156 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



York. Seals, narwhals, white whales, and the walrus, were also 

 in great abundance. 



He likewise described to me, in a most graphic manner, the ter- 

 rible storm of 1830 in Baffin's Bay, when twenty-two vessels were 

 wrecked, and yet his own ship escaped without the slightest dam- 

 age. One thousand men had to make good their retreat upon the 

 ice toward the Danish settlements, some 600 miles distant, and all 

 arrived safely with the exception of two, who died from the ef- 

 fects of spirituous liquors they injudiciously drank. 



Captain Parker, at the time I saw him, was sixty-nine years of 

 age, and good, to all appearance, for half a score more in the arc- 

 tic regions. He had been navigating those northern seas (whal- 

 ing) for forty -five years, with an interval of about five years, when 

 he rested. He commenced in 1815, and was a commander in 

 1820. He had never lost a ship. On the present voyage neither 

 vessel had a chronometer. They depended upon dead reckoning for 

 their longitude. 



There was a doctor on board, quite a young man, and appa- 

 rently of merit. He had been one year in Springfield, Ohio. 



The True - love is well known in arctic history as connected 

 with the late searching expeditions. In 1849 she landed some 

 coals at Cape Hay, in Lancaster Sound, as requested by Lady 

 Franklin, who sent them out, that fuel might be deposited at ev- 

 ery likely spot where her husband and his companions might pos- 

 sibly visit. This remarkable vessel is 100 years old, and was built 

 in Philadelphia, Pa. 



I explained to Captain Parker all about my plans, and he ex- 

 pressed himself much interested in them, promising to let me 

 have a boat I desired, as an additional one to that I should get 

 from the George Henry, and which would be needed to carry my 

 stores. 



On Captain Parker's invitation I remained to dinner, and then, 

 after a most agreeable visit, returned to the George Henry. 



In a few days after this both the Parkers suddenly went to sea 

 — as we supposed, driven out of their anchorage by a gale that 

 had been blowing, and, owing to this, I did not receive the boat 

 promised me, nor were we able to send home the letters that had 

 been prepared. 



It was about this time I was visited by two Esquimaux, man 

 aud wife, who will henceforth often appear in my narrative, and 

 who, together with a child afterward born to them, accompanied 



