The story of 'Eskimo' Welzl - Part Two
Welcome to Czechs in History - in today's edition: Part Two of the story of Jan Welzl, one of the most interesting Czech adventurers of the late 19th, early 20th century. Born in 1868 in Moravia when it was still a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Welzl became a locksmith's apprentice as a young man, but was soon drawn away from his village of Zabreh nad Moravou by the promise of a much wider world. Italy, the Balkans, America, Welzl saw something from all of them in the early years. Still, none promised the mystery, the mystique, the unparalleled adventure of the Far North which attracted Welzl so much he made it his home for most of his life...
The North - it is there that Welzl became a true 'polarnik' - or polar traveller, setting up home and shop in a cave on the island of New Siberia, where he traded goods to passing whalers, gold prospectors, and the Eskimo, becoming something like an Eskimo himself... Soon, his business began to prosper and he - and other polar dwellers, with names like MacDonald who lived in caves nearby, soon got together to organise a run to America to obtain goods for business. While there, it occurred to them to visit Alaska and the Yukon, to hunt bear and other animals for their pelts, as well as to fish for salmon...
