468 LUEUTENANT BARNARD'S MURDER. 



connected with this report induced Collinson to allow 

 an enterprising 1 young officer, Lieutenant Barnard, to 

 be landed in the Russian north-west American settle- 

 ments, in order to inquire into the truth. In carrying 

 out this service, Barnard was brutally murdered, in 

 February, 1851, by Indians, in a surprise of one of the 

 Russian posts, called Darabin redoubt, not far from 

 Norton Sound. The sad catastrophe is briefly told in 

 the handwriting of poor Barnard, in the annexed note 

 to Dr. Adams : 



" DEAR ARAMS : I am dreadfully wounded in the abdomen ; my 

 entrails are hanging out. I do not suppose I shall live long enough to 

 see you. The Cu-u-chuc Indians made the attack while we were in our 

 beds. Boskey is badly wounded, and Darabin is dead. 



"I think my wound would have been trifling hid I had medical advice. 

 I am in great pain. Nearly all the natives of the village are murdered 

 Set out for this place in all haste. JOHN BARNARD." 



The hand-writing of this note betrayed the anguish 

 which the gallant writer was suffering, and parts of it 

 were nearly illegible. 



On the 29th of July, 1851, Collinson, in the Enter- 

 prise, rounded Point Barrow, steered up Prince of 

 Wales Strait, and here, on Princess Royal Island, dis- 

 covered the Investigator's depot, and a cairn containing 

 information up to June 15th, 1851. Passing on, the 

 Enterprise, on the 30th of August, reached the north 

 end of the strait, but only to be foiled in any attempt to 

 pass beyond it. Collinson now decided on taking a 

 course exactly similar to that of his more fortunate pre- 

 decessor, M'Clure ; but, on the 3d of September, little 

 thinking that the Investigator had preceded him in his 

 intended course, he found, to his surprise, on Cape 

 Kellett, a record placed there on August 18th. The ice 

 was now too close for him to push on ; and, no harbor 

 fit for winter quarters offering itself as high as latitude 



