Class Qih7^<0 Book /y>f "Z Copyiight}|^._ / COPYRIGHT DEPOSm V ^ It j i^JW^' ffi^i^F WJ'^ikW ^^(f\'\VW^^- tf^j A :^ ITS Aii¥ir©iB m.w. iBs^^s j^)i)^(p(pMF^^sra'. j>ic.mif']C ^ THE FROZEN ZONE AND ITS EXPLORERS: A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OP TOYAGES, TKAYELS, ADVENTURES, DISASTERS, AND DISCOVERIES IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS, INCLUDING RECENT GERMAN AND SWEDISH EXPEDITIONS ; CAPTAIN NARE'S ENGLISH EXPEDITION; PROP NORDENSKIOLD'S DISCOVERY OP A NORTH-EAST PASSAGE; THE SAILING OP THE JEANNETTB, ETC., WITH OBAFHIC DELINEATIONS OP LIFE AND NATURE IN THE REALMS OF FROST. Illnstrateb foit^ ©nt ^unbrtb nnb Stbtntg-Sit ®ngrabings Hnb piaps. Written, and Compiled from Authentic Sources, BT ALEXANDER HYDE, A.M., Rev. A. C. BALDWIN, AND Rev. W. L. GAGE. PUBLISHED BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY. HARTFORD, CONK: R. W. BLISS & COMPANY. A. L. BANCROFT & CO., SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 1880. Uy^. ^ ^^^^" copthight bt columbian book compant. 1874, Copyright by Columbian Book Company. 1880, ad. COPY StIPPLIED FROM OtPYRIGHT FILES ^JMHUARY. Ifll. INTRODUCTION. The Arctic Regions, cold, dreary and desolate, liave been the theatre of the most heroic exploits and dar- ing adventures the world has ever seen. Here the genius of such men as Parry, Koss, Franklin, Kane, Hayes, Hall, Payer, Markham, Nares, Nordenskiold, and DeLong has found ample scope for development ; and a taste of the perils and hardships of the Frozen Zone only served to incite them to new encounters. No vision of " sunny fountains rolling down their golden sands," or ambition for conquest and usurped power filled their minds ; but 'the love of adventure, the advancement of science, and the holier impulses of humanity, were the lodestones which drew them toward the Pole. To chronicle faithfully and in an attractive manner the brilliant achievements of these adventurous spirits, and to present, incidentally, graphic pictures of Life and Nature in the Realms of Frost, is the object of this book. In it, culled from scores of volumes of Arctic literature,^are condensed the fascinating records of a thousand years. While no important expedition, nor even the experience of whalers, has been over- looked, prominence has been given to the most in- teresting ones, and when practicable the stoiy is told in the explorers' own words. "At her feet the Frozen Ocean, round her head the Auroral Lights^ In her bride-veil, fringed with icicles and of the snow-drift spun, Sits the "White Ladye of the Pole, still waiting to be won. What suitors for her palace gates have hoisted daring sail. Though eye of man has never seen the face behind the veil ! So long sighed for, so hard served for, as this Queen, was never none» Since the days of brave adventure and true service first begun. But still the white Witch-Maiden that sits above the Pole, In the snow-bound silence whose cold quells aught but soul, Draws manly hearts with strange desire to lift her icy veil ; The bravest still have sought her, and will seek, whoever fail.* , CONTENTS. PAOB SKETCH OF THE LIFE OP DR. KANE , 1 CHAPTER!. THE AKCTIC REGIONS. The Arctic Circle— The Arctic Ocean— The Arctic Ni^ht- The Mid- night Sun — Summer and Winter — Beautiful Provision of Nature — Characteristic Features — Arctic Explorers 17 CHAPTER II. EARLY DISCOVERIES AND HISTORT. The Scandinavian Mariners and their Voyages — Discovery of Iceland — Eric the Red — Discovery of Greenland — The Northmen in Amer- ica — Northern Voyage of Columbus — Story of the early Greenland Settlers — War and Pestilence — Search for the lost Colonists — Hans Egede — The Moravian Missions — A Visit to Lichtenfels — The native Greenlanders — The Cabots and their Voyages^-The Labrador Col- ony — French and Portuguese Explorers 23 CHAPTER III. ENGLISH EXPEDITIONS TO THE NORTH-EAST. Expedition under Sir Hugh Willoughby — A Storm oflFthe North Cape — Nova Zembla Scenery — A Winter on the Lapland Coast — Fate of the Explorers — Chancelor's Visit to Moscow — The Searchthrift and her Cruise — English Adventurers in Asia — Lake Baikal — Pet and Jackson — Mistakes of a Geographer 40 CHAPTER IV. DTTTCH EXPEDITIONS TO THE NORTH-EAST. Wm. Barentz— The Orange Islands— Noosing a Bear— The Cape of Idols — Second Expedition — A Russian Craft — Among the Samoiedes — Corneliz Ryp — Discovery of Bear Islands and Spitzbergen — Impris- oned — Building a House — Life at Icy Port — A Winter of Hardships — Feast of the Kings — The Ship Deserted— Icy Ramparts — Death of Barentz 47 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. ARCTIC TOTAGES OF FROBISHER AND DATI8. Early English Adventurers— Martin Frobisher— " Meta Incognita" — Fight with Esquimaux— Relics of lost Sailors— Female Prisoners- Treachery of the Natives— Frobisher's third Expedition— A Storm — TheExpedition Astray— "All is not Gold that Glitters "—Sir Hum- phrey Gilbert— Loss of the " Squirrel"— John Davis— The " Land of Desolation" — A Greenland Dance — Voyage with the Mermaid — Esquimaux Incantations— Excursion to the Interior — The Sailors' "Warning — ^Desertion of Ships 59 CHAPTER VI. ARCTIC VOYAGES OP HENRY HUDSON AND OTHERS. Weymouth's Expedition — A cowardly Crew — Fate of Capt. Knight — An Esquimaux Attack — Hudson's Polar Voyage— A Mermaid— Voy- age in the Half-moon — Hudson's last Voyage — Trouble with the Sail- ors — Discovery — In Winter-quarters — Mutiny — The Tragedy in Hud- son's Bay — Adventures of the Mutineers 85 CHAPTER VIL ARCTIC VOYAGES OF BAFFIN AND OTHERS. ^, Button and Bylot — Capt. Gibbons' Adventure — Baffin's early Voyages — Memorable Discoveries — Fotherby's Voyage — Danish Expedition — Munk's disastrous Voyage — The Fox and James Expedition — A Winter of Suffering— Final Escape — A lost Expedition — Heme— • Mackenzie — Phipps — Cook 105 CHAPTER VIII. THE ARCTIC WHALE-FISHERY. Early Fishing Expedition — The Spitzbergen Seas — Adventures of Cap- tain Edge —Dutch Enterprise — A Winter in Spitzbergen — An Arctic Tragedy — ^Years of Peril — The Whales' Paradise — Sliip wrecks — Memorials of the Hollanders 122 CHAPTER IX. THE ARCTIC WHALE-FISHERY. (CONTINUED.) Whale Catching in Baffin's Bay — Disasters in Melville Bay — "Baffin's Pair " — ^Yankee Whalemen — The Dundee Whaling Steamers — Rescue of the Polaris Crew 136 CHAPTER X. CRUISE OP THE ISABELLA AND ALEXANDER. Ross and Parry's Expedition — On the Greenland Coast — A Secluded Race — Esquimaux Ideas of a Ship — The Arctic Highlanders — Signal , of Return 141 CONTENTS. VU CHAPTER XL CRtriSE OF THE HECLA AND GRIPER. Parry and Liddon Expedition — Entering Lancaster Sound — Hopes and Disappointments — Dreary Shores — The Reward Earned — Winter- quarters and Amusements — The North Georgian Tlieatre — Fire! Fire !— A Break-up— A successful Expedition 151 CHAPTER XII. CRUISE OF THE FURY AND HECLA. Parry and Lyon's Expedition — The Savage-Islanders — Repulse Bay — Frozen in — Thieving Natives — " Tlie Rivals " — "The Merry Dancers" — Esquimaux Neighbors Discovered — Astonishing the Natives — An Excursion — A Fight with Walrus — Stopped by Ice — Again Frozen in — A cheering Spectacle — The fair Esquimaux — An Esquimaux Magi- cian — Parry's third Expedition 163 CHAPTER XIIL VOYAGE OF THE DOROTHEA AND TRENT. Buchan and Franklin's Expedition — The Rendezvous at Magdalena Bay — An Avalanche — On the Edge of the Ice — A Dangerous Position — Escape to Fair Haven 181 CHAPTER XIV. franklin's first land EXPEDITION. Arrival at York Factory — Perils of River Navigation — A Winter's Jour- ney — Testing a Conjurer's Skill — Indian Customs— Interview with, Akaitcho — The Winter at Fort Enterprise — Reception of a Chief — Down the Coppermine River — Bloody Falls — Encounter with Esqui- maux — Voyage on the Polar Sea — The Return Journey commenced; — Crossing a River — Exciting Adventures — Building a Canoe — Separa- tion of the Men — Junius missing — A Deserted Fort — Starvation: — Life at Fort Enterprise 184 CHAPTER XV. franklin's first land EXPEDITION (CONTINUED.) Dr. Richardson's Narrative — Suspicious Conduct of Michel — The Mur- der of Hood— Richardson Shoots Michel— The Retreat to tlie Fort- Arrival of Indians— Relief at Hand— The Journey to Fort York 218 CHAPTER XVI. franklin's second land EXPEDITION. The Rendezvous at Great Bear Lake— The Winter at Fort Franklin— At the Mouth of the Mackenzie— The Expedition in Trouble— Contest with the Esquimaux — A Brave Interpreter — Voyage along the Coast — Second Winter at Fort Franklin ... 231. ■VUl CONTENTS. CHAPTEK XVII. ARCTIC VOYAGES OF LYONS, BEECHY, AND OTHERS. Scoresby's Discoveries — Excursion on Jan Mayen — Among the Moun- tains — APerilous Descent — Deserted Habitations — Cruise of the Griper — Sabine's Researches in High Latitudes — On the East Greenland Coast— Scientific Problems Solved— Lyon's Second Voyage — The Snow-bunting — Bay of God's Mercy — Beechey's Expedition — Ap- proach to- Kamchatka — The Lawrence Islanders — Customs of the Alaskans — Wreck of the Barge — Skirmishes with the Natives 238 CHAPTER XVIII. parry's polar voyage. The Hecla and Her Outfit— In Treurenberg Bay— The Start for the Pole — A Journey on Ice — Drifting South — A Hopeless Undertaking — Hecla Cove 255 CHAPTER XIX. EXPEDITION OP JOHN AND JAMES C. ROSS. • Expedition of John and James C. Ross — The Victory — Life at Holstein- berg — Arrival at Fury Beach — Frozen In — Winter at Felix Harbor — • King William's Land — Discovery of the Magnetic Pole — The Victory Deserted — Voyage in Open Boats — Rescued by the Isabella — Return of the Lost Explorers 261 CHAPTER XX. GEORGE back's EXPEDITIONS. Overland through Canada — Woman's Rights at Norway House — The Batteaux and Canoes — Indian Summer Encampments — "Raising the Devil" — Sad Fate of Augustus — Running the Rapids — A Desolate Region — Voyage in the Terror — Fearful Ice-drift 278 CHAPTER XXI. LAND EXPEDITIONS OP DEASE, SIMPSON, AND RAE. A Winter's Journey — On the Coasts of Alaska — Down Escape Rapids — Winter-Quarters on Great Bear Lake— Return to Red River Settle- ment — Simpson Murdered — Dr. Rae's Explorations 288 CHAPTER XXII. franklin's LAST VOYAGE, WITH A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. Birth and Education — Early Passion for the Sea — A Midshipman at Trafalgar — ^At Battle of New Orleans — Arctic Voyages— Governor of Van Dieman's Land — The Erebus and Terror — A Lost Expedition. . . 296 CHAPTER XXIII. SEARCHES FOR FRANKLIN. Expeditions of 1848 — Voyage of Ross to Lancaster Sound — Overland Search by Richardson and Rae — The Herald and Plover 304 CONTENTS. IX CHAPTEE XXIV. SEARCHES FOR FRANKLIN. (CONTINUED.) Austin's Squadron— Discoveries at Beechey Island — Sledge Expedition Carrier Pigeons — Cruise of the Prince Albert — The Lady Franklin. . 310 CHAPTER XXV. SEARCHES FOR FRANKLIN. (CONTINUED.) CoIIinson and McClure's Expedition — Cruise of the Investigator — On the Coast of the Continent— Up Prince of Wales Strait— Frozen in— Dis- covery of a North-vrest Passage — A Night Adventure— Life at Mercy Bay— McClintock's Cairn— Third Winter in the Ice— Relief at Hand —Visit of Lieut. Pira— The Ship Deserted— Retreat to the Resolute- Cruise of the Enterprise— Recent Death of McClure 317 CHAPTER XXVI. SEARCHES FOR FRANKLIN. (CONTINUED.) Second Cruise of the Prince Albert— Party Separated from the Ship — A Night at Cape Seppings— Bellot's Rescue Party— Winter at Batty Bay — A Visit to Fury Beach — Somerset House 332 CHAPTER XXVII. SEARCHES FOR FRANKLIN. (CONTINUED.) Expeditions of 1852 — Belcher's Squadron — News of McClure — Pirn's Journey to Mercy Bay — Kellett's Adventures — Abandonment of the Ships — Return to England 339 CHAPTER XXVIII. SEARCHES FOR FRANKLIN. (CONTINUED.) Inglefield's Voyages — Cruise of the Phoenix and Lady Franklin — Death of Bellot — Lieut. Cresswell — Dr. Rae at Repulse Bay 345 CHAPTER XXIX. THE FIRST AMERICAN EXPEDITION. The Advance and Rescue — Oflf Newfoundland — The Arctic Day — Crown Prince Islands — Kayaks 349 CHAPTER XXX. THE FIRST AMERICAN EXPEDITION. (CONTINUED.) Iceberg Scenery — Wonders of Refraction — Arctic Navigation — Bergs — A Race — A Pinch — Animal Life — Frozen Families 372 CHAPTER XXXI. THE FIRST AMERICAN EXPEDITION. (CONTINUED.) The Crimson Cliffs — An Arctic Garden — Trapping the Auks— Good-bye to Baffin — Franklin's Encampment Discovered — The Graves 399 X CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXXII. THE FIRST AMEEICAN EXPEDITION. (CONTINUED.) Visit to the Eesolute — The Rendezvous — A Gale — Order for Return — Frozen in — Driftii;g — Fighting the Enemy — The Aurora — Crisis — A Race of Pale Faces — Midnight of the Year — Returning Light 428 CHAPTER XXXIII. THE FIRST AMERICAN EXPEDITION. (CONTINUED.) A Gale — An Escape — Floating Bears— Esquimaux Guests — A Night Scene — In an Ice Trap — The Escape — The Governor's Mansion — The Feast — Feats of the Kayaker — Conclusion 478 CHAPTER XXXIV. DR. KANe's SECOND EXPEDITION. Rensselaer Harbor — Camp on the Floes — Sudden Alarm — The Rescue Party — The Wanderers Found — A Bivouac — Esquimaux Visitors — Death of Baker — Adventures of Morton and Hans — Signal Cairn — The Record — The Arrest — The Punishment — Our Wild Allies — Hunting Excursion — Esquimaux Homestead — A Bear Fight •. 519 CHAPTER XXXV. DR. KANE'S SECOND EXPEDITION. (CONTINUED.) The Cabin by Night — The Hut in a Storm — Hans Discouraged — Day Dreams — Joyful News — A Sun Worshiper — Famine at Etah — A Walrus Hunt — The Delectable Mountains — A Deserter — A Morning in the Cabin — Shunghu's Daughter — A Noble Savage — Enterprising Hunters 572 CHAPTER XXXVI. DR. KANE's SECOND EXPEDITION. (CONTINUED.) Farewell to the Brig — Approach to Etah — A Midnight Festival — A Crystal Palace — At the Open Water — Good-bye to Esquimaux — Embarkation — Weary Man's Rest — The Esquimaux Eden — Lost Among Bergs — " The Seal ! " — Terra Firma .'—The Welcome 604 CHAPTER XXXVII. THE HARTSTENB RELIEF EXPEDITION. Narrative of John K. Kane. 635 CHAPTER XXXVIII. franklin's fate DISCOVERED. Dr. Rae's Discoveries — The Fox Expedition — Franklin's Monument — Winter in Bellot Strait — McClintock's Discoveries — The Cairn at Point Victory — Crozier's Record — A Buried Boat— Return of the Fox — Relics of Franklin — The Story of the Lost Expedition 641 CONTENTS. Xi CHAPTER XXXIX. ARCTIC SIBERIA AND ITS EXPLORKRS. Siberian Exiles — Voyage of Deshnef — Bering's Discoveries — Chelyus- kin's Explorations — The New Siberia Islands — Anjou's Travels — Wrangell's Explorations — Skill of Siberian Sledge-drivers — The " Great Russian Polynia " — The Lower Yenisei 663 CHAPTER XL. TRAVELS IN ALASKA. The Aleutian Islands — Expeditions of Dall and Whymper — Up the Yukon — A Winter at Nulato — The Alaskans — Sitka 676 CHAPTER XLI. DR. HAYES' EXPEDITION. The Voyage to Smith Sound — Winter at Port Foulke — Sledge Journey — Grinnell Land — Cape Lieber — Return 682 CHAPTER XLII. SKETCH OF CHARLES F. HALL, AND HIS EARLIER ARCTIC TRAVELS. Early Life — Proposes to Search for Eranklin — Secures Passage in a Whaler — Captain Buddington — The "George Henry" — Frozen in at Field's Bay — Visit from Ebierbing and Tookoolito — Excursions — Fro- bisher Relics — "Fisherman's Luck" — Second Winter in the Ice — Return Home — Second Journey to the North — The Monticello — Resi- dence on the Northern Coasts of Hudson's Bay — A visit to King Wil- liam's Land — Relics of Franklin's Expedition 686 CHAPTER XLIII. THE POLARIS EXPEDITION. Captain Hall's Plans — The Polaris and her Crew — Sketch of Officers — On the Greenland Coast — Disco — The Expedition at Upernavik — At Tessuisak — HaU's Good-bye to Civilization ; . . 696 CHAPTER XLIV. THB POLARIS EXPEDITION. (CONTINUED.) Adrift on the Floes— Off the Labrador Coast — A Fearful Position — Sig- naling the Tigress — Rescued — Startling News from the Polaris — The Castaways at St. John's— Suspicions — The "Frolic" — At Washington . 706 CHAPTER XLV. THE POLARIS EXPEDITION. (CONTINUED.) The Polaris in High Latitude— Thank God Harbor— Hall's Journey to the North- Hall's Last Dispatch— Death of Hall— Joe's Story- Funeral of Captain Hall— The Winter at Polaris Bay— Outside of the Ship — Returning Day — Bear Hunting — Excursions to tlie North — Separation from the Polaris — The Drift Southward— The Rescue — Joe and Hans 711 Xii ' CUNTE^s^TS. CHAPTER XLVI. THE POLARIS EX' EKIIION (CONTINUED). Journal of Herman Siemans, a Seaman of the Steamer Polaris 751 CHAPTER XLVII. THE POLARIS EXPEDITION. (CONTINUED.) Diary of John Herron, One of the Pohiris Ice-drift Party 760 CHAPTER XLVIII. POLARIS SEARCH AND RELEIF EXPEDITIONS. Cruise of the Juniata and Tigress — The Little Juniata — The Tigress on the Trail — Buddington's Camp— Signaling the Juniata at Night 769 CHAPTER XLIX. THE POLARIS EXPEDITION (CONCLUDED.) Captain's Buddington's Narrative— The Polaris Wrecked and Deserted — Preparing for Winter — Visit from the Natives — The Winter at Life- Boat Cove — The Start Homeward — Rescued by the Ravenscraig 776 CHAPTER L. GERMAN AHCTIC KXPEDIT0N8. Koldewey's Expedition— Loss of the "Hansa" — Cruise of the "Ger mania" — Payers Expedition — Cruise of the " Tegethoff" 787 CHAPTER LI. SWEDISH AND NORWEGIAN EXPEDITIONS. Captain Carlsen's Voyage — Relics of Dutch Explorers — Nordenskiold's Expedition to Spitzbergen — Winter at Mussel Bay — Startling News — The Ice-Bound Eishermenand Their Fate — Nordenskiold's Expe- dition to the Yenisei — Life in Siberia — A Second Voyage 793 CHAPTER LIL THE ENGLISH EXPEDITION OF 1875 — 76. The Alert and Discovery — OflScers and Crew — In High Latitude — The Arctic Night — Polaris Bay Revisited — Captain Hall's Grave — An Exciting Day — Markham's North Pole Party— On the Palaeocrystic Sea — The Turning Point — Death of a Seaman — The Return Jour- ney — The Western Exploring Party — Explorations in Greenland. . . . 801 CHAPTER LlII nordenskiold's DISCOVERY OF A NORTH-EAST PASSAGE. Sketch of the Explorer — The Vega and Her Crew — Dickson Harbor — Rounding of Cape Chelyuskin — Arrival at the Lena — Navigation of River — Frozen In — The Winter Harbor — Li e amid the Ice — The Tchuktches— Auroral Phenomena — The Release — Homeward Voyage 817 CHAPTER LIV. DE long's north POLE EXPEDITION — THE JEANNEXTE. An Arctic Expedition Decided on by James Gordon Bennett — Purchase of the Pandora — The Jeannette— At Mare Island— Officers and Crew — Objects of the Expedition — Departure of the Expedition — San Fran- cisco's Good-bye to the Jeannette — At Ounalaska, St. Michael's, and St. Lawrence Bay — Last Words from the Explorers — Missing Whalers— The Relief Steamer Corwin 837 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Pagb. 1 The Polaeis in High Latitudbs, {Frontispiece.) 2 POBTBAIT OF Dr. EANS, 1 3 House in Havana where Db. Eanb Died, 10 4 The Rescue 18 5 Portrait op Sm John Franklin, 19 6 Scene on the Greenland Coast, 25 7 View op Fiskernaes, Greenland, 33 8 Moravian Settlement at Lichtenpels, 33 9 Ships Among Bergs, 39 10 Winter in Moscow, 44 11 Ships Entangled m Ice, 46 12 Lake Baikal, Eastern Siberia, 47 13 Votive Cross and Midnight Sun — Northern Eussia, 58 14 The Land of Desolation, 73 15 Freighted Iceberg, 73 16 The Middle Pack, 81 17 A Sketch, 84 18 Esquimaux Dog-Teams, 93 19 Esquimaux Snow-Houses, 93 20 Arctic Aurora, 109 21 View on the Spitzbergen Coast, 109 22 Approaching Winter— James' Bat, 115 23 Arctic Parhelia, 115 24 The Ice-Bound Harbor, 116 25 The Katakee in a Gale, 121 26 A Whaling Scene, 141 27 Katak and Oomiak, 143 28 Whalers Stopped bt the Pack, 143 29 An Ice Cathedral, 144 30 Cape Isabella 147 31 Cape Alexander, 147 32 Track op the Hecla and Griper, 157 33 Parry's Ships in Winter Quarters, 157 84 Stranded, 162 35 The " Mebrt Dancers," 167 36 Watching for Indian Horse-Thieves, 188 37 Hunting on Snow-Shoes, 191 38 Disguised Buffalo Hunters, 191 39 Hunters' Winter Camp, 200 40 A Hungry Explorer, 217 41 Overland Explorers, 230 42 A Station of the Hudson's Bat Company, 231 43 The Mariner's Compass, 237 44 Petropaulski, Kamchatka, 250 45 honet-combfd icebbbo, 254 XIV ILLUSTRATIONS. 46 Jack AiTO His "Deer," , S60 47 An Ice Bridge, , 277 48 Indian Summer Encampment, 280 49 Moose Hunting in Canoes, 280 50 A Lead Through the Floe, 287 51 Winter Couriers of the FurCompant, 288 52 Eroded Berg, 309 53 Hummocks, 316 54 Beechet Island, , 340 55 The Ice-Babbier, 340 56 The Advance and Rescue at Navt Yard, 353 57 Our First Iceberg, 353 58 The Sukkertoppen, 359 59 Entering Disco, 359 60 Disco Huts, 360 61 Inspectors' House, Lievelt, ; 369 62 Among the Bergs, 369 63 Group of Seals, 370 64 Iceberg 371 65 Glaciers of Jacob's Bight, 373 66 In a Fog, 373 67 Tracking, 381 68 Katacks, 381 69 Woman's Boat, 388 70 The Devil's Thumb, 394 71 Mblvillb Bat, 394 72 Esquimaux on Snow-Shoes, :< 398 73 Looking for Water, 403 74 Bessie's Cove, 403 75 The Advance in February, 465 76 Winter in the Pack, 465 77 Bird's-Etb View of Ice-Floe, 484 78 Esquimaux Beauties, 489 79 The Governor's Sons, 493 80 Saluting the Provenese, 495 81 Good-Bte to the Prince Albert, 499 82 Interior of a Native Hut, Upernavik, 499 83 The Governor's Mansion, 506 84 Harpooning Seals, 517 85 Fastened to an Iceberg, 521 86 Parting Hawsers, 521 87 Sylvia Headland— Inspecting a Harbor, 527 88 The Advance Frozen in at Rensselaer Harbor, 527 89 In the Tent, 533 90 PiNNACLY Berg, 533 91 The Rescue Party, 534 92 Loading the Faith, 543 93 First Meeting with Esquimaux, • 543 94 Tent on the Floes, 549 95 The Bear in Camp, 549 96 Gathering Moss, 549 97 Morton and Hans Entering Kennedy Channel, 553 98 Morton and Hans Leaving the Channel, 553 99 Kennedy Channel, 561 100 View from Cape Constitution, 561 101 An Esquimaux Homestead, 567 102 Wild Dog Team, 567 103 Arctic Moonlight, 573 ILLUSTRATIONS. XV 104 The Ice-Foot Canopt 673 105 The Brig in hbb Winter Cradle, 579 106 Approaching the Deserted Hut, 579 107 The Open Water, 579 108 Arctic Sba-Gulls, 585 109 EiDBR Island Ducks, 585 110 The Walrus Hunter, 591 111 The Atluk. or Seal-Hole, 599 112 Shooting Seal, 599 113 Walrus Sporting, 599 114 Esquimaux Portraits— Paulik—Anak—Accomodah, 605 115 Greenland Children Playing Ball, 609 116 Catching Auks, 609 117 Boat -Camp in a Storm, 617 118 Good-bte to the Esquimaux, 617 119 Birds op Providence Cliffs, 627 120 Passing the Crimson Cliffs, 627 121 Cape Welcome, 633 122 Our First Kayak, 633 123 The Faith, : 634 124 A Small Water Party, 639 125 Discovery of Franklin's Cairn, 648 126 Relics op the Lost Explorers, 648 127 The Erebus and Terror in the Ice-Stream, 657 128 Funeral op Sib John Franklin, 657 129 APoLAR Bear Picnic, 662 130 Exiles En route fob Siberia, 663 131 A Siberian Port, 675 132 Traveling in Kamchatka, 676 133 Aleutians Catching Whales, 676 134 Fort Nulato, Alaska— Auroral Light, 679 135 A Deer Corral, 681 136 View op Sitka, Alaska, 682 137 Portrait op Captain Charles F. Hall, 698 138 Portrait op Captain S. O. Buddington, 698 139 Portrait op Captain George E. Tyson, 698 140 Signaling the Tigress, 706 141 Funeral op Captain Hall, at Polaris Bay, 718 142 A Bear Hunt 730 143 Meeting op the Floes, 749 144 Formation op Hummocks, 768 145 Life on the Drifting Ice-Field, 769 146 Portraits op Joe, Hannah, and Sylvia, 772 147 The Hansa Crushed— Escape of the Crew, 787 148 Count Wilczec in Nova Zembla 791 149 Relics op the Dutch Expedition, 793 150 Barentz's House at Ice Haven, 793 And Twenty Smaller Engravings; MAFS, Etc. CracuMPOLAB Map, 1 Map op the American Arctic Sea, 23 Ancient Map op Spitzbergen, 126 Chart op the Whale-Fish Islands, 366 Chart Showing the Discoveries op Kane, Hates, and Hall, 640 Fac bqiilbs, 649-650 /TV' 'SO /70 ^^if 'S'O /^^O /SO /sa ^0 so so F. [1J§[1={1I^ B^IKT KI^NE, Ril= ©.J ^^ A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF ELISHA KENT KANE, M.D., U. S. N., PROP. CHARLES "W. SHIELDS, D. D., OF PRINCETON COLLEGE, N. J. The Life of Dr. Kane is already a fireside tale. Every one is familiar witli it as the story of a young knight-errant of philanthropy and science, who traversed nearly the whole surface of the globe, within the short period of fourteen years ; who gathered here and there a laurel from every walk of physical research in which he strayed ; who plunged into the thick of perilous adventure, abstracting in the spirit of philosophy, yet seeing with the eye of poesy, and loving with the heart of humanity ; who penetrated, under such impulses, even to the Northern pole of the planet and remained secluded amidst the horrors of two Arctic winters ; who returned like one come back from another world, to invest the very story of his escape with the charms of litera- ture and art, and transport us, by his graphic pen, into scenes we scarcely realize as belonging to the earth we inhabit ; and who died at length, in the flush of his manhood and the morning of his fame, lamented by his country and the world. To write the story of such a life as it should be written, would be impossible within the limits assigned to this memoir, and nothing more, therefore, will be here attempted than such a sketch as may serve to introduce this new edition of his works to the reader. As we trace the usual biographical themes, though in the briefest manner, it will be found that his origin and education, the leading events in his career, the prominent traits of his character, his public services, and his private life and last moments, together yield an impression which is suited at once to justify his fame and perpetuate the lessons he has left to the world. -I 2 LIFE OF DE. KANE. Elisha Kent Kane, the leader in the American search for Sir John Franklin, was born in Philadelphia, Feb. 3, A. D. 1820. He received the name of his grandfather, who had himself been named after his ma- ternal grandfather, the Reverend Elisha Kent, of " Kent's Parish," N. Y., and he was baptized by his uncle, the Reverend Jacob J. Janeway, D. D., then pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, which his parents attended. On the father's side he was descended from Colonel John Kane, of the British Army, his great-grandfather, who came from Ireland to the colony of New York about the year 1756, retired to Dutchess County, and there married Miss Sybil Kent, daughter of the clergyman above named, and aunt of Chancellor Kent. His grandfather, Elisha K. Kane, was a successful merchant in Albany and New York, who married Miss Alida Van Rensselaer, daughter of General Robert Van Rensselaer, of Claverack, and subsequently removed to Philadelphia. His father, the late Hon. John K. Kane, a graduate of Yale College, and successively a member of the Philadelphia bar, Attorney-General of the State, and Judge of the United States Court for the Eastern District of Pennsyl- vania, was well known as an acute and learned jurist within his profes- sion, as an influential statesman of the old school of politics, an active promoter of the arts, sciences, and charities in Philadelphia, an accom- plished scholar in classical and English literature, and a courtly gentle- man in society. And the culture, efficiency, and tact which distin- guished him in every relation of life were not wanting in his honored son. On the mother's side he was descended from Thomas Leiper, a younger son of a Scotch family of French origin, who came in search of fortune about the year 1764, to the colony of Virginia, and thence to Pennsylvania; built extensive mills near Philadelphia; aided in forming the First City Troop, and served with distinguished gallantry in the battles of Trenton and Princeton ; united, after the war, with his warm personal friend. President Jefferson, in organizing the polit- ical party which looked to him for its leader ; and as a zealous advo- cate of public improvements, laid down the first experimental railway constructed in the United States. He married Miss Elizabeth Coltas Gray, the daughter of the Hon. George Gray, of Gray's Ferry, and of Martha Ibbetson Gray, whose generous services in nursing the sick and wounded prisoners during the occupation of Philadelphia by Lord Howe, attracted public testimonials from both parties. Their daughter, Jane Duval Leiper, as Mrs. Kane, illustrated the traits proverbial in the mothers of great men by combining with the virtues of the Spartan LIFE OF DR. KANE. 3 matron, that energy, nerve, elasticity, and warm-heartedness which became famous in her son. On both sides, his ancestry in this country, it will be seen, dates before the American Revolution, being derived in the paternal line from Ireland, Holland, and England, and in the maternal line from Scotland, England, and France, while the corresponding religions blended in it were the Episcopalian, Dutch Reformed, and Congregational, with the Presbyterian, Quaker, Methodist, and Moravian. And the names which it embraces are here mentioned, not merely because he has himself written them, with a just pride, upon the map of the Arctic seas, but also as serving to explain that rare combination of varied and even opposite elements of race, of creed, and of culture, which entered into the formation of his character. When Mr. Kane and Miss Leiper first met, they were in the prime of youthful strength and beauty ; and after a courtship, the romance of which has become a family tradition, they were married, April 20, 1819. Elisha was the eldest of their children. Three other sons and a married daughter are still living. In Dr. Kane, as in most men who achieve greatness, the boy fore- shadowed the man. Arctic explorations were prefigured by juvenile feats of daring and contrivance. His biographer relates that when but a child, he scaled the roof by moonlight with his younger brother, while the family were asleep, feeling repaid for the perilous adventure by the "grand view" from the chimney-top. Traits which afterwards shone out before the world, already appeared in the school-room and on the playground, where he became a spirited little champion of the weak and oppressed, repelling imposition from any quarter with uncal- culating courage, and yet as quick to forgive as to resent an injury. His tastes, too, began to show the bias of coming years. He had his own small cabinet of minerals, birds, and insects, and his chemical lab- oratory, the latter to the frequent alarm of the household — and his favorite books were Robinson Crusoe and Pilgrim's Progress. But if it is easy now to trace the beginnings of his career, it was not so easy then to forecast it. Fonder of sports than of books, full of generous but ill-regulated impulses, and impatient of control, his course as yet was like that of a mountain torrent which has not found and made its channel ; and it was only when he began by his own efforts to retrieve his neglected education, that parental anxiety was relieved. His father would have had him follow in his own footsteps at Yale ; but his inclination was more towards science than learning, and the 4 LIFE OF DE. KANE. optional course of study which the University of Virginia allowed, was found better adapted to his somewhat exceptional genius. He was in his seventeenth year when he entered the university, and during the year and a half that he studied there, made good progress in the clas- sical and mathematical course prescribed, as well as in his own chosen sciences of chemistry, mineralogy, geology, and civil engineering. It was at this time he said to his cousin that he "intended to make his mark in the world." And the resolution seems to have derived im- pulse from an event which abruptly ended his collegiate course a little before the time of graduation. Prostrated by an acute rheumatism of the heart, he was wrapped in a blanket and taken by slow journeys home to Philadelphia, where he endured frightful paroxysms of pain, and for days appeared to be on the brink of death. He recovered, to learn from his physicians that he might fall as suddenly as by a rausket shot. The decision with which he went back to the duties of life was only anticipated by his father's counsel : " Elisha, if you must die, die in harness." Turning from the profession of a civil engineer to that of a physician, in his nineteenth year, he was matriculated in the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, and after attending one course of lectures, while yet an undergraduate, he was elected one of the Resi- dent Physicians in the Hospital at Blockley. His preceptors and asso- ciates have all publicly spoken of the remarkable zeal and success with which he prosecuted his studies and performed his duties in these posi- tions. Indeed his graduating thesis on the subject of " Kyestein " was so highly esteemed that it was published by a vote of the Faculty, and attracted the general notice of the profession. It is still quoted as an authority both in this country and abroad. It had become plain that Dr. Kane's cardiac disorder combined with his scientific tastes and aspirations to unfit him for the routine life of a practitioner, and that travel, adventure, and incessant activity were with him a physical need as well as a moral impulse. He had no taste for the social blandishments under which young men born to ease and ele- gance too often waste their prime, and the stagnant political condition of the country at that time afforded none of the generous careers which have since been opened to them. Neither could he accept for himself the fate of a mere invalid tourist or reckless adventurer, intent on crowding into a short lifetime the utmost amount of mere aimless diversion. There must, if possible, be a color of scientific enthusiasm to sanction his life of physical hardihood. His father, acting upon this enlightened view of his case, applied for LIFE OF DR. KANE. 5 him to the Secretary of the Navy for the post of surgeon in the ser- vice ; and after passing the required examination so creditably that the disqualifying state of his health was overlooked by the Board of Examiners, he was appointed physician of the Chinese Embassy, which sailed in the frigate Brandy wine, Commodore Parker, in May, 1843. During the two years that he was absent upon this his first extended tour of travel, he made a complete circuit of the globe, sailing around the coast of South America, across the Pacific Ocean to Southern and Eastern Asia, and returning by the overland route through Europe, across the Atlantic to the United States. And that spirit of dauntless research which actuated him through life seems every where to have brought with it its own proper atmosphere of marvelous incident and peril. While the vessel remained at Rio de Janeiro, after participating with the diplomatic corps in the coronation of the Emperor of Brazil, he visited the Eastern Andes for a geological survey of that region. At Bombay, where the legation awaited some months the arrival of its chief, Mr. Gushing, by the overland route, he seized the opportunity for similar inland journeys, exploring the caverned temples of Elephanta, traveling by palanquin to the less known ruins at Karli, passing over to Ceylon, and engaging, with some ofiicers of the garrison, in the ele- phant hunt, and the other wild sports of the island. But it was at Luzon or Luconia, a Spanish possession in the China Sea, that this adventurous spirit, though under a scientific impulse, passed the limits of prudence in his far-famed exploration of the crater of Tael, a vol- cano on the Pacific coast of the island, in a region inhabited only by savages. Crossing over to the capital city of the island, during one of the long delays of Chinese diplomacy, he procured an escort of natives from the Archbishop of Manilla, (by means of letters from American prelates which he had secured before leaving home,) and in company with his friend Baron Loe, a relative of Metternich, penetrated across the country to the asphaltic lake in which the island volcano is situ- ated. Both gentlemen at first descended together, until they reached a precipice overhanging the cavernous gulf of the crater, when the baron saw further progress to be impossible, but the doctor, in spite of the remonstrances of the whole party, insisted upon being lowered over the ledge by means of a rope made of bamboos, and held in the hands of the natives under the baron's direction, until he reached the bottom, two hundred feet below. Loosing himself from the cord, he forced his way downwards through the sulphurous vapors, over the hot 6 LIFE OF DR. KANE. ashes, to tlie green, boiling lake, dipped his specimen-bottle into its •waters, returned to the rope, several times stumbling, almost stifled, and with his boots charred, one of them to a coal, but succeeded in again fastening himself, and was hauled up by his assistants and re- ceived into their hands exhausted and almost insensible. Remedies brought from the neighboring hermitage were applied, and he was so far restored that they could proceed on their journey. But rumors spread before them among the pigmy savages on the island, of the pro- fane invasion which had been made into the sacred mysteries of the Tael, and an angry mob gathered around them, which was only dis- persed by one or two pistol shots and the timely arrival of the padres. The trophies of this expedition were some valuable mineral specimens, a bottle of sulphur water, a series of graphic views from recollection in his sketch-book, and a written description of the volcano by one of the friars, which, after many wanderings, was put in his hands as he sat at the home dinner-table, twelve years afterwards. Resigning his post in the diplomatic mission. Dr. Kane practiced his profession in Whampoa, until he was sufficiently in funds to pursue his journey homeward through Calcutta by the overland route. After exploring the interior of India, including the Himalaya mountains, he was admitted with his friend, Mr. Dent, a British official, into the suite of Prince Tagore, on^ of the native Hindoo nobles, then on his way to the court of Queen Victoria, and traveled under this safe conduct through Persia and Syria, as far as Upper Egypt. At Alexandria he received, through an introduction by Prince Tagore to the Pasha Me- hemet Ali, a special firman by which he was enabled safely to traverse the region of Egyptian ruins. But the journals of a large part of this expedition, as of the whole previous tour, were unfortunately lost by the upsetting of his boat in the Nile. In the ruined temple of Karnak he met with Professor Lepsius, the renowned Egyptologist, with whom he traveled some time, and at Lu'xor he proved that archaeological re- search is sometimes more curious than effective, by climbing, as had never been done before, between the colossal knees of the statue of Memnon, in hopes of finding some hieroglyph on the under side of the tablet in the lap of the figure. His sensitive organization, throughout life, seems to have reflected with peculiar intensity the disease of every country through which he traveled. As at Macao he had been prostrated by the rice-fever, so at Alexandria he was seized with an attack of the plague. When suffi- ciently recovered to pursue his journeyings, he set out for Greece, and made the tour of that classic land on foot. Athens, Platsea, Mount LIFEOFDR.KANE. 7 Helicon, Therrnopylfe, Parnassus, were successively visited, after which he passed to Trieste, and thence through Germany to Switzerland, where the glaciers of .the Alps yielded him the ice-theories which he afterwards tested in the Arctic regions. His design had been to return to Manilla, in the island of Luzon, with a license from the Spanish authorities to practice his profession ; but failing in this, or relinquishing it, he at length yielded to urgent solicitations from home, and returned by way of Italy, France, and Enofland, to the United States. Dr. Kane was at this time twenty-four years of age, and had already developed the traits for which he was subsequently distinguished. The Reverend George Jones, chaplain to the Chinese Embassy, speaks of him as " then very youthful-looking, with a smooth face, a florid com- plexion, very delicate form, smaller than the common size; but with an elastic step, a bright eye, and great enthusiasm in manner, which also mixed itself with his conversation. He seemed to be all hope, all ardor, and his eye appeared already to take in the whole world as his own." And another of his associates in the diplomatic mission, Fletcher Webster, Esq., has said that " in social intercourse, although agreeable and very bright when called out, he still seemed to be think- ing of something above and beyond what was present. To his great scientific taste and knowledge, and his energy and resolution, he added a courage of the most dauntless kind. The idea of personal appre- hension seemed never to cross his mind. He was ambitious, not of mere personal distinction, but of achievements useful to .mankind and promotive of science." On his return to Philadelphia, he successfully devoted himself for a time to his profession, both as a teacher and practitioner of medicine, though being still a titular surgeon of the Navy, he had put his name on the roll as " waiting for orders." Accordingly, three weeks before the declaration of war against Mexico, in May, 1846, he was ordered to the coast of Africa, in the frigate United States, under Commodore Reed. -When at Rio Janeiro in 1843, he had received, in return for professional services, from the famous Portuguese merchant. Da Sousa, introductory letters to his commercial representatives on the African coast, by means of which he now visited and examined the slavc-fao- tories; and while the frigate was in harbor, he also joined a caravan going to the interior, and was presented at the court of his savage majesty the king of Dahomey, where he became convinced that even the horrors of the middle passage were merciful compared with those from which its victims had been rescued. 8 LIFE OF DR. KANE. From this comparatively inglorious field of the public service, Dr. Kane was transferred by a virulent attack of the coast-fever, which, after bringing him to the point of death, required his immediate return home. He reached Philadelphia utterly broken in health, but eager to mingle in the stirring scenes then passing in Mexico, from which he had been withheld during .his ten months' absence. When scarcely yet convalescent, he hastened to Washington, obtained credentials as bearer of dispatches to General Scott, then in the Mexican capital, and after stopping in Kentucky to procure a horse, said by one of his col- leagues to have been " the finest animal ever seen in Mexico," pursued his journey to New Orleans, and thence across the Grulf to Vera Cruz. It was while on his way to the interior that an affair occurred, the well- attested facts of which bring back the romance of chivalry as a reality. Dr. Kane, having been unable to procure an American escort, had intrusted himself to a Mexican spy-company, under Colonel Domingues, and was approaching Nopaluca, when they encountered a body of contra-guerrillas, escorting Generals Gaona and Torrejon, with other Mexican officers. A short and severe contest ensued, resulting in the capture of most of the Mexican party. During the fray, the doctor's charger carried him between young Colonel Gaona and his orderly, who both fell upon him at the same moment. Receiving only a slight flesh hurt from the lance of the latter, he parried the sabre-cut of the former and unhorsed him with a wound in the chest. Soon afterwards ones came from young Gaona to save his father, the aged general, whom, together with the other Mexican prisoners, the renegade Do- mingues and his bandits were about to butcher in cold blood. Dr. Kane instantly charged among them with his six-shooter, and suc- ceeded at length in enforcing humanity to the vanquished, though only after himself receiving a lance-thrust in the abdomen and a blow which cost him the loss of his horse. But still another act of mercy remained to be' performed. As the old General sat beside his son, who was bleeding to death from his wound, the doctor, with no better surgical implements than a table-fork and a piece of pack-thread, succeeded in taking up and tying the artery, and thus saving the life which he had . endangered. The gratitude of the rescued Mexicans knew no bounds, and when it was found that their deliverer was himself suffering from his wounds, he was taken by General Gaona to his own residence, and there nursed for weeks by the ladies of the family, with every attention that wealth and refinement could suggest. A tissue of circumstantial as well as personal evidence has saved the chronicler of this incident the risk of LIFE OF DR. KANE. 9 seeminiy a romancer. The published letters which passed between the American and Mexican governors of Puebla in regard to Dr. Kane, interchanged his praises ; and on his return to Philadelphia, more than seventy of the most distinguished gentlemen of the city united in pre- senting him with a sword, as a memorial of "an incidental exploit which was crowned with the distinction due to gallantry, skill, and success, and- was hallowed in the flush of victory by the noblest hu- manity to the vanquished." After the Mexican war, in January, 1849, Dr. Kane was attached to the storeship Supply, Commander Arthur Sinclair, bound for Lisbon, the Mediterranean, and Rio Janeiro. The disejises which he had suc- cessively contracted in China, Egypt, Africa, and Mexico, had made sad inroads upon his health, and the voyage, though without much of in- cident, at least served to recruit his strength. He was next assigned to the Coast Survey, and had settled into its round of duty, when he was suddenly called to the great work of his life. " On the 1 2th of May," he writes, " while bathing in the tepid waters of the Gulf of Mexico, I received one of those courteous little epistles from Washington which the electric telegraph has made so familiar to naval officers. It detached me from the coast-survey, and ordered me to proceed forthwith to New York for duty upon the Arctic expedition." For months before, the civilized world had resounded with the cry to the rescue of Sir John Franklin, and the Government, moving in sym- pathy with the whole country, had resolved upon sending in search of the lost navigator the two vessels, the "Advance" and "Rescue," under Commander De Haven. Dr. Kane, who had repeatedly volunteered his services, was made senior medical ofiScer and naturalist of the ex- pedition, and on his return, published its history in the form of a "Per- sonal Narrative," collected from his private journals. The cruise lasted during sixteen months, but resulted in little more than the discovery of Sir John Franklin's first winter quarters and the graves of three of his men. In proceeding to organize the second United States Grinnell Expe- dition under his own command, Dr. Kane had before him an object worthy of his matured powers and noblest aims, and gave himself to the task with the zeal of a votary. But what discouragements, what disappointments, and what difficulties entered into that great under- taking from its outset to its close, can be but partially seen through the veil of delicate reserve which he has thrown over them. Some- thing, however, may be learned in regard to them from another source, and upon authority as competent as it is disinterested and honorable. 10 LIFE OF DR. KANE. Captain Sheravd Osborne, of Her Majesty's Navy, in a paper advoca- ting further polar exploration, holds the following language : — " It is only fair to Dr. Kane to say, that never in our times has a navigator entered the ice so indifferently prepared for a Polar winter. With only seventeen followers, two of them mutineers, without a steam- power for his solitary vessel, without proper sledge-equipment, without any preserved fresli meat, and a great insufficiency of preserved vege- tables, and with only coals enough to serve for twelve months' fuel, the only marvel to me is, that he ever returned to relate his sufferings. They are only to be equaled by those of the navigator "James," in Hudson Bay, two centuries earlier. God forbid that I should be thought to cast one reflection upon those warm-hearted Americans who came nobly forward and said, " We too will aid in Arctic enterprise ;" but the fact is that enthusiasm and high courage, without proper knowledge and equipment, on such service, infallibly lead to the suffer- ing which Dr. Kane's followers endured; and it is that which best explains how it was, that whilst our sailors, far beyond the Esquimaux, waxed fat and fastidious, Kane's poor followers had to eat the raw flesh of animals to avert the ravages of scurvy, brought on by a poisonous dietary of salt meat. This much to meet the objections of those who point to Dr. Kane's thrilling narrative with a view to frighten us from Arctic exploration ; and I may add, that I know well that chivalrous man never penned those touching episodes to frighten men from high enterprise, but rather to caution us to avoid his mistakes, and to show us how nobly the worst evils may be borne when the cause is a good one."* The narrative of that expedition is before the reader in this volume. When first given to the world, it excited an intense interest and drew forth universal eulogy. All classes were penetrated and touched by the -story so simply, so modestly, so eloquently told. Autograph let- ters from the most eminent names in every walk of life were written in its praise. Medals and other costly testimonials were sent by the Queen of England, by different Legislatures in our own country, and by scien- tific associations throughout the world. The mere casual notices of the press, as collected by his friend Mr. Childs, the publisher, fill sev- eral albums of folio size. But the recipient of these nonors was not destined himself long to enjoy them. To the seeds of former diseases never fully eradicated, had been added that terrible scourge of Arctic life, the scurvy, together * Paper on the Exploration of the North Polar Region, read before the Royal Geographical Society, Jan. 23d, 1865, by Captain Sherard Osborne, R. N., C. B. LIFE OF DR. KANE. 11 with the exhausting literary labors incident to the publication of this narrative. Entirely underestimating those labors, (of which indeed but few can form an adequate conception,) he had been quite too thought- less of the claims of a body he had so long been accustomed to subject to his purpose, and only awoke to a discovery of the error when it was too late. With this melancholy conviction, he announced the comple- tion of the work to a friend in the modest and touching sentence : — " The book, poor as it is, has been my coffin." He left the country for England under a presentiment that he should never return. For the first time in his life, departure was shaded with foreboding. It was indeed an alarming symptom to find that iron nerve which hitherto had sustained him under shocks apparently not less severe, thus beginning to falter ; and yet even then the great pur- pose of his life he had not wholly abandoned, but, in spite of the most serious entreaties, was ah'eady projecting another Arctic Expedition of research and rescue.* Before, however, he could make known his plans, or even receive the honors awaiting him, successive and more virulent attacks of disease obliged him, under medical advice, to seek the last resorts of the invalid. Attended by his faithful fi'ieud Morton, he sailed for Cuba, where he was joined by his mother and two of his brothers, and devotedly nursed during a lingering and painful illness, until his death on the 16th of February, 185*7. No man of his age was ever more proudly and tenderly lamented. The journey with his remains from Havana to New Orleans, and thence through the Western States to Philadelphia, became but one long funeral triumph, with the learned, the noble, and the good mingling in its train. State and civic authorities, literary, scientific, and religious bodies, followed his bier from city to city with lavish shows of grief, until at length the national obsequies were completed in the Hall of Independence, in the church of his childhood, and at the grave of his kindred. Dr. Kane, so far from being one of those mere personages who move in a halo of applause, had only to be known in order to convert the coldest criticism into sympathy with the popular feeling. Whatever faults belonged to him — and his nature was too rich and strong to be without them — yet the man himself was fully worthy of his mission, and had been actua:lly endowed with gifts and traits quite as remark- * The particular project to which he then reverted with special interest, was one which he had entertained in 1852, looking to a combined land and sea expedition down Mackenzie's River, and through Behring's Straits. See Paper on Alaski, lately read by his brother and literary executor, General T. L. Kane, before the American Geographical Society. 12 LIFE OF DR. KANE. able as any of the circumstances which conspired to make him an object of such general admiration. When at his prime, before disease had begun to waste his frame, his personal appearance was extremely youthful and handsome, almost to the degree of a feminine delicacy of form and feature, with an air of elegance and fashion, suggestive at first sight of anything but hardy exploits and physical endurance. But as his character matured, the lines of his face revealed the energy and purpose within. There was a certain presence which diverted attention from his deficient stature. Temperate in meat and drink, he had none of the small vices which deprave the body, but was rather in danger of neglecting, or overtask- ing it, by the reckless energy with which he subjected it to his behests. The stimulus with which he repaired the waste of mental application was natural rather than artificial. He would leave the manuscripts of Lis book, to seek relaxation in a midnight ride upon his favorite stallion " Gaona," or in a rapid walk before breakfast. He was a splendid horseman and marksman. In the excitements of the chase he had the keenest relish, and yet for suffering animal creatures often showed a tenderness that in another might have seemed sentimental. Natural scenery and objects he surveyed with the eye of an artist as well as that of trained scientific observation. His journals in all parts of the world were filled with sketches, some of them finished pictures, others mere pen-and-ink outlines with verbal notes. " Could they be placed before the public," says the artist who illustrated this work, " they would add still further, if that were possible, to his reputation as an Arctic explorer." His affections for home and kindred were absolute passions. In his love for his mother especially, he was a child to the last. His imagin- ation strove to brighten even the Arctic waste with dear and familiar associations. The ice-bound harbor in which he was imprisoned was made to echo with names oftenest heard at home. He was really prouder to call a new land or river after one of his own kinsmen, than to christen it for a Washington or a Tennyson ; and the sledge in which he sought the object of a world-wide fame was most precious in his eyes as a memorial of his brother " Little Willie." His heart, indeed, was as warm as it was large and noble. No ele- vation and vastness in his schemes of philanthropy, no absorption in their pursuit, and no reputation gained by their success, ever made him insensible to the claims of the humblest upon its regards. Throughout life he had numerous dependants who looked to him for relief and maintenance, and at every step he performed acts of kindness with an LITE OF DR. KANE. 13 uncalculating generosity. In one of his voyages he saved the life of an infant whose mother was too ill to nurse it, by himself taking entire charge of the little sufferer. A young orphaned midshipman, with whom he read the Bible and Shakspeare on the voyage to Brazil, when found to be dying of consumption, was taken home with him and ten- derly nursed until his death as one of the family. It would have been strange if such affluent affection had not been, in some instances, lav- ished upon an unworthy object, as when a young culprit whom he sought to reform by bringing him under the home influences, was sud- denly missing with some valuable jewelry. But that knightly romance and simplicity tinging his ardent nature, if ever quixotic in the eyes of the prudent, could never have exposed him to the serious misappre- hension of any but inferior souls. The writer of this sketch, as the eulogist at the obsequies of Dr. Kane, gave an expression of the public estimate which has since been only confirmed by his more intimate knowledge, and he can not now do better than here to reproduce so much of it as relates to his moral traits and achievements.* " As a votary of science, he will indeed receive fitting tributes. There will not be wanting those who shall do justice to that ardent thirst for truth, which in him amounted to one of the controlling pas- sions; to that intellect so severe in induction, yet sagacious in conjec- ture ; and to those contributions, so various and valuable, to the existing stock of human knowledge. But his memory will not be cherished alone in philosophic minds. His is not a name to be honored only within the privileged circles of the learned. There is for him another laurel, greener even than that which science weaves for her most gifted sons. He is endeared to the popular heart as its chosen ideal of the finest sentiment that adorns our earthly nature. " Philanthropy, considered as among things which are lovely and of good report, is the flower of human virtue. Of all the passions that have their root in the soil of this present life, there is none which, when elevated into a conscious duty, is so disinterested and pure. In the domestic affections, there is something of mere blind instinct; in friendship, there is the limit of congeniality ; in patriotism, there are the restrictions of local attachment and national antipathy ; but in that love of race which seeks its object in man as man,of whatever kindred, creed, or clime, earthly morality appears divested of the last dross of selfishness, and challenges our highest admiration and praise. * See Report of the Joint Committee appointed to receive the remains and con- duct the obsequies of the late Elisha Kent Kane, in Dr. Elder's Biography. Funeral Discourse delivered in the Second Presbyterian Church. 14 LIFE OF DR. KANE. "Providence, who governs the world by ideas, selects the fit occasions and men for their illustration. In an age when philanthropic senti- ments, through the extension of Christianity and civilization, are on the increase, a fit occasion for their display is offered in the perils of a bold explorer, for whose rescue a cry of anguished affection rings in the ears of the nations ; and the man found adequate to that occasion is he whose death we mourn. " If there was every thing congruous in the scene of the achieve- ment, — laid, as it was, in those distant regions where the lines of geog- raphy converge beyond all the local distinctions that divide and sepa- rate man from his fellow, and among regions of cold and darkness, and disease and famine, that would task to their utmost the powers of human endurance — not less suited was the actor who was to enter upon that scene and enrich the world with such a lesson of heroic benefi- cence. Himself of a country estranged from that of the imperiled explorers, the simple act of assuming the task of their rescue was a beautiful tribute to the sentiment of national amity ; while, as his war- rant for undertaking it, he seemed wanting in no single qualification. To a scientific education and the experience of a cosmopolite, he joined an assemblage of moral qualities so rich in their separate excellence, and so rare in their combination, that it is difficult to effect their analysis. " Conspicuous among them was an exalted, yet practical benevolence. It was the crowning charm of his character, and a controlling motive in his perilous enterprise. Other promptings indeed there were, nei- ther suppressed, nor in themselves to be depreciated. But that passion for adventure, that love of science, that generous ambition, which stim- ulated his youthful exploits, appear now under the check and guidance of a still nobler impulse. It is his sympathy with the lost and suffer- ing, and the duteous conviction that it may. lie in his power to liberate them from their icy dungeon, which thrill his heart and nerve him to his hardy task. In his avowed aim, the interests of geography were to be subordinate to the claims of humanity. And neither the entreaties of affection, nor the imperiling of a fame, which to a less earnest spirit might have seemed too precious to hazard, could swerve him from the generous purpose. " And yet this was not a benevolence which could exhaust itself in any mere dazzling, visionary project. It was as practical as it was compre- hensive. It could descend to all the minutiae of personal kindness, and gracefully disguise itself even in the most menial offices. When de- feated in its great object, and forced to resign the proud hope of a LIFE OF DR. KANE. ^ 15 philanthropist, it turns to lavish itself on his suffering comrades, whom he leads almost to forget the commander in the friend. With unselfish assiduity and cheerful patience he devotes himself as a nurse and coun- sellor to relieve their wants, and buoy them up under the most appall- ing misfortunes ; and, in those still darker seasons, when the expedition is threatened with disorganization, conquers them, not less by kindness than by address. Does a party withdraw from him under opposite counsels, they are assured, in the event of their return, of a " brother's welcome." Are tidings brought him that a portion of the little band are forced to halt, he knows not where in the snowy desert, he is off through the midnight cold for their rescue, and finds his reward in the grateful assurance, " They knew that he would come." In sickness he tends them like a brother, and at death drops a tear of manly sensi- bility on their graves. Even the wretched savages, who might be sup- posed to have forfeited the claim, share in his kindly attentions ; and it is with a touch of true human feeling that he parts from them at last, •as ' children of the same Creator.' " Then, as the fitting support of this noble quality, there was also an indomitable energy. It was the iron column, around whose capital that delicate lily-work was woven. His was not a benevolence which must waste itself in mere sentiment, for want, of a power of endurance ade- quate to support it through hardship and peril. In that slight physical frame, suggestive only of refined culture and intellectual grace, there dwelt a sturdy force of will, which no combination of material terrors seemed to appall, and, by a sort of magnetic impulse, subjected all inferior spirits to its control. It was the calm power of reason and duty asserting their superiority over mere brute courage, and compelling the instinctive homage of Herculean strength and prowess. " With what firm yet conscientious resolve does he quell the risino- symptoms of rebellion which threaten to add the terrors of mutiny to those of famine and disease ! And all through that stern battle with Nature in her most savage haunts, how he ever seems to turn his mild front toward her frowning face, if in piteous appealing, yet not less in fixed resignation ! "But while in that character, benevolence appeared supported by energy and patience, so, too, was it equipped with a most marvelous tact. He brought to his beneficent task not merely the resources of acquired skill, but a native power of adapting himself to emergencies, and a fertility in devising expedients, which no occasion ever seemed to baffle. Immured in a dreadful seclusion, where the combined terrors of Nature forced him into all the closer contact with the passions of 16 LIFE OF DR. KANE. man, he not only rose, by his energy, superior to them both, but, by his ready executive talent, converted each to his ministry. Even the wild inmates of that icy world, from the mere stupid wonder with which at first they regarded his imported marvels of civilization, were, at length, forced to descend to a genuine respect and love, as they saw him compete with them in the practice of their own rude, stoical virtues. " To such more sterling qualities were joined the graces of an affluent cheerfulness, that never deserted him in the darkest hours — a delicate and capricious humor, glancing among the most rugged realities like the sunshine upon the rocks— and, above all, that invariable stamp of true greatness, a beautiful modesty, ever sufficiently content with itself to be above the necessity of pretension. These were like the ornaments of a Grecian building, which, though they may not enter into the effect of the outline, are found to impart to it, the more nearly it is surveyed, all the grace and finish of the most exquisite sculpture. " And yet strong and fair as were the proportions of that character in its more conspicuous aspects, we should still have been disappointed did we not find albeit hidden deep beneath them, a firm basis of reli- gious sentiment. For all serious and thoughtful minds this is the purest charm of those graphic volumes in which he has recorded the story of his wonderful escapes and deliverances. There is every where shining through its pages a chastened spirit, too familiar with human weakness to overlook a Providence in his trials, and too conscious of human in- significance to disdain its recognition. Now, in his lighter, more pen- sive moods, we see it rising, on the wing of a devout fancy, into that region where piety becomes also poetry : * I have trodden the deck and the floes, when the life of earth seemed suspended, its movements, its sounds, its colorings, its companionships; and as I looked on the radiant hemisphere, circling above me, as if rendering worship to the unseen centre of light, I have ejaculated in humility of spirit, ' Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of him ?' And then I have thought of the kindly world we had left, with its revolving sunlight and shadow, and the other stars that gladden it in their changes, and the hearts that warmed to us there, till I lost myself in the memories of those who are not ; and they bore me back to the stars again.' " Then, in graver emergencies, it appears as a habitual resource, to which he has come in conscious dependence : ' A trust, based on experience as well as on promises, buoyed me up LIFE OF DR. KANE. 17 at the worst of times. Call it fatalism, as you ignorantly may, tliere is that in the story of every eventful life which, teaches the inefficiency of human means, and the present control of a Supreme Agency. See how often relief has come at the moment of extremity, in forms strangely unsought, almost at the time unwelcome ; see, still more, how the back has been strengthened to its increasing burdens, and the heart cheered by some conscious influence of an unseen Power.' "And, at leng-th, we find it settling into that assurance which belongs to an experienced faith and hope : — ' I never doubted for an instant, that the same Providence which had guarded us through the long darkness of winter was still watching over us for good, and that it was yet in reserve for us — for some ; I dared not hope for all — to bear back the tidings of our rescue to a Christian land.' *' We hear no profane oath vaunted from that little ice-bound islet of human life, where man has been thrown so helplessly into the hands of God ; but rather in its stead, murmured amid the wild uproar of the storm, the daily prayer, * Accept our thanks and restore us to our homes.' Let us believe that a faith which supported him through trials worse than death, did not fail him when death itself came. "In the near approach of that last moment, he was tranquil and com- posed. With too little strength either to support or indicate any thing of rapture, he was yet sufficiently conscious of his condition to per- form some final acts befitting the solemn emergency. In reference to those who had deeply injured him, he enjoined cordial forgiveness. To each of the watching group around him, his hand is given in the fond pressure of a final parting; and then, as if sensible that his ties to earth are loosening, he seeks consolation from the requested reading of such Scripture sentences as had been the favorite theme of his thoughtful hours. "Now he hears those soothing beatitudes which fell from the lips of the Man of Sorrows in successive benediction. Then he will have repeated to him that sweet, sacred pastoral — ' The Lord is my Shepherd ; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures : he leadeth me beside the still waters. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil ; for Thou art with me : Thy rod and Thy staff, they com- fort me.' "At length are recited the consolatory words with which the Saviour took leave of his weeping disciples : — 'Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in 2 18 LIFE OF DR. KANE. me. In my Father's house are many mansions ; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.' " And at last, in the midst of this comforting recital, he is seen to expire — so gently that the reading still proceeds some moments after other watchers have become aware that he is already beyond the reach of any mortal voice. Thus, in charity with all mankind, and with words of the Redeemer in his ear, conveyed by tones the most familiar and beloved on earth, his spirit passed from the world of men." With these last and sublimest lessons of his life, it is fitting that this sketch should close. Let every American youth, who reads his story, remember that, in an age of materialism when old faiths seem to be decaying, he illustrated, as no man ever did before, the spiritual ele- ments of our nature, and the entire compatibility of deep religious con- viction, not only with humane efforts, but with physical researches and with earthly toils, successes, and honors. He will not indeed have lived in vain should history hereafter rank him among the harbingers of that peaceful era when charity shall become heroic, and science be reconciled to religion. <>*^ ^^rT~^'-^^_ l.i\.iT iveiV' inmiiteclim-c SIR JOHN FRAJSTKLIN- , CAPT R.N CHAPTER I. THE ARCTIC REGIONS. Tlie Arctic Circle, as laid down on our maps, is a line drawn aronnd tlie earth, parallel mtli the equator, and distant in every direction twenty-three degrees and twenty-eight minutes from the North Pole. It separates the North Frigid from the North Temperate Zone. Within this circle lie the Arctic Ocean ; nearly all of Greenland; Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla and other islands ; northerly portions of Norway, Sweden, Lapland, Russia, Siberia, Alaska, and British America ; and the almost unknowTi regions north-westerly of Greenland. The Arctic Ocean is enclosed between the northern limits of Europe, Asia, and America. Several large rivers from the three continents flow northerly into it or its tributary waters. It has an area of over four million square miles, and girds the Pole mth an ice- locked coast of about three thousand leao-ues. It is a mysterious sea, and has for centuries baffled the re- search of na^a2;ators. But the Arctic Circle, l}^ng between latitudes sixty- six and sixty-seven degrees, must not be considered as the boundary of the Arctic Regions, for the char- acteristic temperatures and phenomena of far higher latitudes extend mth some exceptions many degrees 19 20 THE ARCTIC EEGIONS. fartlier to tlie soutli. Iceland, wliicli may well be considered an Arctic country, lies outside this circle ; and the researches of the lamented Hall during his first expedition were made considerably below this line, and it is not known that he reached much hiiii-her latitudes during his later residence on the northern shores of Hudson's Bay. Within these hyperborean regions Nature is marked by the most stupendous features, and the forms she assumes differ from her attitudes in our milder cli- mates almost as widely as if they belonged to another planet. The scenery is awful and dreary, yet abound- ing in striking, sublime, and beautiful objects. The sun for several months of the year is totally withdrawn, leaving behind him a desert waste of relentless frost, and the darkness of a prolonged mnter which broods over the frozen realm, save when the magnificent Aurora lights up the gloom, or the moon, which for days continually circles around the horizon, reveals the weird beauty and desolation of the scene. Dr. Kane, in the most fascinating narrative of his second expedition describes an Arctic moonlight night as follows : — " A grander scene than our bay by moonlight can hardly be conceived. It is more dream-like and super- natural than a combination of earthly features. " The moon is nearly full, and the dawning sun- light, mingling with hers, invests everything with an atmosphere of ashy gray. It clothes the gnarled hiUs that make the horizon of our bay, shadows out the terraces in dull definition, grows darker and colder as it sinks into the fiords, and broods sad and dreary upon the ridges and measureless plains of ice that make up the rest of our field of view. Rising above THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 21 all tliis, and shading down into it in strange comlnna- tion, is tlie intense moonliglit, glittering on every crag and spire, tracing tlie outline of tlie background with, contrasted brightness, and printing its fantastic profiles on the snow-field. It is a landscape such as Milton or Dante might imagine, — inorganic, desolate, mysterious. I have come down from deck with the feelings of a man who has looked upon a world unfinished by the hand of its Creator." At length the sun reapj^ears above the horizon, and as a compensation for his long absence shines uninter- ruptedly for the balance of the year, although his rays are frequently obscured by mist and fog. This continual sunlio-ht strikes the traveler as the strano-est phenomenon of the Arctic summer. As the sun acquires elevation, his power increases. The progress of the frost is checked, the snow grad- ually wastes awa}^, the ice dissolves, and vast frag- ments, of it are precipitated along the shores v^dth the crash of thunder. The ocean is now unbound, and its icy dome disruj)ted with tremendous fracture; enormous fields of ice thus set afloat are broken up by the violence of mnds and cuiTents, or drift away to the south, and the icebergs take up their stately march. The annual formation of ice ^vithin the Arctic world is a beautif q1 provision of Nature for mitigating the excessive inequality of temperature. Were only dry land there exposed to the sun, it Avould be absolutely scorched by his incessant beams in summer, and pinched in the darkness of winter l:)y the most intense and penetrating cold. None of the animal or vegeta- ble tribes could at all support such extremes. But in the actual arrangement, the surjilus heat of summer 22 THE AECTIC EEGIONS. is spent in melting away tlie ice ; and its deficiency in winter is partly supplied by tlie influence of the pro- gress of congelation. As long as ice remains to thaw or water to freeze, the temperature of the atmosphere can never vary beyond certain limits. For what is known of the Arctic regions the world is indebted, principally, to the expeditions which, from time to time, have been sent out by different nations — some to search for new routes to China and the In- dies, some to look for the North Pole, and some, in later times, for the relief of the lost navigator, Sir John Franklin. The thrilling experiences and observations of many of these expeditions have been written out by mem- bers thereof, and the perusal of their narratives will give the reader a more vivid and far more interest- ing conception of life and nature in the frigid zone than can be obtained from the study of volumes of didactic description. As it is the plan of this book to give the history of these expeditions, and to do it to some extent in the words of the explorers them- selves, full information as to the characteristic features, phenomena, inhabitants, and animal and vegetable life of the Arctic regions will be found in succeeding chapters. A<^^ -'■Oi*'-" - &^c^ ir^ t?, ^■b-' i^ Sf *|E, M )0 B oV >- / "•"™Xj:- CHAPTER II. EAKLY DISCOVEEIES AND HISTOHY. One tliousand years ago the mariners of tlie Scan- dina^dan Peninsula were the boldest of navigators, and the most successful ones of their age. They possessed neither the sextant nor the compass ; they had neither charts nor chronometers to guide them ; but trusting solely to fortune and their own indomitable courage, they fearlessly launched forth into the vast ocean. Their voyages, distinguished by a strange mixture of commerce, piracy, and discovery, added no little to the geographical knowledge of their day. -To quit their bleak reo:ions in search of others still more bleak would have been wholly foreign to their ^dews ; yet as the sea was covered with their sails, chance and tempest sometimes drove them in a direction other than southerly. In the year 861, ISTaddodr, a Norwegian pirate, was drifted by contrary winds far to the north. For sev- eral days no land was visible; then suddenly the snow-clad mountains of Iceland were seen to rise above the mists of the ocean. The viking landed on the island, and gave it the name of Snowland, but dis- covered no traces of man. Three years afterward, Gardar and Flocke, two Swedes, visited it ; and hav- ing found a great quantity of drift-ice collected on the 24 ICELAND. nortli side of it, they gave it tlie name of Iceland, wMch it still bears. In 874, lugolf and Leif, two famous Norwegian adventurers, carried a colony to tliis inhospitable region — tlie latter having enriched it with the booty which he ravaged from England. About this time Harold, the Fair-haired, had be- come the desj^otic master of all Norway. Many of his former equals submitted to his yoke ; but others, animated by a love of liberty, emigrated to Iceland. Such were the attractions which the island at that time presented, that not half a century elaj)sed before all its inhabitable portions were occupied by settlers from Norway, Sweden, Denmark Scotland, and Ire- land. Iceland might as well have been called Fireland, for all of its forty thousand square miles have origin- ally been upheaved from the depths of the waters by volcanic action ; and its numerous volcanoes have many times brought ruin upon wdiole districts. The most frightful visitation occurred in 1783, and its direful effects were long felt throughout the island, over which, for a whole year, hung a dull canoi)y of cinder-laden clouds. Pestilence, famine, and severe winters have also from time to time added many a mournful page to Iceland's long annals of sorrow. Once she had over a hundred thousand inhabitants, — now she has scarcely half that number ; then she had many rich and power- ful families, — now mediocrity or poverty is the universal lot ; then she was renowned as the seat of learning and the cradle of literature, — now, were it not for her remarkable physical features, no traveler would ever think of landing on her i-ugged shores. In winter, wlien an almost perpetual night covers GEEENLATSTD. ' 27 tlie wastes of this fire-born land, and the waves of a stormy ocean thunder against its shores, imagination can hardly picture a more desolate scene ; but in sum- mer the ruGTsred nature of Iceland invests itself with many a charm. Then the eye reposes with delight on green valleys and crystal lakes, on the purple hills or snow-capped mountains rising in Alpine grandeur above the distant horizon, and the stranger might almost be tempted to exclaim with her patriotic chil- dren, " Iceland is the fairest land under the sun." The colonization of Iceland proved the stepping- stone to further discoveries, although over a century elapsed before any progress was made in a westerly direction ; then, 970, an Icelander named Gunnbjorn, first saw the high mountain coast of Grreenland. Soon afterwards, a Norwegian named Thorwald, with his son, the famous Eric the Eed, flying their country on account of homicide, took refuge in Iceland. Here Thorwald died, and Eric, his hands a2:ain imbued with blood, was obliged, in 982, to once more take refuge on the high seas. He sailed westward in quest of the land discovered by Gunnbjorn, and ere long reached its shores. Having entered a spacious creek, he spent the winter on a pleasant adjacent island. In the following season, pursuing his discoveries, he ex- l^lored the continent, and was delighted with the freshness and verdure of its coast. Eric afterwards returned to Iceland, and by his in- viting description of the new country, which he named Greenland, induced <^reat numbers to sail with liim and settle there. They started in 985, with twent}'- five vessels, but on account of foul weather only four- teen of them ]'eached the destined harbor. Other emigrants soon followed, and in a few years all of 28 THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA. Soutliern Greenland was occupied by flourishing colonies. An adventurous young Icelander named Biarni, who was in Norway when Eric's colonists sailed for Greenland, on returning home and finding that his father had gone with them, vowed that he would spend the winter with his father, as he had always done, and set forth to find the little settlement on the unknown shores of Greenland. A northerly gale sprung up and for many days he was driven to the southward of his course. At last he fell in with a coast in the west, wooded and some- what hilly. No landing was made, and the anxious mariners, sailing for two days to the northward, found another land, low and level, and overgrown with woods. ISTot recognizing the mountains nor meeting with icebergs, Biarni sailed northerly, and in three days came upon a great island with high mountains, much ice, and desolate shores. He was then driven before a violent south-west wind for four days, when by singular good fortune he reached the Greenland settlement which he was seeking. From the internal evidence afforded by the dates and the causes, as well as from the corroboration of subsequent expeditions, it would appear that these mariners brought wp on the coast of New England. The first land seen, judging from the descriptions, was probably Nantucket or Cape Cod. Two days' sailing would easily bring them to the level and forest- covered shores of Nova Scotia, and three more to the bleak and precipitous coast of Newfoundland. From that island to the southern extremity of Greenland, the distance is but six hundred miles, which a vessel, running before a favorable gale, might readily accom- plish within the given time. THE NOETHMElSr IN AMERICA. 29 In the year 999, Leif, a son of Eric, having visited tlie coast of Norway, was induced, by the zealous and earnest solicitation of King Olaf Trj^ggvasoii, to em- brace the Christian faith ; and, carrying with him some monks, he found, through theii' ministiy, no great difficulty in persuading his father and the rest of the settlers to forsake the rites of Paganism. Ha\dng heard Biarni much blamed at Norway for neglecting to i^rosecute his discoveries, Leif was stimulated to undertake a voyage in quest of new lands. He bought the vessel of Biarni, and with thirty-five men, some of whom had been on the former voyage, set sail in the year 1000. Probably the first lands sighted by him were the same as those which Biarni had already discovered, but they were now taken in an inverse order. Hav- ing steered to the westward of an island (probably Nantucket) the voyagers "passed up a river and thence into a lake." This channel, it would seem, was the Seaconnet Biver, the eastern outlet of Narragan- sett Bay, which leads to the beautiful lake-like exj)anse now known as Mount Hope Bay. From the great number of wild grapes found here the whole country received the name of Vinland. Numerous other voyages, according to Icelandic manuscripts, were made from Greenland and Iceland to the shores of Vinland. To-day inscriptions are found which were perhaps the handiwork of these adventurers ; but the discoveries they made appear to have been forgotten like the Greenland colonists, and it has not been uncommon for modern students to doubt the whole story of the discovery of America by the Northmen. Many however believe in it, and some propose to celebrate our centennial anniversary 80 THE LOST COLONISTS. by erecting in Madison, Wis., a monument to tlie Yildng wlio first discovered America. In 1477 Columbus visited Iceland, and voyaged a hundred leagues beyond it, probably to the westward, and, it may be, came near re\dving the ancient discov- eries of the Northmen, and tracking the steps of Bi arni, Leif, and Thorfinn to the long lost Vinland. The original settlement of Greenland began about the southern promontory, near Cape Farewell, and stretched along the coast in a north-westerly direction. Farther north, and probably extending as high as the latitude of sixty-six degrees, was a second settlement. The former is said to have included, at its most flour- ishing period, twelve parishes and two convents ; the latter contained four parishes. Between the two dis-. tricts lay an uninhabitable region of seventy miles The whole population was about six thousand. For some centuries a commercial intercourse was main- tained with Norway ; but the trade was subsequently seized as an exclusive piivilege of the Danish court. The colonists of Greenland led a life of hardship and severe privations. They dwelt in hovels sur- rounded by mountains of perpetual ice ; they never tasted bread, but subsisted on the fish which they caught, joined to a little milk obtained from their starving cows; and, with seal-skins and the tusks of the walrus, they purchased from the traders who occa- sionally visited them, the wood required for fuel and the construction of their huts. About the year 1376, the natives of the country, or Esquimaux, whom the Norwegian settlers had in con- tempt called Divarfs^ attacked the colonies. The scanty population was enfeebled by repeated alarms ; and that dreadful pestilence, termed the Black Death, THEIR SUPPOSED FATE. 31 wMcIl raged over Europe from tlie year 1402 to 1404, at last extended its ravages to Greenland, and nearly completed the destruction. In 1418 a hostile fleet, susi^ected to be English, laid waste the country. Political troubles and wars in Scandinavia at a later date, caused Greenland to be neglected, and finally forgotten; and it is believed that its last colonists either retreated to Iceland or were destroyed by the Esquimaux about the com- mencement of the sixteenth centmy. In 1581 and 1605, expeditions were sent out from Denmark to see if any inhabitants of Norse origin still dwelt in Greenland ; but none could be found, althouo-h traces of the ancient settlement were seen on the western coast. An idea formerly prevailed that a colony had also been planted on the east side of Greenland, which had been cut off from the rest of the world by vast barriers of ice accumulating on the shore. The problem was, whether the ill-fated people had sur\aved the catastrophe, or been entombed in snow and ice, as the unhappy citizens of Pompeii were involved in a shower of volcanic ashes. Ships were sent out at different times by Denmark for their relief, but it is now evident that no such settlement ever existed. The coast of Eastern Greenland is everywhere bold and rocky, and the interior of the countiy consists of clusters of mountains covered ^^'ith eternal snows. In 1721,*Hans Egede, a Norwegian pastor, who had long felt the deepest concern for the descendants of the old Christian communities of Greenland, in whose total destruction he could not believe, sailed from Bergen with his wiie, four children, and forty colonists, having resolved to become the apostle of regenera- 32 THE APOSTLE OF GEEENLAND. ted Greenland. They landed July 3d, and soon erect- ed a wooden chapel at the location of the present set- tlement of Godthad. Although Egede met with severe trials, and was deserted by nearly all the settlers, he persevered in sustaining his foothold in the country; and in 1733 the king of Denmark bestowed on the mission an annual grant of two thousand dollars, and sent three Moravian brothers to assist him. Egede returned to Norway in 1735; during his long stay in Greenland he could find nothing in the physic ognomy or language of the Esquimaux which j^ointed to an European origin. Dr. Kane visited this locality in 1853, and speaks of it as follows : — " While we were beating out of the fiord of Fisker- naes, I had an opportunity of visiting Lichtenfels, the ancient seat of the Greenland congregations, and one of the three Moravian settlements, I had read much of the history of its founders ; and it was with feelings almost of devotion, that I drew near the scene their labors had consecrated. " As we rowed into the shadow of its rock-embayed cove, every thing was so desolate and still, that we might have fancied ourselves outside the world of life ; even the dogs — those querulous, never-sleeping sentinels of the rest of the coast — gave no signal of our approach. Presently, a sudden turn around a projecting cliif brought into view a quaint old Silesian mansion, bris- tling with irregularly-disposed chimneys, its black over- hanging roof studded with dormer windows and crowned with an antique belfry. " We were met, as we landed, by a couple of grave ancient men in sable jackets and close velvet skull- FISKERNAES — H,)iIE OP HANS CHRISTIAN. — "SF MORAVIAN SETTLEMENT AT LICHTENFELS. THE MOE AVIAN MSSIONS. 35 caps, sucli as Vandyke or Rembrandt himself might liave painted, wlio gave ns a quiet but kindly welcome. All inside of the mansion-house — the furnitui'e, the matron even the children — had the same time-sobered look. The sanded floor was dried by one of those huge white-tiled stoves, which have been known for gene- rations in the north of Europe ; and the stiff -backed chairs were evidently coeval mth the first days of the settlement. The heavy-built table in the middle of the room was soon covered with its simple offerings of hospitality; and we sat around to talk of the lands we had come from and the changing wonders of the times. " We learned that the house dated back as far as the days of Matthew Stach ; built, no doubt, with the beams that floated so providentially to the shore some twenty-five years after the first landing of Egede ; and that it had been the home of the brethren who now greeted us, one for twenty-nine and the other twenty- seven years. The " Congregation Hall " was within the building, cheerless now with its empty benches ; a couple of French horns, all that I could associate with the gladsome piety of the Moravians, hung on each side the altar. Two dwelling-rooms, three chambers, and a kitchen, all under the same roof, made up the one structure of Lichtenf els. " Its kind-hearted inmates were not without intelli- gence and education. In spite of the formal cut of their dress, and something of the stiffness that belongs to a protracted solitary life, it was impossible not to recognise, in their demeanor and course of thought, the liberal spirit that has always characterized their church. Two of their " children," they said, had " gone to God " last year with the scurvy ; yet they hesitated at receiving a scanty supply of potatoes as a present from our store." ^36 ESQiii:\rAux of in^ortii Greenland. The Dauisli colonies now in Greenland are scattered along some eight hundred miles of the western coast, and are more flourishing than the ancient settlements. The European j^opulation is only about one hundred and fifty — all in the service of the Danish company excepting the missionaries — while the native Esqui- maux of the' district, among whom they live on good terms, are estimated at about nine thousand. Farther north, and cut off from civilization and their more favored brothers of the Danish neighborhoods by impassable glaciers, are other Esquimaux — nomads, who range over a narrow belt extending along the coast for six hundred miles. They were the neighbors of Dr. Kane during his two winters' imprisonment in E.ensselaer Harbor. In his " Arctic Explorations," Dr. Kane pays an affecting tribute to their virtues and draws gloomy auguries of their .future : — " It is with a feeling of melancholy that I recall these familiar names. They illustrate the trials and modes of life of a simple-minded people, for whom it seems to be decreed that the year must very soon cease to renew its changes. It j)ains me when I think of their ap- proaching destiny, — in the region of night and winter, w^here the earth yields no fruit and the waters are locked, — without the resorts of skill or even the rude materials of art, and walled in from the world by barriers of ice without an outlet. " If you point to the east, inland, where the herds of reindeer run over the barren hills unmolested, — for they have no means of capturing them, — they will cry " Sermik," " glacier ;" and, question them as you may about the range of their nation to the north and south, the answer is still the same, with a shake of the head, "Sermik, sermik-soak," "the great ice-wall;" there is no more beyond. THE CABOTS ATsTD THEIR VOYAGES. 37 " They have no " kresuk," no wood. The drift-tim- ber which blesses their more southern brethren never reaches them. The bow and arrow are therefore un- known ; and the kayak, the national implement of the Greenlander, which, like the palm-tree to the natives of the tropics, ministers to almost every want, exists among them only as a legendary word." Though a long intercoui'se with Europeans has somewhat modified the character of the . Southern Greenlanders, and acquainted them with some of the luxuries of civilization, they still retain to a great de- gree their former customs and modes of life. This is probably owing to the sparse population, and their vagrant life. Depending wholly upon the products of the chase for their food, they are most accom- plished hunters ; and the sea is the principal source of their sustenance. England nari'owly missed sharing in the honor awarded to Columbus for his great achievement. After vainly soliciting Spain and Portugal for aid, that navigator sent his brother to Henry VII., with propositions which were at once accepted ; but before the return of his messenger, Columbus, under the auspices of Isabella, had started on his voyage. The news of his success excited much interest in England ; and the king granted to John Cabot and his three sons, a patent "to sail to all parts, countries, and seas," at their own expense, as explorers. Cabot was an Italian, once a " Merchant of Venice," then living in Bristol, England, where his son Sebastian was born about 1477. A subsequent residence in Venice had given the son a taste for maritime enterprises, which was increased by his learning the trade of making maps. 38 THE LABBADOR COLONY. The explorers, iii a sMp named tlie "Mattliew," fitted out probably at tlie expense of the Cabots, sailed from Bristol in May, 1497. Sebastian, though only nineteen years of age, was entrusted with the com- mand, but was accompanied by his father. On the 24tli of June, they beheld portions of the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland stretched out before them. This discovery of a continent (fourteen months before Columbus discovered the main land) caused the explorers little exultation, although the British claim to the thii-teen colonies was primarily based thereon. The object of the voyage Avas to dis- cover a passage to India ; and to be obstructed by land displeased the mariners. Entering one of the chan- nels leading into Hudson's Bay, they continued on for several days, when the crew became despondent and insisted on returning. Cabot yielded to their clamors and sailed for England. In the Spring of 1498, Sebastian, with three hun- dred men, again set sail for the region he had discov- ered. These unfortunate people he landed on the bleak and inhospitable coast of Labrador, that they might form a settlement there, and then with the squadron renewed his search for the North-west pas- sage. On his return to the station, he found that the settlers had suffered intensely from cold and exposure. A number had already perished, and the balance were carried back to England. Cabot made a third voyage to the North-west in 1517, and it is believed that he discovered the two straits which now bear the names of Davis and Hud- son. In the year 1500, Gasper Cortereal, of Portugal, sailed in search of a North-west passage. He reached POETUGUESE EXPEDITIONS. 39 Labrador, and sailed a long distance along its coast,' and then with a number of natives on board returned home. The next year he guided two ships to the northern point of his former voyage, where he entered a strait ; here the vessels were separated by a tem- pest. One of them succeeded in extricating itself, and searched for some time in vain for its lost consort ; but that which had on board the 2;allant leader of the expedition returned no more, and no trace could ever be obtained of its fate. The next year, Miguel Cortereal sailed with three ships in search of his brother. Two of the vessels re- turned in safety, but Miguel and his crew were never heard fi*om. A third brother wished to search for his lost kindred, but the king would not allow him to do so. French expeditions, under Verazzani (1523) and Cartier (1524) were equally unsuccessful in their search for the north-west passage. CHAPTEE, III. ENGLISH EXPEDITIONS TO THE NORTH- EAST. (wiLLOUaHBY CHAlSrCELOR^— BTJEROTJGnS ETC.) It^ 1553, after a long slumber, tlie spirit of discov- ery in England was again aroused, and a voyage was planned witli a view to reacL. by way of tlie noi*tli and north-east, tlie celebrated regions of India and vCatliay. Sebastian Cabot was prominent in -forwarding tMs ^enterprise, and tbougli too old to lead tlie expedition he drew up the instructions under which it sailed. In it the mariners were warned not to be too much alarmed when they saw the natives dressed in lions* and bears' skins, with long bows and arrows, as this formidable appearance was often assumed merely to inspire terror. He told them, that there were persons armed with bows, who swam naked, in various seas, havens, and rivers, " desirous of the bodies of men, which they covet for meat," and against whom diligent watch must be kept night and day. He exhorted them to use the utmost circumspection in their deal- ings with these strangers, and if invited to dine with any lord or ruler, to go well armed, and in a postm-e of defence. The command of the expedition was given to Sir 40 EXPEDITION UNDER SLB HUGH WILLOUGHBT. 41 Hugli Willougliby, and three vessels having been fitted out with great care, sailed from England in the month of May. The court and a great multitude of people witnessed their departure, and the occasion was one of great interest and excitement. Willoughby was furnished by King Edward, with a letter of intro- duction, addressed to all "kings, princes, rulers, judges, and governors of the earth," in which free j)assage and other favors were asked for the explorers; and if granted, he concluded, — " We promise, by the God of all things that are contained in heaven, earth, and the sea, and by the life and tranquillity of our kingdoms, that we will mth like humanity accept your servants, if at any time they shall come to our kingdoms." On the 14th of July. the explorers were near the coast of Norway, and on approaching the North Cape saw before them the Arctic Ocean stretching onward to the Pole. Here Sii' Hugh exhorted his commanders, Chancelor and Durf ooth to keep close together. Soon after this there arose such " terrible whiiiwinds," that they, were obliged to stand out to the open sea, and allow the vessels to drift at the mercy of the waves. Amid the thick mists of the next stormy night the vessels of Willoughby and Chancelor separated, and never again met. Willoughby's pinnace was dashed to pieces amid the tempest ; and next morning, when light dawned, he could see neither of his companions ; but, discovering at length the smaller vessel called the Confidence, he continued his voyage. He now sailed nearly two hundred miles north-east and by north, but was astonished and bewildered at not discovering any symptom of land ; whence it ap- peared that *' the land lay not as the globe made men- tion." Instead of sailing along or towards Norway, he 42 FATE OF THE EXPLOEEES. was plunging deeper and deeper into tlie unknown abyss of tlie Northern Ocean. At lengtli land appeared, but higli, desolate, and covered with snow, while no sound was wafted over the waves, except the crash of its falling ice and the hungry roar of its monsters. This coast was evi- dently that of Nova Zembla ; but there was no point at which a landing could be made. After another at- tempt to push to the northward, they turned to the south-west, and in a few days saw the coast of Rus- sian Lapland. Here they must have been very near the opening into the White Sea, into which, had for- tune guided their sails, they would have reached Archangel, have had a joyful meeting with their com- rades, and spent the mnter in comfort and security. An evil destiny led them westward. The coast was naked, uninhabited, and destitute of shelter, except at one point, where they found a shore bold and rocky, but with one or two good har- bors. Here, though it was only the middle of Sep- tember, they felt already all the premature rigors of a northern season ; intense frost, snow, and ice diiving through the air, as though it had been the depth of winter. The officers conceived it therefore most ex- pedient to search no longer along these desolate shores, but to take up their quarters in this haven till the ensuing spring. The narrative here closes, and the darkest gloom involves the fate of this first English expedition. Neither the commander nor any of his brave compan- ions ever returned to their native shores. After long suspense and anxiety, tidings reached England that some Russian sailors, as they wandered along these dreary boundaries, had been astonished by the view CHANCELOk's visit to EUSStA. 43 of two large ships, wliicli they entered, and found the gallant crews all lifeless. There was only the journal of the voyage, with a note written in January, show- ing that at that date the crews were still alive. AVhat was the immediate cause of a catastrophe so dismal and so complete, whether the extremity of cold, fam- ine, or disease, or whether all these ills united at once assailed them, can now only be matter of sad conjec- ture. Thomson thus pathetically laments their fate : — • " Miserable they, Who, here entangled in the gathering ice, Take their last look of the descending sun, While, full of death, and fierce with tenfold frost, The long, long night, incumbent, o'er their heads, Falls horrible. Such was the Briton's fate, As with first prow (what have not Britons dared !) He for the passage sought, attempted since So much in vain. " After parting -with the other two ships Chancelor reached the port of Wardhuys and after waiting seven days for his companions, pushed fearlessly on toward the north-east, and sailed so far that he came at last " to a place where they found no night at all." Then they reached the entrance of an immense bay (the White Sea) and espied a fishing boat, the crew of which, having never seen a vessel of similar magnitude, were as much astonished as the native Americans had been at the Spaniards, and, taking the alarm, fled at full speed. Chancelor, Avith his party, pursued and overtook them ; whereupon they fell flat on the ground half-dead, crying for mercy. He immediately raised them most courteously, and by looks, gestures, and gifts, expressed the most kind intentions. Being then allowed to depart, they spread everywhere the report of the arrival " of a strange nation, of singular gentle- ness and courtesy." The natives came in crowds, and 44: DEATH OF CHANCELOK. the sailors were copiously supplied witli provisions and eveiytliing they wanted. Chancelor now learned that lie was at the extremity of a vast country obscurely known as Russia or Mus- covy, ruled by a sovereign named Ivan Vasilovitch, and obtained permission to visit him at his court at Moscow. The journey was made on sledges, and Chancelor returned with a letter from the Czar, grant- ing privileges to traders, which led to the formation of the Muscovy Company. Chancelor went to Russia a second time, in "^he employ of this company ; and on the homeward voyage with four ships and an ambassador from the Czar, two of the vessels were wrecked on the coast of Nor- way ; a third reached the Thames ; but the fourth, in which were the chiefs of the expedition, was driven ashore on the coast of Scotland, where it went entirely to pieces. Chancelor endeavored, in a very dark night, to convey himself and the ambassador ashore in a boat. The skiff was ovenvhelmed by the tempest, and Chancelor was drowned, though the ambassador succeeded in reaching the land. He thence proceeded to London, where Philip and Mary gave him a splen- did and pompous reception. In 1556, a vessel called the Searchthrift, was fitted out and placed under the command of Stephen Bur- roughs, who had gone with Chancelor on his first voyage. Enthusiasm and hope seem to have risen as high as at the departure of the first expedition. Se- bastian Cabot came down to Gravesend with a large party of ladies and gentlemen, and, having first gone on board, and partaken of such cheer as the vessel aiforded, invited Burroughs and his company to a splendid banquet at the sign of the Christopher. ENGLISH TEAVELEES IN ASIA. 4'5 Among tlie islands of Waygatz, the voyagers fell in with, a Russian craft, and on giving the master there- of a present of pewter spoons, he stated that the ad- joining country was that of the wild Samoides, who were said to eat Russians when opportunity offered. At a deserted encampment of these people, Burroughs saw three hundred of their idols — human iigui^es of horrible aspect. After this. Burroughs approached Nova Zembla, but as mnter was near he concluded that it would be useless to attempt further explorations that season, and so turned homeward. The Muscovy Company now attempted to open communication with Persia and India across the Cas- pian, and by ascending the Oxus to Bochara. This scheme they prosecuted at great cost, and by a series of bold adventures, in which Jenkinsou, Johnson, Al- cocke, and other of their agents, penetrated deep into the interior reo-ions of Asia. An unusual de^-ree of courage was indeed necessary to undertake this expe- dition, which was to be begun by passing round the North Cape to the White Sea, then by a land journey and voyage down the Volga, across the whole breadth of the Russian empire to Astrakhan, before they could even embark on the Caspian. It was soon ascertained, that no goods could bear the cost of such an immense and dangerous conveyance by sea and land. This channel of intercourse with the Indies haxdng failed, attention was again attracted to the route by the noi'th and east of Asia. John Balak, who had been living at Duisburg, sent on much information of the country and of the attempts of a traveler named Assenius to penetrate to the eastward. He described a river, probably the Yenisei, down which came ENGLISH TEAVELERS IN ASIA. " great vessels laden witli ricli and precious mercliaii- dise, brouglit by black or swart people." In ascend- ing tMs river, men came to tlie great lake of Baikal, on wkose banks were the Kara Kalmucs, wko, ke as- serted, were tke very people of Cathay. It was added, tkat on tlie shores of this lake had been heard sweet harmony of bells, and that stately and large buildings had been seen therein. Reasoning from this new information Gerard Mer- cator, the famous geographer and map-maker of those dsijs, claimed that a short passage beyond the limit already reached by navigators would carry them to Japan and China. This was underrating the breadth of Asia by a hundred degrees of longitude, or more than a fourth of the circumference of the globe. To realize these views, two vessels under Arthur Pet and Charles Jackson left England in 1580. On reaching high latitudes they were surrounded with fields of ice. They were also enveloped in fogs, and obliged to fasten to icebergs, where, "abiding the Lord's leisure, they continued with patience." Finally they found their way home without making any prog- ress at solving the problem. CHAPTER lY. DUTCH EXPEDITIONS TO THE NORTH-EAST. (WM. BAEEISTTZ COENELIZ ETP.) The Englisli attempts to find a Nortli-east passage to the Indies having all signally failed, tlie Dutch took up the enterprise, and a society of merchants fitted out three vessels, which sailed from the Texel on the 5th of June, 1594, under the general guidance of William Barentz, a noted pilot, and an expert sailor. On approaching Nova Zembla two of the ships at- tempted to pass by the old route of the Strait of Way- gatz; but Barentz himself, taking a bolder course, endeavored to pass round to the northward of Nova Zembla, which opposed his eastward progress. Pass- ing the Black Cape and William's Isle, they saw various features characteristic of the Arctic world. At the Orange Isles, they came upon three himdred wal- rus, l}^ng in heaps upon the sand and basking in the sun. Supposing that these animals were helpless on shore, the sailors marched against them with pikes and hatchets, but, to their surprise, were obliged to retire in dishonor. The crews had a fierce encounter with a Polar bear. Having seen one on the shore, they entered their shallop, and discharged several balls at him, but with- 47 48 DUTCH AECTIO EXPEDITIONS. out inflicting any deadly wound. Tliey were tlien tappy wlien tliey succeeded in throwing a noose about his neck, hoping to lead him like a lapdog, and carry him as a trophy into Holland. They were not a little alarmed by his mighty and tremendous struggles ; but what was their consternation, when he fastened his paws on the stern and entered the boat ! The whole crew expected instant death, either from the sea or from his jaws. Providentially at this moment the noose got entangled with the iron work of the rudder, and the creature struggled in vain to extricate him- self. Seeing him thus fixed, they mustered courage to advance and despatch him wdth their spears. Barentz, reached the northern extremity of Nova Zembla by August 1st ; but the wind blew so strong, that he and his crew gave up hope of passing that point, and resolved to return. The two other vessels meantime pushed on along the coast. On turning a point the Dutch observed one of those great collections of rudely carved images which had been formerly remarked by Burroughs. These consisted of men, women, and children, some- times having from four to eight heads, all with their faces turned eastward, and many horns of reindeer ly- ing at their feet ; it was called, therefore, the Cape of Idols. After passing through the strait of Waygatz, and sailing for some space along the coast of Nova Zembla, they were repelled by the icy barriers ; but having by perseverance rounded these, they arrived at a wide, blue, open sea, with the coast bending rapidly south ward ; and though this was only the shore of the Grulf of Obi, they doubted not that it was the eastern boundary of Asia, and would afford an easy passage SECOND DUTCH VOYAGE. ,49 down upon Cliina. Instead, However, of prosecuting this voyage, they determined to hasten back and com- municate to their countrymen this joyful intelligence. The two divisions met on the coast of Russian Lapland, and arrived in the Texel on the 16th of September. The intelligence conveyed in regard to the latter part of this expedition kindled the most sanguine hopes in the government and people of Holland. Six vessels Avere fitted out, not as for adventure and dis- covery, but as for assured success, and for carrying on an extensive trafiic in the golden regions of the East. They were laden with merchandise, and well supplied with money ; while a seventh, a light yacht, was instructed to follow them till they had passed Tabis, the supposed bounding promontory of Asia; when, ha^dng finally extricated themselves from the Polar ices and directed their course to China, it was to return to Holland with the joyful tidings. The squadron sailed fi'om the Texel, the 2d of June 1595. Nothing great occurred till the 4th of August when they reached the strait between Waygatz and the continent, to which they had given the appellation of the Strait of Nassau. They came to the Cape of Idols ; but though these were still drawn up in full array, no trace was found of the habitations which they might have seemed to indicate. A Russian ves- sel, however, constructed of pieces of bark sewed to- gether, was met on its way from the Pechora to the Obi in search of the teeth of the sea-horse, whale-oil, and geese. The sailors accosted the Dutch in a very friendly manner, presented eight fat birds, and on going on board one of the vessels, were struck with astonishment at its magnitude, its equipments, and the high order with which everything -was arranged. Tliis 50 DUTCH AECTIC EXPEDITIONS. being a fast-day, they refused meat, butter, and cheese ; but, on being offered a raw herring, eagerly swallowed it entire, head and tail inclusive. The navigators, after considerable search, fell in with a party of Samoiedes, who manifested much jealousy of the strangers, and on the approach of the interpreter, drew their arrows to shoot him ; but he called out, " We are friends "; upon which they laid down their weapons, and saluted him in the Bus- sian style, by bending their heads to the ground. On hearing a gun fired, they ran away and leaped like madmen, till assured that no harm was intended. A sailor boldly went up to the chief, dignified in the narrative with the title of king, and presented him with some biscuit, which the monarch graciously ac- cepted and ate, though looking round someAvhat sus- piciously. At length the parties took a friendly leave; but a native ran after the foreigners with signs of great anger, on account of one of their rude statues which a sailor had carried off. Being informed that a few days' sail would bring them to a point beyond which there was a large open sea, they made repeated attempts to reach it, but were driven back by floating ice, and at the end of Sep- tember were forced to return to Holland without having accomplished any one of the brilliant exploits for which they had set out. Another expedition of two vessels, entrusted to Barentz and Corneliz Ryp, sailed from Amster- dam on the 10th of May, 1596. As homesickness was suspected to have some relation to the failure of former expeditions, none but unmarried persons were admitted as members. Avoiding the coast of Kussia they pushed north- DISOOYEET OP 8PITZBERGEW. 61 eriy, and on tlie 22 d saw the Shetland Islands. On the 9th of June they discovered a long island rising abruptly into steep and lofty cliffs, and named it Bear Island. The horror of this isle to their ^dew must have been unspeakable : the prospect dreary ; black where not hid with snow, and broken into a thousand precipices. No sounds but of the dashing of the waves, the crashinsj collision of floatino; ice, the dis- cordant notes of mjT-iads of sea-fowl, the j'elping of Arctic foxes, the snorting of the walruses, or the roaring^ of the Polar bears. Proceeding onward, they reached the latitude of 80°, and discovered the coast of the Spitzbergen Archipel- ago, a cluster of islands lying nearer the Korth Pole than any other known land, excepting the regions dis- covered by Kane, Hayes, and Hall. Notwithstand- ing its high latitude, Spitzbergen has been much frequented by whaling-ships, walrus hunters and ame- teui' sportsmen. The mariners, finding their progress eastward stop ped by this line of coast, now retraced their route ££long its deep bays, still steering southward till they found themselves again at Bear Island. Here Corneliz and Barentz separated ; the former proposing to push again northward. Barentz proceeded south-easterly intending to round the northern point of Nova Zembla. On the 6th of August, he fastened his vessel to a large iceberg amid drifting ice, off Cape Nassau. On the 10th, the ice began to separate, and the sea- men remarked that the berg to which they were, moored was fixed to the bottom, and that all the others struck against it. Afraid that these loose pieces would collect and enclose them, they sailed on, 52 DUTCH AECTIC EXPEDITIONS. mooring themselves to successive fragments, one of wMcIl rose like a steeple, being twenty fathoms above and twelve beneath the water. They saw around them more than four hundred large icebergs, the fear of which made them keep close to the shore, not being aware that in that quarter they were formed. Steering on they came to Orange Island, which forms the northern extremity of Nova Zembla. Here ten men swam on shore, and, having mounted several piles of ice which rose, as it were, into a little mountain, they had the satisfaction of seeing the coast tending southward, and a wide open sea to the south-east. They hastened back to Barentz with these joyful tidings, and the success of the voyage was considered almost secure. But these hopes were delusive. After doubling Cape Desire they were drawn into what they called Icy Port, and the vessel was thrown into a position almost perpendicular. From this critical attitude they were relieved next day ; but fresh masses of ice con- tinually increased the terrible ramparts around them. The explorers now felt that they must bid adieu for this year to all hopes of escape from their icy prison. As the vessel was cracking continually, and opening in different quarters, they made no doubt of its going to pieces, and could hope to survive the winter only by constructing a hut, which might shelter them from the approaching rigor of the season. Parties sent into the country reported ha"\dng seen footsteps of rein- deer, also a river of fresh water, and, what was more important still, a great quantity of fine trees, with the roots still attached to them, strewed upon the shore, all brought down the rivers of Russia and Tartary. IMPRISONED FOR THE WINTER. 53 These circumstances cheered the mariners; they trusted that Providence, which had in this surprising manner furnished materials to build a house, and fuel to wann it, would supply also whatever was necessary for their passing through the approaching winter, and for returning at length to their native country. A sledge was instantly constructed ; three men cut the wood, while ten drew it to the spot marked out for the hut. They sought to raise a rampart of earth for shelter and security, and employed a long line of fire in the hope of softening the ground, but in vain. The carpenter having died, it was found impossible to dig a grave for him, and they lodged his body in a cleft of the rock. The building of the hut was carried on with ardor, yet the cold endured in this operation was intense, and almost insupportable. The snoAV sometimes fell so thick, for days successively, that the seamen could not stir from under cover. They had at the same time hard and perpetual combats with the Polar bear. One day three of these furious animals chased the working party into the vessel and advanced furiously to attack them, but finally retreated. Sometime after this a westerly wind cleared away the ice and they saw a wide open sea without, while the vessel was enclosed within, as it were, by a solid wall. By October they completed their hut, and pre- pared to convey thither their provisions and stores. Some painful discoveries were now made. Several tuns of fine Dantzic beer, of medicinal quality, from which they had anticipated much comfort, had frozen so hard as to burst the casks ; the contents remained in the form of ice, but when thawed it tasted like bad water. 54 DUTCH AECTIC EXPEDITIONS. The sun began now to pay only sliort visits, and to give signs of approacliing departure. He rose in tlie south-south-east and set in the south-south-west, while the moon was scarcely dimmed by his presence. On the 4th of November the sky was calm and clear, but no sun rose or set. The dreary winter night of three months, which had now set in, was not, however, without some alle- viations. The moon, now at the full, wheeled her pale but perpetual circle round the horizon. With the sun disappeared also the bear, and in his room came the Arctic fox, a beautiful little creature, whose flesh re- sembled Md, and furnished a variety to their meals. They found great difficulty in the measurement of time, and on the 6th rose late in the day, when a controversy ensued whether it was day or night. The cold had stopped the movements of all the clocks, but they afterward formed a sand-glass of twelve hours, by which they contrived tolerably to estimate their time. On the 3d of December, as the sailors lay in bed, they heard from without a noise as tremendous as if all the mountains of ice by which they were surround- ed had fallen in pieces over each other, and the first light which they afterward obtained showed a consider- able extent of open sea. As the season advanced, the cold became always more and more intense. Early in December a dense fall of snow stopped up the smoke flues so that nothing but a low fire could be kept up. The room was thus kept at alow temperature, which was partially remedied by warming the beds with heated stones. Ice two inches thick formed on the walls ; and their suffering came to such an extremity, that, casting at each other EI^COimTER WITH A BEAE. 55 languishing and piteous looks, they anticipated the extinction of the life of the whole crew. They now resolved that, cost what it might, they should for once be thoroughly warmed. They repaired, therefore, to the ship, whence they brought an ample supply of coal ; and having kindled an immense fire, and carefully stopped up the windows and every aperture by which the cold could penetrate, they did bring themselves into a most comfortable temperature. In this delicious state, to which they had been so long strangers, they went to rest, and talked gayly for some time before falling asleep. Suddenly, in the middle of the night, several awakened in a state of the most painful vertigo ; their cries roused the rest and all found themselves, more or less, in the same alarming predicament. On attempting to rise, they became dizzy, and could neither stand nor walk. At length two or three contrived to stagger towards the door ; but the first who opened it fell down insensible among the snow, but the wintry air, which had been their greatest dread, now restored life to the whole party. In the midst of these suiferings, remembering that the 5th of January was the feast of the Kings, they besought the master that they might be allowed to celebrate that great Dutch festival. They had saved a little wine and two pounds of flour, with which they fried pancakes in oil ; the tickets were drawn, the gun- ner was crowned king of Nova Zembla, and the eve- ning passed as merrily as if they had been at home round their native fireside. About the middle of January the crews began to experience some abatement of that deep darkness in which they had so long been involved, and affairs assumed a more cheerful aspect. Instead of constant- 56 DUTCH ARCTIC EXPEDITIOISTS. ly moping in tlie liut, tlie men went out daily, em- ployed themselves in walking, running, and athletic games, wMcli warmed their .bodies and preserved their health. With the sun, however, appeared their old enemy, the bear. One attacked them amid so thick a mist that they could not see to point their pieces, and sought shelter in the hut. The bear came to the door, and made the most desperate attempts to burst it open ; but the master kept his back firmly set against it, and the animal at last retreated. Soon after he mounted the roof, where, having in vain at- tempted to enter by the chimney, he made furious attempts to pull it down, having torn the sail in which it was wrapped ; all the while his frightful and hungry roarings spread dismay through the mansion beneath; at length he retreated. Another came so close to the man on guard, who was looking another way, that, on receiving the alarm from those within and looking about, he saw himself almost in the jaws of the bear; however, he had the presence of mind instantly to fire, when the animal was struck in the head, retreated, and was afterward pursued and de- spatched. In February, a heavy north-east gale brought a cold more intense than ever, and buried the hut again under snow. This was the more deeply felt, as the men's strength and supply of generous food to recruit it were alike on the decline. They no longer at- tempted daily to clear a road, but those who were able went out and in by the chimney. A dreadful calamity then overtook them in the failure of their stock of wood for fuel. They began to gather all the fragments which had been thrown away, or lay scat- tered about the hut ; but these being soon exhausted, THE SHIP DESEETED. 57 it beiooved tliem to carry out tlieir sledge in search of more. To dig tlie trees, however, out of the deep snow, and drag them to the hut, was a task w^hich, in their present exhausted state, would have appeared impossible, had they not felt that they must do it or perish. In the course of March and April, the weather be- came milder, yet the barriers which enclosed the ship continued, and, to their inexpressible grief, rapidly in- creased. In the middle of March these ramparts were only 75 paces broad, in the beginning of May they were 500. These piles of ice resembled the houses of a great city, interspersed with apparent towers, steeples, and chimneys. The sailors, viewing with despair this position of the vessel, earnestly entreated permission to fit out the two boats, and in them to undertake the voyage homeward. The mere digging of the boats from under the snow was a most laborious task, and the equipment of them would have been next to im- possible, but for the enthusiasm with which it was un- dertaken. By the 1 1th of June they had the boats fitted out their clothes packed, and the provisions embarked. Then, however, they had to cut a way through the steeps and walls of ice which intervened between them and the open sea. Amid the extreme fatigue of dig- ging, breaking, and cutting, they were kept in play by a huge bear which had come over the frozen sea from Tartary. At length the crew, having embarked all their clothes and provisions, set sail on the 14th with a westerly breeze. In the three following days they passed the Cape of Isles, Cape Desire, and came to Orange Isle, always working their way through mucli 58 DUTCH AKCTIC EXPEDITIOl^S. encumbering ice. As they were off Icy Cape, Bar- entz, wlio liad been long struggling with severe ill- ness, desired to be lifted up that he might take a last view of that fatal and terrible boundary, and he gazed upon it for a considerable time. On the following day the boats were again involved amid masses of drift-ice ; but one of the men boldly took a rope to a solid floe, and by this means all the crew, then the stores, and finally the boat itself, reach- ed a secure position. During this detention Barentz died, to the great grief of all his crew. On the 22d there appeared open sea at a little dis- tance, and having dragged the boats over successive pieces of ice, they were again afloat. In the three fol- lowing days they reached Cape Nassau, the ice fre- quently stopping them, but opening again like the gates of a sluice, and allowing a passage. On the 26th they were obliged once more to disembark and pitch their tents on the frozen surface. On the 'Tth of July they again dragged the boats to an open sea, and from this date their progress though often obstructed was never stopped. On the 28th they approached the southern part of Nova Zembla where they found two Russian vessels at anchor, and were received by their crews with much courtesy. After mutual presents, the parties set out to sail together to Waygatz, but were separated by a gale. On the 4th of August the Dutch came in view of the coast of Russia, and after a tedious voyage along the shore reached Kola, where they found Corneliz, who conveyed them to Amsterdam. Corneliz had not been successful in making any discovery of importance. VOTIVE CEOSS AND MIDNIGHT SUN— NOBTHEBN EUSSIA. CHAPTER Y. ARCTIC VOYAGES OF MARTIN FROBISHER AND JOHN DAYIS. Ik the early reign of Queen Elizabeth, the great enterprise of finding a North-western passage was again revived in England. Since the discoveries of Cahot no progress had been made at solving the problem, although two English expeditions had sailed to Northern America. The first one consisted of two ships, having on board " divers cunning men," one of whom was a canon of St. Paul's, a great mathematician, and ^vealthy. The ships reached Newfoundland, where one of them was wrecked ; the other vessel sailed southward, and then returned to England. Nine years afterwards, another voyage was made in the same direction by a company of adventurers of highest respectability. This gay band mustered in military array at Gravesend, and having taken the sacrament, went on board ship. They had a long and tedious voyage, during which their buoyant spirits considerably flagged. Having reached Newfoundland, they saw a boat with the " natural j)eople of the country." A barge was fitted out to treat with them ; but the savages, alarmed, fled precipitately, relinquish- ing the side of a bear which they had been roasting. 59 60 EIS-GLISH ADVEJSTUJiEES. The coast was barren and desolate, and a famine soon rose to sucli a pitcli as to drive them to the extremity of cannibalism. They had arranged the casting of lots to decide whose life should be sacrificed to save the rest, when a French ship appeared in view. Finding it to be both in good order and well stored with provisions, the English scrupled not to attack and seize it ; and in it they made their way to Eng- land in a most miserable condition, leaving their own bark to the ejected crew. Soon afterwards the Frenchmen reached France, and raised such a clamor about the outrage of the Englishmen, that King Henry liberally paid for theii' losses from his own purse. The next English expedition to the North-west was planned and conducted by Martin Frobisher, a native of Yorkshire, who subsequently distinguished him- self by naval exploits in every quarter of the globe. Frobisher regarded the discovery of a North-west passage " as the only thing of the world, yet left un- done, whereby a notable man might become famous ;" and for fifteen years in city and court he solicited the means for undertaking the enterprise. With three small vessels (35, 30, and 10 tons,) Frobisher, on the 8th of June 1576, passed Greenwich where the court then resided, and when opposite the palace fired a salute in honor of the queen, who gazed at the fleet from the window and waved her hand to the departing explorers. Early in July, Frobisher saw a range of awful and precipitous summits, which, even in the height of sum- mer, were white with snow ; this was the southern point of Greenland. He then steered westward, and experienced a severe gale, during which his smallest DISCOVEEY OF " META ESrCOGNITA." 61 vessel sunk beneatli tlie waves witli all on board. Appalled at tMs disaster one of tlie remaining vessels turned back, but Frobisher in tlie third one pushed forward, and on tlie22d of July reached the ice-bound coasts of Labrador. Sailing northward he came in August to more accessible land, and named it " Meta Incognita." Seeing seven boats plying along the beach, Frobisher sent out one of his own, the crew of which, by holding up a white cloth, induced a native canoe to aj)proach ; but on seeing the ship the j)eople immediately turned back. Frobisher then went on shore, and, by the dis- tribution of presents, enticed one of the natives on board. This person, being well treated mth food and drink, made on his return so favorable a report, that nineteen followed his example. The natives were next day more shy, and -with some difficulty one of them, by the allurements of a bell, was drawn on board. Frobisher, having no in- tention to detain him, sent a boat Avith five men to put him on shore ; but, urged by curiosity, they went on to join the main body of the natives, and were never allowed to return. After spending two days firing guns, and looking for the missing men, Fro- bisher sailed for home, where he arrived in October. Although Frobisher had made but little progress towards a western passage, his voyage was considered highly creditable, and interest in the new countiy was greatly excited from the fact that a large shining stone, which Frobisher had brought home and divid- ed among his friends, was pronounced by the gold- smiths to be gold ore. A new exj^edition of tliree ships was immediately organized ; England ^svas tlirown into a ferment of joy ; and Frobisher being invited 62 fkobisher's second voyage. to visit tlie queen, received lier hand to kiss, with many gracious expressions. The new expedition sailed on the 26th of May, 1577 ; on the 8th of June it touched at the Orkneys for fresh water. The poor inhabitants, having, it is probable, suffered from the inroads of pirates, fled from their houses mth cries and shrieks, but were soon, by courteous treatment, induced to return. The English now entered on their perilous voyage through the northern ocean, during which they were much cheered with the perpetual light. At length they touched at the sound or deep indentation of waters known as Frobisher Strait — afterwards said to be a sound, and recently proved such by the researches of the late Captain Hall. The coast, however, was found guarded by a mighty wall of ice, which the ships could not penetrate ; but the captain, with two of his boats, worked his way into the sound, and began to survey the country. So crude were then the ideas respecting the geography of these regions, that they imagined the coast on their left to be America, and that on their right Asia. Landing on the American side they scrambled to the top of a hill, and erected a column, which, after the great patron of the expedition, was called Mount Warwick. On their return, cries were heard like the lowing of bulls, and a large body of natives ran up to them in a very gay and cordial manner. They began an eager traffic for the trifling ornaments displayed by their visitors, yet declined every invitation to go on board, while the English on their part did not choose to accede to their overtures of going into the country. Frobisher and a compan- ion, meeting two of the natives apart, rashly seized FIGHT WITH ESQUIMAUX. 63 and began dra'gging them to the "boats, hoping to gain their friendship by presents and courtesy. On the slippery ground, however, their feet gave way, the Esquimaux broke loose, and found behind a rock their bows and arrows, which they began to discharge with great fury. Frobisher and his comrade, seized with a panic, fled full speed, and the former reached the boat with an arrow sticking in his leg. The crew, imagining that something truly serious must have driven back their commander in such discomfiture, gave the alarm, and ran to the rescue. The two bar- barians instantly fled ; but one of them was caught and taken to the boat. Meantime the ships outside were involved in a dreadful tempest, being tossed amid those tremendous ice-islands, the least of which would have been suffi- cient to have crushed them into a thousand pieces. To avoid dangers which so closely beset them, they were obliged to tack fourteen times in four hours ; but with the benefit of the perpetual light, the skill of their steersman, and the aid of Providence, they weathered the tempest, without the necessity of driv- ing out to sea and abandoning the boats. On the 19th, Frobisher came out to the ship with a large store of glittering stone ; upon which, says one of the adventurers, "we were all rapt with joy, forgetting both where we were and what we had suifered. Be- hold," he continues, "the glory of man, — to-night looking for death, to-morrow devising how to satisfy his greedy appetite with gold." A north west gale now sprang up; before which, like magic, the mighty barriers of ice by which the ships had been shut out melted away. They had now a broad and open passage by which they entered the 64 EELICS OF THE LOST SATLOKS. sound, wMcli was a strait leading into the Pacific Ocean. In a run of upwards of thirty leagues they landed at different points, and, mounting to the tops of hills, took possession of the country with solemn and sacred ceremonies, in name of her majesty. On questioning their prisoner, he admitted knowl- edge respecting the five men captured in the preceding year, but repelled most strenuously the signs by which the English intimated their belief that they had been killed and eaten. However, a dark source of suspicion was soon opened ; for some boats of the natives were found, which, along with bones of dogs, flesh of un- known animals, and other strange things, contained an English canvas doublet, a shirt, a girdle, three shoes for contrary feet, — apparel which, beyond all doubt, belonged to their countrymen lost in the pre- ceding year. Hoping to recover them, they left a letter in the boat, with pen, ink, and paper, and a party of forty, under Charles Jackman, marched inland to take the natives in the rear, and drive them upon the coast where Frobisher with his boats waited to intercept them. The wretches had removed their tents into the interior ; but the invaders, after marching over several mountains, descried a cluster of huts, whose inmates hastened to their canoes, and pushed out full speed to sea. They rowed with a rapidity which would have bafiled all pursuit, had not Frobisher with his boats held the entrance of the sound and there awaited them. As soon as the Esquimaux saw themselves thus beset, they landed among the rocks, abandoning their skiffs. The English rushed on to the assault; but the natives, stationed on the rocks, resisted the land- FEMALE PRISOlSrEES. 65 ing, and stood their ground witli the most savage and desperate valor. Overwhelmed with clouds of ar- rows, they picked them up, plucking them even out of their bodies, and returned them with fury. On feeling themselves mortally wounded, they plunged from the rocks into the sea, lest they should fall into the hands of the conquerors. At length, completely worsted, and having, lost five or six of their number, they sprang up among the cliffs and eluded pursuit. There fell into the hands of the assailants only two females, who caused some speculation.^ One was stricken in years, and present- ed a visage so singularly hideous, that her moccasins were pulled off to ascertain if she was not the great enemy of mankind in disguise. The other female was young, with a child in her arms ; and being, from her peculiar costume, mistaken for a man, had been fired at and the child wounded. It was in vain to apply remedies ; she licked off with her tongue the dressings and salves, and cured it in her own wayv She and the male captive formerly taken appeared to be strangers, but on becoming intimate found much comfort in each other's society, and showed a strong mutual attachment. Frobisher still cherished hopes of recovering his men. A large party appearing on the toj) of a hill, signs were made of a desire for a friendly interview. A few of them advanced, and were introduced to tlie captives. The joarties were deeply affected, and spent some time without uttering a word ; tears then flowed ; and when they at last found speech, it was in tones of tenderness and regret, which prepossessed the English much in their favor. Frobisher now came forward, and propounded that on condition of restor- 6Q TEEACHEEY OF THE NATIVES. ing his five men, they should receive back their own captives, with the addition of sundry of those little gifts and presents on which they set the highest value. This they promised, and also to convey a letter to the prisoners, who doubtless at this time were not alive. Afterward three men appeared holding up flags of bladder, inviting the invaders to approach ; but the latter, who saw the heads of others peeping from be- hind the rocks, resolved to proceed with the utmost caution. The natives began by placing in view large pieces of excellent meat ; and when their enemy could not be caught by that bait, a man advanced very close, feigning lameness, and seeming to offer himself an easy prey. Frobisher allowed a shot to be fired, by which the person was cured at once, and took to his heels. Seeing all their artifices fail, the barbarians determined upon main force, and pouring down to the number of a hundred, discharged their arrows with great rapidity. They even followed a consider- able way along the coast, regardless of the English shot ; but the boats were too distant from the shore to suffer the slightest annoyance. Several of the sea- men importuned Frobisher to allow them to land and attack; but this he refused, as only calculated to divert them from the main object, and to cause useless bloodshed. The 21st of August had now arrived, the ice was beginning to form around the ships, and, though little progress had been made towards China, the seamen had put on board two hundred tons of the precious ore. They therefore mounted the highest hill, fired a volley in honor of the Countess of "Warwick, and made their way home. Notwithstanding the vicissitudes which had marked frobtsher's third expeditio:n-. 67 this voyage, its arrival was hailed witli tlie utmost exultation. Enthusiasm and hope, both with the queen and the nation, rose higher than ever. The delusion of the golden ore continued in full force, and caused those desolate shores to be regarded as another Peru. Special commissioners, men of judgment, art, and skill, were named by her majesty to ascertain both the quality of the ore and the prospects of the voyage to India. After due inquiry, a most favorable report was made on both subjects, and it was recom- mended not only that a new expedition on a great scale should be fitted out, but a colony established on that remote coasi:, who might at once be placed in full possession of its treasures, and be on the watch for every opportunity of farther discovery. To brave the winter of the Polar world was a novel and daring enterprise ; yet such was then the national spirit, that the appointed number of a hundred was quickly filled up. There were forty mariners, thirty miners, and thii-ty soldiers, in which last number were oddly included, not only gentlemen, but gold-finers, bakers, and carpenters. Materials were sent on board the vessels, which, on being put together, might be converted into a foii; or house. The squadron fitted out was the largest that had yet adventured to plough the northern deep. It consisted of fifteen vessels, furnished by various ports, especially by those of the west, and the rendezvous took place at Harwich on the 27th May, 1578, whence they sailed on the 31st. The captains waited on the queen at Greenvsdch, and were personally addressed by her in the most gracious manner ; Frobisher receiving a chain of gold, and the honor of kissing her majesty's hand. It is notorious that expeditions got up on the great- 68 THE FLEET IN A STOEM. est scale, and mtt. tlie most ample means, usually prove tlie most unfortunate. On reaching tlie open, ing of Frobisher's Strait, tlie navigators found it frozen over from side to side, and barred, as it were, witL. successive walls, mountains, and bulwarks. A strong easterly wind liad driven numerous icebergs upon tbe coast, and hence tlie navigation amid these huge moving bodies soon became most perilous. The Dennis, a large vessel, on board of which was part of the projected house, received such a tremendous blow from a mountain of ice, that it went down instantly, though the other ships, hastening to its aid, succeeded in saving the men. This spectacle struck panic into the other crews, who felt that the same fate might next moment be their own. The danger was much augmented when the gale increased to a tempest, and the icy masses, tossing in every direction, struck the vessels furiously. In- vention was now variously at work to find means of safety. Some moored themselves to these floating islands, and being carried about along with them, escaped the outrageous blows which they must other- wise have encountered. Others held suspended by the sides of the ship oars, planks, pikes, poles, every- thing by which the violence of the shocks might be broken ; yet the ice, " aided by the surging of the sea and billow," was seen to break in pieces planks three inches thick. Frobisher considers it as redounding highly to the glory of his poor miners and landsmen, wholly unused to such a scene, that they faced mth heroism the assembled dangers that besieged them round. " At length, it pleased God with his eyes of mercy to look down from heaven," — a brisk south- west wind dispersed the ice, and gave them an open sea through which to navigate. THE EXPEDITION ASTKAY. 69 After a few days spent in repairing the vessels, and stopping up the leaks, Frobisher bent afresh all his efforts to penetrate inward to the spot' where he was to found his colony. After considerable effort, he made his way into a strait, when he discovered that he was sailing between two coasts; but amid the gloomy mists, and the thick snow which fell in this northern midsummer, nothing could be distinctly seen. As, however, clear intervals occasionally oc- curred, affording partial glimpses of the land, the surmise arose that this was not the shore along which they had formerly sailed. Frobisher would not listen to a suggestion which would have convicted him of ha^^dng thrown away much of his time and labor. He still pressed onward. Once the mariners imagined they saw Mount Warwick, but were soon undeceived. At length, the chief pilot stood up and declared, in hearing of all the crew, that he never saw this coast before. Frobisher still persevered, sailing along a countiy more pojiulous, more verdant, and better stocked with birds, than the one formerly visited. In fact, this was probably the main entrance into Hudson's Bay, by continuing in which he would have made the most important discoveries. But all his ideas of mineral wealth and successful passage were associated with the old strait ; and, on being obliged to own that this was a different one, he turned back to the open sea. In this retreat the fleet was so involved in fogs and violent cuiTents, and so beset mth rocks and islands, that the sailors considered it only by a special inter- position of Providence that they were brought out in safety. When they had reached' the open sea, and arrived 5 70 THE COLOISTY PROJECT ABAIfDOlSrED. at the moutli of tlie desired strait, it was almost as difficult to find an entrance. However, Frobisher was constantly on tlie watch, and wlierever there appeared any opening, it is said " lie got in at one gap and out at another," till at length he reached his pur- posed haven. Before, however, the crews were corn* pletely landed and established, the 9th of August had come, thick snows were falling, and it behooved them to hold a solemn consultation as to the pros- pects of the projected colony. There remained of the house only the materials of the south and east sides, a great part of the bread had been .spoiled, and there was no adequate provision for a hundred men during a whole year. Kenouncing the idea of settlement, Frobisher still asked his captains whether they might not, during the short remaining interval, attempt some discovery to throw a redeeming lustre on this luckless voyage ; but, in reply, they urged the advanced season, the symptoms of winter already approaching, and the danger of being enclosed in these narrow inlets, where they would be in the most imminent danger of perishing ; — in short, that nothing was now to be thought of but a speedy return homeward. This was effected, not mthout the dispersion of the fleet, and considerable damage to some of the vessels. • The failure of successive attempts, and especially of one got up with so much cost, produced its natu- ral effect in England. The glittering stone, which was to have converted this northern Meta into anoth- er Peru, was never more heard of ; a few careful assays having established its utter insignificance. Frobisher strongly advocated another voyage to the North-west, but without success, and was obliged to SUBSEQUE]!^T LIFE OF FEOBISHFR. 71 seek in otlier climates employment for Ms daring and active spirit. He accompanied Sir Francis Drake to tke West Indies, and commanded one of tlie largest skips in tke aiTQament wMck opposed tke Spanisk armada, figkting witk suck kraveiy, tkat lie was decorated witk tke konors of kni^-ktkood. Bein the husband of her love, as if she would hold him prisoner in her arms. The result proved that each method was equally effectual, for Back lost the ser- vices of the men. Leaving Norway House on the 28th of June, and proceeding by the usual route, Back approached Cumberland House on the 5th of July, The crew dressed themselves out in all their finery — silver bands tassels, plumes and feathers, intending to approach the station with some military effect ; but unfortunately for the poor fellows, the rain fell in torrents, their feathers drooped, and to complete their discomfiture they were obliged to walk in their crestfallen condi- tion for a mile in the mud before reachino- the station. The boats, stores, etc., were all in readiness for a start, and Capt. Back had the satisfaction of getting his two batteaux under way on the 6th of July. Each was laden with a cargo weighing over two tons, exclusive of men, bedding, and clothes. Yet with such steersmen as McKay and Sinclair, no apprehension was felt for their safety. Back lingered behind a day or two, and then advanced in his canoe with eight attendants under the pilotage of his skillful guide, De Charloit, a half- 17 280 THE BATTEAUX AND CAJSTOES. breed, and soon overtook Dr. King with the large boats. The contrast between the rapidity of motion of the two parties was striking. The water was very low, and the cumbrous batteaux were dragged in some places laboriously a few paces at a time by the united exertions of those on board and those on shore. Sometimes unable to resist the force of the impetuous current they were swept back ; at others, susjDended on the arched back of a wave, they struggled and labored until they were again in the shelter of some friendly eddy. But the canoe, frail as she was, was threaded through the boiling rapids and sunken rocks with fearful elegance. On the 21st of July, the party reached Portage la Loche, the high ridge of land which divides the waters running into Hudson's Bay from those which direct their course to the Arctic Sea. Here a beauti- ful and picturesque view opened to their sight. A thousand feet below, the sylvan landscape lay spread out in all the wild luxuriance of its summer clothing. Even the most jaded of the party seemed to forget his weariness, and halted involuntarily to gaze with admiration on a spectacle so magnificent. On the 8th of August they reached Great Slave Lake and were welcomed at Fort Resolution. The remainder of the month was spent by Back in explor- ing this lake and searching for Great Fish River, called by the Indians Thlew-ee-choh, and now named in honor of our explorer, who was the first to descend it, Back's River. Many encampments of Indians were passed, whose occupants were employed in drying the flesh of moose recently killed. The hunters were lying at full length on the grass, whiffing the cherished pipe, INDIAN SUMMER ENCAMPMENT. MOOSE HUNTIKG — VtKON KIVER. INDIAlSr SUMMER ENCAMPMENTS. 281 or lounging on their elbows to watcli tlie frizzling of a ricli marrow bone, the customary perquisite of their labors. Women were lighting or tending the fires, over which were suspended rows of thinly sliced meat, some screaming to thievish dogs, and others with still louder screams, endeavoring to drown the shrill cries of their children, who, swaddled and unable to stir, were half suffocated with the smoke ; while to com- plete the scene, eight or ten boys at play, were turn- ing: themselves over and under some white bark canoes like so many land dolphins. Their happiness was at the full ; at that moment they were without care, enjoying themselves according to their nature and capacity. Is human happiness ever much more than this ? On the 29th of August, Back reached one of the tributaries of the Great Fish River, and yielding to that pleasing emotion which discoverers, in the fii'st bound of their transport, may be pardoned for indul- ging, he threw himself down on the bank and drank a hearty draught of the limpid water. He then returned to winter-quarters at Fort Reliance on Slave Lake where a house was erected. As winter came on the sufferings of the Indians in the vicinity were extreme. "Famine," says Back, " with her gaunt and bony aim pursued them at every turn, and strewed them lifeless on the cold bosom of the snow. Often did I share my own plate with the children, whose helpless state and piteous cries were peculiarly distressing. Compassion for the full-grown may or may not be felt, but that heart must be cased in steel which is insensible to the cry of a chikl for food." Back's party shared in the general distress and 282 could bestow but little on the wretched sufferers, wlio began to imagine tbat the instruments in the observatory kept the deer at a distance and caused their sufferings. Even the voyageurs were superstitous- ly impressed, and on one occasion two of them listened by the fence built around the observatory, and hear- ing at intervals the words " now " and " stop," always succeeded by silence, they turned hastily away and reported to their companions that they verily believed the captain was " raising the devil." In November, the chief Akaitcho, the old acquaint- ance of Franklin, arrived very opportunely with some meat which was of great benefit to all. When he went away he took some of the starving Indians with him, and promised Back that he should not want as long as he had anything to send to the fort. And h^ kept his word, and during a most apalling period of suffering and calamity proved himself the firm friend of the expedition ; the dawn . of each morning saw him prepared for the hunt, and he boldly encountered every difficulty and made others act by the force of his example. In describing the scenes of this winter Back says : — — "No sooner had one party closed the door than another feebly opened it, and confirmed by their half- famished looks and sunken eyes their heart-rending tale of sufferings. They spoke little, but crowded in silence around the fire, as if eager to enjoy the only comfort remaining to them. A handful of mouldy pounded meat which had been intended for the dogs was all we could give them ; and this, with the cus- tomary presentation of the friendly pipe, was suffi- cient to efface for a moment the recollection of their sorrows, and even light up their faces with a smile of hope." SAD FATE OF AUGUSTUS. 283 In March, information came that Augustus, the Esquimaux interpreter and Back's old friend, hear- ing that he was in the country had set out to join him, and walked from Hudson's Bay to Fort Resolu- tion for that purpose. From this place he started with a Canadian and Iroquois, who were taking dispatches to Back ; but they all lost their way, and the couriers returned to the fort without Augustus, who had persisted in going on alone. In June the remains of the brave Esquimaux were found near the Riviere a Jean. " Such," says Back, " was the misera- ble end of poor Augustus ! — a faithful, disinterested, kind-hearted creature, who had won the regard not of myself only, but I may add of Sir John Frank- lin and Dr. Richardson also, by qualities, which, wherever found, in the lowest as in the highest forms of social life, are the ornament and charm of human- ity." On the 25th of April 1834, a messenger arrived with the glad tidings of the safe return of Ross and his party to England. Back, however, thought it his duty to explore Fish River, and on the 'Tth of June left Fort Reliance for this purpose. Though no longer stimulated with the desire to render aid and comfort to Ross, he was heartily glad to get away from scenes of suffering and death, and launch out again into stirring adventure. In descending the Fish River, eighty or ninety miles of the distance was a succession of falls and rapids, keejoing the men in a constant state of exertion and anxiety. Cataracts, too, obstructed their passage. In passing down one of these, where the river was full of rocks and boulders, the boat was obliged to be lightened. 284 EUNNING THE EAPIDS. "I stood," says Back, "on a Mgli rock, with an anxious heart, to see her run it. Away they went with the speed of an arrow, and in a moment the foam and rocks hid them from my view. I heard what sounded in my ear like a wild shriek ; I followed with an agitation which may be conceived, and, to my inexpressible joy, found that the shriek was the triumphant whoop of the crew, who had landed safely in a small bay below." Near the close of July, Back approached the mouth of the Fish River and discovered a majestic headland which he named Victoria. He thus sums up a gen- eral view of the tempestuous stream which he had successfully descended : — " This, then, may be considered as the mouth of the Thlew-ee-choh, which, after a violent and tortuous course of five hundred and thirty geographical miles, running through an iron-ribbed country, without a sin- gle tree on the whole line of its banks, expanding into fine large lakes with clear horizons, most embarrass- ing to the navigator, and broken into falls, cascades, and rapids to the number of no less than eighty- three in the whole, pours its waters into the Polar Sea in latitude 67^11^ K, and longitude 94^^ 30^ W." Drift-ice was here encountered, and further prog- ress was slow, but on the 'Tth of August the party reached Point Ogle, the northern extremity of the land on the western side at the mouth of the estuary. From this point portions of the coast of Boothia were seen to the northward. Further explorations by water were impossible, but a party proceeded westerly along the coast of the Arctic Ocean for about fifteen miles, in the direction of Cape Turn-again. The country was low, level and desolate and pro- A DESOLATE EEGION. 285 duced notlilng but moss and fern, whicli was so wet tliat it would not burn. The weatlier was cliilly, damp and foggy, and the situation of tlie explorers grew cheerless and miserable. Surrounded on every side by complete desolation, without fire or any kind of warm food, w^ith heavy rains followed by thick snows, " it cannot " says Back, " be a matter of aston- ishment, and much less of blame, that even the best men, benumbed in their limbs, and dispirited by the dreary and unpromising prospect before them, broke out for a moment into low murmurings that theirs' was a hard and painful duty." Back had now no choice but to start on the return journey, which was commenced the middle of August. Before setting out, the British flag was unfurled, and saluted with three cheers " in honor of his most gra- cious majesty," and the name of William the Fourth's Land was given to this part of America. The many difficulties which had been experienced in going down the river were at least doubled in returning, but the explorers reached Fort Reliance in safety on the 27th of September. Preparations were immediately made for spending another winter in this dreary place. Hunting and fishing were the order of the day, and wood was collected to keej) off the cold, which proved to be less severe than usual. About the last of May they gladly bade adieu to the inhospitable region, and reached Norway House on the 24th of June. Back returned home by way of Montreal and New York, and received many kind attentions during his journey through the United States. He reached England in September, after an absence of over two and a half years, and was there honored by an audience with the king. 286 VOYAGE IN- THE " TEEEOE." Soon afterwards, the English admiralty decided to send out an expedition to complete the survey of the coast between Regent's Inlet and Point Turn- again, and for this purpose Captain Back sailed from England in the "Terror," with a crew of seventy- three men. Near the Savage Islands they encountered a fleet of kayaks and oomiaks, and were hailed by their occupants with vociferous cries of teyma. Back says that the conduct of the women was particularly outrageous; besides disposing of their garments they offered to barter their children, and one of them noticing that an officer had but little hair on his head, offered to supply him with her own. Early in September, when near the entrance of Frozen Strait, the Terror was seized by the ice as with the grasp of a giant, and during the whole of , that month was whirled backward and forward just as the wind or tide directed. " It was," says Back, " a month of vexation, disap23ointment, and anxiety, to me more distressing and intolerable than the worst pressure of the worst evils which had befallen me in any other expedition." It was soon evident that there could be no escape for several months, and that nothing could be done but to make the situation as comfortable as possible. Snow walls and galleries were built on the floes ; and towards spring, for amusement, some of the men cut figures of houses, forts, vessels, and men and women, from blocks of snow. Most of the crew could read, some could recite long passages of prose and poetry, others could sing ; and by bringing out the talents of each for the common benefit, the whole were made at times comparatively happy. Thus drifting about and at times undergoing terrif / VOYAGE IN THE "tEREOR. 287 ic nips, the Terror remained fast in the ice till the 11th of July, when, after several days spent by the crew in attempting to cnt her free, a loud rum- bling noise was heard, and the ship broke her ice- bonds and slid gently into her own element ; but so much of the base of her ice cradle still clung to her, that she remained on her beam ends for three days after. Nothing now remained but to get home as soon as possible with the crazy, broken and leaky Terror, and the voyage thither was as perilous as her encoun- ters with the ice had been. On reaching the coast of Ireland, the ship was run ashore in a sinking con- dition, and could hardly have floated a day longer. She was afterwards refitted, and with her and the Erebus, James C. Eoss made his explorations in the Southern Seas. Subsequently, Franklin and his lost expedition sailed in the same famous ships. The ice-drift experiences of the Terror much resem- ble those of the Advance and Rescue while searching for Franklin — a full history whereof is given in Dr. Kane's narrative of the First American Expedition. CHAPTER XXL LAND EXPEDITIONS OF DEASE AND SIMP- SON, AND RAE. As a considerable extent of the northern coast of America still remained unexplored, the Hudson's Bay Company determined, in 1836, to equip an expedi- tion of twelve men under the lead of two of its own officers — Peter W. Dease and Thomas Simpson. The latter was a young and well-educated Scotchman, who had resided in the territory since 1829 ; he was full of zeal for scientific discovery, and the astronomer and historian of the expedition. Before setting out, Mr. Simpson spent several months at the Red River Settlement, situated near the 50th parallel at an elevation of eight or nine hun- dred feet above the sea, which then stretched for upwards of fifty miles along the wooded borders of the Red and Assinoboine Rivers which flow through a level country of vast extent. There was no specu- lative motive to induce him to color his picture of this region, and he may the more readily be relied on when he states, that the climate is salubrious, the soil good, horses, cattle, hogs and poultry numerous ; and that wheat, barley, oats, and potatoes thrive well in the vast Red River Valley. This testimony should 288 lvri>liMii'o A WINTER S JOURNEY. 289 remove tlie suspicions which some have, that more recent travelers in this section have been induced to give glowing descriptions thereof from mercenaiy considerations. Mr. Simpson left this colony on the 1st of Decem- ber for his winter journey of one thousand two hun- dred and seventy-seven miles to Fort Chipewyan, the starting point of the expedition. A gay cariole and three sledges drawn by dogs, with three picked men as drivers, made up the retinue. Much of the route lay over the frozen channels of the streams, and fre- quently the tinklings of the dog-bells roused the moose-deer from their lairs. At times the snow was so deep that snow-shoes had to be worn by the travelers. Fort Chipewyan, w^here Mr. Dease awaited his companion, was reached on the first of February. The travelers took their departure from this place on the 1st of June 1837, and on reaching Great Slave Lake, ten days afterwards, were disappointed at findino; it covered with ice which detained them till the 21st of June — a delay which they beguiled with hunting, and with observing the wonderful mirage of this region and the games and sports of the Indians. A dance was also given to the men in which the Indian women joined. It furnished much sport, and was concluded with a generous supper, tea being the only beverage. The games of the people without the fort were generally at their height at midnight, when the coolness of the atmosphere incited to exertion. Fort Norman on the Mackenzie River was reached on the 1st of July, and on the 9th, the Arctic Ocean at the mouth of the river was seen, and saluted with joyous cheers. As the season was favorable, the 290 ON THE COASTS OF ALASKA. explorers proceeded westerly along tlie coast, and on the 23d of July arrived at Return Reef, where Frank- lin had been stopped. Beyond this was unexplored territory. Pushing on, they discovered the mouth of a river and named it the Colville. They supposed ifc to be a large one, for it freshened the waters of the ocean to a distance of three leagues. Their conclusions were right, for the Colville River, now in the United States territory of Alaska, has since been ascertained to be a thousand miles long. They also discovered another noble river, the Garry, whose mouth was a mile in width. Though the ground was fr