . . »■<•' »v.r> oaci; it was raining 111 torrents, and I was standing at the dioor, when I heard someone on the other side of the channel call out to the San Margareth. There was only one man 011 hoard the sln'p. which was moored about loOft from the shore, an dthe man was probablv asleep in his cabin, as nobody answered. X: !• wishing to leave a strange' omt alone en suc'li a .ninrht, I down to iiiv hr:at. let it go, an I crossed to the c.ther sid". * I.' 0 ••anger was a yrj.ui"; man. |->i. with brc.wn. straggling hair. Ht had a pronounced aquiline nose dark grey eyes, and wore a beard. I had seen him before a few times on the Sail Maingareth. I took him to my house, and we remained till midnight, talkiii" about the country, and f helped Ito tea. At that hour, when mc still found nobody on board the nan Margareth, I escorted him to .Knsenada, whore he was able to take the train for La Plata He returned three or four davs later, thanked me for my kindness, and ■when after a week the unloading was finished, -he handed me certain papers, which I was to keep for eight orw ten .days. I .saw him figa'm several times aftenvardls, and one day he confided to me that he had called himself .Mann Orth, but that, m reality he was an Austrian officer, belonging to one of the greatest families of that •counry ,and that his real name was Leopold Salvator. He added that he had recently got married in Switzerland. He must have been the owner of the San Margareth, but for reasons that I do not know ibe gave me to understand that he (lul not have command of it. Ho told me that during the voyage he +W"' ith thc cre "'' "nd tneie had been an attempt to poison lmn, and that one night, fire ? 1 b ® en . set to his cabin. Tn tact, (luring the unloading of the wlm" ,11 not [ coa that the "ho did not seem to be an easy tn'hTm i ea \ " 1^1 ' ( ' IK>t speak to lim a "q ? hv f yst, , ,niod his ] back= to Jum. Salvator, however, had two staundh friends on hoard— and lf the 1 r k ' n nafcive of Nice > l >oatswa,n, an Italian, who had been for a long time in 'France, tTV- ,vas discffilarged, the Austrian officer came to me and asked me if I knew the Argentine Republic.. well and principally the province 111 whicdi/ Rosa rio was live' « V ? U ¥ l J b lbe Possible to me there quietly? ] Ie aslced , mO . ve S I 'answered, one could he as tiee_ there as a savage. Ho then enjoined on me not to speak to aiiyone about what he had asked me, saying that it was his intenand nZt n ,am]o " the San Margareth mnl T 0 ' I " et, : , : n lto Kl "Y>pe any about fhl " aV °, ' m fnrfchcr details ab of tl,e co "»try, and ho asked Em tho 0 ™" 11 "" 7 t l!m ' 1 nho ®ve lb m tho names of several settlers nnd ganchos likely to give Km good information' as fn i n „,it, Wli'ioh Ihe .might establish himself!' 1