Lives in Cricket No 26 - HV Hesketh-Prichard

95 On 22 June Hex left Britain on S.S.Harmony , a vessel belonging to the Moravian mission, for Labrador with Geoffrey Gathorne-Hardy (and mother again, apparently in need of a voyage for her health). He had been impressed on his previous visit by the work of the Moravian mission in Labrador, and gave a lecture in London for their benefit earlier in the year. The journey took 26 days with a great deal of fog and once they arrived Kate stayed at the mission station at Nain while the others planned the journey up-country. This was no picnic, with their Inuit guide deserting and being constantly plagued by Labrador mosquitoes. The journey was repeated in 2002 by members of the family, an expedition led by Larry Coady, a marine biologist, who described the journey in The Lost Canoe. 49 In the book Hex’s original 1910 photographs and accounts of his journey, published in Through Trackless Labrador , are paired with Coady’s own photographs and writings. The narrative that results reveals a struggle against the elements to cross the ancient landscape of northern Labrador, a sub-arctic mix of boreal forest and open tundra. Others vividly recall how impossible the conditions were even a hundred years later. They found traces of the original journey though not, sadly, the abandoned canoe. In the autumn Hex and Lady Elizabeth visited New York, mainly business with literary agents. While they were there the New York Times published a lengthy interview with Hex on the subject of the Labrador excursion, under the headline ‘First White Man in unknown regions of Labrador: H.Hesketh Prichard penetrates the land which Leonidas Hubbard died seeking.’ Asked about their chief trouble, Hex replied: Mosquitoes. People in this part of the world don’t know anything about mosquitoes. Nobody does who hasn’t been in the North. If you were reading a book and closed it abruptly the print would be indistinguishable for the mass of murdered mosquitoes that would be caught in the pages. 50 ‘And here,’ he added, is a curious thing. If you walk for a considerable distance in a strong wind, when you reach your destination the windward side of your face would be its normal size and the leeward side would be swelled and double what it used to be. The wind, you see, had blown the mosquitoes against one side of your face. It sounds like a traveller’s yarn, but it is the absolute truth. Hex then went to see Theodore Roosevelt at home. He was by then an ex-President though he was to stand again in 1912, for the Progressive or ‘Bull Moose’ party, formed for the occasion, when he beat the Republican nominee into third place. He spoke, according to Prichard, in a ‘voice like O.Asche’. Oscar Asche was an Australian actor-manager, about to have his greatest London success with Kismet , but of course he was also an enthusiastic cricketer (mainly keeping wicket), playing a few games for MCC. Indeed he had played against Hex for the Actors against the Authors in 1906, when Hex had rather mown the Actors down. While they were away it was reported that Mr Robert Arthur had big plans 49 Lawrence W.Coady, The Lost Canoe , Nimbus Publishing, 2008. 50 New York Times , 6 November 1910. Married Man