The Sun.
London, England, 1854-01-09 00:00:00

before the ice broke up, and the exposed parts of the coast
and large bays are avoided by an inland navigation through
rivers and lakes, of which we were ignorant.
The first stage of the journey is the Colville, and occu-
pies 10 days, where they meet a friendly tribe of Esqui-
maux, called Nuna-tag-miutes (supposed by Messrs. Dense
and Simpson to be a name for the Russians), but there is
no doubt of their being Esquimaux, and wearing the lip
ornaments peculiar to them. They confine themselves to
the river and land, from which the name " Nuna" (land)
is derived, and have a communication through the rivers
of the interior to the coast about Hotham's Inlet. ,As our
informant told us, he had met a woman two successive
seasons at the Colville, who had been frequently aboard
this ship in Kotzebue Sound in the winter of 1849, and.
had travelled thence through the interior without having
touched upon the intermediate coast.
The journey to the Colville is anticipated by them with
much pleasure, particularly this year, as they frequently
spoke of telling of the wonders seen on board this ship, in
addition to the pleasing thoughts of feasting and dancing
which they were to enjoy with their friends. Thence a
select party extend themselves to Barter Island, the women
accompanying them to within a day's journey of meeting
the eastern people, when the men advance and conclude
their business as expeditiously as possible. They give an
amusing account of the mutual distrust that exists between,
the two parties. The western people never sleep while
they are in sight of the eastern, and all bargains seem to
be made knife in hand. The articles and system of bar-
tering appear to be as described by Sir John Franklin;
but I think later writers on the subject have supposed that
Russian goods find their way to the north coast from posts
on the Colville, which we have not been able to verify.
This tribe receives Russian (Siberian) articles from the
Point Hope people, previously alluded to, which they con-
vey to the eastward, and exchange for English knives pro-
cured from the Hudson's Bay posts, but there is no inter-
mediate slippy from the Russians that we could hear of.
The journey-east from the Colville takes them 10 days, and
they describe it as being always against the wind, and the
return to Point Barrow and Point Berens occupies little
more than two, during which they speak of sleeping in the
boats, and allowing them to drift before the wind ; this
would make' it appear that easterly winds must be very
prevalent in the early part of August. Mr. Simpson, who
has taken much pains to inform himself on the subject,
considers the 25th of July the time of their departure from
the Colville. This has been further established by the fact
of the party who attacked Commander Pullen on the 9th
of August at Return Reef being then on their return from
Barter Island—the time of their annual visit never differ-
ing, probably, three days, as we have found them generally
as accurate in that way as if they were acquainted with
dates. From this information it may be concluded that
the Esquimaux make one-third of their summer journeys
by carrying their boats over the ice, before a ship or her
boats become available, which gives them a season so much
longer at a time when the weather is very favourable.
This will have been pointed out to them by necessity, from
the shortness of the season of open water, which, if they
confined themselves to it, would limit their excursions to
a very short range. Their return for the winter takes
place, as we have seen, about the 10th of September, and
seems to end their labours for the year.
Two days after receiving the above information (May
20) a native man was observed outside the ship wearing a
small canvas bag with•an address written on it—" Tb the
Chief Trader of the Russian Settlement, North America,"
which caused considerable curiosity on our parts, and, on
making further inquiries, he told us he had the paper in
his hut that' was originally in it, on which he was des-
patched with the promise of a large reward of tobacco if
he brought it to the ship. - Some hours afterwards he re-
turned with two torn,pieces of paper, complaining that his
little girl had destroyed the rest ; fortunately, the most
important part was preserved, which has been enclosed.
This information is so far satisfactory, as it shows Com-
mander M'Clure to have been making his passage along
shore, which has been further confirrned.by natives here,
who were on board her at Point Berens Or Return Reef,
where they describe her to have had an easterly wind, with
no ice in sight. The Enterprise, it has been mentioned,
was visited the year following, not so far to the eastward
by 80 miles. From these positions it is reasonable to in-
fer they had not again communicated with the shore to the
westward of the Mackenzie, as the natives of the place,
who are in yearly communication with the Esquimaux
who frequent the month of the river, have, to our repeated
inquiria as to whether they had heard if the ships had
been seen by the other people, answered they had not, or
they would have heard of it. It will give some idea of the
difficulty of making the Esquimaux comprehend the mean-
ing of our notions, when it is considered that the Investi-
gator had an interpreter on board, who explained the ob-
ject of the letter given by Commander M'Cluro, and we
had been eight months constantly making inquiries for
such things, and endeavouring to explain our business
here without the persons charged with the paper knowing
what it was for, and if the canvas bag had not been found
useful its contents would never have been known.

In order to impress upon them the value of such things
as papers' and messages, I gave the man a considerable pre-
sent of tobacco. very much to his surprise and that of his
companions, which had the effect 'of producing an old
American song book, the only article of paper remaining
in their possession.
I have now to mention the occurrence of a native man
being shot by accident, which at the time caused us consi-
derable trouble and uneasiness ; but eventually I have had
reason to believe it was viewed by most of the Esquimau
in its true light.
On the morning in question (June 8) the quartermaster
of the watch, David Dunstall, came into my cabin and in-
formed me had had a dreadful misfortune, and, to my
horror, I learnt ho had shot a native alongside of the ship,
and, on hurrying outside, I found the man was shot through
the head, and must have died instantaneously. The man
who had been the cause of the unlooked-for event showed

by his manner that it was an accident, and, on making
some further inquiries, I found that several natives had
arrived alongside the ship before the time allowed, and
although desired on that account to go away several times,
they could not be induced to do so, when tho quartermas-
ter of the watch took out a fowling-piece in his hand in
order to frighten them, and, on motioning with it for them
to go away, it went off and lodged the contents of the bar-
rel in the back part of the poor man's head. The'remain-
der of the party, five or six, ran away so speedily that
there were no means of overtaking them, and, the body

being left, it became necessary to consider the best. means
of disposing••of it. • We soon afterwards removed it to
such a distance -from the ship that the natives could ad-
vance to it without • fear of us, and at the same time it
gave them no pretext for coming any nearer to the ship.
When this had been done,. and a large quantity of tobacco
left with the body as an intimation of our friendship, all
that we could -do was to hope that some of our friends
among them would still have sufficient confidence to come
down and give us an opportunity of explaining the affair.
In this expectation we were not disappointed, as two of
the chief ,men came to the ship at once, having, before
leaving the settlement, exerted their influence to quiet the
people in their first outbreak. One of these men, who was
remarkable for his intelligence, was made to comprehend
the possibility of such an accident ; and great pains were
taken to show him that the charge shot was intended for
birds, not men. When this impression was established we
requested them to go back and explain it to the people.
By the time they had arrived at the place where the body
had been left, a great many had collected, among them the
wife and friends of the unfortunate deceased, who I was
glad to find bad left no children. They sat round, and
appeared deeply engaged in conversation for about two
hours, listening, as we supposed, to the explanation. Then
they seemed to -examine the body ; and, his own deer skins
having been brought down, he was wrapped in them, and
placed on a sledge, which was drawn by his wife (leading)
and four men, one following, across the bay. to the ceme-
tery near Point Barrow. None of the others accompanied
the procession. A few of them came, as usual, alongside
the ship ; but as they consisted for the most part of those
known not to be friendly to us, our people were kept on
board to avoid any treacherous retaliation. During the
day I was gratified to find the wives of the principal chiefs
come on board and express their sorrow at the absence of
their husbands, who were at the open water looking after
whales ; but they had been sent for, and were coming on
board as soon as they returned. They told ns, also, that
all work was stopped among them for five days, the women
not being allowed to sew for that time (which seems to be
a general custom-on the occasion of any deaths), and re-
marked that we ought not to have any hammering on board
for the same time ; and, as I was anxious to show every
sympathy in our power, the caulkers at work outside were
ordered to cease work, and the ensign was hoisted half-
mast—the meaning of which was explained and understood
by them. In the evening one of the chiefs, who had been
the first, down after the accident, visited us with his wife,
and 'brought the intelligence that a division existed in the
camp as to avenging. themselves on ns ; but, as the chiefs
were unwilling to favour it, it seemed probable nothing of
the sort would be attempted. However, proper precau-
tiona were taken to avoid any surprise, particularly as a
thick fog at the time of sleep favoured such a design.
On the following day the four chiefs with their wives
came on board, when, with the assistance of the officers,
the whole affair was again explained, when they seemed to
comprehend, and appeared to entertain no fear of going
below, as usual,- when asked. We were quite aware of
their inability to control individuals; but they have, to a
certain degree, a good deal of sway, and recommended ns
to make presents to all the people who lived in the same
house as the deceased, and cautioned us not to stay away
from the neighbourhood of the ship, as the feeling of a
great many of them was uncertain. On their leaving they
received presents, and were desired to bring the house party
to the ship at the expiration of five days— the time they
strictly'confine themselves to the house, during which, I
believe, they are seldom intruded upon. They arrived
at the ship in due time, numbering as many as ten,
accompanied by the chiefs. The widow c. as young, and
seemed in unaffected grief, which the large presents she
received did not dissipate ; but time and a continual
course of kindness on our parts brought her to forget her
loss so far, that she regretted to me, and I believe in sin-
cerity-;the thoughts of the ship going away. Our inter-
course
from this time, as might be expected, could not be
conducted with the same satisfaction it had previously
been, although no trouble or inconvenience was spared to
do away with their unfavourable impression. The views
they entertained of the case very much assisted a
recon-
ciliation. As they had no idea of any such thing as a ge-
neral control existing among us, the act was set down as
purely an individual one, and the whole fault of it attri-
buted to the man as au act of his own, while they seemed
to consider the remainder not in any Way concerned in it.
About fourteen days after the occurrence a large collec-
tion of people had assembled at Point Barrow to witness
some dancing- festival previously to setting out to the east-
ward.
A party from Cape Smyth afterwards endeavoured to get
np a united force to attack the ship without being able to
succeed. HoweVer the chief and a good many of the Point
Barrow people wishing to make a merit, for which to be
rewarded, of their not joining our enemies, I was obliged
to tell them I should be very sorry if the people came down
with bows to the ship again, but if they did a good many
would be killed. This appears tb have put an end to it, as
we were next told of the departure of the hostile party,
and were not troubled with any more reports of that de-
scription.
We now watched with some anxiety the preparations
for the departure of the natives, as the time was approach-
ing for the departure of our boats from Cape Lisburne, and I
their transit over the ice could not be effected without i
some risk of interruption until their numbers became de- '
creased, so that we were much pleased to see them in a
state of forwardness.. On July 4 they commenced leaving,
and continued to follow for three successive days. Each
party halted to sleep near the ship, to have an opportunity
of begging from us till the last moment, and, as I had pre-
pared some printed papers for them to distribute among
the eastern Esquimaux at Barter Island, they were treated
with every indulgence, and those intrusted with the
printed papers received a present of tobacco, some buttons ,
prepared in England, bearing information concerning the
Arctic search, and some other small trifles to keep them
reminded of their charge, and they faithfully promised to
pass on. . I redeemed a long-made promise to the chief—
giving him some gunpowder. I think it had the good
effect of showing. we had no fear of them, and I was fully'
aware that he had a sufficient quantity for mischievious I

I purposes, as his gun, when in our possession, was found
well loaded with ball cartridge.
I accompanied one party a short distance on their jour-
ney to see if I could gain any useful hints for our own
boats. The " somiaks ' were secured on small sledges, and.
seemed to be easily drawn by these people. The principal
part of their barter, whale blubber and seal oil, was carried
on small truck sledges drawn by women and dogs, the men
seeming to confine themselves to the charge of the boats ;
but as ames of water and difficult passages they mutually
assist each other ; the style of travelling, while moving,
was expeditious, but they made frequent halts to smoke,
and before I left them, although near their place cf en-
campment, they eat a hearty meal.
Between the 4th and 7th of July as many as 27 to 30
" oomiaks," accompanied by 150 people, passed to the east-
ward, much to our satisfaction, as it left us with sompara-
tively few to trouble us in cur prepurations for sending
away the boats.
On the 7th I made an excursion across the bay to ob-
serve the state of the sea ice, and walked two miles to the
westward in the offing, without being able to get a glimpse
of the open water in any direction from the highest hum-
mock. This made me form the idea of taking the boats
over the ice to the southward until we fell in with it.
On the morning of the 9th I left the ship with the gig
and whaleboat, intended for Cape Lisburne. They were
placed on two strong sledges, drawn by their own crews
and officers—Lieutenant Vernon and Mr. Gordon (mate)
—assisted by an auxiliary party of 10, including myself
and the carpenter, making up 20 in all ; 31 days' provisions
for the boat4rew, clothing, ammunition, &c., were car-
ried on two native sledges, drawn by dogs—a third con-
veying provisions for the auxiliary party. Parts of the
transit over the ice were attended with difficulty, and the
whole was very laborious, requiring the utmost strength of
all the party, assisted at times by natives, and for two days
by a strong and favourable breeze, enabling us to make sail
on the boats, which lightened the labour very much. Tra-
velling to the southward for three days, ttie open water ap-
peared within two miles of the, beach, at what seemed a
most eligible place for launching the boats. I walked, ac-
companied by Lieutenant Vernon to the open water, but
the humm. cks intervening seemed to offer too great 'an
obstacle to the transit; .however, on the following morn-
ing, July 12, as the weather was favourable, I decided on
attempting it, and succeeded in, launching the boats safely
-at; noon. They soon after shoved off with a favourable
breeze, which they held for eight hours only.
On the 15th, while calculating on the progress they might
have made, a party of people were observed coming down
at eight o'clock in the evening tracking an " oomiak," and
on making out some of our people among them, our astonish-
ment was so great we could hardly believe our own eyes.
went without loss of time to meet them, not in a very
agreeable state of mind, but when I counted the full number
of the party I was comparatively easy. It appears that on
the night of the 13th, finding the ice closing on them,
they managed to get the boats on to the floe, and fancied
themselves safe, although drifting to the northward. The
ice continued to press in towards the land, crushing the
floe, and piling it up to nearly 20 feet in height, and at
length the floe gave way beneath them, and the gig was
partly filled with pieces, and could not be withdrawn fur-
ther towards the land. The whaler,. a .lighter boat, was
also stove, and, as she could not be brought further, the
whole party were obliged-to-make the best of their way to
the shore before the ice should ease off, as it seemed in-
clined to do, and. leave' them on detached pieces. Fortu-
nately, the danger so imminent, was of that slow but over-
whelming nature that they had time to provide themselves
with three days' preserved meats and their arms and am-
munition, with which they were enabled to reach the ship.
I have forwarded Lieutenant Vernon's journal, which will
show their lordships how that officer and his companion,
Mr. Gordon, acquitted themselves on the occasion, and I
have much satisfaction in mentioning the high terms in
which he spoke of the conduct of the crews, not a man of
whom expressed his opinion until he had decided. on de-
serting the boats, when, from their manner, he concluded
they.thought it high time to dO so ; and, he further de-
scribes them as obedient, cool, and intrepid from the com-
mencement of the danger until their return on board.
The loss of the ship's boats was a heavy misfortune, but
when itiwas considered the whole party had found their
way safely to the ship,'we were too much rejoiced. to give
a look of regret after the boats, which could not have been'
saved. • -
Two days after the -return of the boat parties I had seri-
ous thoughts of despatching another in a native oomiak, to
keep our appointment at Cape Lisburne, but on weighing
the matter maturely I gave up the idea, as by no means in
our power could. it reach the rendezvous by the appointed
time ; and as the ship would be obliged to wait for the re-
turn of the party, the delay would render it impossiblo to
regain this place as a winter station, in the event of its
being so ordered. With these considerations, and a present
prospect of an early release, I thought it better not to divide
our small force at a time when the services of every one
would be required to extricate the ship, and. to take the
earliest opportunity of going to the south, in order to re-
cruit the health of the ship's company.
As early as July 25 we were enabled to swing the ship
forlocal attraction, and the ice having been cleared away
for a considerable space in our neighbourhood, we moved
into the fairway, to be ready for the first opening in the
offing.

The natives brought us a report this morning thitt our
deserted boats had been seen drifted near the shore at the
Seahorse Islands, and their contents made a prize of by a
small party, who succeeded in bringing the gig to the land.
On our passage down, beating close along shore, some na-
tives brought the shall of the boat off, exchanging her
readily for a native oomiak we had provided ourselves with
in the meantime.
In watching the dissolution of the bay ice, we had flat-
tered ourselves this season was 14 clays before the last,
which it really was in the thinness of the ice, but, from the
absenoe of strong winds, it remained stationary at a time
when the sea was open the preceding year. Every day at
this period (the end of July) seemed to effect a marked
change in the ice, and on the 30th a perceptible motion to
the northward was observed in some of the heavy hum-
mocks in the offing, and a lane of water, sufficient for the
ship, was found by Mr. Hull- (so, and master), whom I sent
to observe the state of the ice to seaward.
In consequence of this report, I set out in a boat on the
following day to trace its extent, preparatory to moving
the ship, and to sound along shore to find how close we
could approach in case of necessity.
Everything seemed favourable to our purpose, and I
fully expected,to return in the evening and get under way,
but, on approaching Cape Smyth, I had the mortification
to find the lane of water terminate so close with the shore
that a native oomiak could`not have passed. This was one
of the disappointments of ice navigation which teaches one
patience, and requires to be borne with in addition to
' others we are liable ..to even under favourable circum-
stances. • • • •
From the Ist to the 6th. of .August an officer was sent
each day to Cape Smyth to bring the earliest intelligence
of any change in our favour, but each day brought the
same unwelcome report that the ice was still close with the
shore, and no open water to be seen. It seems a strange
complaint in these latitudes, but the fineness of the pre-
sent season was the cause. of our detention. During the
month of July the wind was registered one day from 5 to
6 in force, for four days 4, and the remaining 26 barely
averaged 2, proving the extreme of fine weather to be a
greater obstacle in removing, masses of ice than the reverse
state of it.
On the 7th a fresh breeze from the eastward gave me some
hopes of a change .in our favour, and on visiting Cape
Smyth I observed a narrow lane of water extending as far
as the eye could reach to the southward. On getting on
board at 8 p.m., we left our anchorage, where we had found
shelter for 11 months and four days, seven days later in the
season than Captain Parry had been enabled to leave Mel-
ville Island. We carried a favourable breeze for eight
hours, and had made considerable progress, when the wind
shifted to S.W., with thick weather and heavy rain, which
made it difficult to avoid coming in contact with the ice
from the narrowness of the channel we had to beat in. A
continuation, of thick weather and light contrary winds on
the following day prevented our making any progress, and
in,the afternoon, finding we were losing ground, I made
fast to a large floe piece, when we found the drift to be
one mile an hour ea-t, being very nearly in the opposite
direction to our course. After a few hours we were ena-
bled to cast off, on a light wind springing up from the
northward, and run along shore to the S.W., but the ice
hadibecome graduallyscloser during the few hours of wes-
terly winds, and we had much difficulty in picking our
way during the night, as a thick fog prevailed. On the
following morning, August 9, the outer edge of the land
floe, in the depth of Peard Bay, was found to extend, un-
broken, from the land to a distance of nine miles, and the
ice outside seemed too close to offer us a passage in the
desired direction ; but as the wind was fresh and favour-
able the ship was forced into open water by 10 a.m., hav-
ing sustained some severe, but unavoidable, shocks in doing
so. I was now anxious to keep close in with the land, in
order to stop any boats that might be making their way to
Point Barrow, in consequence of our failing to reach Cape
Lisburne ; and at 2 p.m., in passing the Seahorse Islands,
we got into three fathoms in endeavouring to close the
shore for the purpose of sending a boat to put up a mark,
which we were not able to accomplish, as the wind was
found to blow rather on shore, and was too strong to admit
of the ship lying off and on with safety. I accordingly
bora up to run for Cape Lisburne, and on the following
day, August 10, at 11 a.m., communicated with her Ma-
jesty's ship Amphitrite, Captain Frederick, from whom I
received their Lordships' orders directing me to remain at
Point Barrow ; but the health of my crew would have pre-
vented my doing so had I received the order previous to
leaving, and as there seemed no difficulty in returning
during the present season, I repaired, in company with
the Amphitrite, to Port Clarence to await the arrival of
the Rattlesnake, and to obtain the changes found necessary
in the crow, with an increased supply of provisions and
foul for another year.
Our return seemed the more necessary as their Lord-
ships' instructions direct provisions to be left in the neigh-
bourhood of Point Barrow, 'Which I had not done, con-
sidering at the time I left it was probable I should return.
A reference to Sir E. Belcher's instructions relative to the
north coast seemed, also,' to make it desirable that the
Plover should return to the station she was known to oc-
cupy by that officer, in the event of any of his parties
advancing with the certain hope of succour at Point
Barrow.

ROCHFORT MAGUIRE, Commander,
Port Clarence, Aug. 2111,e1r Majesty'sBs3. ship Plover.

- -
Gig.—Lieutenant C. E. H. Vernon, George Stocker,
coxswain ; Edward Sutton, John Bright, John Magra.
Whaler.-1, r. G. T. Gordon, acting-mate ; Alexander
Kew, coxswain; Robert Macfarlane, Walter Daw, Edward
Clarke.

Tuesday, 12th July, 1853.—At noon, after returning
three hearty cheers given by Captain Maguire and party,
we started from the edge a the ice, with every prospect of
a successful cruise to the southward, there being no ice to
seaward with the exception of a few small pieces ; we fol-
lowed along the edge of the land floe under oars and sail,
with a light breeze from E.S.E. making a S.W. course for
about 30 miles. In the evening the wind fell light and
variable, then veered to S.W. with showers of rain. By
.10 p,m. we had apparently reached the extreme of the
open water where the main pack.was close in withthe land
flee ; but we continued to pull, taking every opportunity
of getting the boats through any lanes that opened to the
southward and eastward. At midnight, seeing no passage
and the men being much fatigued, stopped to give them
some rest.

Wednesday, 13th of July, 1853, 2h. 30m, a.m.—Ob-
served the ice in motion setting north about two knots an
hour; took advantage of some lanes to the S.S.E., and
made but little progress, having to haul the boats up oc-
casionally to avoid being nipped; continued till noon,
when the main pack setting in shore broke up the laud floe
into small pieces, which were wheeling round and packing
up in all directions around the boats. By using our ut-
most exertions we succeeded in hauling the boats up on a
heavy floe, which was driving ii, not, however, before tho
whaler had received considerable damage (one plank being
split fore and aft, and several butts started), and the gig
slightly so (some butts having started and several nails
drawn.) We now thought ourselves secure, and at 2 p.m.
dined. Fuel all expended, Extremes of land N.N.E. and
S.E. Nothing was to-be 'fieen.noW but closely packed ice,