From the Hull Observer we learn that the Lords of
the Admiralty have replied to a memorial from Newcastle-upon-Tyne requesting aid for the relief of the fishermen shut up in Davis's straits, that " the time of year, and probable state of the ice, render it impossible to afford assistance." But Colonel Thompson is not to be easily daunted. The Hull paper contains another letter from him, mentioning an inter- view with Captain Duncan, who commanded the Dundee of London, when it was shut up Davis's Straits in 1826-7.
" Captain Duncan's account is very cheering. He says an attempt should be made to forward provisions to the crews : it should be made directly ; and he thinks the provisions might be got as far as Dusky (which I take to be the Disco Island of the charts); they should be sent in a Greenland ship, fortified ; says the ship must go, and do the best it can on view of what it finds when it gets there; if it cannot get to one place, it must get to another ; it can com- municate with sonic of the factories, and the provisions can be conveyed over the ice; natives will help to convey the provisions, and to communicate with the crews ; the weather is often such that the natives cannot travel, but they often can ; says he will go himself, if the Corporation that he has a pen- sion from will give him leave; be asked to go and and bring ice from Norway, and they would not let him ; thinks there are many Greenland masters and others that would volunteer to go ; has made the entrance of Davis's Straits in eight days from Shetland. Captain Duncan is a hale Scotch mariner of slaty, and talks as coolly of going as be would of going to Leith by the steam- ship. His address is 46, Trinity Ground, Mile End Road. What strikes me is, that a small Greenlandman, doubly fortified, as not being wanted to stow cargo, should be fitted out as soon as possible at the expense of the owners and mulerwriters, and manned b1 volunteers from the ports and London; and that Government should be asked for two heavy steam• vessels, to accompany her to the ice, and if weather permits, to tow. Depend on it, we see daylight. We'll Aare 'em out."
It is conjectured that the fishermen may receive some assistance fom Moravian settlers. In the mean time, it is to be hoped that there
will be a simultaneous effort on the part of the inhabitants of Hull, Newcastle, and the underwriters and others interested in Londoe. That to afford relief may be practicable, appears from this—that about the conclusion of the war with France, provisions were sent in a sloop of war from England to the Danish settlements in Greenland, at a late period of the year : the Danish ports were blockaded by our navy, so that the Danes could not send their annual vessels themselves.
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