'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From December 1854 to March 1856. (New Issue.) Edited by the Secretary. Volume XII.' [‎50] (161/258)

50
DR. G. BUIST
pprished from want of food seme distance to the westward, and net far beyond a
large river containing many falls and rapids- Subsequently, further particulars
were received and number of articles purchased, which places the fate of a portion
if not of all, of the then survivors of Sir John Franklin’s long-lost party beyond
a doubt—a fate as terrible as the imagination can conceive. The subtance of the
information obtained at various times and from various sources \vas as follows :
“ In the spring, four winters (spring 1850), a party of ‘ white men,’ amounting
to about 40, were seen travelling southward over the ice and dragging a boat with
them by some Esquimaux, who were killing seals near the north shore of King
William’s Land, which is a large island. None of the party could speak the Es
quimaux language intelligibly, but by signs the natives where made to understand
that their ship, or ships, had been crushed by ice, and that they were now going
to where they expected to find deer to shoot. From the appearence of the men, all
of whom except one officer looked thin they wore then supposed to be getting
short of provisions, and they purchased a small seal from the natives. At a later
date the same season, but previously to the breaking up of the ice, the bodies of
some 30 persons were discovered on the continent, and five on an island near it,
about a long day’s journey to the N. W. of a large stream, which can be no other
than Back’s Great Fish River (named by the Esquimaux Oot-ko-hi-ca-Uk), as its
description and that of the low shore in the neighbourhood of Point Ogle and
Montreal Island agree exactly with that of Sir George Back. Some of the bodies
had been buried(probably those of the first victims of famine) ;somewereinatentor
tents ; others under the boat, which had been turned over to form a shelter, and several
lay scattered about in different directions. Of those found on the island one was
supposed to have been an officer, as he had a telescepe strapped over his shoulders
and his double-barrel gun lay underneath him. From the mutilated state of
many of the corpses and the contents too of the kettles, it is evident that our
wretched countrymen had been driven to the last resource—cannibalism—as a
means of prolonging existence. There appeared to have been an abundant stock
of ammunition, as the powder was emptied in a heap on the ground by the natives
out of the kegs or cases containing it ; and a quantity of ball and shot was found
below high-water mark, having probably been left on the ice close to the beach.
.There must have been a number of watches, compasses, telescopes, guns (several
double-barrelled), &c., allot which appear to have been broken up, as I saw pieces
of these different articles with the Esquimaux, and together with some silver
spoons and forks I purchased many as I could get. A list of the most important of
these I enclose, with a rough sketch of the crests and initials on the forks and
spoons. The articles themselves shall be handed over to the Secretary of the
Honorable Hudson’s Bay Company on my arrival in London. None of the Es
quimaux with whom I conversed had seen the ‘ whites,’ nor had they ever been
at the place where the bodies were found, but had their information from those
who had been there and who had seen the party when travelling.
.. „ ,. TT , „ “ John Kae, C. F.
Commanding Hudson’s Bay Company’s Artie Expedition.”
Thus ended a series of enterprises of the most heroic character, thirty in
number, pursued almost without interruption over a period of thirty-seven
years, in which many of the most noble qualities of the British seaman had
been displayed. Long before 1818 the question had been settled as to the
utter worthlessness of the North-West Passage for commercial purposes ; and
the vast amount of money expended and daring enterprise displayed was so
entirely in the cause of geographical discovery and physical research.
1 conclude with a short chronological notice, which may help to assist the