The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-23 00:00:00

THE MOMENT THE

EXTRAORDINARY GAZETTE

IS ISSUED,

TOGETHER, WITH A LIST OF THE

KILLED AND WOUNDED

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LONDON, MONDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1854.

FATE OF SIR J. FRANKLIN

Poor Sir JOHN FRANKLIN ! The melancholy
fate of the intrepid navigator and his gallant
companions has at length been manifested. It
has been more horrible than had ever been anti-
cipated. The most gloomy apprehensions have
been verified. And what renders the fearful result
even more deplorable is, that we now know that a
large proportion of the party might have been
rescued had the authorities at home displayed
any degree of energy or activity. Our unfor-
tunate countrymen struggled hard for their lives.
During five dreary winters they sustained all the
accumulated horrors of the ice-bound prison. On
each succeeding spring the throb of hopeful anti-
cipation must have thrilled through their hearts,
in the expectation of the succour and comfort
they were never destined to receive. What stores
of important and interesting information might
we not have received if even a few of these
adventurous men had been restored to their
expectant friends. But, alas ! a more awful
and heart-rending catastrophe than any that
ever occurred under similar circumstances was
about to happen. One by one they perished by
the most fearful of all deaths. The strength
which they had endeavoured to sustain by the
dreadful expedient of eating the flesh of their dead
comrades gradually wasted away, and the last
survivor drooped, and died probably in the sum-
mer of 1850 !

The evidence by which this heart-rending nar-
rative has been established is so clear and dis-
tinct as to leave no possible doubt as to its accu-
'ac7- To Dr. RAE, the well-known and distin-
guilhed Arctic traveller, the honour of the
discovery is to be ascribed. He was not engaged
at the time in searching for our unfortunate
countrymen.
He was occupied in completing the
miry" of tile coast of Boothia, where he casually
obtained the information that placed the vexata
questic respecting the fate of Sir ;Torn; FRANKLIN
and his followers beyond the posssibility of doubt,
and was enabled to purchase different articles which
but too clearly identified the parties to whom they had
belonged. These heart-rending relics will be en-
dowed with a melancholy interest. They are t(
be delivered by the enterprising discoverer to the:
Secretary of the Hudson's Bay Company,
whoa-, b
who, doubtless, they will be restored to t113(1
fatuilies of the departed heroes. Dr. RAE, Well
nware of the painful excitement amongst all classes
in this country for any information respecting Sir
JOHN FRANKLIN judiciously determined on com-
ing home with all possible dispatch, so as to pre-
vent any other valuable livo from being endan-
gered in the too tardy search after those long
since dead and gone. He thinks it very probable
that he might have obtained many additicnal par-
ticulars, and other articles belonging to the ex-
hausted pariy—everything, indeed, that remained •

lin their possession at the time of their dreadful
deaths ; but further search would have en-
dangered his return during the present year,
should he have remained another winter in
these dreary and inhospitable regions, and
certainly have delayed, possibly have alto-
gether lost the opportunity, of transmitting the
highly important information he had obtained.
Rightly conjecturing that the clue which he had
obtained would be more actively followed up
than the means at his disposal would have allowed
him to do personally, with the small party under
his command, he started homewards, charged
with the harrowing intelligence.
Dr. RAE exonerates the Esquimaux from any
act of aggression on the unfortunate -victims.
He says that—" From what we could learn, there
is no reason to suspect that any act of violence
had been offered to the sufferers by the natives ;"
adding, " It seems but too evident that they had
perished from hunger, aggravated by the extreme
severity of the weather." It was in Pelly Bay
that Dr. Rin met the party of Esquimaux
from whom he obtained the sad tidings
that " a party of white men had perished
from want of food some distance to the
westward, and not far beyond a large river con-
taining many falls and rapids." This-interesting
communication induced further inquiries. The
results whereof are thus epitomised by Dr. RAE :
" In the spring, four winters past (spring, 1850),
a party of ' white men,' amounting to about 40,
were seen travelling southward over the ice and
dragging a boat with them, by some Esquimaux,
who were killing seals near the north shore of King
William's Land, which is a large island. None of
the party could speak the Esquimaux language in-
telligibly, but by signs the natives were made to
understand that their ship, or ships, had been
crushed by ice, and that they were now going to
where they expected to find deer to shoot. From
the appearance of the men, all of whom except one
officer looked thin, they were then supposed to be
getting short of provisions, and they purchased a
small seal from the natives. At a later date the
same season, but previously to the breaking up of
the ice, the bodies of some 30 persons were dis-
covered on the continent, and five on an island
near it, about a long day's journey to the N. W.
of a large stream, which can be no other than
BACK'S Great Fish River (named by the Esqui-
maux Oot-ko-hi-ca-lik), as its description and that
of the low shore in the neighbourhood of Point
Ogle and Montreal Island agree exactly with that
of Sir GEORGE BACK. Some of the bodies had
been buried (probably those of the first victims of
famine) ; some were in a tent or tents ; others
under the boat, which had been turned over to
form a shelter, and several lay scattered about
in different directions. Of those found on the
island one was supposed to have been an offi-
cer, as he had a telescope strapped over
his shoulders and his double-barrelled gun."
This was sufficiently painful. It proved that our
gallant fellows had perished in the same manner
as Captain GARDINER, R.N., and his unfortunate
comrades, and nearly about the same time, with
the aggravation of enduring the most intense cold
during the period of their anguish. But the
most horrible part of the thrilling narrative re-
mains behind. How dearly they loved life may
be estimated from the pains they took to preserve
it. There must have been a desperate struggle
for existence, when we read the following :
" From the mutilated state of many of the
corpses, and the contents of the kettles, it is
evident that our wretched countrymen had
been driven to the last resource—cannibalism
—as a means of prolonging existence." They
had some chance, too, for it appears that
they had plenty of powder and shot remaining.
Dr. RAE said :---1' There appeared to have been
an abundant stock of ammunition, as the powder
was emptied in a heap on the ground by the natives
out of the kegs or cases containing it; and a
quantity of ball and shot was found below high
water mark, having probably been left on the ice
close to the beach. There must have been a num-
ber of watches, compasses, te'escopes, guns (seve-
ral double-barrelled), to., all of which appear to
have been broken up, as I saw pieces of these
different articles with the Esquimoux, and, toge-
ther with some silver spoons and forks, purchased
as many as I could get."
A catalogue of some of the articles thus re-
covered has been forwarded, and will be read with
painful interest. It is strange that there was no
survivor, as some must have witnessed the arrival
of the wildfowl, which usually occurs about the
end of May, for shots had been heard, and fresh
bones and feathers of geese had been found near
the locality where the bodies were discovered. It
would also seem that Sir JOHN Ross and Lieu-
tenant BELLOT must have nearly reached the scene
of the dreadful catastrophe.

The clue thus obtained will doubtless be closely
followed up. Every relic that can possibly be
obtained must be recovered. We hear that there
were many books ; amongst them may be
the journals of the deceased, which would be of
inestimable value. We cannot now hope to see
them restored is this life ; but it would afford a
melancholy satisfaction to their relatives and friends
to know that the last sad honours had been paid
to their mutilated remains. The investigation
and the necessary assistance to Captain Comax-
SON and his crew will close the history of Arctic
discoveries, to which some few pages of absorbing
interest remain to be added. We trust the Ad-
miralty may not slight the opinion of Dr. RAE,
because he has not the magic initials R.N.
attached to his name, as in the case of Captain
PENNY.

The Moniteur of last night announces that the
Consular Agent at Varna had written to Mr.
COLQUHOTIN at Bucharest, stating that he had
received a letter, dated the 13th, from the
heights of Sebastopol, containing the following
words :—" We shall open our fire with 200 guns.
The place cannot hold out five days." With that
extraordinary vagueness that seems to be regarded
as the great desideratum by every person for-
warding communications from the scene of war,
the writer does nothing to dispel the mystery
in which matters are involved. lie says
nothing as to the time when the fire is
to be opened—whether in a few hours, or
few days, or a few weeks. That appears to be
looked on as a matter of .perfect indifference re-
specting which it is not worth his while to offer
All we can gather from it, sup-
any observa4.ion.
posing it to be authentic, a matter by no means
clear, is that the bombardment had not com-
menced up to the 13th. There may, therefore,
be some truth in the accounts received from Prince
MEN-scullion', and published on the 20th at St.
Petersburg, that " up to the 14th all seas going
on well at Sebastopol ;" that is to say, if by all
going on well we are to understand that
-he attack had not absolutely commenced,
although every
possib!o effirt had been
Made to insure a decisive and unequivocal
triumph. Indeed from the magnitude Of these
preparations, and the tremendous force brought
to bear ors the doomed fortifications, we cannot
consider the result as in any degree doubtful.
There are, however, many reasons for not yielding
implicit credence to the despatch above referred to.
We cannot forget that the impudent hoax already
perpetrated in reference to the fall of Sebastopol
came through Varna and Bucharest ; and that it
was so artfully contrived as to deceive the Otto

man - Minister, and even FRANCTS JosErn
himself, inducing him to send off his " congra-
tulations" to NAPOLEON 111. on the success of
the French arms in the Crimea. It was certainly
possible that the letter might have reached
Varna in three days (or even less) from the
Crimea, supposing that the intelligence came
direct without passing through Constantinople,
and that four days more would afford ample time
to transmit it from Varna to Bucharest. We
attach no weight to the circumstance that it was
dated Bucharest, the 16th. We have seen a
similar mistake in the despatches of the 30th
September, which were dated Bucharest, Sep-
tember 30, three p.m., although they only
left Constantinople at nine a.m. on the same
30th. Indeed it seems the prevailing impression
on the mind of the party in charge of the telegraph
at Bucharest, that he is to repeat the date of the
original despatch, whatever it might be. We can
thus understand, that the date of the 16th refer-
red to was applicable to Varna, and not Bucha-
rest, which would fully account for all the appa-
rent difficulties. Still, we must doubt
anything coming through such a quarter.
The shepherd's boy was not believed when
the wolf really came, in consequence of
the mendacity in which he had previously in-
dulged. So our Bucharest friends must Le con-
tented to submit to the natural consequences of
their previous mistakes, to use the mildest terms.

From what .we know, on certain tidings, we
may state that the Russians have been occupied
in throwing shells, with scarcely any result, into
the encampments of the Allies. The latter, disre-
garding these futile demonstrations, were en-
gaged in bringing up the siege train from
Balaklava to the scene of action. In this the
sailors lent invaluable assistance, which was more
serviceable, as many of the guns having belonged
to the shipping, from whence they could easily be
spared,.in consequence of the stupid mistake of
Prince MENSCRIKOFF in blocking up the entrance
of the harbour by sinking seven ships-of-the-line,
a barrier for the present impassable by either
friend or foe, and which, prevents the possibility
of escape to any of the vessels cooped up within
the harbour. One of these vessels, a three-decker,
has been moored across an inlet, running some
distance inland (and which divides the French
and English armies), so as to threaten our
camp. It is, however, probable that it will be
speedily disposed of, when it can receive a full
share of our polite attentions. We scarcely
suppose that it can long withstand the shower of
red-hot shot that will be poured on it from the
heights above the town.