CAPTAIN BUDDINGTON EXONERATED. 611 



ning we started with the boats for shore. Had we reached 

 it, we could have walked on board in one hour, but the 

 ice set in so fast when near the shore that we could not 

 pull through it. We had a narrow escape in jumping 

 from piece to piece, with the painter in hand, until we 

 reached the floe. We dragged the boat two or three hun- 

 dred yards, to a high place, where we thought she would 

 be secure until morning, and made for our provisions, 

 which were on a distant part of the floe. We were too 

 much worn out with hunger and fatigue to bring her along 

 to-night, and it is nearly dark. We cannot see our other 

 boat or our provisions ; the snow-drift has covered our 

 late tracks. 



Quite a large supply of provisions had been thrown 

 from the ship on the ice ; but owing to the blinding snow 

 and the darkness of the night, the breaking of the ice 

 caused the loss of the greater part. When they first 

 found themselves left on the ice, Captain Tyson and his 

 party were not alarmed, believing that the Polaris would 

 return and pick them up if she herself escaped. On the 

 16th they saw her, and made signals to attract her atten- 

 tion, but to no effect. Many have thought that Captain 

 Buddington willfully deserted them, and left them to a 

 probable death when he might have rescued them. But 

 the testimony of Captain Tyson, Mr. Meyer, John Her- 

 ron and the others before Secretary Robeson does not af- 



/ 



ford ground for such suspicions, Herron said distinctly : 

 " I don't think Captain Buddington meant to abandon us ; 

 he either thought we could easily get ashore, or else he 

 could not get through the ice ; I don't think he would do 

 anything of the kind ; standing on the ship, you would 

 naturally think we could get ashore ; it may have looked 

 to him that we were right under the lee of the shore ; it is 

 very likely that he thought we could get ashore, and that 

 he didn't understand our signals." Finding that the Polaris 

 was not coming to them, Captain Tyson thought it pos- 



