The Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, Ohio) 1853-1861, 1854-12-02


about 40, were seen travelling southwark over
the ice, and dragging boat with them, by
some Esquimaux who were killing seals on
the north shore of King Williams Land.
which is a large island named Kei-ik-tax, by
the Esquimaux. None of the party could
speak the native language intelligibly, but,
by signs, the natives were made to under
stand that their ships or ship had been crush
ed by ice, and that the whites were now 60
ing to where they expected to find deer to-
shoot. From the appearance of the men, all
I of whom except one -chief--looked
thin, they were then supposed to be getting
short of provisions, and they purchased a
small seal from the natives.
At later date, the same season, but pre-
vious to the disruption of the ice, the bodies
of about thirty white persons, were discov-
cred on the continent, and five on an island
near it, about a long days iourney-say 35
or 40 miles-to the n. w. of large stream,
which can be no other than Backs Great
Fish River, named by the Esquimaux, Out
oo-hi-ca-lik, as its description, and that of
the low shore in the neighborhood Of Point
Ogle and Montreal Island agree exactly with
that of Sir George Back.
Does not the reader Immediately perceive
a glaring improbability in all this account
for, if the party were Sir Johns, how came
it that he should have passed over the imme-
date region being explored and yet not have
heard, through the numerous bodies of Es-
quimaux always infesting the country in the
spring and summer, of the presence of his
friends? How came it that the party of
Esquimaux who saw him did not give him
such information as would lead to his eman-
cipation, familiar as these natives were, with
the fact OF the presence Of the searching
ships and land expeditions
But this is not the most glaring inconsist-
Iency Of the account. The informants of DR..
Rae state that the party of whites could not
talk with the Esquimaux who met them. Isl
this not incomprehensi6le when it is known
that all these Arctic inhab bitants talk the
same language-only differing in provincial
iSms-and with which language franklin
and very many of his men were perfectly
familiar? 1t is impossible to regard this
portion of the story with the least credence.
Again: why, if the whites had guns and
plenty of ammunition, and seals and deer
and foxes were plenty-as they always are
in King Williams Land, in the summer.
according to the Esquimaux own account
should the party have starved and perished
by hunger? This part of the story is incred-
ible. DR.. Rae himself confesses the coun-
try to abound abundantly in wild game, the
water to be filled with fishes, the water fowls
to breed in immense focks, and when moult-I
ing to be easily caught with the hands, and
how can starvation in such region have
been possible with men well provided with
guns, ammunition, boats, cooking utensils,
&C., &C.? There is no other reflection left |
but that the story of starvation is an utter
fabrication.
The truth to us is plain. 1t is known, by
every account, that these Esquimaux are as
thieving and lying a set of beings as live
upon the face of the earth. Under no cir
cumstances can the least credit be given to
their stories and we cannot realize why DR..
Rae, knowing their detestable villainy so
we'll, should ever have placed any reliance