A Diary and Journal from the Second Grinnell Expedition

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my hopes untainted. Want of hope is a taint a rotteness, and as long as my energies keep true I do not fear for the future. Thus I argue to myself. It is but eleven days before we reach the middle of our night. After that the consciousness that every day nears us closer to the dawing will give a moral prop to my sick. I have saved a bottle of Champaign, hoarded up since September, to garnish a dinner and play upon the spirits of my little family. Again, I find by my journals of animal life that by the 9th of Feb. we may expect a chance deer, and still earlier (in January) a few Ptarmagan. Finally, if the worst turns up, I am sufficiently hardened to the climate not to fear a few days of -50° and will find my way to the Leiper Bay Esquimaux and in virtue of my terrible authority as [Nahlagak?] and Conjurer, press into service sledges drivers and walrus hunters. Give me health and I've no fears.

The super abundant life of Northumberland Isd has impressed Mr. Petersen as much as it did me. How fearfully it bears upon the fate of Franklin. I could evven in August have collected a winters sustenance of Birds and Cochlearia, and here have this poor party lived the live of Esquimaux with temperatures of -50° and darkness covering their hunting grounds.

Our own sickness I attribute to our civilized diet. Had we plentiful supplies of raw & frozen walrus I

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he stated that he had been to the South of Leiper Bay, I understood him to say as far as Northumberland Id. where there was a cache of meat - That Hans was sick with the Exposure and lying knocked up at Eepah, that he Godfrey, intended to [return] go back and live with Kalutaneh. -[That there was a cache of meat on Northumberland Id. &c.]

I then ordered him to return to the ship, which he refused to do saying that no force should compel him and at the same time turning to retreat. Upon seeing this I produced a pistol from my pocket and compelled him to stop until Mr. Bonsall arrived, which was not long.

William having again with many words again refused, in the joint presence of Mr. B. and myself to return to the brig. I anounced my intention of shooting him if he did not move before the word "three". At the word "two" he started, and was escorted to the brig by Mr. Bonsall and myself. When alongside he declared his intention go back [return] and that no force should compel him to go on board. Whereupon I placed him under charge of Mr. B. with orders to shoot him if he attempted to escape, and then proceeded to the after hatch on deck and called to Mr. McGeary for foot cuffs, as well as assistance.

It is proper to remark here that both Mr. B and myself were barely able to walk and entirely incapable of contronling Godfrey by [mamal?] force, that Mr. Petersen the only remaining [well] man as well [as] in health as ourselves was absent hunting and that every other soul on board was down with scurvy.

[verso]

[?] [?] - he remained ill for five days and then travelled on foot towards the brig till he met me.

The dogs carried us home by the outside passage off Bedevilled Reach. I took the ice foot about 4 miles S.E. of [Badall?] Camp and reached the brig in comfortable conditions.

Wednes: Apr. 11th

Hans started again to bring back the meat from Littleton Id cashe. If he feels [?] I have given him a commission to which I attach the [greatest?] importance.

My hopes of again undertaking a Spring journey to Kennedy Channel were storng in the early months of the winter - but as our dogs died away a second time - and the scurvy crept in upon us I became sad and distrustful as to the chance of our ever living to gain the open water. The return of the withdrawing party absorbed all [?]. They brought news of disaster, starvation, and loss of dogs among the natives. The prospects seemed then at their lowest ebb. Still I cherished a secret hope of making another journey, and had determined to undertake it alone with our poor remnant of four dogs, trusting to my rifle for provisions. In fact, this continuation of my one great duty has been constantly before me, and I now think that I can manage it. Thus: —

The Esquimaux have left Northumberland Id and are now near Cape Alexander, as a better seat of walrus hunt. Among them is [Kalutanek?] the best of the breed and he, like a provident man, has saved seven dogs. I have authorized Hans to negotiate carte blanche - if necessary for four of these dogs - even as a loan - promising as a final bait the contingent possession of my whole team when I reach the open water after my return. On this mission I send my [?] [?] and await his return with anxious hope.

[recto]

I have foreseen, from the first day of our imprisonment by the ice the possibility of melting more that we might never be able to liberate the ship. Elsewhere in this journal I have explained by what construction of my duty I [?] the brig to the North and why I deemed it impossible honorably to abandon her after a single season. Why too I gave to others the free right to remain or withdraw, and why I looked upon that withdrawal as closing their connection with the Expedition. The same connected train of reasoning now leads me to mature and organize every thing for an early departure without her in case she cannot [should we find that the brig is not] to be released. My hopes of this release are feeble: my judgment and experience tell me that it is nearly impossible, and I know that when it does release - if ever - the season will, like the last, be too far advanced - for me to carry home my people. [Now last year I warned the withdrawing men of the futility of their attempt as early as Aug 24th.] All my experience carefully redeemed by consultation with Petersen- concerns me that I must start early - and govern my boats and sledges by the condition of the ice and hunting grounds.

Whatever of [executive?] ability I have picked up during this brain and body wearing [concise?] awrnd me against [?] preparation or [vaccilating?] [?] - I must have an [exact?] discipline, a rigid routine and a perfectly though out organization. In the past six weeks I have, in the intervals between my duty to the sick and the ship, arranged the schedule of our future course. Much of it is already under way. My journal shows what I have done, but what there is to do is appalling. I state all this as a proper announcement of my intentions to show how much I sacrifice by my intended journey to the North and to explain to my home friends why I have so little time or mood for scientific observation or re-

[verso]

search. This journal will give in due time my list of equipment and general organization.

My feelings may be understood when I say that my Carpenter and all the working men save Bonsall are still on their backs and that a [months?] preliminary labour is needed before I can commence the heavy labour of transporting my boats (three in number) over the ice to the anticipated water. At the moment of my writing this the water is over eighty miles in a short line progress from our brig!

[No matter, spirits good! Hope is better! Trust best of all!!]

Thursday Apr. 12

Again blowing as yesterday from [?] We have had of late much of these winds. I regard them as very favourable to the advance of open water. The long swell from the open spaces in North Baffin’s Bay [succeeded] has a powerful effect upon the ice. I should not wonder if the ice about Life Boat Cove, off McGeary Is would be broken up by the first of May. Poor Hans is out in this storm.

Our sick have been without fresh food since the 8th but such is the [?] by our late supply that they, as yet, show no backward symptoms. McGeary and [Christian Ohlsen|Ohlsen] and Brooks and Riley dress themselves daily and are able to do much useful jobbing. Thomas begins to relieve me in cooking, [George Riley|Riley]] to take a spell at the [?] Morton cooked breakfast, am aided by McGeary, [Christian Ohlsen|Ohlsen] has already finished one cotton [?] camp blanket with which I intend to cover our last remaining buffalo skins. Wilson comes on slowly. Dr. Hayes too begins to heal. Sonntag is more cheery [less a nuissance] with the [encaptions?] of Goodfellow John & Whipple I can feel that my little household is [are] fast becoming men again. [Sastrande indefinite?]

[recto]

[the following paragraph is crossed out] and vague as is the acknowledged God to whom I give it. Gratitude unspeakable pervaded one at this sudden change. I knew the cause of our resurrection from putrid stagnation to vitality. The cause was 400 [?] of raw meat, it puzzled the [?] and [?] to say why in the next causative [?], raw walrus did this. I might spend a lifetime among the proximates and never get up to God. What damned [me?] - family - for us [agglomented?[ worms, unable [?] [?] to dissect our own Maggots[?], to travel up to [origination?]. I only know that I am very grateful. [/end deletion]

The Netelik Settlement on Northumberland Island was when [Myouk?] heard from it the refuge of the natives from the farthest south even of those from beyond [Wolstenholne?] and the last beyond about their barrier glacier. As [?] drove them they concentrated at [?] Stronghold and watched Hans says with great merriment song and dance and [?] merriment the gradual approach of starvation. [Now I am [rotted?] with news up to the date of Hans leaving Etah. ]

It seemed that the poor wretched suffered terribly even more than one neighbors of Etah. Their laws exact an equal division, and the success of the best hunsters was dissapated by the crowds of feeble claimants upon their spoils. At last the broken nature of the ice margin and the freezing up of a large zone of ice prevented them from seeking walrus. The water was inacessible, and the last resource [of killing their dogs] pressed itself [fell] upon them. They killed their dogs. Fearful as it sounds when we think how indispensable the services of the animals are to their daily existance, they cannot now number more than twenty in their entire [domain] ownership of the tribe. From glacier south to glacier north, from glacier east to the [?] ice bound coast which completes the circuit of their little world. This nation have but twenty dogs. What food can they hope for without their animals.