72 THE JEANNETTE ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



Macdonna accompanied the expedition, and from his very 

 interesting letters to the New York Herald the following 

 account of the voyage is principally compiled. 



The Alliance touched at St. Johns, N. F., and her officers 

 there gave a farewell breakfast to Lieutenant Greeley's party, 

 who were awaiting transportation to their station at Lady 

 Franklin Bay, to which place they were subsequently taken 

 by the steamer Proteus. 



Starting onward, June 29th, the Alliance proceeded to 

 Reykjavik, Iceland, and was the first American man-of-war 

 to enter that harbor. The Icelanders were much interested 

 in their visitors, and particularly so in the colored men 

 among the crew, several of whom went galloping through 

 the town on ponies, to the great delight of the youth of the 

 ancient capital. " One of the negro sailors who went ashore 

 became a. victim to the seductions of Danish whiskey. For 

 two days he was missing 1 , and the master-at-arms went 

 ashore and advertised a reward of ten dollars for the lost 

 man. The town turned out tofind him, and he was found. 

 Subsequent to this, every time a negro seaman appeared on 

 shore he was hunted as a lost man or as an escaped curiosity 

 from a museum." 



From Iceland, the Alliance went to Hammerfest, Norway ? 

 the most northern city of Europe. "Here," wrote Mr. 

 Macdonna, "we heard of the shooting of President Garfield. 

 The first news we had of the event was from a captain who 

 came up from Tromsoe, and told some one on board that 

 the president was recovering slowly. 



" 'You mean the president's wife, don't you?' said the 

 party informed. 'She was quite ill when we left the States.' 



" 'No; I mean the president himself,' said the skipper, 

 wiih decision. 'He has been shot, and it is feared lie may 

 die.' 



"'When was he shot? Who shot him? What for? How 

 did it happen? Where was he shot?' and a volley of other 

 questions were launched at the almost bewildered captain, 

 who could give no further information than that President 



