THE GREELY EXPEDITION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1671, 10 December 1887, Page 3

THE GREELY EXPEDITION.

Some additional and more ghastly facte 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 Proteus. According to a despatch from Chicago, August 14th, (writes the San Francisco correspondent of the Argns) Captain Norman was ice-master of the Proteus 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 honor 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 inside the tent where

the survivors were found. When I got near enough to the tent to he heard I called out: “Cheer up Greely; we’re here with two ships to save youl” The poor fellows 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 Amy 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 Noman after a moment’s hesitation. “ There were just three bodies out of the thirteen we found which had ndt 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 whore 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 Ho use going into particulars. When I told Commander Schley the condition in which some of the bodiss 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 on board tbe 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 tbe matter, and when Portsmouth was reached no one was allowed to see the bodies, and tbe survivors themselves were taken ashore to the Navy yard and surrounded by a cordon of sentinels so that no one could aproach them without permission.”!, became of Dr Payey ? How ' did Lieutenant Kialingbury 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 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.”