CHAPTER XXII.

HOMEWARD BOUND.

THE final escape from the brig must now be commenced. From the early fall its necessity had been thought of, and preparations for it commenced. Since the sick had begun to improve, the work in reference to it had been going on with system. Coverlets of eider down, beds, or furs which could be used as such, boots, moccasins, a full supply to meet emergencies, were prepared. Provision bags were made and filled with powder, ship-bread, pork-fat, and tallow melted down, and cooked concentrated bean soup. The flour and meat biscuit were put in double bags. Two boats had been made from the ship's beams twenty-six feet long, seven feet across, and three feet deep. Incredible toil by weak and sick men had been expended upon these boats. A neat "housing" of light canvas was raised over each of them. One other boat, the "Red Eric," was in readiness. There was no a.s.surance that either of these boats would long float, yet all was done which the circ.u.mstances allowed to make them sea-worthy.

The three boats were mounted on sledges. The necessary outfit, so far as they could bear, was to be stowed away in them.

Every thing being in readiness, a vast amount of _thinking_ having been employed by the commander in reference to all contingencies, a peremptory order of march was issued for the seventeenth of May. The men were given twenty-four hours to get ready eight pounds of such personal effects as they chose. From the date of starting the strictest discipline and subordination was to be observed, which came hard upon the long-indulged, improving sick ones. The perfectness of the preparations had a good effect, yet there were many moody doubters. Some insisted that the commander only meant to go further south, holding the brig to fall back upon; some thought he would get the sick nearer the hunting grounds; others believed that his purpose was to secure some point of lookout for the English explorers, or whaling vessels.

When the memorable day of departure came, the boats were in the cradle on the sledges, and the men, with straps over their shoulders and drag-ropes from these to the sledges, started for the ice-foot along which they were to travel. They had not yet received their loads, so they glided off easily, exciting a smile on some rueful countenances.

In twenty-four hours the boats were laden, on the elevated drive-way, covered with their canvas roof, and, with a jaunty flag flying, were ready for a final leave the next day. The exhausted men, for nearly all of them were yet invalids, returned to the vessel, ate the best supper the supplies afforded, "turned in," prepared for their first effort at dragging the boat-laden sledges.

But one sledge could be moved at once, with all hands attached; the first day they made two miles only with this one. For several days they made short distances and returned early to a hearty supper and warm beds in their old quarters, so that they marched back to the drag-ropes in the morning refreshed. The weather was, by the kind, overruling Hand, "superb."

The final leave-taking was somewhat ceremonious. All the men were a.s.sembled in the dismantled room which had been so long both a prison and providential home. It was Sunday; all listened to a chapter of the Bible, and prayers. Then, all silently standing, the commander read a prepared report of what had been done, and the reasons for the step about to be taken. He then addressed the company, honestly conceding the obstacles in the way of escape, but a.s.suring them that energy and subordination would secure success. He reminded them of the solemn claims upon them of the sick and wounded; called to their minds the wonderful deliverance granted them thus far by the infinite Power, and exhorted them still confidently to commit all to the same Helper.

The response to this appeal was most cheering to Dr. Kane. The following engagement was drawn up by one of the officers and signed by every man:--

"The undersigned, being convinced of the impossibility of the liberation of the brig, and equally convinced of the impossibility of remaining in the ice a third winter, do fervently concur with the commander in his attempt to reach the south by means of boats.

"Knowing the trials and hardships which are before us, and feeling the necessity of union, harmony, and discipline, we have determined to abide faithfully by the expedition and our sick comrades, and to do all that we can, as true men, to advance the objects in view."

The party now went on deck, hoisted a flag and hauled it down again, and then marched once or twice around the vessel. The figure head--the fair Augusta--"the little blue girl with pink cheeks," was taken by the men and added to their load. She had been nipped and battered by the ice, and a common suffering made her dear to them. When Dr. Kane remonstrated against the additional burden, they said: "She is, at any rate, wood, and if we cannot carry her far we can burn her."

The final departure was too serious for cheers, and when the moment came they all hurried off to the boats and the drag-ropes.

Four men were sick, and had to be carried; and Dr. Kane was with the dog-team the common carrier and courier, as we shall see, so that there were but twelve men to the boats; these were organized into two companies, six each, for the two sledges; M'Gary having command of the "Faith," and Morton command of the "Hope." Each party was separate in matters of baggage, sleeping, cooking, and eating; both were concentrated, in turns, upon each sledge under the command of Brooks.

Both morning and evening of each day all gathered round, with uncovered heads, to listen to prayers. Every one had his a.s.signed place at the track-line; each served in turn as cook, except the captains.

From an early day of the preparations, Dr. Kane had been at work refitting and furnishing the broken-down, forsaken hut at Anoatok. For this purpose many trips were made to it with the dog-team; it was made tight as possible; the filth carefully removed; cushions and blankets were spread upon the raised floor at the sides and a stove set up; blankets were hung up against the walls, and the whole made to look as cheerful as possible. While the sledges were approaching this place by short stages, Dr. Kane, with his team, brought to the hut the four sick men; they were Goodfellow, Wilson, Whipple, and Stephenson. Dr. Hayes, yet limping on his frozen foot, bravely adhered to the sledges. When the sick entered the hut none could wait upon the others, except Stephenson, who could barely light the lamp, to melt the snow and heat the water.

But Dr. Kane made them frequent visits, supplying their wants, and reporting the daily progress toward them of their whole company. They grew better, and were able to creep out into the sunshine. Besides carrying the sick to Anoatok, Dr. Kane had, with his dogs, conveyed there and stocked near the hut most of the provisions for their march and voyage; eight hundred pounds out of fifteen were now there, and he proposed to convey the rest. This was done to relieve the overladen sledges.

The red boat--"Red Eric"--joined the party on the floe a few days after the start, increasing their burden, but a.s.suring them of increased comfort and safety when they reached the open water.

One incident of this period will ill.u.s.trate its hardships and the Christian courage with which they were met.

It was soon after the last sick man was borne to the hut that Dr. Kane, having, in one of his dog-team trips, camped on the floe, came upon the boat party early in the morning. They were at prayers at the moment, and, as they pa.s.sed to the drag-ropes, he was pained at the evidence of increased scurvy and depression. Brooks's legs were sadly swollen, and Hayes ready to faint with exhaustion. They must have more generous meals, thought the n.o.ble-hearted commander. Taking Morton, he hastened back to the brig. As they entered a raven flew croaking away; he had already made his home there. Lighting the fires in the old cook-room, they melted pork, cooked a large batch of _light_ bread without salt, saleratus, or shortening, gathered together some eatable, though damaged, dried apples and beans, and, the dogs having fed, hastened back to the men on the floe. Distributing a good supper to their comrades as they pa.s.sed, and taking G.o.dfrey along with them, they hastened to the hut. The poor fellows confined in it were rejoiced to see them. They had eaten all their supplies, their lamp had gone out, the snow had piled up at the door so that they could not close it, and the arctic wind and cold were making free in their never-too-warm abode. The poor fellows were cold, sick, and hungry. The coming of their commander was as the coming of an angel messenger of good tidings. He closed their door, made a fire of tarred rope, dried their clothes and bedding, cooked them a porridge of pea-soup and meat-biscuit, and set their lamp-wick ablaze with dripping pork-fat. Then, after all had joined in prayer of thankfulness, a well relished meal was eaten. This was followed by a cheerful chat, and a long, refreshing forgetfulness in their sleeping-bags of all privations. When they awoke the gale had grown more tempestuous, with increasing snow. But they went on burning rope and fat until every icicle had disappeared, and every frost mark had faded out.

On their arrival at the hut the night before, Dr. Kane, seeing the condition of things, sent G.o.dfrey forward to Etah for fresh supplies of game. After a time he returned with Metek, and the two sledges well laden with meat. A part of this was hurried off to the toilers at the drag-ropes.

Having blessed by his coming these weary voyagers, Dr. Kane, with Morton, Metek, and his sledge, went once more to the brig. They baked a hundred and fifty pounds of bread and sent it by Metek to Mr. Brooks, and the faithful messenger, having delivered it, returned immediately for another load. While he was gone, a hundred pounds of flour pudding was made, and two bagfuls of pork-fat tried out. This done, the three lay down upon the curled hair of the old mattresses, they having been ripped open and their contents drawn out to make the most comfortable bed the place afforded. They slept as soundly "as vagrants on a haystack."

The next day they set their faces toward the sledge company and Anoatok, both sledges having heavy loads, which included the last of the fifteen hundred pounds of provisions.

Dr. Kane had made one of his last trips to the brig: he would return for provisions only; but all his specimens of Natural History, collected with much toil, his books, and many of his well-tested instruments, he was compelled to leave. His six dogs had carried him, during the fortnight since the company left the brig, between seven and eight hundred miles, averaging about fifty-seven miles a day. But for their services the sick could scarcely have been saved, and the rest would have suffered more intensely.

Leaving, as usual, a part of the food with Mr. Brooks's party, they hastened on to replenish the stores and cheer the hearts of the lonely dwellers in the hut.

CHAPTER XXIII.

NARROW ESCAPES.

HAVING brought forward the provisions to Anoatok, Dr. Kane, with the help of Metek and his dogs, began to remove them still farther south, making one deposit near Cape Hatherton, and the other yet farther, near Littleton Island. But an immediate journey to Etah for walrus had become necessary. The hard-working men were improving on this greasy food, and they wanted it in abundance. Dr. Kane found the Etahites fat and full.

He left his weary, well-worn dogs to recruit on their abundance, and returned with their only team, which was well fed and fresh. They made the trade without any grumbling.

When he came back the Brooks party were within three miles of Anoatok.

They were getting along bravely and eating voraciously, and the old cry, "more provisions!" saluted the commander. Leaving the dogs to aid in transferring the stores to the southern stations, Dr. Kane and Irish Tom Hickey started afoot to the brig to do another baking. It was a sixteen hours' tramp. But ere they slept they converted nearly a barrel of flour, the last of the stock, into the staff of life. An old pickled-cabbage cask was used as a kneading trough, and sundry volumes of the "Penny Cyclopedia of Useful Knowledge" were burned during the achievement. Tom declared the work done to be worthy of his own country's bakers, and he had been one "of them same," so he deemed that praise enough. When the doctor lamented that the flour so used was the last of the stock, Tom exclaimed: "All the better, sir, since we'll have no more bread to make."

G.o.dfrey came to the brig on the third day, with the dogs, to carry back the baking. But a howling storm delayed them all on board. It was Sunday, and the last time that Dr. Kane expected to be in the cabin with any of his men. He took down a Bible from one of the berths and went through the long-used religious service. The dreary place was less dreary, and their burdened hearts were no doubt made lighter by thus drawing near to G.o.d.

The commander and Tom left the next day with the sledge load, leaving G.o.dfrey to come on after farther rest. But scarcely had the sledge party delivered their load of bread, and begun the sound sleep which follows hard work, when G.o.dfrey came in out of breath with the hot haste of his journey. He reluctantly confessed the occasion of his sudden departure from the brig. He had lain down on the contents of the mattresses to sleep. Suddenly Wilson's guitar, left with other mementoes of two winters' imprisonment, sent forth music soft and sad. Bill was sure he heard aright, for he was awake and in his right mind. He fled on the instant, and scarcely looked behind until he reached his companions. He had never heard of the musical genius of Eolus, and it was not strange that the old forsaken, mutilated, ghostly, looking brig should excite the imagination of the lonely lodger.

The invalids of the huts were now doing well. Their housekeeping a.s.sumed a home-like appearance--after the fashion of Arctic homes--and they welcomed the doctor with a dish of tea, a lump of walrus flesh, and a warm place. The Brooks party were not afar off.

A storm which out-stormed all they had yet seen or felt of storms came down upon our explorers at this time.

When the storm had blown past, Morton was dispatched to Etah with the dogs, accompanied by two Etahites who had been storm-bound with the boat-parties. His mission was to demand aid of these allies on the ground of sacred treaty stipulations, and well-recognized Esquimo laws of mutual help. Dr. Kane took his place with the men on the floe.

Sledging was now not only made by the storm and advancing season more laborious, but very dangerous; around the bergs black water appeared, and over many places there were to be seen pools of water. The boats were unladen, and their cargoes carried in parcels by sledges, yet serious accidents occurred. At one time a runner of the sledge carrying the "Hope" broke in, and the boat came near being lost; as it was, six men were plunged into the water. Sick and well men worked for dear life, and affairs were growing more than cloudy when the helping hand of the great Helper was seen as it had been so often. Morton returned from Etah, having been entirely successful in his appeal to the natives for aid. They came with every sound dog they possessed, and with sledges loaded with walrus. The dogs alone were equal to ten strong men added to the expedition. Dr. Kane took one of the teams, and with Metek made his last trip to the brig, and on his return commenced bringing down the invalids of the hut to the boats. As he came near the floe-party he found Ohlsen sitting on a lump of ice alone, some distance in their rear. He had prevented the "Hope's" sledge from breaking through the ice by taking for a moment its whole weight on a bar which he had slipped under it. He was a strong man, and the act was heroic, but he was evidently seriously injured. He was pale, but thought his only difficulty was "a little cramp in the small of his back," and that he should be better soon. Dr. Kane gave him Stephenson's seat on the sledge, carried him to the boat, and gave him its most comfortable place, and m.u.f.fled him up in the best buffalo robes. Dr. Hayes gave him tender and constant attention all that night, but he declined rapidly.

Having stowed the sick away in the boats, the morning prayers being offered, the men on the sixth of June started anew at the drag-ropes.

Two hours' drawing sufficed to show all hands their insufficiency for the task. Just then a spanking breeze started up. They hoisted the sails of the boats, and the wind increased to a gale and blew directly after them. Away the sledges sped toward the provision depot near Littleton Island. Ridges in the ice which would have delayed them at the drag-ropes for hours, but gave them the rise and fall as they glided over them of a ship on the waves. G.o.d, who "holds the wind in his fist,"

had unloosed it for their benefit. The foot-sore, weary men, who a few moments ago felt that an almost impossible task was theirs, were now jubilant, and broke out into song--the first sailor's chorus song they had sung for a year. They came to a halt at five o'clock P. M., having made under sail the distance of five drag-rope days.

While here they were joined by old Nessark, and by Sipsu, the surly chief who appears so conspicuously in the narrative of Dr. Hayes's escaping party. They came with their fresh dog-teams, and offered their services to the explorers. Nessark was sent after the last of the sick men at the hut.

The following five or six days were those of peril and discouragement.

At one time a sledge had broken in, carrying with it several of the men, bringing affairs to a gloomy crisis. But the men scrambled out, and, to still further lift the burdens from the party, five st.u.r.dy Esquimo appeared, with two almost equally strong women. They laid hold of the drag-ropes with a will, and worked the rest of the day without demanding any reward. So there was always help in their time of need.

Nessark came in good time with Wilson and Whipple, the last of the sick; the old hut was now deserted, and all were with the boats except one.

Hans had been missing for nearly two months. Early in April he came to his commander with a long face and a very plausible story; he had, he said, no boots; he wanted to go to one of the Esquimo settlements a little south to get a stock of walrus-hides. He did not want the dogs; he would walk, and be back in good time. But the hitherto faithful and trusted Hans had not returned. When inquiry was made of the people of Etah they said he certainly called there, and engaged of one of the women a pair of boots, and then pushed on to Peteravik, where Shanghee and his pretty daughter lived. The last information they had of him they gave with a shrug of the shoulders and a merry twinkle of the eye. He had been seen by one of their people once since he left Etah; he was then upon a native sledge, Shanghee's daughter at his side, bound south of Peteravik. He had forsaken the explorers for a wife!

The party were one day feeling their way along cautiously, pioneers going ahead and trying the soundness of the ice by thumping with boat hooks and narwhal horns. Suddenly a shout of distress was heard. The "Red Eric" had broken in! She contained the doc.u.ment box of the expedition, the loss of which would make their whole work profitless to the world even should the party be saved. She had on board too many provision bags. But, after great exposure and labor, all was saved in good condition, and the boat hauled upon the ice. Several of the men had narrow escapes. Stephenson was caught as he sunk by the sledge runner, and Morton was drawn out by the hair of his head as he was disappearing under the ice. A grateful shout went up from all hands that nothing serious resulted from the accident.

CHAPTER XXIV.

ESQUIMO KINDNESS.

THE company made slow and tiresome progress by Littleton Island, and were carrying their entire load forward in parcels to the mainland at the northern opening of Etah Bay, when the sad news was whispered to Dr.

Kane, who was with the advanced party, that Ohlsen was dead. A gloom spread over the whole company. The fact was carefully concealed from the Esquimo, who were sent to Etah under the pretext of bringing back a supply of birds, the entire dog force being given them to hasten their departure.