ADDITIONAL NEWS BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

Colonist, Volume XXVII, Issue 3943, 23 September 1884, Page 3

ADDITIONAL NEWS BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

THE GREELY EXPEDITION. (Per United Press Association.) San Francisco, Sept. 1. ! The ' New York Times' of the 9th August, created a profound sensation by publishing a long account, going to show that the survivors of the (freely expedition sustained life by cannibalism. Their dead companions and that of Graves, found by Lieut.1 H.chley, contained: only clean picked bones.: The horrible state of things brought' to light,- according -to the ,«Times,'"the following :'— When the rescued party discovered the halfstarved survivors,..their first duties' were to Took .after two men who were insensible from cold and privation, even to the point of death, One of them (Gorman) was wild in his deli : rium ". Oh," he shrieked, as the sailors took hold to lift him up tenderly, " Don't let them shoot me as they did poor Henry; must I be killed,and eaten as .'poor' Henry 1 wasi Don't let them do-it;; don!t, "dont.," 1 Henry, ii appears," was- a r young, German^ who, driven.wild msi-hunger i sought^to steal a. little more; than his rations, and .being found .out was:shot-by his companions, who afterwards stripped his;flesh from his body in their hunger; andleven ate his heart and lungs. The; officials put in a general denial of thet. 4 Times' but otherwise maintain, reticence- and refuse-'-to answer .rquestiohs. 'There is a.general, impression that the paper's account is substaiitially-correct. . !- OnLihe August, the f Times gave the following additional particulars :-^rUn"til the- death of Surgeon Pavy.of the Greely "party, three .weeks before-the *: rescue came K ,the flesh was cut from most of the bodies for use by the survivors as food and bait ;".!it was removed by a hand skilled in dissection. - Few of the bodies had the fleshy' portion cat away entire, but with the majority the work had been so well done, that the casual observer would not have suspected, without other evidence, of .which there was plenty.' however, that the ! Burvivors had been reduced to cannibalism, and had been a long time subsisting princi-, pally, on the bodies of their companions. Is it not a coincidence that Surgeon -Pavy;- with'-those1 "others' 'who .die^d v after him, should be reported 'a.B^yas ( hed 'away'?1" With' 'the' surgeon gone, 'the scalpel could -not be used as before, when bodies had been left with but little mark of the terrible' work done after his death. . The survivors were-forced to dismember the bodies and denude, them of flesh in a} way jthat they "'.left nothing'but ,the bones?. So these unfortunates were reported as buried in an ice floe, and washed away. On most of the' bodies the.incision was made from the clavicle downwards below the ribs ; the scalpel then passed along under the skin, and the flap was carefully laid back on either side'; the flesh was then removed from the ribs and the skins were pulled back into their places and .the edges carefully joined so that there was no external evidence i left of the' ghastly work but a dark line. ' The. thighs were treated in the same manner, the skin being replaced ab-iut -the fleshless bones. The legs were stripped to the ankle joints, and the arms' teL the wrists.. The hands, feet, ' and face were not mutilated; this was a work requiring skill, and -must haye Tbeen a long and careful operation."*" I^olse~in7ih"e"paf ty7 except Surgeon Pavy could -so. skillfully remove;ithe'r.flesh .from the 'human body and leave the skin intactioo flow

Pavy met his death has not been explained, but a skilful knife with him gone, and every day the pangs of him? ger growing more unbearable, cautiop was relaxed, and the survivors ,ate of the human flesh however .best thej could secure it. In ■ the last few d<iy<? before relief came to the wretched, men it was a" doctrine of the survival of jfchfc strongest that ruled them,- all sense of honor or feeling having been lost. :<lt was Sergeant Long who first saw; the steam launch and slid down upon, the snow from the distress,signal,to the great rescuing ; party. His face and beard were covered with blood from a duck , which. he had shot"and been eating; as is stated he stopped to conceal half of the body of the bird before sliding down the snow. He was the strongest of the party, and despite the frightful gale was able to walk' to'the launch. Sergeant Fredericks also had considerable strength left, and clambered on board the Thetis almost unaided. After so many months in the desolate Arctic regions, after so much suffering, and passing through such scenes of horror, it was seldom that the men stood upright.' They crawled about on their hands and kness on the rocks and ice, and when Sergeant Bramero was, undressed on board the Thetis, his knees were found calloused to a thickness of over half an inch. In the midst of' such horrors it was wondered by the rescuers: how Greely and his few companion^ kept their reason. , About .the camp were scattered the bones of the dead ahd dissected, and the mutilated bodies were half exposed in the-little burial plot at the rear of the tent. It was a scene -at which the' rescuers shuddered as they looked, at,, the bodies of those who had died and were not mutilated, where death had . been caused by disease. • As to how many died of scurvy; there is no account. Schely reports 17 as having died of starvation. Sergeant Gross, the~fiWt of the exploring party to pass away, died last New Year's day. According to Schley's report;' he did not die of scurvy/ but from"the use of liquor^ fie would drink anything that had a suspicion .of alcohol. about . it, even paint. This 'love, of liquoif' was so strong among some' of the sailors of tße relief party/thatf' the carpenter, who was using a - little bottle of alcohol with which to mix shellac, was obliged to guard it as closely as,his money.' Sergeant Oonnel; one of Che rescued, says Cross died of scurvy, on the 18th January in St. John's.- It is reported that one of the two men lost on-'the 19th April' died '"of-scurry, several died of scurvy after,: and that Henry was shot, All did not/die^of starvation; instead it is feared that others met their death as Henryl did. It is known1 that court martials were of frequent occiirfenee -in Greely's camp. Pavy was on trial r no,less than threetimes. There were dissensions among the men, and' as.their condition became more desperate they increased, until weakened in body and mind' by privation each' did all he could for the other, but at the last struggle for life became single, and it was: each man for himself.