Thomas Wentworth Higginson, February 1857

Worcester, February, 1857

You will like to hear something of Dr. Hayes and his lecture. There was a large audience, who of course expected plenty of beard and bearskin, and applauded rather faintly when a spare young man in black stepped out on the platform. He is thin, nervous, spirited, with quite a lively manner. . . . Much of the lecture was familiar to us; but the descriptions were very simple and quite graphic. He always said we and referred but once to Dr. Kane, speaking of “the brave heart of our commander.”

The most novel and least pleasing part of it was his description of their separation from Dr. Kane. This he did not speak of as a thing requiring apology, but he did not give the explanation given by Dr. Kane, or rather added it, as part of their plan, to remain at the Esquimaux settlements and supply the rest of the party with food. But how were they to get the food? They were not hunters, and their few knives and treasures soon lost their power over the natives, so that they would not sell them even provisions enough for themselves, as might have been anticipated. Dr. K. softens down their sufferings, perhaps in charity for their blunder; he says they had lived on seal and walrus for two months, but Hayes says that they lived for the last three weeks on lichens from the rocks, and had only fuel enough to cook coffee twice a day.

Another thing Dr. H. told with great openness which Dr. K. omits entirely: that the party of the former had not only appropriated some . . . furs — but much worse. For they drugged with laudanum some natives who visited them, took their sledges and dogs, and made off. Being poor drivers, however, the owners soon overtook them, and were compelled by (empty) rifles to drive them to the brig; thus they escaped . . . and it seems rather hard, after such an example, to reproach the poor Esquimaux with theft. To be sure, the party were reduced to extremities, but the Esquimaux were in extremities all the time.

Otherwise, I liked the Doctor and walked along with him afterwards to his hotel. His great desire now is to go in a small screw steamer to explore that open sea; I begged him not to mention it, lest I should go too. . . . He wore finally a bearskin coat, one of the skins, and says his sensations of cold here are not the least affected by his Arctic experiences. (N. B. The mercury fell to zero as soon as he entered the city.)

SOURCE: Mary Potter Thacher Higginson, Editor, Letters and Journals of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1846-1906, p. 91-2

Thomas Wentworth Higginson, February 1857

February, 1857

. . . Health is the first object,” as the worthy Doctor used to say, so I take naps and gymnasium and read the fascinating Dr. Kane.

I do believe Robinson Crusoe will have to give place hereafter, and that boys will keep some small edition of Dr. Kane instead of Baron Trench in their school desks. I seldom read of anything which I do not fancy I could have done myself, such is the weakness of our common nature; but here I confess myself distanced, even in fancy.

On the other hand, what a dull and unprofitable book is the “Letters of Daniel Webster”; no genius or power in it, or charm of any kind except the letters to his farmers, which are quite delightful. Perhaps his letters about and to his children, especially to the star-eyed Julia, show more domestic feeling than I supposed; there is one quite beautiful burst of fatherly pride where he describes her to somebody as being “beautiful as Juno.” But he shows beyond all question that shallowness of knowledge which Theodore Parker attributed to him, and everything in the shape of thought is amazingly commonplace. . . .

Mary . . . has been reflecting to-day that there's no telling what might have been; for instance, she might have been the wife of Dr. Kane; and what would he have done with her in the Arctic regions? That's the present anxiety.

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I am giving Sunday evening lectures on the “Seven Deadly Sins,” or, as Mary irreverently terms them, “the Deadlies.” The congregations are crowded as much as ever, though half the original ones are gone West.

SOURCE: Mary Potter Thacher Higginson, Editor, Letters and Journals of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1846-1906, p. 90-1