On the 2d, it was thick, foggy, wet weather, the wind blowing fresh to the westward; but, though the ice immediately about the ships seemed rather looser than the day before, it hourly set in again so fast, that there appeared no probability of getting the ships out, without a strong east or north-east wind.

On the 3d, the weather being very fine, clear, and calm, they perceived that the ships had been driven far to the eastward.  The ice, however, was much closer than before; and the passage by which they had come in from the westward quite closed up, with no open water any where in sight.  At five in the morning, the pilots having expressed a wish to get, if possible, farther out, the ships companies were set to work, that they might cut away the ice, and warp through the small openings to the westward.  They found the ice so very deep, that they were often obliged to saw through pieces twelve feet thick; and, after toiling in this manner the whole day, with all their utmost efforts, had not been able to move the ship above three hundred yards to the westward, through the ice.  They had, in the mean time, been driven, with the ice field itself to which they were fast, to the north-east and eastward, by the current; which had also forced the loose ice from the westward between the islands, where it became what the Greenlandmen call packed, or one piece thrown up above another to a considerable height, and as firm as the main body.

On the 4th, it was quite calm, till the evening; when they were flattered with a light air to the eastward, which produced no favourable effect.

On the 5th, the probability of getting the ships out appearing every hour less, and the season being already far advanced, some speedy resolution became necessary for the preservation of the people.  As the situation of the ships prevented them from seeing the state of the ice to the westward, by which, their future proceedings must be in a great measure determined, Captain Phipps sent Mr. Walden, one of his midshipmen, with two pilots, to an island twelve miles off, since distinguished, in the charts, by the name of Walden’s Island, to see where the open water lay.

On the 6th, in the morning, Mr. Walden and the two pilots returned; with an account that the ice, though close all about the ships, was open to the westward, round the point by which they had got in.  They also remarked that, on the island, they had the wind very fresh to the eastward, though it had been almost calm the whole time where the ships lay.  This circumstance considerably lessened the hopes, hitherto entertained, of the immediate effect of an easterly wind in clearing the bay.  Having now only one alternative; either patiently to wait the event of the weather on the ships, in hopes of getting them out, or to betake themselves to the boats.  The ships had at this time driven into shoal water, having only fourteen fathom; and, should either the ships, or the ice to which they were fast, take the ground,