SCARES.
WHEN the Esquimo arrived with Bonsall and Petersen, Dr. Kane resolved at
once to send them back with supplies for the remaining portion of Dr.
Hayes's company, supposed to be, if living, at the miserable old hut.
Petersen and Bonsall were utterly unable to accompany them. Of the
scanty ship's store he caused to be cleaned and boiled a hundred pounds
of pork; small packages of meat-biscuit, bread-dust, and tea were
carefully sewed up, all weighing three hundred and fifty pounds; and the
whole was intrusted to the returning convoy, who gave emphatic
assurances that these treasures, more precious than gold to those for
whom they were intended, should be promptly and honestly delivered. But
this promise, we have seen, they did not keep, and, probably, did not
intend to keep; they ate or wasted the whole. This untrustworthy trait
of the Esquimo character goes far to show that nothing but Dr. Hayes's
"boom" could have assured their help in his desperate necessities.
When Dr. Hayes arrived it was midnight. Dr. Kane met him at the gangway
and gave him a brother's welcome. All were taken at once into the cabin.
Ohlsen was the first to recognize Hayes as he entered, and, kissing
him, he threw his arms around him and tossed him into the warm bed he
had just left. The fire was set ablaze, coffee and meat-biscuit soup
were prepared, and, with wheat bread and molasses, were set before them.
In the mean time their Esquimo apparel was removed and hung up to dry.
They ate and slept; but many weary days passed, under skillful treatment
by Dr. Kane, and kind care by all, before they fully recovered from the
strain of their terrible exposures and fearful journey.
When the returned comrades were duly cared for, Dr. Kane turned his
attention to the conciliation of the Esquimo who had accompanied them
back. They, of course, had their complaints to make, and, may be,
meditated revenge, though they were, as usual, full of smiles. It was
the white chief's policy to impress them with his great power and stern
justice. He assembled both parties, the Hayes men and their Esquimo, in
conference on deck. Both were questioned as if it were a doubt who had
been the offenders. This done, he graciously declared to the savage
members of the council his approval of their conduct, which he made
emphatic, in the Esquimo way, by pulling their hair all around.
The great Nalekok having thus expressed his good will, showed it still
further by introducing his guests, now to be considered friends, into
the mysterious _igloe_ below where they had not before been permitted to
enter. Their joy was that of indulged children during a holiday. They
were seated in state on a red blanket. Four pork-fat lamps burned
brilliantly; ostentatiously paraded were old worsted damask curtains,
hunting knives, rifles, chronometers, and beer-barrels, which, as they
glowed in the light, astonished the natives. With a princely air, which,
no doubt, seemed to the recipients almost divine, he dealt out to each
five needles, a file, and a stick of wood. To the two head men,
Kalutunah and Shunghu, knives and other extras were given. A roaring
fire was then made and a feast cooked. This eaten, buffaloes were spread
about the stove, and the guests slept. They awoke to eat, and ate to
sleep again. When they were ready to go, the white chief explained that
the sledges, dogs, and some furs, which his men had taken, had been
taken to save life, and were not to be considered as stolen goods, and
he then and there restored them. They laughed, voted him in their way a
good fellow, and, in fine spirits, dashed away, shouting to their
wolfish dogs. They had taken special care, however, to add to the
treasures so generously given, a few stolen knives and forks.
As the whole company are now crowded into the little cabin, and the
darkness is without, so that the days pass without much incident, except
that all are crowded with heavy burdens upon mind and body, we will
listen to a few of the yet untold stories of the earlier winter.
At one time Dr. Kane attempted a walrus hunt. Morton, Hans, Ootuniah,
Myouk, and "a dark stranger," Awahtok, accompanied him. He took a light
sledge drawn by seven dogs, intending to reach the farthest point of
Force Bay by daylight. But as the persistency of the Esquimo had
overladen the sledge, they moved slowly, and were overtaken by the night
on the floe in the midst of the bay. The snow began to drift before an
increasing storm. While driving rapidly, they lost the track they had
been following; they could see no landmarks, and in their confusion,
turned their faces to the floating ice of the sound.
The Esquimo, usually at home on the floe, whether by night or by day,
were quite bewildered. The dogs became alarmed, and spread their panic
to the whole party. They could not camp, the wind blew so fiercely, so
they were compelled to push rapidly forward, they knew not whither.
Checking, after a while, their speed, Dr. Kane gave each a tent-pole to
feel their way more cautiously, for a murmur had reached his ear more
alarming than the roar of the wind. Suddenly the noise of waves startled
him. "Turn the dogs!" he shouted, while at the same moment a wreath of
frost smoke, cold and wet, swept over the whole party, and the sea
opened to them with its white line of foam, about one fourth of a mile
ahead. The floe was breaking up by the force of the storm. The broken
ice might be in any direction. They could now guess where they were, and
they turned their faces toward an island up the bay. But the line of the
sea, with its foaming waves, followed them so rapidly that they began to
feel the ice bending under their feet as they ran at the sides of the
sledge. The hummocks before them began to close up, and they run by them
at a fearful risk as they hurried cautiously forward, stumbling over the
crushed fragments between them and the shore. It was too dark to see the
island for which they were steering, but the black outline of a lofty
cape was dimly seen along the horizon, and served as a landmark. As they
approached the shore edge of the floe they found it broken up, and its
fragments surging against the base of the ice-foot to which they desired
to climb. Being now under the shadow of the land, it was densely dark.
Dr. Kane went ahead, groping for a bridge of ice, having a rope tied
round his waist, the other end of which was held by Ootuniah, who
followed, at whose heels came the rest of the party. The doctor finally
succeeded in clambering upon the ice-foot, and the rest one after
another followed with the dogs.
The joy of their escape broke out into exultation when they ascertained
that the land was Anoatok, only a short distance from the familiar
Esquimo huts. God had guided them with his all-seeing eye to where they
would find needed refreshment! In less than an hour they were feasting
on a smoking stew of walrus meat.
Having eaten their stew and drank their coffee they slept--slept eleven
hours! Well they might "after an unbroken ice-walk of forty-eight miles,
and twenty haltless hours!" The Esquimo sung themselves to sleep with a
monotonous song, in compliment to the white chief, the refrain of which
was, "Nalegak! nalegak! nalegak! soak!"--"Captain! captain! great
captain!"
Without further special incident the party returned to the brig.
At one time an alarm was brought to Dr. Kane that a wolf was prowling
among the meat barrels on the floe. Believing that a wolf would be more
profitably added to their store of meat than to have him take any thing
from it, he seized a rifle and ran out. Yes, there he is, a wolf from
the tip of his nose to the end of his tail! Bang goes the rifle, whiz
goes the ball, making the hair fly from the back of--one of the
sledge-dogs! He was not hurt much, but he came near paying with his life
for the crime of running away from Morton's sledge.
The fox-traps made occasion for many long walks, great expectations of
game, and grievous disappointment. Dr. Kane and Hans were at one time
examining them about two miles from the brig. They were, unfortunately,
unarmed. The doctor thought he heard the bellow of a walrus. They
listened. No, not a walrus, but a bear! Hark, hear him roar! They sprung
to the ice-foot, about ten feet above the floe. Another roar, round and
full! He is drawing nearer! He has a fine voice, and, no doubt, is
large, and fat, and savory! But then a bear must be killed before he is
eaten, and that is just where the difficulty lies. It don't do for two
men to run, for that is an invited pursuit, and bears are good runners.
"Hans!" exclaimed Dr. Kane, "run for the brig, and I will play decoy!"
Hans is a good runner, and this time he did "his level best."
Dr. Kane remains on the ice-foot alone. It is too dark to see many yards
off, and the silence is oppressive, for the bear says nothing, and so
Kane makes no reply. He queries whether, after all, there is any bear.
How easy it is for the imagination to be excited amid these shadowy
hummocks, and this dreary waste through which the wind roars so
dismally! He gets down from his comparatively safe elevation upon the
floe, puts his hand over his eyes, and peers into the darkness. No bear
after all! But what's that rounded, shadowy thing? Stained ice? Yes,
stained ice! But the stained ice speaks with a voice which wakes the
Arctic echoes, and charges on our explorer. It is a hungry bear! Dr.
Kane's legs are scurvy-smitten affairs, but this time they credit the
fleetness of those of the deer. He drops a mitten, and his pursuer stops
to smell of it, to examine it carefully, and to show his disgust at such
game, by tearing it to pieces. These bears are famous for losing the
bird by stopping to pick up his feathers. The man stops not, but drops
another mitten as he flies. Before these articles are duly examined he
has reached the brig. Dr. Kane has escaped, and the bear has lost his
supper.
It is now bruin's turn to run, for fresh hunters and loaded rifles are
after him. He does run, and escapes!
But if there were fears without the brig, there were fightings with a
fearful enemy within. The crowded condition of the cabin, after the
Hayes party returned, made it necessary for the pork-fat lamps to be set
up outside the avenue, in a room parted off in the hold for their use. A
watch was set over them, but he deserted his post, the fat flamed over
and set the room ablaze. Eight of the men lay in their berths at the
time helplessly disabled. The fire was only a few feet from the
tinder-like moss which communicated with the cabin. The men able to work
seized buckets, and formed a line to the well in the ice always kept
open. In the mean time Dr. Kane rushed into the flames with some fur
robes which lay at hand, and checked it for the moment. The water then
came, and the first bucket full thrown caused a smoke and steam which
prostrated him. Fortunately, in falling he struck the feet of the
foremost bucket-man. He was taken to the deck, his beard, forelock, and
eyebrows singed away, and sad burns upon his forehead and palms. Nearly
all received burns and frost-bites, but in a half hour the fire was
extinguished. The danger was horrid, and the escape wonderful! Neither
wild beasts nor the flames hurt whom God protects!