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Nina Mazuchelli
Elizabeth Sarah Mazuchelli (1832 – 1914) known to her friends and family as Nina (Nina’s maiden name is unknown), was born and raised in England. She was an explorer of the late 18th century, early 19th century. She began exploring at an early age with her family. Nina came from a wealthy family they were able to travel through the Alps Mountain range and Europe. That’s when her love of exploring first began.

In 1853 when Nina was 21 years old she married a man named Francis Mazuchelli. Francis was a minister in the Anglican Church. After being married for four years Francis joined the Royal Army as a chaplain (a person who advices those in the military and who is the head of religious ceremonies). One year later the Mazuchellis were sent to India, which at the time was still a British colony.

While the Mazuchellis were in India they were first stationed in southern India. Eleven years later in 1869 they were relocated to a town called Darjeeling in northern India. Darjeeling is located near the eastern foothills of the Himalayan Mountains. When Nina was relocated to Darjeeling she was once again able to rekindle her love of exploring. She started to explore the foothills of the Himalaya’s. While she explored she would carry art supplies with her and paint pictures of the mountains she explored. Nina loved the Himalayan Mountains so much that a year later in 1870 she led an expedition to the eastern Himalayas.

In the beginning of Nina’s expedition her husband, herself, and 70 servants began traveling about 20 miles west of Darjeeling. They were able to reach the top of the Singalila Mountain Range(the tallest peak of this range is about 12,000 feet). From there the group traveled to Junnoo Mountain in the southern Himalayas (this mountain is about 25,311 feet). Nina was actually unable to walk any of the expedition because of her dresses. The dresses were tight around her chest making it very hard to breathe the higher they climbed and they were very long so it made climbing very difficult. Instead she was carried by four male servants called porters on a [dandy] (a chair that was attached to two long poles that the servants lifted up). However, some of the expedition was too hard to carry the dandy, so instead she was carried on the back of one of the servants by having a chair strapped to his back.

The expedition was very difficult, early on they ran out of food and firewood, they were too far up the mountains where there were no animals to hunt. Each day they walked about 15 to 20 miles, their feet were cut and their faces had blisters from the sun and ice. Some of the members of the expedition became very ill from altitude sickness. On their way back to Darjeeling Nina kept a positive attitude encouraging the men to keep going. After a while Nina started to rip her dressed and used them as bandages for the men, she also gave up the dandy and walked with the men. Toward the end of their expedition the explorers came across a Buddhist monastery in the town of [Pemionchi]. The monks gave the explorers a meal and a place to rest. The monks provided them with ponies to ride home. Their journey was about two months and was 600 miles long.

Nina and her husband spent about 17 years in India. They moved back to Great Britain and decided to live in Whales. A year later in 1876 Nina wrote a book called The Indian Alps and How We Crossed Them. It included her journey and the drawings and paintings she had created. She signed the book “By a Lady Pioneer”. Her husband died in 1901 at the age of 81 and Nina died 13 years later in 1914 at the age of 82.

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