Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-10-31
price Two Cents.
ale 9ailp Spy.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 81, 1854.

The following is the material portion of DR..
RAGS statement of information gathered from
the Esquimaux, relative to Sir John Frank
lin -
We did not enter Pelly Bay until March
18th. At this place we met with Esquimaux,
one of whom, on being asked if he ever saw
white people, req lied in the negative, but said
that large party Cat least forty persons) had
persisted for want of food some ten or twelve
days Journey to the westward. The substance
of the information, obtained at different times
and from different sources, was as follows So
In the spring, four winters past, (spring of
1850 a party of white men amounting to
about forty, were seen travelling southwark
over the ice, and dragging boats with them,
by some Esquimaux who were killing seals on
the north shore of King Williams Land,
which is large island named Kei .ik-tak by
the Esqumaux. None of the party could
speak the native language intelligbly, but by
signs the natives were made to understand
that their ships or ship had been crushed by
ice, and that the ''whites'' were now going to
whore they expected to find deer to shoot.
From the appearance of the men, all of
whom, except one officer (chief,) looked thin,
they were then supposed to be getting short of
provisions, and they purchased a small seal
from the natives.
vious to the disruption of the ice, the bodies
of about thirty white persons were discovered
on the continent, and five ON an island near
it, about long days journey (say So to 40
miles, to the N. w. of large stream, which
can be no other than Blacks Great Fish River
(named by the Esquimaux Out koo- hi-ca-lic,)
as its description, and that of the low shore
on the neighborhood of Point Ogle and Mon
treal Island agree exactly with that of Sir
George Black. Some of the bodies had been
buried probably those of the first victims of
famine) some were in tent or tents, others
under a boat that had been turned over to
form a shelter, and several lay scattered about
i'll different directions. OF those found on the
island, was one supposed to have been an off,
Ger, as he had a telescope strapped over his
shoulder and his double barrelled gun lay un-
derneath him.
From the mutilated state of many of the
corpses, and the contents Of the kettles, it is
evident that our miserable countrymen had
been driven to the last resource-eannibalism
as a means Of prolonging lie.
There appears to have been an abundant
stock of ammunition, us the powder was emp
tied in heap on the ground, by the natives,
out Of the kegs containing it, and a quantity
Of ball ard shot was found below high water
mark, having been left on the ice close to the
U6dCll. IuerG uuSI nave Deeu u nuIuO6r OF
watches, telescopes, compasses, guns, (several
double barrelledl &c., all of which appear to
have been broken up, as saw pieces of these
different articles with the Esquimaux, and to-
gether with some silver spoons and forks, pur-
chased as many as 1 could obtain. A list of
the most important of these l enclose, with a
rough pen-and-ink sketch of the crests, and
| initials on the forks and spoons. The articles
| themselves shall be handed over to the Secre.
tary of the Hon. Hudson Bay Co., on my ar
rival in London.
| None Of the Esquimaux with whom l con-
versed had seen the "whites,' nor had they
ever been at the place where the dead were
found, but had their information from those
who had been there, and those who had seen
| the party when alive.
The following is a list of articles purchased
from the Esquimaux, said to have been found
at the place where the party of men starved to
death in the spring of 1850: