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Updated: September 21, 2025
When he ceased weeping, Jean Cornbutte thought over the matter, and the next day after the ship's arrival, when Andre came to see him, said, "Are you very sure, André, that my son has perished?" "Alas, yes, Monsieur Jean," replied the mate. "And you made all possible search for him?" "All, Monsieur Cornbutte.
They celebrated it with enthusiasm in this wretched hut, six hundred leagues from the North Sea, in a temperature of thirty degrees below zero! This temperature lasted till the end of the moon, and it was not until about the 17th of November, a week after their meeting, that Jean Cornbutte and his party could think of setting out.
Penellan took the helm, and Jean Cornbutte, mounted on the gallant, indicated the route to take. Towards evening the brig was entirely surrounded by these moving rocks, the crushing force of which is irresistible. It was necessary, then, to cross this fleet of mountains, for prudence prompted them to keep straight ahead. Another difficulty was added to these perils.
Jean Cornbutte rejoined him, and they observed with terror that this rumbling, which awakened their companions, came from beneath them. A new kind of peril menaced them. To the noise, which resembled peals of thunder, was added a distinct undulating motion of the ice-field. Several of the party lost their balance and fell. "Attention!" cried Penellan. "Yes!" some one responded. "Turquiette!
Had it not been for the lemon-juice with which they were abundantly furnished, they would have speedily succumbed to their sufferings. This remedy was not spared in relieving them. But one day, the 15th of January, when Louis Cornbutte was going down into the steward's room to get some lemons, he was stupefied to find that the barrels in which they were kept had disappeared.
They could not confide any detail of the life in common to their enemies. Charged with all the domestic cares, their powers were soon exhausted. The scurvy betrayed itself in Jean Cornbutte, who suffered intolerable pain. Gervique and Gradlin showed symptoms of the same disease.
Happily these precautions did not deprive, the vessel of any of its speed, for the wind could only reach the upper sails, and these sufficed to carry her forward rapidly. Thanks to her slender hull, she passed through these valleys, which were filled with whirlpools of rain, whilst the icebergs crushed against each other with sharp cracking and splitting. Jean Cornbutte returned to the deck.
Despite the cold, they mounted on the forward barricading, and cut off all the wood which was not indispensably necessary to the ship; then they returned with this new provision. The fire was started afresh, and a man remained on guard to prevent it from going out. Meanwhile Louis Cornbutte and his friends were soon tired out.
New provisions of all kinds were carried; for Jean Cornbutte, in order to carry the exploration as far as possible, had resolved to establish depôts along the route, at each seven or eight days' march. When the sledge was ready it was at once fitted up, and covered with a skin tent. The whole weighed some seven hundred pounds, which a pack of five dogs might easily carry over the ice.
Perhaps he would there learn the name of the shipwrecked schooner to succour which Louis and the sailors had sacrificed themselves. On the 30th of June the brig cast anchor in that port. The authorities of Bodoë gave Jean Cornbutte a bottle found on the coast, which contained a document bearing these words:
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