Butte record., 1854-12-02

in Hudson's By, in about 90 deg. north
latitude, west longitude. ..,t..
DIR. REA'S LETTER TO SIR
GEORGE SIMPSON.
YORK FAcToRY, Aug, 4th, 1851.
My DEAR GEoRGE: Your several
letters, public and private, of d ties 10Th
June and lst December, 1853, and 18th
and 10th June, 1884, were handed me
ont he 2Sth ult ION my rec ching Chur-
chit, and [ rel iced to learn that your
health had been so much benefited by
your benefit TO the north. III .4ist
Let mo now alludc to the expidition
affairs I.arrived here on the 3l-t ult.
with my small party, in excellent health
bat am sorry to say without having eff
iccted onr object. At the me time,
l information has been obtained and arti-
cles puruhas from the natives, which
p'ac ..the fate OF portion, ii not all Of
the then survivors Of Sir John Frank
Inns miserable party beyond d ,ubt-
fate the most depInrable,- death from
starvation, after having had recourse to
cannibalism as Il means of prolonging
life. .I ,l- tios. ...l
| reached my old quarters at Repulse
Bay, on the 18th August, and prepare
lions were Immediately commenced for
wntering On the lst September [ ex
planned 10 the men our position, the
stock of provisions we had on hand mot
more than three months raions), and
the prospects we had of getting NOR,
Sc, pointing out all the danger and
difficulty of our position All readily
volunteered 10 remain, and our exerlion
to collect food and fuel went on with un-
abated energy. By the end of Septem
Der, 100 deer, l musk OK, 81 braces of
ptarmagan, and one seal had been shot,
and the nets produced 100 salmon.
OF the larger animals aboye enulnera-
ted, 40 deer and the musk OK We're slot
by myself, 81 deer by Mistegan, the
deer hunter, II BY one Of the men, by
Ouligbuck, and l6 BY the other four
men. The migration of the deer ter
minated about the middle of October,
and twenty-five more animals were ad7
dcd to our stock.
On the 2Sth of October the snow be-
ing sufficiently hard for build ng, we
were happy to exchange our cold tents
for the more comfortable shelter of the
snow house The winter was very Sc
we're, but The temperature in. our snow
huts was never so low as in M winter
quarters Of '46-'47. Up to January
18th we had nets set under the ice III
the lakes, on that date they were taken
up as they poduccd nothing s.
On the 3lst of March my spring jour,
ney commenced, but in consequence Of
gales of wind, deep and soft snow, amt
ioggy weather, we made but little pro-
gress. We did not enter Pelly Bay un.
til the 18th. Atthis place We metwith
Esquimaux, one of whom, on being asked
if he ever saw white people, replied in
the negative, but sid that large party
at least 40 persons, had perished for
want of food. some ten or twelve to the
westward. The substance OF the infor-
from various sources, was a, fnllows:
In the spring four winters past, (spring
1850, J a party of white men, numbering
about 40, were seen travelling southward
over the ice, and dragging boat with
them, by some E-quimaux who we're
killing seals on the north shore of King
Williams Land, which is large island
named Kei-ik-tak by the Esquimaux-
None of the party could speak the native
language, intelligibly, but by signs the
natives were made to understand that
their ship or ships had been crushed by
ice, and that the white were then going
to where they expected to find deer to
shoot. From the ap; earance of the
men, all of whom, except one officer,
| (chief, looked thin, they were then sup
posed to be getting short of provisions.
and they purchase a small seal fism
the natives. 5re .Husb 81 egsb y .
At later date the same season, but
previous to the disruptation Of the ice,
the, bodies of about thirty white pefs5-s
were found on the continent, and ave on
an island near it, about a long days jour-
ney, (say Thirty five or forty nnles,) to
the northwest of large sire NJ, which
can be no other than Back $ Great Fish
River, (named by the Esquemaiix Oui-
koo hi ca-lic, as its description, and that
of the low shore in the neig.lb lberhood of
Point Ogle and Montreal Isla ID agree
exactly with that Of Sir George Back.--
Some. Of the bodies had bec.i buried /,
| (probable those Of the first vcti.nss of
famine |; some were in ten. p tents,
others under boat that hal be- ninrned
over to for a shelter. and s.. eral l,y
scattered about, in different d fations,
Of.th Sc found on an islan'l frnea Wa
supposed to have been an off = = as he
! bad a telescope strapped oveslhis shoui-