The Greely Expedition.

Evening Star, Issue 7361, 5 November 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Greely Expedition.

Home additional and more ghastly facts have recently been communicated to the Chicago Press relating to the ill-fated Greely expedition by Captain Norman, a Newfoundlander, and foe-master in two United States Polar exploration parries—on board the Neptune and Proteus. According to a despatch from Chicago, August 14 (writes the San Francisco correspondent of the 1 Argus') Captain Norman was ioe-master of the Proteus when it bore Greeiy and his party to Lady Franklin Bay in 1881, and he held the same position in the Neptune, under the command of A. M. iJeebe. He was a member of the final relief exE edition. To him belongs the honor of eing the first to discover the starving sufferers. Captain Norman is expected to know as much of the history of the expedition as anyone not a member of it. He said :—" I was the first man inside the tent where the survivors were found. When I got near enough to the tent to be heard I called out: ' Cheer up, Greely; we're here with two ships to save you!' The poor fellows were lying on the ground in their sleeping bags, just able to move. They acted at first as if they were in a dream, and could not believe the evidence of their senses. Sergeant Ellison was lying near the centre of the tent. His hands and feet had been frozen the winter before, and had dropped off; not amputated, but actually dropped off'. Greely began to curse and rave. He swore at the Navy, and said there was not a decent man in it, and that) he wished it had been the Army that had come to his rescue." " How about the stories of cannibalism, published after the Greely party had returned ?" asked a correspondent. " Cannibalism was not the worst thing that happened during the expedition, by a long shot," responded Captain Norman after a moment's hesitation. "There were just three bodies out of the thirteen we found which had not been mutilated. Private Henry's head and arms had entirely disappeared. His bones were picked as clean as a child picks a chicken bone ; and, in fact, there was scarcely anything left. You could see where thick strips of flesh had been cut from Lieutenant Kislingbury's thighs, just as a butcher cuts a steak. The others were horribly mutilated, but there is no use going into particulars. When I told Commander Schley the condition in which some of the bodies were found, he told mo to keep the matter as quiet as possible, and not to let the men know anything about it. The bodies were taken aboard the ship, and placed in alcohol. A wooden ball was placed on Henry's neck, and two wooden sticks were made to represent his arms. Their clothes were wrapped around them to conceal the deception, and in this way he was buried on Governor's Island. An attempt was made to observe the utmost secrecy in the matter, and when Portsmouth was reached no one was allowed to see the bodies, and the survivors themselves were taken ashore to the Navy-yard and surrounded by a cordon of sentinels, so that no one could approach them without permission." " What became of Dr Pavey ? How did Lieutenant Kislingbury die ? Why was Private Henry shot?" '' All these things will come out in due time. On the night of the rescue a private diary of one of the men was found. I saw it, and read a few pages of it, which gave a very different version of the expedition from that given in the published reports. That diary disappeared the next day, and I don't know what has become of it. I have had letters from Greely and Brainard in regard to it, asking me if I knew where it was, or whtfhad it. I don't think it has been destroyed, and I believe it will be brought to light one of these days, arid if it ever is you may look out for a sensation.''