The Robinson Crusoe of the Polar Regions

By James Lindridge

Somewhere about the year 1757, a vessel named the Anne Forbes left the port of Aberdeen for the Greenland whale fishery. On board, as a seaman, was a lad of the name of Gordon. The captain’s name was Hughes, an Englishman, who had a character of being drunken, and obstinate, and altogether unfit for such a situation. They had instructions to proceed to the Spitzbergen seas. They had fine weather and an open sea. They continued their route straight on for a fortnight, although the mare, an old experienced sailor, represented to the captain the danger of penetrating so far into the Polar Seas; but he only laughed at him.

One day the mate pointed out to the captain some brilliant appearance at a great distance, which he said he suspected were immense floes or fields of ice, and if the wind should rise in that direction, they should to a certainty be enclosed. But Captain Hughes did not pay attention to it. The captain went and intoxicated himself as usual. A few hours later afterwards the mate perceived the vessel to be drifting with great rapidity, but not knowing in what direction, he called up the captain. The captain became now alarmed and gave his orders with impatience.

But in spite of their efforts, they became completely involved in broken floating ice. They continued, however, to drift slowly toward the south-west, under a short sail, passing what the crew took for a huge iceberg, but which the captain said was one of the “Seven Sisters”, off the coast of Spitzbergen. That was last land they saw. After struggling on for twenty-four hours longer the Anne Forbes perished in a moment except Gordon who was thrown on one of the ice fields. The ship went down; but in less than half an hour, by some extraordinary operations of the iceberg below the water, she was thrown out on the ice, keel uppermost, a perfect wreck!

There, then, was this man left on field of floating ice, on the great Polar Ocean, without food or shelter. He saw at once the necessity of trying to reach the hulk, an attempt which was dangerous. But life is sweet, and hunger began to assail him, so he determined to try. It is impossible to describe the perils he underwent in this attempt.

When at last he reached the wreck and obtained the entrance, he found food. Having renewed his strength he soon fell asleep.

He slept for a considerable time, and on awaking he heard, as he thought, somebody enter the cabin. He arose and cautiously opened the door of the cabin where he had been all the time, and saw a whole horde of white Polar bears round the ship, and all busy eating!

Not knowing how to drive this herd of monsters away, Gordon took a speaking-trumpet and shouted through it with all his might, on which they all sprung up on their hind feet, standing as straight as human creatures. They were fat, and all some of them at least ten feet high. After staring about them for a time, they again began to eat.

Gordon was not quite sure, from the invasion of the bears, that there was a communication with some country - most probably Spitzbergen. He imagined he was somewhere about the middle of the sea, between Greenland and the North Cape.

Winter had now nearly set in. during one of the terrible storms of wind and show-drift common in the Polar Regions, about the middle of the night, Gordon was awakened by some noise inside the cabin. He was frightened beyond measure, for he had no idea what it could be. By – end- by, something came to his cabin-door and rapped. It tried to open the door, but it failed. He was by this time on his feet, with a large knife in his hand. Presently, he heard the intruder go away and attacked the biscuit. He now knew that it was his first visitor the bear, and was sure it had come to steal for its winter store. He immediately struck a light, opened a door, and bolted out, having the light in his left hand, and the long sharp knife for cutting up beef, whales, etc., in his right. The light frightened the animal so dreadfully that it could not move. He ran toward, and with his long knife gave the animal two deadly stabs below the fifth ribs, towards the heart. The blood that gushed out nearly filled the cabin and the poor brute very soon gave over struggling.

The animal was a huge she-bear. He skinned it with great difficulty, and spread it on the ice to breeze. He calculated that he could not have less than a hundred weight of good fresh meat. He then cleared out the cabin; and spread the bear’s skin on it for a carpet. After that he once more went to bed.

On awaking, he heard a noise at the window, and instantly recognized the sounds which had alarmed him before, when the dead bear was sticking there. Without hesitation he opened the window. A bear cub, dying of hunger and cold, raised its fore feet to the window. He helped it in, and when it found its mother’s skin, it uttered a sound of joy, and tears actually streamed from its eyes. It went round and round, and licked the skin for very fondness.

At last its mutters of joy gradually changed into moaning and at last it laid itself down in a round form, to die beside all that remained of its mother. Pitying its groans, Gordon gave it some biscuit.

It received the first piece shyly, but the rest it ate so voraciously that he was afraid it would choke.

He fed the cub slowly, patting it and speaking kindly to it, calling it Nancy, for it was a female. It licked his hand in return, and his heart bounded with delight. Their friendship was formed at that moment, with a resolution on his part that it should never be broken. She licked his hand again, and then rolling herself up once more on her mother’s skin, after a few heavy moans, she fell sound asleep. Out of this sleep she did not awake for at least three days.

Gordon fed her, and her eyes delighted up. He taught her gradually to follow him in and out. She seemed to consider Gordon a friend of her won species. She answered to her name, and came at his bidding; and when they walked out upon ice, he dressed his late captain’s holiday clothes, took her paw within his arm, and taught her to walk upright. He often laughed heartily at the figure they cut; and as she tried to imitate him in everything, so she did in laughing; but her laugh was perfectly irresistible.

For about two months he spent all his waking hours with Nancy, fro she was constant to him as a shadow.

One night she was awakened from a sound sleep by the tottering motion of the iceberg. The motion stopped in a course of minute, by which time she was up and out on the platform at the top, from whence he saw that iceberg had moved a small degree round to the west. It had separated from the interminable field of ice on the east, leaving an opening there about a bowsprit over. The sea in the opening was as bright as a mirror, and as soon as Nancy saw the water, she rushed into it, and vanished in below the ice for a space that frightened him for her safety. She at length appeared with a fish in her mouth, something like a large herring. He was glad of it, and caressed her, and away she flew again to the opening. Whenever she dived, she brought up a fish of some sort; and every day thereafter she supplied him with fish, so that he had a treasure of great value in that singular animal.

During the space of six months at least Gordon must have crossed the Polar Seas without ever knowing where he was. He several times saw mountains in the early part of his tour, and twice, in particular, quite distinctly; and once he saw a headland or island straight before him. He was even so near it that he saw a being that he took for a woman, moving about on the shore, staring at the floating ice-mountain. He put two hands to his mouth in place of a speaking-trumpet, and hailed the stranger with his whole strength of lungs; but before he could prevent it, Nance did the same, and sent forth such a bray that fairly frightened the native, who fled with the swiftness of the roe, and vanished among the rocks.

When he had travelled from sixteen to twenty miles, calculating from the length of time he had taken, and while making for some hills which he thought he discovered before him, he noticed Nancy very far to the right, seeming greatly interested about something, as if following a track. He turned in the same direction, and to his joy, found the traces of a company mounting to from thirty or forty individuals, all journeying on the same path, straight for the land. Thus encouraged, he posted on for many miles. At length he came upon some marks which were rather equivocal. Nancy had run off and left him on the track; and now straining his sight forward, he perceived on a rising ground that must have been a shore, a whole herd of white bears!

Gordon had run away so quickly that he had lost all traces of his path. After travelling several miles, Nancy quitted him. He proceeded for some time, but at length he heard a noise coming along the ice, like the galloping of horses, accompanied occasionally with a growling murmur. He made all the haste he could, but his strength was gone. On looking back, he saw a bear coming upon him at full speed. It was soon kneeling at his feet and licking his hand. It was Nancy, bleeding. She instantly turned about, and went slowly back. He then saw a gigantic bear, standing on end, like a tall obelisk, covered with snow. His heart fainted within him; but he cocked his gun, and tried to run on. Nancy endeavored to oppose the monster by throwing herself always in before him. Gordon tried several times to aim at him, but found it impossible without shooting Nancy; so that all he could do was to run on. Until, fairly exhausted, he fell flat on his face. Instantly he found himself grasped, and one of the bears above him. It was poor Nancy trying to cover him with her own body from the attacks of the savage brute that pursued him. The monster struggled to reach his neck, and forced his head in below Nancy, and Gordon felt first his cold nose, and then his warm lips close to his throat. He called out, “Seize him”- the words used for baiting on Nancy, and which she always promptly obeyed, on which she gave him such a snap that made him growl like a bull. Then she seized the gigantic monster by the throat with her teeth and paws. Gordon put the muzzle of his gun to the bear’s ear and fired. The shot killed the bear. As soon as Nancy got free, he embraced her, and feeble and tired almost to death, with her at his side to lean upon, they made their escape to the old hulk.

He barricaded the entrance window, fed Nancy, ate something himself, drank a little brandy, and having kindled a fire of coal and driftwood, and bathed and dressed his arm, and washed Nancy all over, he took a short and troubled sleep. As for Nancy, with the late exertion and a hearty meal, she fell into the torpid state, and feel asleep for nearly three months, until he was obliged forcibly to awaken her, as he had done before.

It proved a severe winter, much stormier than the last; and by the time the sun began to show his disc above the horizon, our modern Crusoe had once more decided to make a pilgrimage over the ice, in search of some inhabited country. Accordingly he made the requisite preparations, and loaded himself and Nancy very heavily, knowing that his loads would constantly be getting lighter, and then he left his old comfortable cabin and his mountain of ice, with many bitter tears, all uncertain whether he would ever see it again.

Away they went together, holding their course, as nearly as Gordon could guess, to the S.S.W. Having reached the south-west corner of the country, he unexpectedly came upon the traces of three men and a number of dogs, and by following them, he arrived, in a few hours, at the shore. There he found a spot where the men had evidently rested, and his heart was full of joy. In order to overtake them, it was necessary to leave the luggage or the greater part of it; so, making with strong cord a muzzle for Nancy, who was an indiscriminate destroyer, and would certainly attack the dogs first, and in all probability the men next, and taking a bottle of whiskey and some provisions with him, he set out on the track of the three men. Having fastened the muzzle on Nancy, he put a cord to it, and led her. She tried to get loose by pulling the muzzle off with her paws; but his commands restrained her, although she continued to look at him with apparent astonishment.

After he had travelled about fourteen hours, he came to a place where the three men had evidently rested and refreshed themselves, and there was a great deal of blood upon the snow, from which he concluded they were hunters, and he killed some game. Here he took some refreshment, fed Nancy, who began scraping on a spot between two rocks, where he soon discovered a store of venison, covered with snow, and trampled down. From this perceived that this spring was the rendezvous of hunters; and to meet with them he had only to remain where he was. With what anxiety of heart did he pass this few hours! Suddenly he heard Nancy straggling to get free. Hearing people speaking, he peeped over the rock, and saw three men standing beside their buried treasure, in earnest conversation. Gordon drew himself up to the verge of the cliff, and at once implored them to take him under their protection.

They became friends, and set down to eat together. They then packed up for departure, the men having secured as much food as they could take. Being afraid of a row between the dogs and Nancy, Gordon made signs for the men to muzzle the dogs, which they did, and then journeyed together in peace. When they came to his luggage, the sun being warm, they rested long, and slept; and the men let him understand that they had to provide for a long journey. After proceeding three days and three nights along the level surface of the ice, they saw the open sea, and came to two canoes and a boat, lying on the ice, near to the verge of the sea. The boat was carrying the dogs and one man, and the canoes for a man each. As the dogs were perfectly obedient, each of the men took two dogs below the leather of his canoe, and Gordon was placed in the bottom of the small boat, and there, with Nancy beside him, he was forbidden to move, for fear of oversetting the boat.

They at last arrived on another coast, and were met upon the shore by twelve young women, who conducted him to their habitation, and at the entrance they were received by an old man, with hair and a beard as white as the driven snow. He was the patriarch of the little colony.

The home of this simple people was strangely constructed. The outer apartments were built and vaulted with snow, but besides these, there was a long natural cavern stretching under the rocks. In one of them his bed was made, with was a good one, and there he and Nancy were left to rest.

The colony consisted of thirty one women and ten men, including the aged father-the rest of the men had perished at sea, or in bear-hunting – and seven children, two of whom only were boys. Gordon ascertained that he was in Old Greenland, among a remnant of a colony of Norwegians. They had a prophecy among them that bears were one day to devour the last of them. The people were of slow stature, and their fur dresses made them appear as square creatures very near as broad as long.

Here Gordon lived for a considerable time. He married one of the women. This did not please Nancy, who would not leave his apartment while he slept, nor allow another to lie in his arms in her presence. She had soon became a favorite with the whole tribe, owing to her expertness in fishing; and accompanied them in an expedition which they made to the hulk of the Anne Forbes, to bring away some part of oil, spirits, iron etc., which had been left there, on with occasion they took with them eight light sledges, drawn by one – and – thirty powerful dogs, the whole conducted by four men, of which number Gordon was one, while poor Nancy traveled on foot.

After their return Nancy evinced such strong symptoms of jealousy as alarmed her muster very much. When the poor creature found that she was debarred from sleeping by him, and watching over him in the night, her unhappiness was extreme. Her moans disturbed the whole community; and so, after she had spent the part of one night in such groans, as if her very heart was breaking, in the morning she was missing, and though they searched for her far and near, she was nowhere to be found.

A considerable time pasted on; but, at last, on rising one morning, they found themselves invaded by a horde of white bears, and the ice roof of their cavern penetrated in two places. The colony at the time consisted of about sixty men, women and children; but only one – third of these were capable of standing any deadly struggle. They resisted, however, the attacks of the bears; in the best manner they were able. But the slaughter committed by the bears was dreadful. In the midst of the struggle, Gordon was seized by an immense powerful bear, round the arms and breast, and borne off with great rapidity. The huge animal never stopped until it brought him to the door of their now nearly desolate habitation, where it set him down uninjured, kneeled at his feet, and kissed his hands. To his astonishment and joy, he found that it was his long ago lost Nancy. He embraced her, and was now sure of protection.

The generous animal, on the approach of some equivocal sounds, seized him by his dressed and draw his into one of the recesses of the cavern, where she took his sealskin walled and laid it on her back. He then knew that she wanted him to load her with provisions and fly, which he did with all speed. They issued from the cavern with great caution, and she led him straight to the sea-side, to the very spot at which they had first landed in Greenland, and there she threw his load from her back, kneeled, licked his hand, and then went away to share the prey with associates.

There were plenty on canoes lying at the spot, and some fishing-boats; but choosing the best canoe he could find, he stowed his provision in a boat his feet and legs, bound a sealskin cover around his breast, and set out to sea. He continued his voyage night and day, along a weather shore, going on land occasionally to sleep. He got some distant views of Iceland. Here he drew his canoe ashore, and climbed a hill, from which he saw the open sea at no great distance, and several ships, all apparently beating southward. He posted on running without intermission in the direction of the ships; but before he reached the verge of the ice, they were all gone beyond hail. To his great joy, however, after spending twelve hours in the utmost anxiety, the Briel, of Amsterdam, appeared in view, beating up, and as in one of her tacks she came close to him, he was taking on board, and once more safely landed in Scotland, after an absence of seven years.