The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1883-10-07

N
iantry. who accompanied the Greedy relief
expedition and has Just returned with
Lieutenant Darlington, is q soldier who
made good use OF his opportunities for OH
seryations In northern seas, and Is able to
talk OF things that he has seen in an intel
ligent and interesting manner. Because
of Lieutenant Garlngton's reticence about
the misconduct Of The crew Of the Pro-
teus, a reporter OF the Republican sought
information on that point from Morlz.
"They were regular pirates" said the
soldier, speaking Of the Proteus's crew.
" They would steal everything they could
lay their hands on"
"When did You first have trouble with
theml"
"When the Proteus was wrecked, you
see. IL was like this. When the ship began
to break up, we began 10 save our stores.
We had fifteen months provisions for forty
men, and lot Of clothing. Most OF II was
in the hole. but some OF ii had just been
thrown on deck by men who had to move
il to yet at the coal. They had been carry
ing coal TO the stern OF the ship 10 tighten
her prov so that IL would raise when we
were hltting ice. The crew only had their
own provisions and clothing. which were
i'm the forecastle. They saved their stun,
and we worked at ours, throwing our
canned goods, barrels OF bread, and boxes
OF provisions over the ships side on the
ice. IL is hard TO estimate what we got out,
but not more than one fourth OF what We
did throw out was saved. The ice was
breaking and crushing up so that some OF
the stuff fell i'm the water and part Heated
off on cakes Of ice. II could all have been
saved if The Profcus's crew had helped
take care Of IL, but they would not lit Il
hand TO help us. But whenever they saw
a box or package that looked as il il con-
lained something valuable they would
smash il open and steal some of the con-
tents. They looked particularly after WINE
or whiskey. They had some. and in less
than an hour after the Proteus went down
they were all roaring drunk. They were
the worst set OF men j ever saw, and |
would not have believed such men could
live if | had not seen them. We got out
some boxes OF the reserve clothing, and
that night every sailor had on a soldiers
uniform and had put his own clothing in
his bag. Lieutenant Darlington ordered
them to turn i'm all this clothing, and they
grImlIed and turned in what they had on,
but they had plenty more slowed away
with their things. We had a LOT of buffalo
oyercoatS, and Lieutenant Darlington is
sued one to each sailor. but told them 10
take care of them, rs they would have to
turn them in when they reached It. Johns.
Afterward, when he found that a great
deal of the clothing and good many OF the
buffalo overcoatS which he had thrown out
of the ship had disappeared, he ordered
1. ,,t ho hin and sggnn1
mates, and chief engineer of the ship
to turn in those he had issued. They
yrumbled again, but turned them in, and
,wore they were all they had. The third
landing we made after we started south
the Protells men were camped about aInile
rom lis. | had occasion TO 20 over there,
md found their boats covered with btii-
ao coats. which they were drying. They
lad stolen enough to go around, and |
guess a good many more. They would
steal anything. You couldn't put Il pair
II socks on the rock TO dry hut Il sailor
would steal them. This par Of pants I'm
wearing | lost up there. found them
gain in the BAG OF one OF Captain Pixies |
ailors after we got aboard the Iantic."
.'Whv didn't YOU resist this treatment"
1--WE couldn't. There were twenty |
hree of them, all told, and only eight Of |
Is. Beside that, they had all their guns |
nd we had only saved twO-a repeating |
ifle which had bought i'm Chicago. and |
Winchester. which one Of the other men
lad. All the army guns went down in the |
'roteus. We had to treat the sailors ra- |
her carefully. There were one or two |
Iecent men among them, but the rest were |
iratcS."
did Captain Pike stand by his sailors
n their robberies!"
"No: Captain Pike was gentleman. |
nd the first mate. who was his son, was a |
entleman but they had TO depend on the
rev. and couldn't control them. No;
aptain Pike didn't uphold his men in
heir rascality. / heard him say to Lieu
enant Darlington: You've got lot of |
zen, but Pve got Il lot Of dirty dogs who
re too mean to live"
.'rhen there was no trouble between |
'aptan Pike and Lieutenant Darling
on 7"
Not that | know OF. don't think
here was any. If there was the men saw |
+ heard nothing of it,"
odd the performance OF the PrOtcIS
rev prevent your remaining at Lyttle-
on's island until the Yantic came up, and |
o continuing the expedition -
THAT is hard to tell, but ! rather think |
o. This was the situation: We had saved |
rom the ProteuS about three months pro-
isionS for our party. Ii we stayed there
III winter we should eat. them all up and |
AVE nothing left for Lieutenant Greey.
True, the Iantic was ordered 10 meet us
here, but we knew that the Iantc was
rdered TO take no risks of destruction
rom ice. As far rs we could see, Mel |
lille bay was all ice. We had butted through
ce four solid days in getting where we
we're. and we knew that if the Yantic
ound the same difficulty she would never
GET there. suppose Lieutenant CARING
on thought il better TO leave what
provisions and clothing he could for the
freely party, and make his way south at
,nce, than to ca! up all the provisions and !
Ne there in the spring unable to help Gree
Y il he came, and with so many more men
% care for. At any rate, that's what he
lid. | don't think the reason we came
back was ever understood by people here
)r ever correctly reported in the papers
but that's just how it was. Now, ii Cap.
ain Pixies men had helped us save the |
stores we could have cot enough out of the
Proteus TO keep us all winter, and have
plenty left for ourselves and the |
Greedy party in the spring. But think,
with the kind OF men thew We're,
If we had stayed there, and there
bad not been enough food, not one OF |
our party would have lived to see the
spring. | think so from the growing | |
heard, which amounted TO threats, i'm INV |
opinion. IL we had anything that these
men wanted they would have taken il. If |
IL had ever come TO the point of actual
want we would have suffered. Those sail |
ors were the greatest towards ever saw.
When there was danger they would pray
and do nothing. When they could not |
steal they would beg. They were a bad
lot, and, in the way have told Won. they
maI he snil N hnA.o l1,....-.I - L