Thus We Joyful Whites, Being At Liberty, Took In All Our Sails, And
Lay A Hull, Praising God For Our
Deliverance, and stayed to gather
together our fleet; which once being done, we seeing that none of
them had any
Great hurt, neither any of them wanted, saving only
they of whom I spake before, and the ship which was lost, then at
the last we hoisted our sails, and lay bulting off and on, till such
time as it would please God to take away the ice, that we might get
into the straits.
As we thus lay off and on, we came by a marvellous huge mountain of
ice, which surpassed all the rest that ever we saw, for we judged it
to be near four score fathoms above water, and we thought it to be
aground for anything that we could perceive, being there nine score
fathoms deep, and of compass about half a mile.
Also the fifth of July there fell a hideous fog and mist, that
continued till the nineteenth of the same, so that one ship could
not see another. Therefore we were fain to bear a small sail, and
to observe the time, but there ran such a current of tide, that it
set us to the north-west of the Queen's Forehand, the back side of
all the straits, where (through the contagious fog having no sight
either of sun or star) we scarce knew where we were. In this fog
the 10th July we lost the company of the Vice-Admiral, the Anne
Francis, the Busse of Bridgewater, and the Francis of Foy.
The sixteenth day, one of our small barques, named the Gabriel, was
sent by our general to bear in with the land, to descry it, where,
being on land, they met with the people of the country, which seemed
very humane and civilised, and offered to traffic with our men,
proffering them fowls and skins for knives and other trifles, whose
courtesy caused us to think that they had small conversation with
the other of the straits. Then we bare back again, to go with the
Queen's Forehand, and the 18th day we came by two islands, whereon
we went on shore, and found where the people had been, but we saw
none of them. This day we were again in the ice, and like to be in
as great peril as we were at the first. For through the darkness
and obscurity of the foggy mist we were almost run on rocks and
islands before we saw them: but God (even miraculously) provided
for us, opening the fogs that we might see clearly, both where and
in what danger we presently were, and also the way to escape; or
else, without fail we had ruinously run upon the rocks.
When we knew perfectly our instant case, we cast about to get again
on sea board, which (God be thanked) by might we obtained, and
praised God. The clear continued scarce an hour, but the fog fell
again as thick as ever it was.
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