The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-08-22
aaEEIx A -cAnn1HA1.
ksmbers Of the 0resly Party Charged
With Killing and Eating the Bodies
of Their Comrades,

The New York Times of Tuesday morning
says: Written documents now in the posses
sion Of the navy department at Washington
add to the record of miserable human suffer
ings already published in connection with the
finding of the Greedy relief expedition, the
most shocking stories of inhumanity and can
nibalism. All the facts have been in the pos
session of Secretary Chandler for nearly three
weeks, but SO closely have they been guarded,
and so strictly have the naval officers and
sailors maintained the silence imposed upon
them, that not even an inkling of the true and
horrible condition of affairs has yet reached the
public ear. The sufferings and privations of
the men in their canvas hut, during the long,
bitter winter of 1884, have not half been told.
1t has been published that after game gave out
early in February they lived principally on
seal skins, lichens and shrimps.
As o matter of fact they were kept alive on
human flesh When the rescuing party dis
covered the half-starved survivors, their first
sible from coldand privation even to the point
of death. One of them, a German, was wild.
In his delirium he shrieked, ''0h!' as the sail
ors took hold of him 10 lift him tenderly,
Don't let them shoot me as 9ley did poor
Henry. Must ! be killed and eaten us Henry
wasg Don't let them do ii, don't" The sailors
were Mortified, but at once reported the mans
words to Commander Schley. E
Whom the horrible reality was brought out
before an:inyestigating committee, Commander
among whom was DR.. Ames, the surgeon of
the Bear, to make q careful examination. and
put their conclusions in writing. This was
done, and the reports are now in the hands of
the navy department Lieut.. Greeley was de-
cidedly averse to having the bodies of the
h1riaH 1ao6 IiS{r1rha1 bvffha hp5,nu u,nro Ar,
from their graves. Most of the blankets
contained nothing but heaps of white bones,
many of them picked clean. BY inquiries
Commander schley discovered many Of the
seventeen men who are said to have persisted
from starvation had been eaten by their FAM
fishing comrades. 1t was the one last resort.
It is reported that the only men who escaped
the knife were three or four who died of scurvy.
The amputatel limbs of men who afterward
persisted, were eagerly devoured as food.
Whether the four bodies which were swept out
TO sea and never recovered would have added
further evidence to this story of horrible
canniballsm, cannot be learned now,
though the papers in the possession
OF the navy department give all the
particulars as told by the survivors.
tragic. Driven to despair by his frightfulhnn-
ger, Henry saw an opportunity to steal . little
more than his share OF r%ations, and he made
the attempt He was found and shot for his
crime. In the published official report the
death of this man is set down rs having oc-
Cured June s. When the body was found his
hands and face, though s%hrnnken, were intact
and recognizable; but nearly everywhere else
the skin had been stripped from him and the
flesh picked from the bones. Even his heart and
lungs were eaten by his comrades. The body
was in this condition when it was inferred last
Saturday. The letter from his friend Robert
S. Oberfelder, of Sidney, Neb., which is daily
looked for, will probably never come to light