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RETURN TO THE SHIPS.

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some little distance ahead. The ice was gradually receding from us, and leaving more open water than we had yet seen; and there was every prospect of our soon getting clear of it altogether.

After rounding Cape York, we came upon the celebrated "crimson cliffs" of Sir John Ross, and I must do him the justice to say that, though his colouring of them is rather too high for their present appearance, yet there is much to warrant the denomination given to them. Meanwhile we gradually, neared the "Assistance" and "Prince Albert ;" and about two o'clock the commander and myself got on board our own vessel. The tow ropes were all attached, and we once more proceeded steadily and quietly on our proper course, with the "Resolute," " Pioneer," and "Felix," a long way ahead of us; they having kept on, under steam, the whole time we were engaged examining Cape York.

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CITEMENT OCCASIONED BY IT. — COMMUNICATE WITH CAPTAIN OMMANNEY. EXAMINE INTO THE TALE TOLD

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PROCEED IN THE STEAMER TO CAPTAIN AUSTIN.

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DETER

CONSULTATION CONCERNING THE REPORT. MINATION TO INQUIRE MORE INTO IT. — SIR JOHN

ROSS'S OPINION OF ITS TRUTH.

CAPTAIN OMMANNEY

PROCEEDS IN SEARCH OF MR. PENNY.

I NOW come to a part of my narrative which I am extremely doubtful whether I ought to put down or not. At first I was inclined to think that I should do wrong in giving to the public so singular and strange a tale as that which now, properly, ought to be entered here: but, as this portion of my journal was written soon after the occurrence here alluded to had taken place, and when all the particulars were fresh in my memory, and as the tale has got abroad with many variations, I think it my duty to narrate it strictly as it came to hand. Leaving any comments I may think fit to make until afterwards, I will merely premise, that the principal personage who figured in this strange affair, Adam, was a man in whom Sir John Ross placed the

A STRANGE STORY.

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strictest confidence for honesty and truth; that he was a man intelligent far above his fellows; and, as I had reason afterwards to think, too intelligent; that he was a converted man, and considered a good Christian; and that he had had a very long talk with the natives, even after we had questioned him and them together. What my own impression was will be seen as I go on.

It was somewhere about eight o'clock in the evening when Commander Phillips - who had been staying on board of the "Intrepid," being unable to get to his own vessel came to us for a short time, bringing with him the Esquimaux Adam. The latter, with the boat's crew, went forward among the men; and, it was observed that he appeared more restless, and less inclined to talk with strangers than usual. Our steward, John Smith, went to him, and I noticed them apparently in earnest conversation, the steward being able, from his long stay in the Hudson Bay Company's service, to converse with, and understand him better than any one else. I was engaged talking to the two commanders when, after a short time, the steward came up to us and said that the Esquimaux had been telling him a dreadful tale about some ships that were lost. I immediately went forward to Adam-who was always inclined to be friendly with me, in consequence of two or

three trifling things I had given him,— and having an Esquimaux vocabulary in my pocket, began questioning him from the book, and through the steward. The poor fellow was evidently pleased that I had come to him, for, as it afterwards appeared, I was the first officer who had chanced to talk with him since our leaving the natives; and, it was clear that his mind laboured under some weighty subject, of which he seemed anxious to unburden himself. Directly I began to speak to him, he at once took a piece of chalk, which he had previously asked for, and wrote upon the gunwale of the ship, in a clear and good scholar-like hand, the figures “1846,” and particularly pointed my attention to it. In order the still more effectually to impress this particular number upon my memory, he next wrote down "1850," and, in the few half words which he could. utter in English, gave me to understand that 1850 was this year, and 1846 the year to which his story referred. So far, that was intelligible enough, and it at once attracted my most minute attention to his further proceedings. He then by signs, and by questions, not put exactly as questions, so that they should not in any manner lead him to certain answers, but as queries for him the better to explain his tale, gave me the following information, which I will condense and simplify for the

A STRANGE STORY.

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reader. By his account, he had been told by the natives, when on shore conversing with them in the morning, that in 1846 (I could not make out whether the early or the latter part of the year) two vessels with officers having gold bands on their caps and other insignia of the naval uniform, had been in some way or other destroyed at some place to the northward of us; that the crews were ultimately much enfeebled; and after great hardship and suffering, encamping by themselves in tents, and not communicating much with the natives, who were not friendly to them, were all brutally massacred. This was the substance and the pith of the long and tedious statement that was elicited from him, and confirmed, in appearance, by many corroborating circumstances that he mentioned.

I have not given one half that he told me, as it would but be an unnecessary and painful recapitulation, especially when the whole may be set down as doubtful. But I was then perfectly horror-struck, and hardly capable of communicating the details I had heard, to my commander. Both himself and Commander Phillips would scarcely believe that I had heard aright, and it was determined that an examination concerning it should at once take place in the cabin. Accordingly, Adam was sent for; and with the steward as interpreter, the same story with

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