88 THE JE ANNETTE ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



authorized to draw on me to reimburse that government if it 

 will kindly inform you of the amount. 



FBELINGHUYSEN, Secretary of State." 



The opening months of the new year were a season of 

 painful suspense as to the fate of the gallant commander of 

 the Jeannette, his brave first officer, and other missing men 

 of the expedition. Briefly stated, about all that was known 

 of them in the United States was as follows : 



Three boats, carrying the Jcannette's crew, left Semenoff- 

 .ski Island, September 12th, for the mouth of the Lena, and 

 were separated during a hard gale when about fifty miles 

 from land. The whale-boat party, commanded by Engineer 

 Melville, landed near the east mouth of the Lena, September 

 16th, and on the 26th reached a native settlement called 

 Bykoff, where they had to wait till the river was frozen over 

 solid before proceeding south. 



On the 29th of October a native arrived from Bulun (a 

 settlement further south) with a letter written by Noros and 

 Nindermann, two of the men who accompanied Lieutenant 

 DeLong in the first cutter. This letter stated that DeLong 

 had landed on the Siberian coast and needed prompt assist- 

 ance. Melville went to Bulun, where he saw the two men, 

 and learned that when they left their comrades, October 9th, 

 they were out of food and in a deplorable condition, and one 

 of them had died. Mr. Collins had volunteered to stay 

 behind with the sick man, but they had all kept together. 



Mr. Melville immediately procured the services of some 

 natives with dog-sledges, and went north to search for his 

 distressed comrades. He visited the place Avhere the first 

 cutter landed, and found some records which DeLong had 

 left behind as he retreated slowly south. The last of these 

 records was dated October- 1st. He traced the party to the 

 edge of a desolate and uninhabited region, which the natives 

 refused to enter, and was then obliged to return to Bulun. 

 Thence he proceeded to Yakutsk, 1,200 miles distant, and 

 after organizing several search-parties and arranging a plan 



