The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-11-02

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
From tho New York Tribune.
THE FATE OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN AND
HIS COMPANIONS
We have already published in the Tribune
the facts related below. STILL the following ar
ticle from the Montreal Herald of October Fl
will prove interesting to our readers
We are indebted to Sir George Simpson, Gov
ernor of the Hudson's Bay Territory, for the
privilege of first publishing to the civilized world
the at length ascertained fate of the noble but
| ill-starred Sir John Franklin and his gallant
| company. Alas! that the fate should have been
80 sad; and that the problem, which has so
long occupied the thoughts and engaged the
energies of the great navigatOrs countless friends
and admirers in Europe and America, should be
solved by so painful so distressing a narrative
as is contained in the following letter, which
only reached Sir George Simpson yesterday af
ternoon-it having been forwarded from York
Factory, pia Red River. Our own hopes of Sir
| John Franklin's restoration to the world had
we confess, long ceased; but who could have
been prepared for the fearful reality misera-
BILE and lingering death, from literal starvation
| possibly as DIR. Rae cOnjectures, worse than
| starvation-on the frozen and desolate shores of
| the Arctic Ocean. But we shall not detain the
reader, by any reflection of ours, from the pc
rusal of DR.. Rae's intensely interesting nara
| tive-we shall merely mention that York Fac
| tory is situated at the mouth of Hayes River, in
| Hudson's Bay, in about $50 n. L., 93S" W. l..
DIR. RAGS LETTER TO SIR GEORGE SIMPSON.
YORK FACTORY, dug. 4, 1854.
Ny DEAR GEORGE: Your several letters,
| public and private, of dates 18th June and LIST
| December, 1853, and 18th and 10th June, 1854.
| were handed me on the 2Sth utimo, on my
reaching Churchell, and | rejoiced to learn that
your health had benefited so much by yonr visit
to the North.
| Let me. now allude to the expedition affairs.
/ arrived here on the 3lst ult., with my small
party, in excellent health but am sorry to say
| without having effected our object. At the
same time, information has been obtained, and
articles purchased from the natives, which
| places the fate of a portion if not all of the
survivors of Sir John Franklin's miserable par
ty beyond doubt--a fate the most deplorable-
death from starvation, after having had recourse
| to cannibalism as means of prolonging life.
| / reached my old quarters at Repulsc Bay on
the 9Th August, and preparations were imme-
diately commenced for winterng. On the lst
| September / explained to the men our position,
the stock of provisions we had ,On hand, mot
more than three months rations) and the pros
|
out all the danger and difficulty Of our position.
| All readily volunteered to remain, and our ex-
] ertions to collect food and fuel went on with
I undated energy. BY the ond of September, 100
deer, one musk OK, fifty -four brace of ptarmi-
| gan. and ono seal, had been shot, and the nets
produced 100 salmon.
OF the larger animals above enumerated. for
ty-nine deer and the musk OK were shot by
myself, twenty-one deer by Mstegan, (the deer
hunter,) fourteen by one of the men, nine by
| Ouligbuck, and sixteen by the other four men.
The migration of the deer terminated about
the middle Of October, and twenty-five more an
finals we're added to our stock
On the 2Sth of October, the snow being suffi
GENTLY hard for building, we were happy to ex-
| change our cold tents for the more comfortable
| shelter of the snow-house The winter was very
severe, but the temperature in our snow nuts
| was never so low as in nv winter quarters of
1867. Up to the 18th of January we had
nets set under the ice in the lakes; the nets
were taken up on that date, as they produced
nothing.
On the 3lst of March my spring journey COM
menced, but in consequence of gales of wind,
deep and soft snow, and foggy weather, we
made but very little progress. We did not en-
ter Pelly Bay until the 18th. At this place we
met with Esquimaux, one Of whom, on being
asked if he ever saw white people, replied in
the negative; but said that large party lat
least forty pcrsons) had persisted from want of
food, some ten or twelve days journey to the
westward. The substance of the information,
obtained at various times and from various
sources; follows:
In the spring, four winters past, (spring
1907 party of white men, amounting to
about forty, were seen travelling southwark over
the ice, and dragging boat with them, by
-bo l. IL.
north shore of King Williams Land, which is
large island named Keilitak by the Esaui-
maux. None of the party could speak the ma
tive language intelligibly; but, by signs, the
natives were made to understand that their ships
or ship had been crushed by ice, and that the
"whtes " were now going to where they ex-
pected to find deer to shoot. From the appear
ancc of the men, all of whom, except one off
Ger, (chicf,) looked thin, they were then sup
posed to be getting short OF provisions, and
they purchased small seal from the natives
= At a later date the same season, but previou.
to the disruption of the ice the bodies of about
thirty white persons were discovered on the con.
tinent, and FIVE On an island near it. about a
long days journey (say thrty-fve or forty miles
to the northwest of a large stream, which can
be no other than Backs Great Fish River
manned by the Esquimaux Out-koohi-ca-lik,
as its description, and that of the low shore in
the neighborhood of Point Ogle and Montrea
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 q
boat that had been turned over to form shell
ter, and several lay scattered about in different
directions. OF those found on the island one
was supposed to have been an officer rs he had
s a telescope strapped over his shoulder. and his
1 double-barreed gun lay underneath him.
A From the mutiated state of many of the
e corpses, and the contents of the kettles, it is
evident that our miserable countrymen had been
a driven to the last Observation-Disclosures a
t means of prolonging life.
n There appears to have been an abundant
e stock of ammunition, as the powder was emptied
: in heap on the ground by the natives, out o
t the kegs or cases containing it, and quantity
/ of ball and shot vas found below his water
: mark, having been left on the ice close to the
beach. There must have been a number o.
watches, telescopes, compasses guns, (severa
;. double barreled,) &C., ali of which appear tc
have been broken up, as / saw pieces of these
n different articles with the Esquimaux, and to
:. gether with some silver spoons and forks, pur
l. chased as many as | could obtain. A list o
> the most important of these enclose, with q
l. rough penand-ink sketch of the events and mi
tials on the forks and spoons. The aricle,
themselves shall be handed over to the Setreta
n ry Of the Hon. II. B. &C., on my arrival in Lon
A DON
l. the Esquimaux with whom convsrset
saw tho whites" nor had they ever been II thu