Every word
she uttered seemed fraught with the dread tragedy, and she appeared to
share our interest, for her face was full of expression. At times it
was saddened with the recital of the piteous condition of the white
men, and tears filled her eyes as she recalled the sad scene at the
tent place where so many had perished, and their bodies become food for
wild beasts. It would seem, from what she related to-day, that the
party which perished in the inlet we visited yesterday, was part of the
same that Ahlangyah met on King William Land. She and her friends could
not get across Simpson Strait, while the white men kept on over the
rotten ice, probably at last compelled to take to their boat, and then,
at the mercy of the wind and ice, after losing others of their number
near Pfeffer River and Todd Islands, had drifted into the inlet where
the dead bodies were found with the boat. How long it took them to
reach this place will probably never be known, but there is little
doubt that they were in a desperate condition. In fact, as we
subsequently learned from other witnesses, there were almost
unmistakable evidences of their being compelled to resort to
cannibalism, until at last they absolutely starved to death at this
point--at least all but one, whose remains were found, during the
summer after our visit here, about five miles further inland.
Pages:
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106