The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1873-06-25
An Arctic Rerelation.

Z silence. or are enabled TO LIT the curtain
Of ignorance that hangs about its out
skirts. nothing can more strike the mind
with It's impressiveuess. We all know
that in some lonely ice-bOund spot lie the
remains Of brave explorers-Sir John
Franklin and his cOmPany-never per
haps to be brought back TO the world Of
green fields and pleasant places. But
sometimes the secrets Of the far North
are unlocked; sometimes the shadow OF
ignorance that envelopes It and hides 1t
from our sight gives way to the light Of
knowledge. and the world reads 4 curious
story IN the revelation
Ii has been reserved for Captain Carl
sen, q Norwegian navigator, to pierce this
veil Of mystery, IN one instance at least,
and to make 3 discovery which, in the
recital of it, seems more ike fairy tale
I of the tar North than 4 sober narrative Of
our prosaic day. While SO many brave
men are exploring the Arctic regions,
searching for the North Pole, the geo
graphical phantom which ever allures and
ever eludes, curious interest viii attach
to his discovery. But in order to approach
this we must follow q circuitous route;
we must 90 back nearly two hundred and
seventyeight years, to period late in
the sixteenth century, about the year
1896, when one Willem Barentz, Dutch
navigator, sailed away on MS second voy-
age Of discovery, to trace out, if possible,
the northwest passage, that famous i'm
agined highway TO Asia by way Of the
Arctic Ocean, the fact of the existence of
which so many navigators have vainly
endeavored to realize. Barentz failed in
his search, but be discovered Spitzbergen,
that vast archipelago which lies in the
heart of the Arctic Ocean. He found it
expedient to land upon this coast, and
there he built huts for shelter, and for
temporary residence for himself and for his
company. Here be tarried during the
dreary months of an Arctic winter. and
in due course of time abandoned the spot,
leaving the huts and their contents. and
returned to his own country, never to
revisit his quaint settlement.
Three centuries nearly have passed
away since that event. The years have
come and gone over those silent witnesses
to the presence of the ancient mariner
and his sturdy crew. In all that time, as
we may believe, no living thing has in
vaded the sacred solitude of this spot,
haunted with memories of that coming,
long ago, of Barentz and his men. Pos
sibly, from the distance. the walrus and
the seal may have gazed upon it, and from
his rapid fight in the ether some Arctic .
bird Of passage may have turned curious
eve upon the scene. But no dust has set I
tied there; no moth has stolen in to bring /
decay. Even the elements seem to have (
abated their severity and to have pro-
tected with kindly hand the legacy left
to their undivided keeping.
The sequel almost partakes of the char
acter of one of those tales wherewith the
princess in the Arabian Nights" deferred
her threatened and delayed fate by Will
ing away the tedious evenings of her
cruel Caliph. One day in the year 1870,
Captain Carlson bore shoreward in his
ship to this icy coast of Spitzbergen. He
landed at the spot where Barentz had
landed before him, and to his perplexed
eyes appeared the vision of the old en-
campment
The huts were still there, just as Myn-
beer had lett them nearly three hundred
years ago. In the rude hearth lay the
relics Of the utterly dead and long ex-
fire. Upon a shelf were books
from the old Dutchman's library work
on navigation, the latest edition published
before he had sailed, and a history of
China, translated into Dutch. Jugs and
fishes. wherein had been prepared the
drink and food of the adventures, were
scattered here and there, and even q pair
IF shoes were found which had belonged
% little cabin boy, who, as say the re
lords, had died upon the voyage. There
zere also quaint engravings, and curious
instrument intended to assist
n obtaining longitude All these articles
we're carefully collected, and brought to
Europe on Carlsen's return
There Is touch of the pathetic in this
evelatioa Of the long-kept secret Of the
Arctics. 1t IS pathetic, indeed, as that
tory Of another old Dutch seaman, Myn-
leer Tanderdecken, whose ship-we have
| upon the excellent authority OF sailors
ybo come to port, and who themselves
ave witnessed the strange spectacle
nav be seen st dawn and twilight, in fair
heather and foul, rushing like the ghostly
hip thar il Is through the startled sea, or
'eSting Aimlessly about the approaches to
be Cape Of Good Hope.-A Y World
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