Princess Thora

1904. Late in the evening, a man appeared at Sir John Cordeaux's door with a curious metal casket. The man acknowledged himself as the Captain of the Ardilaun, a Dundee whaler. He stated the metal casket had been found floating in a small piece of open water off the coast of Spitzbergen, with an inscription on its face stating, "Whoever will take this to Sir John Cordeaux, Hanbury House, London, England, will receive 500 pounds reward." Sir John, not knowing what the casket contained, asks the Captain to return the next day to see if it was worth such a reward. Found within was a thick roll of manuscript, containing more than three hundred pages of close writing, inscribed on some fine, transparent material and all of it was in the handwriting of Dr. Silex, one of the party of men on expedition to the North Pole. The Captain earned his 500 pounds. The following is the narrative, given word for word, as Dr. Silex wrote it.