476 THE JEANNETTE ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



United States his name is as familiar as a household word, we 

 must turn to the unfortunate comrades whose lives were lost in 

 the same noble pursuit in which he was engaged. And, gentle- 

 men, now I ask you to turn for a moment to the unfortunate 

 De Long and his comrades, and to drink to their memory in 

 silence and standing.' The toast was drank amid the most intense 

 silence. 



In response to cheers given in his honor, Mr. Melville spoke 

 hurriedly as follows: 



'GENTLEMEN: In behalf of myself and my two comrades 

 two sailor men who are here to-night I will say two or three 

 words I won't count them, but I shall say only two or three, 

 and, indeed, I should prefer to say nothing at all. I can only say 

 that I feel that we did our whole duty, that we did all that we 

 could do, and that if we had not tried to do that we would have 

 been no men at all.' 



Letters of regret from several distinguished gentlemen were 

 then read. Among them was one from Rev. H. W. Beecher, who 

 expressed admiration for the hero of the evening, and his com- 

 panions in hardship, and concluded with the declaration that there 

 was no invention of art of so much value as that which raises the 

 standard of simple manhood. Mayor Grace then made a speech, 

 from which the following are extracts: 



' There sit here beside us the survivors of a brave company, 

 the history of whose fateful voyage we know so well. These men 

 and their companions, whom we shall see no more, have displayed 

 such courage and endurance as the world rarely sees. There is 

 no one so thoughtless, none with so poor a memory, that their 

 etory is not graven on his heart. After twenty months of tortu- 

 ous drifting, clamped in oceanic ice, their stanch ship stanch 

 as wealth and skill could devise went down in the darkness of 

 Arctic night. Then came months of wandering, and cold, hunger, 

 and death; but their hearts were stancher than their ship. Their 

 invincible courage never faltered. To you, sir, and to all the gal- 

 lant crew, from the dead leader to the humblest surviving seaman, 

 do all brave hearts owe their testimony, that, though OUT navy may 

 be deficient in hulls of iron, she yet has her hearts of oak. At 

 that parting scene the most pathetic in the history .of Arctic 

 exploration when on the banks of the Lena, standing knee deep 



