THE GEEELY AKOTIO EXPEDITION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 8021, 5 November 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE GEEELY AKOTIO EXPEDITION.

Some 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 icemaster in two United States Polar exploration parties, on board the Neptune and Forteus. According to a despatch from Chicago, August 14, Captain Norman was icemaster of the Porteus when it bore Greely and his party to Lady Franklin Bay in 1881, and he held the same position in the Neptune, under the command of A. M. Beebe. He was a member of the final relief expedition. To him belongs the honour of being 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 the tent where the survivors were found. When I gat near enough to the tent to be heard I called out, 'Cheer up, Greely; we're here with two ships to save you 1' 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 actuallydropped off. Greely began to curse and rave. He 3woro 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 1" 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 13 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 sec where thick stripes of flesh had been cut from Lieutenant Kislingbury's thighs, jnst 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 tome of the bodies were found, he told me 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 wai 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 1 Why was private Henry shot 1 All those 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, andread 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 who had it. I don't think it has been destroyed, and I believe it will be brought to light one of these days, and if it ever is you may look out for a sensation."