Orélie-Antoine de Tounens tries again to return…
1874 CE
Orélie-Antoine de Tounens tries again to return to his Patagonian kingdom in 1874, this time with some arms and ammunition he had been able to gather with the feeble support of a few entrepreneurs in Europe.
Because he is persona non grata in Chile, he travels with a false passport.
However, he is recognized as soon as he lands in Bahía Blanca (on the Argentine coast) in July, 1874, and is summarily deported to France.
De Tounens had run out of money in 1871 and had had to return to France, where he has published a second set of his memoirs.
He has also founded an Araucanian newspaper, La Corona de Acero ("The Steel Crown").
In 1872, he had proclaimed that he was seeking a bride so that he might sire an heir; indeed, the next year, he had written his brother that he intended to marry a "mademoiselle de Percy", but there is no evidence that he ever did.