654 Newfoundland Adventures. [JuNE, 



bristled up into pinnacles : more dense and elevated masses rose into 

 towers, lanterns, and steeples; whilst the precipitous and glassy walls 

 shone with brilliant reflexions that completed the architectural simili- 

 tude. All at once this splendid floating mountain stood firm as a rock 

 (grounded in water whose depth must have been double its immense 

 height) ; and as the resounding billows now beat louder against its fretted 

 base, I almost fancied I could hear the swelling murmur of thousands, 

 whose voices joined in some measured psalmody, while at times the 

 groaning organ drowned " the busy hum of men" in its stormy burthen. 



I watched this ocean palace with unceasing interest as we rounded 

 Cape Norman, while the increasing distance heightened the illusion. 

 The sunless side now came gradually in view, and I was admiring the 

 shadows which strongly marked each deep recess between the towering 

 buttresses, when my f( fancy's sketch" was hastily dispelled by the eager 

 and almost imploring tone of Sebastian, who was at the helm: " O ! dear 

 grandfather ! there they are ! now remember your promise !" 



Right ahead appeared seven Esquimaux in canoes of the exact de- 

 scription we had encountered on the River of Exploits five years before. 

 They had just put out of Boat Harbour, at the northern extremity of the 

 old Indian path, and seemed taking advantage of a fair wind to paddle 

 across the strait to either Green or Red Bay on the Labrador shore. 

 " Stay, child," said Simon; " don't be rash ! You need not cross them. 

 You can stand into shore out of their way. You ought to be well satis- 

 fied. Remember the two who fell last winter !" 



" No, no!" replied the boy earnestly; " they were only slain in my 

 own defence. Paul and Cabot are but half avenged. And my father ! 

 my father ! he still haunts my dreams unappeased." 



" Nay, be cautious !" said the old fisher as he undid the sealskin 

 cover of his gunlock. f( Our passenger here may be brought into danger. 

 Yet 'tis no harm to be prepared." 



" If you fear their arrows," said Sebastian to me, {f lie down in the 

 bottom of the boat, and we '11 spread the cloaks over you." 



*' Are you going to attack them unprovoked ?" said I to Simon. 



" No," replied he, " not without provocation. We received sufficient 

 at their hands five years ago to prevent us forgetting it so soon. This 

 boy lost his father by them, my only son ; and you saw our double loss 

 afterwards, on the river side, as we went to offer the murderers the right 

 hand of fellowship. Yet, dear boy, not for their sakes, but your own, 

 avoid this needless danger. Mark how wildly they toss their paddles, 

 and shout to each other, and gather into a squadron !" 



" It appears to me," said I, " that they recognize the boat and its 

 mainsail. Perhaps these are some of the party that you encountered 

 twice before ?" 



" If they be," exclaimed Simon, losing sight of all his prudential 

 advice, " let them look to it. Bear down on them, my boy !" 



" Will you help us ?" asked Sebastian joyfully. 



" Certainly, if need be, if they attack us," I replied, putting a couple 

 of detonating caps on my fowling-piece. We were now close upon their 

 little fleet, which lay to as if to receive us, with their prows sharp in the 

 wind, yet all formed in line (as if preparing to attack a sleeping whale), 

 so as to enable them to get a full view and fair aim at us as we held on 

 our course, and at the same time to paddle free of each other. 



