The horrors of our situation increased; the man on the out-look called out that he saw breakers a-head in every direction, and escape appeared to be next to impossible.  My crew of Scottish Islanders, however, continued their painful exertions without evincing the apprehensions they must have felt, by a murmur.  The crisis was now at hand.  We approached so near to the breakers that it was impossible to avoid them; and the men lay on their oars, expecting the next moment would be their last.

In such a situation the thoughts of even the most depraved naturally carry them beyond the limits of time; and by these thoughts, I believe, the soul of every one was absorbed; yet the men lost not their presence of mind.  Suddenly, the voice of the look-out was heard amid the roar of the breakers, calling our attention to a dark breach in the line of foam that stretched out before us, which he fancied to be a channel between the rocks.  A few desperate strokes brought us to the spot, when, to our unspeakable joy, we found it to answer the man’s conjecture; but, so narrow was the passage, that the oars on both sides of the boat struck the rocks; a minute afterwards we found ourselves becalmed and in safety.  The boat being moored, and the men ordered to watch by turns, we lay down to sleep, as we best could, supperless, and without having tasted food since early dawn.

The wind still blew fresh on the ensuing morning; but we found, to our great satisfaction, that we had entered a kind of channel that lay along the shore, where we were protected from the storm by the innumerable rocky islets that stretched along the mainland.  Regarding the labyrinth of islands through which we had effected a passage in the darkness, we were struck with wonder at our escape; and felt convinced that the hand of Providence alone could have guided us through such perils in safety.

CHAPTER V.

    ESQUIMAUX ARRIVE FROM THE NORTH SHORE OF HUDSON’S STRAIT, ON
    A RAFT—­DESPATCH FROM THE GOVERNOR—­DISTRESS OF THE
    ESQUIMAUX—­FORWARD PROVISIONS TO MR. E——.  RETURN OF THE
    PARTY—­THEIR DEPLORABLE CONDITION.

We reached Fort Chimo on the 20th September.  A greater number of Esquimaux were assembled about the post than I had yet seen; and among them I was astonished to find a family from the north side of the Strait, and still more astonished when I learned the way they had crossed—­a raft formed of pieces of drift wood picked up along the shore, afforded the means of effecting the hazardous enterprise.

On questioning them what was their object in risking their lives in so extraordinary an adventure, they replied, that they wanted wood to make canoes, and visit the Esquimaux on the south side of the Strait.

“And what if you had been overtaken by a storm?” said I.

“We should all have gone to the bottom,” was the cool reply.