The following spring, when there was little snow on the ground, she saw
a tent standing on the shore at the head of Terror Bay. There were dead
bodies in the tent, and outside were some covered over with sand. There
was no flesh on them--nothing but the bones and clothes. There were a
great many; she had forgotten how many. Indeed, Inuits have little idea
of numbers beyond "ten." She saw nothing to indicate any of the party
she met before. The bones had the chords or sinews still attached to
them. One of the bodies had the flesh on, but this one's stomach was
gone. There were one or two graves outside. They did not open the
graves at this time; saw a great many things lying around. There were
knives, forks, spoons, watches, many books, clothing, blankets, and
such things. The books were not taken notice of. This was the same
party of Esquimaux who had met the white men the year before, and they
were the first who saw the tent and graves. They had been in King
William Land ever since they saw the white men until they found the
tent place.
CHAPTER VI.
THE MIDNIGHT SUN.
Such was the statement of Ahlangyah the Netchillik. When she had
finished it we gave her some needles, spoons, a tin pan, and other
articles that well repaid her for the trouble she had taken to reach
us. Here was a woman who had actually seen the poor, starving
explorers, and her story was replete with interest for us. Every word
she uttered seemed fraught with the dread tragedy, and she appeared to
share our interest, for her face was full of expression. At times it
was saddened with the recital of the piteous condition of the white
men, and tears filled her eyes as she recalled the sad scene at the
tent place where so many had perished, and their bodies become food for
wild beasts. It would seem, from what she related to-day, that the
party which perished in the inlet we visited yesterday, was part of the
same that Ahlangyah met on King William Land. She and her friends could
not get across Simpson Strait, while the white men kept on over the
rotten ice, probably at last compelled to take to their boat, and then,
at the mercy of the wind and ice, after losing others of their number
near Pfeffer River and Todd Islands, had drifted into the inlet where
the dead bodies were found with the boat. How long it took them to
reach this place will probably never be known, but there is little
doubt that they were in a desperate condition. In fact, as we
subsequently learned from other witnesses, there were almost
unmistakable evidences of their being compelled to resort to
cannibalism, until at last they absolutely starved to death at this
point--at least all but one, whose remains were found, during the
summer after our visit here, about five miles further inland.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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