May 26, 2026 • 10 mins
Two travelers, both far from home, doing very curious things. Enjoy today's tour through the Cabinet.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Our world is full of the unexplainable. And if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
to the Cabinet of Curiosities. The history of exploration is
(00:37):
marked by mountaintops reached and ocean's crossed, by impossible being
proven possible through sheer human will. But the one particular
expedition stands apart by almost every metric. Ernest Shackleton's journey
to cross Antarctica was an utter failure. The frozen continent
was not crossed, and Shackleton's ship, the Endurance, was hopelessly
(01:00):
mired in ice which nearly crushed it. So why is
it considered one of the most renowned journeys in history. Well, that,
it turns out, is a curious tale. By nineteen fourteen,
Sir Ernest Shackleton had already been hailed as a great
explorer of the age. He had already led the Nimrod
expedition into Antarctica, coming within ninety seven miles of the
(01:21):
South Pole. It was the closest that anyone had ever
come to the pole. Although the party had to turn
back due to near starvation, it established him as a thoughtful,
fearless leader, and beyond that, proved to him that it
could be done.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
And so in August of nineteen fourteen, he and a
fresh team boarded the Endurance and set sail for the
southernmost part of the globe. From the start there were troubles, though.
By January of nineteen fifteen, Shackleton and company had reached
the wide l Sea, where the ship became hopelessly trapped
in the ocean ice. Months passed in this way, a
ship adrift in an icy sea, but it would only
(01:57):
get worse. In October, the ship finally gave in to
the mounting pressure of the ice and the hull was cracked.
Shackleton's diary from that time showed the dire situation that
the crew found themselves in as they abandoned the Endurance
for the ice floes that surrounded it. They watched hopelessly
as the Endurance sank. It was at this point in
the expedition that the mission shifted. It was no longer
(02:20):
about exploration. It was simply a matter of survival. For months,
the crew lived on the ice with dwindling supplies, praying
for a rescue that became less likely by the day.
To keep their morale up, Shackleton insisted on a strict
routine each day to keep a sense of normalcy, and
he even went so far as to organize cricket matches
on the ice to take his men's mind off of
(02:42):
their dire situation. But when the ice began to break
up in April of nineteen sixteen, he saw an opportunity.
He may not be able to cross the continent, but
he would give his men a safe home. As the
ice dissipated, the men loaded onto three lifeboats. It was
then that Shackleton made the decision to make the journey
to Elephant Island, which was nearly eight hundred miles away
(03:03):
from where they floated, and from there they would have
to travel another eight hundred miles to reach a sign
of civilization, and so Shackleton set off with a small
crew aboard a lifeboat named the James Caird. The journey
was perilous, with hurricane force winds that battered the small
craft and sent freezing ocean spray into the faces of
the men on board. When finally they reached Elephant Island,
(03:26):
Shackleton chose a small group to continue on with him
for the next leg of the journey, which would somehow
be even more harrowing, And so they set off once
more into the freezing winds and the tumultuous sea. For
days they battled the choppy seas, finally landing on South
Georgia Island. But their journey was not over yet. Yes,
they had made landfall on the island, but they were
(03:47):
on the uninhabited side. To get to the nearest whaling station,
they would have to traverse the island on foot. The
trek was arduous. For thirty six hours, they crawled across
glaciers that none had ever set eyes on before, had
finally reached the whaling station, where they were able to
resupply before going back for the rest of their crew.
And to be honest, they've feared for the worst. Many
(04:09):
expeditions that had faced such odds had ended in tragedy.
But miraculously they returned to discover that every one of
the twenty two members of the party had survived while
they were gone, and as you'd imagine, the endurance crew
returned to a hero's welcome. It could have gone very
much differently had it not been for Shackleton and his
crew's ability to adapt to the situation as it worsened.
(04:31):
In the month's long crisis, they had somehow managed to
hold onto perhaps the single most important factor for survival, hope.
And Yes, the Endurance Expedition did fail to achieve its
original goal, but it also somehow managed to demonstrate the
power of thoughtful leadership and human resilience, turning what could
have been a terrible tragedy into the stuff of legend.
(05:07):
Gonzalo was born to fight. His family name literally meant warrior.
He grew up sometime in the late fifteenth century and
was likely trained to fight in the Reconquista, the Catholic
conquest of Spain from the Muslim Moors. Gonzalo would have
spent his youth climbing walls while avoiding spears and arrows,
stabbing and smashing his way across South Spain. Once the
(05:29):
Reconquista was finished, though, it's possible that he traveled to
Italy and fought there, But by fourteen ninety two, Christopher
Columbus was sailing to the New World and opening a
whole new frontier for the Spanish. Some even say that
Gonzalo was on that very voyage, whatever the truth might be.
By fifteen eleven, Gonzalo was involved in a shipwreck, winding
(05:51):
up on the shores of Mexico with eight other companions.
Despite the violence that he had seen in his life
up to that point, nothing could have prepared him for
what he was about to experience. Mayan warriors came out
of the jungle, their ears and noses pierced, their bodies
covered in tattoos. They looked frightening, and they could back
up that appearance with their actions, and they did. They
(06:13):
seized the Spanish soldiers, decapitating a few of them and
sacrificing them to the gods. They even ate parts of
the bodies to complete the ritual. Gonzalo knew that he
wouldn't last long as their prisoner. He and another one
of the captives, the priest Hieranimo de Aguilar, worked together
to escape, traveling through the jungle, knowing that anywhere was
better than being at the mercy of the cannibals. But
(06:36):
this jungle belonged to the Maya, and before long the
Spanish duo was captured by Yets, another tribe. However, this
one wasn't interested in sacrificing them. Gonzalo and the priest
seemed pathetic, not much of an offering to their gods.
They were pressed in a service as slaves instead. However,
Gonzalo was a warrior through and through, and he couldn't
help but reveal his skill. He gave some of the
(06:58):
warrior's tips on how to better use their spears and
how they could get around the armor of the Spanish.
By fifteen seventeen, he was helping to fight off Spanish
invasion forces. He used Mayan spears, clubs, bows and arrows
against the metal plate armor and rifles of his former brethren.
It was the most brutal, bloody combat imaginable. Gonzalo fully
(07:19):
converted to the ways of the Maya, piercing his ears
and nose and tattooing his body. Impressed with his prowess,
the Mayan chief offered his daughter to Gonzalo in marriage.
Her name was Sasil, and together they had three sons.
The boys were some of the first mestizos in recorded history,
a term used to describe people of mixed Spanish and
indigenous ancestry, and they make up the majority of people
(07:42):
in Mexico today. Gonzalo had truly found his home, but
of course his original home wouldn't let go of him
so easily. Legendary Spanish conquistudor ernand Cortes arrived in Mexico
in fifteen nineteen, preparing to conquer the Aztec Empire. He
invited Gunzao and his priest companion Hieranimo to join him,
(08:03):
and the priest jumped at the chance, begging his year's
long companion to return to the Spanish fold with him.
And yes, they were friends. But Gonzalo could not abandon
his new family, and he also knew that it would
be hard for the Spanish to accept him back given
his strange new appearance, and he loved his sons, he
felt honor bound to stay and fight for them. Keranimo
(08:23):
reluctantly left to join Cortes, who was successful in conquering
the Aztecs in fifteen twenty one. More than ever, the
small remaining Mayan tribes needed Gonzalo's help to fight against
the Spanish, so he put his body on the line
time and time again, leading massive defensive battles where he
showed the Mayans how to organize barricades against Spanish armies.
(08:45):
His spear and club shattered the helmets and breastplates of
one Spanish warrior after another. Many were not so different
from the young man that he had been fighting in
the Reconquista years before. Apparently the love of his family
was all he needed to turn his back on that legacy,
or maybe he just didn't like conquerors. Around fifteen thirty six,
(09:06):
he led a group of Mayan warriors in canoes from
their home in Yucatan to what is now modern day Honduras.
Their goal was to reinforce the indigenous warriors there in
their fights against the Spanish. But Gonzalo was in his
sixties by this point. It's incredible to think that he
was still engaging in the most physically demanding combat possible
at such an advanced age at the time. The battle, though,
(09:29):
would be his last. A stray shot from a Spanish
rifle struck him, dropping him to the ground with his comrades.
He was a violent man who lived a curious life.
Although he didn't win his final battle, his descendants went
on to gain independence from the Spanish in a curious way.
The entire country of Mexico. Today is his legacy. I
(09:53):
hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities.
This show was created by me Aaron May in partnership
with iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the Grim and
Mild team, and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about
the show and the people who make it over at
Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link
(10:14):
to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available in
bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook. And
if you're looking for an ad free option, consider joining
our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without the
interruption for.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
A small monthly fee.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Learn more and sign up over at patreon dot com
slash Grimandmild, and until next time, stay curious.
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Our world is full of the unexplainable. And if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
to the Cabinet of Curiosities. The history of exploration is
(00:37):
marked by mountaintops reached and ocean's crossed, by impossible being
proven possible through sheer human will. But the one particular
expedition stands apart by almost every metric. Ernest Shackleton's journey
to cross Antarctica was an utter failure. The frozen continent
was not crossed, and Shackleton's ship, the Endurance, was hopelessly
(01:00):
mired in ice which nearly crushed it. So why is
it considered one of the most renowned journeys in history. Well, that,
it turns out, is a curious tale. By nineteen fourteen,
Sir Ernest Shackleton had already been hailed as a great
explorer of the age. He had already led the Nimrod
expedition into Antarctica, coming within ninety seven miles of the
(01:21):
South Pole. It was the closest that anyone had ever
come to the pole. Although the party had to turn
back due to near starvation, it established him as a thoughtful,
fearless leader, and beyond that, proved to him that it
could be done.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
And so in August of nineteen fourteen, he and a
fresh team boarded the Endurance and set sail for the
southernmost part of the globe. From the start there were troubles, though.
By January of nineteen fifteen, Shackleton and company had reached
the wide l Sea, where the ship became hopelessly trapped
in the ocean ice. Months passed in this way, a
ship adrift in an icy sea, but it would only
(01:57):
get worse. In October, the ship finally gave in to
the mounting pressure of the ice and the hull was cracked.
Shackleton's diary from that time showed the dire situation that
the crew found themselves in as they abandoned the Endurance
for the ice floes that surrounded it. They watched hopelessly
as the Endurance sank. It was at this point in
the expedition that the mission shifted. It was no longer
(02:20):
about exploration. It was simply a matter of survival. For months,
the crew lived on the ice with dwindling supplies, praying
for a rescue that became less likely by the day.
To keep their morale up, Shackleton insisted on a strict
routine each day to keep a sense of normalcy, and
he even went so far as to organize cricket matches
on the ice to take his men's mind off of
(02:42):
their dire situation. But when the ice began to break
up in April of nineteen sixteen, he saw an opportunity.
He may not be able to cross the continent, but
he would give his men a safe home. As the
ice dissipated, the men loaded onto three lifeboats. It was
then that Shackleton made the decision to make the journey
to Elephant Island, which was nearly eight hundred miles away
(03:03):
from where they floated, and from there they would have
to travel another eight hundred miles to reach a sign
of civilization, and so Shackleton set off with a small
crew aboard a lifeboat named the James Caird. The journey
was perilous, with hurricane force winds that battered the small
craft and sent freezing ocean spray into the faces of
the men on board. When finally they reached Elephant Island,
(03:26):
Shackleton chose a small group to continue on with him
for the next leg of the journey, which would somehow
be even more harrowing, And so they set off once
more into the freezing winds and the tumultuous sea. For
days they battled the choppy seas, finally landing on South
Georgia Island. But their journey was not over yet. Yes,
they had made landfall on the island, but they were
(03:47):
on the uninhabited side. To get to the nearest whaling station,
they would have to traverse the island on foot. The
trek was arduous. For thirty six hours, they crawled across
glaciers that none had ever set eyes on before, had
finally reached the whaling station, where they were able to
resupply before going back for the rest of their crew.
And to be honest, they've feared for the worst. Many
(04:09):
expeditions that had faced such odds had ended in tragedy.
But miraculously they returned to discover that every one of
the twenty two members of the party had survived while
they were gone, and as you'd imagine, the endurance crew
returned to a hero's welcome. It could have gone very
much differently had it not been for Shackleton and his
crew's ability to adapt to the situation as it worsened.
(04:31):
In the month's long crisis, they had somehow managed to
hold onto perhaps the single most important factor for survival, hope.
And Yes, the Endurance Expedition did fail to achieve its
original goal, but it also somehow managed to demonstrate the
power of thoughtful leadership and human resilience, turning what could
have been a terrible tragedy into the stuff of legend.
(05:07):
Gonzalo was born to fight. His family name literally meant warrior.
He grew up sometime in the late fifteenth century and
was likely trained to fight in the Reconquista, the Catholic
conquest of Spain from the Muslim Moors. Gonzalo would have
spent his youth climbing walls while avoiding spears and arrows,
stabbing and smashing his way across South Spain. Once the
(05:29):
Reconquista was finished, though, it's possible that he traveled to
Italy and fought there, But by fourteen ninety two, Christopher
Columbus was sailing to the New World and opening a
whole new frontier for the Spanish. Some even say that
Gonzalo was on that very voyage, whatever the truth might be.
By fifteen eleven, Gonzalo was involved in a shipwreck, winding
(05:51):
up on the shores of Mexico with eight other companions.
Despite the violence that he had seen in his life
up to that point, nothing could have prepared him for
what he was about to experience. Mayan warriors came out
of the jungle, their ears and noses pierced, their bodies
covered in tattoos. They looked frightening, and they could back
up that appearance with their actions, and they did. They
(06:13):
seized the Spanish soldiers, decapitating a few of them and
sacrificing them to the gods. They even ate parts of
the bodies to complete the ritual. Gonzalo knew that he
wouldn't last long as their prisoner. He and another one
of the captives, the priest Hieranimo de Aguilar, worked together
to escape, traveling through the jungle, knowing that anywhere was
better than being at the mercy of the cannibals. But
(06:36):
this jungle belonged to the Maya, and before long the
Spanish duo was captured by Yets, another tribe. However, this
one wasn't interested in sacrificing them. Gonzalo and the priest
seemed pathetic, not much of an offering to their gods.
They were pressed in a service as slaves instead. However,
Gonzalo was a warrior through and through, and he couldn't
help but reveal his skill. He gave some of the
(06:58):
warrior's tips on how to better use their spears and
how they could get around the armor of the Spanish.
By fifteen seventeen, he was helping to fight off Spanish
invasion forces. He used Mayan spears, clubs, bows and arrows
against the metal plate armor and rifles of his former brethren.
It was the most brutal, bloody combat imaginable. Gonzalo fully
(07:19):
converted to the ways of the Maya, piercing his ears
and nose and tattooing his body. Impressed with his prowess,
the Mayan chief offered his daughter to Gonzalo in marriage.
Her name was Sasil, and together they had three sons.
The boys were some of the first mestizos in recorded history,
a term used to describe people of mixed Spanish and
indigenous ancestry, and they make up the majority of people
(07:42):
in Mexico today. Gonzalo had truly found his home, but
of course his original home wouldn't let go of him
so easily. Legendary Spanish conquistudor ernand Cortes arrived in Mexico
in fifteen nineteen, preparing to conquer the Aztec Empire. He
invited Gunzao and his priest companion Hieranimo to join him,
(08:03):
and the priest jumped at the chance, begging his year's
long companion to return to the Spanish fold with him.
And yes, they were friends. But Gonzalo could not abandon
his new family, and he also knew that it would
be hard for the Spanish to accept him back given
his strange new appearance, and he loved his sons, he
felt honor bound to stay and fight for them. Keranimo
(08:23):
reluctantly left to join Cortes, who was successful in conquering
the Aztecs in fifteen twenty one. More than ever, the
small remaining Mayan tribes needed Gonzalo's help to fight against
the Spanish, so he put his body on the line
time and time again, leading massive defensive battles where he
showed the Mayans how to organize barricades against Spanish armies.
(08:45):
His spear and club shattered the helmets and breastplates of
one Spanish warrior after another. Many were not so different
from the young man that he had been fighting in
the Reconquista years before. Apparently the love of his family
was all he needed to turn his back on that legacy,
or maybe he just didn't like conquerors. Around fifteen thirty six,
(09:06):
he led a group of Mayan warriors in canoes from
their home in Yucatan to what is now modern day Honduras.
Their goal was to reinforce the indigenous warriors there in
their fights against the Spanish. But Gonzalo was in his
sixties by this point. It's incredible to think that he
was still engaging in the most physically demanding combat possible
at such an advanced age at the time. The battle, though,
(09:29):
would be his last. A stray shot from a Spanish
rifle struck him, dropping him to the ground with his comrades.
He was a violent man who lived a curious life.
Although he didn't win his final battle, his descendants went
on to gain independence from the Spanish in a curious way.
The entire country of Mexico. Today is his legacy. I
(09:53):
hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities.
This show was created by me Aaron May in partnership
with iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the Grim and
Mild team, and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about
the show and the people who make it over at
Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link
(10:14):
to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available in
bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook. And
if you're looking for an ad free option, consider joining
our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without the
interruption for.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
A small monthly fee.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Learn more and sign up over at patreon dot com
slash Grimandmild, and until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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