THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 62!) 



Commanders Schley and Coffin and Lieutenant Emory. A 

 letter of grateful and heartfelt acknowledgment from Lieutenant 

 Greely was read, and other speeches were made by Mr. S. J. 

 Randall, Senator Hale, Commanders Sehley and Coffin, Lieut. 

 Emory and General Butler. 



The Thetis, the Bear, and the Alert arrived in New York on 

 the 7th, bearing the bodies brought from Cape Sabine to be re- 

 claimed by the relatives and friends. On the following day they 

 were transferred with imposing ceremonies from the Thetis and 

 Bear to the barge Chester A. Arthur, and thence conveyed to 

 Governor's Island. 



UNPLEASANT FACTS. 



THE bodies were saluted by the Government troops and then sent 

 to their friends in the several places of their residences for burial. 

 Up to this. time there were no suspicions of any disloyal act hav- 

 ing been committed by any member of the expedition, nor had 

 the breath of rumor circulated any story save that of heroism 

 and endurance. But ere many days had elapsed after the fu- 

 neral ceremonies were completed, some member of the relief 

 squadron intimated that Private Henry had not died of starva- 

 tion, as first reported, but that he had been officially executed. 

 This was at first denied, but afterward admitted in a report made 

 by Lieut. Greely, already quoted. This news produced consid- 

 erable excitement, though no one spoke condemnatory of Greely 

 beyond expressing an opinion that he should have stated the facts 

 at once in his general report to Secretary Chandler. But the 

 little surprise thus created was quickly overshadowed by a rumor 

 that the Greely party had been guilty of cannibalism. This cre- 

 ated a profound sensation, notwithstanding an emphatic denial 

 made by Lieutenant Greely himself. It was then remembered 

 that he had opposed any removal of the dead bodies from their 

 original burial places, by saying: "Often in talking over what 

 seemed to be inevitably our fate, the men all expressed the wish 

 to be buried on the verge of the great Polar Sea, by whose 

 shores they had met their death. Out of deference to the solemn 

 wishes of the dead I spoke against disinterring the bodies, and 



