and then presently fell we, not only to excuse him, but to lament both him and his company, fearing they had been overtaken by the ice, and miserably that way perished.

Thus tormented in mind with our doubts, our fears, and our griefs, and in our bodies with hunger, cold, and want, that hideous monster desperation began now to present his ugliest shape unto us. He now persuaded, he now laboured to seize upon us. Thus finding ourselves in a labyrinth, as it were of a perpetual misery, we thought it best not to give too much way unto our griefs, fearing they also would most of all have wrought upon our weakness. Our prayers we now redoubled unto the Almighty for strength and patience in these our miseries; and the Lord graciously listened unto us, and granted these our petitions. By His assistance, therefore, we shook off these thoughts, and cheered ourselves up again to use the best means for our preservation.

'Now, therefore, began we to think upon our venison, and the preserving of that, and how to order our firing in cold weather. For fear, therefore, our firing should fail us at the end of the year, we thought best to roast every day half a deer, and to stow it in hogsheads. Which we putting now in practice, we forthwith filled three hogsheads and a half, leaving so much raw as would serve to roast every

Sabbath day a quarter; and so for Christmas day, and the like.

"This conclusion being made amongst us, fell we then again to bethink us of our miseries, both past and to come; and how, though if it pleased God to give us life, yet should we live as banished men, not only from our friends, but from all other company. Then thought we of the pinching cold, and of the pining hunger; these were our thoughts, this our discourse, to pass the time withal. But as if all this misery had been too little, we presently found another increase of it; for, examining our provisions once more, we found that all our fritters of the whale were almost spoiled with the wet they had taken; after which, by lying so close together, they are now grown mouldy; and our bear and venison we perceived again not to amount to such a quantity as to allow us five meals a week. Whereupon we were fain to shorten our stomachs of one meal more; so that, for the space of three months after, we, for four days in the week, fed upon the unsavoury and mouldy fritters, and the other three we feasted it with bear and venison. But as if it were not enough for us to want meat, we now began to want light also. All our meals proved suppers now; for little light could we see, even the glorious sun, as if unwilling to behold our miseries, masking his lovely face from us under the sable

we cast down ourselves before Him in prayer two or three times a day; which course we constantly held all the time of our misery.

The New Year now began. As the days began to lengthen, so the cold began to strengthen; which cold at last came to that extremity, as that it would raise blisters in our flesh as if we had been burnt with fire; and if we touched iron at any time, it would stick to our fingers like bird-lime. Sometimes, if we went but out of doors to fetch a little water, the cold would nip us in such sort, that it made us as sore as if we had been beaten in some cruel manner. All the first days of the winter we found water under the ice, that lay upon the beach on the seashore; which water issued out of a high bay or cliff of ice, and ran into the hollow of the beach, there remaining with a thick ice over it; which ice, we at one certain place daily digging through with pickaxes, took so much water as served for our drinking. This continued with us until the 10th of January, and then we were fain to make shift with snow water, which we melted by putting hot irons into it; and this was our drink until the 20th of May following.

"By the last of January the days were grown to some seven or eight hours long; and then we again took another view of our victuals, which we now found to grow so short, that it

could no way last us above six weeks longer; and this bred a further fear of famine amongst us. But our resource was, in this as in our other extremities, unto Almighty God, who had helps we knew, though we saw no hopes; and thus spent our time till the 3d of February. This proved a marvellous cold day, yet a fair and clear one. About the middle thereof, all clouds now quite dispersed, and night's sable curtain drawn, Aurora with her golden face smiled once again upon us, at her rising out of her bed. For now the glorious sun with his glittering beams began to gild the highest tops of the lofty mountains. The brightness of the sun, and the whiteness of the snow, both together were such, as that it was able to have revived a dying spirit; but to make a new addition to our new joy, we could perceive two bears, a she one and her cub, now coming towards our tent. Whereupon, straight arming ourselves with our lances, we issued out of our tent to await her coming. She soon cast her greedy eyes upon us, and with full hope of devouring us, she made the more haste unto us; but with our hearty lances we gave her such a welcome, as that one fell down upon the ground, tumbling up and down, and biting the very snow for anger. Her cub seeing this, by flight escaped us. The weather was now so cold, that longer we were not able to stay abroad.

Retiring, therefore, into our tent, we first warmed ourselves, and then out again to draw the dead bear in unto us. We flayed her, and cut her in pieces; a stone weight, or thereabouts, served us for our dinners; and upon this bear we fed some twenty days; for she was very good flesh, and better than our venison. This only mischance we had with her, that upon eating of her liver, our very skins peeled off. For my own part, I, being sick before, by eating of that liver, though I lost my skin, recovered my health upon it. She being spent, either we must seek some other meat, or else fall aboard our roast venison in the cask, which we were very loth to do, for fear of famishing, if so be that should be spent before the fleet came out of England. Amidst these our fears, it pleased God to send divers bears into our tent, some forty at least as we accounted, of which number we killed seven; that is to say, the 2d of March one, the 4th another, and the 10th a wonderful great bear, six feet high at least all which we flayed, and roasted upon wooden spits, having no better kitchen furniture than that, and a frying pan, which we found in the tent. They were as good savoury meat as any beef could be. Having thus gotten good store of such food, we kept not ourselves now on such poor allowance as before, but ate frequently two or three meals a day; which

began to increase strength and ability of body in us.

'By this the cheerful days so fast increased, that the several sorts of fowls, which had all the winter time avoided those quarters, began now again to resort thither, unto their summer-abiding. The 16th of March, one of our two mastiff dogs went out of the tent from us in the morning; but from that day to this, he never more returned to us, nor could we ever hear what was become of him. The fowls that I before spake of, constantly use every spring-time to resort unto that coast, being used to breed there most abundantly; their food is a certain kind of small fish. Yearly, upon the abundant coming of these fowls, the foxes, which had all this winter kept their burrows under the rocks, began now to come abroad to seek for their livings: for them we set up three traps like rat-traps, and baited them with the skins of these fowls, which we had found upon the snow, they falling there in their flight from the hill, whereupon they bred, towards the sea. For this fowl being about the bigness of a duck, hath her legs placed so close unto her rump, as that when they alight once upon the land, they are very hardly, if ever, able to get up again, by reason of the misplacing of their legs and the weight of their bodies: but being in the water, they raise themselves with their pinions well enough. After we