.150 DISCOVERIES OF 159^. 



attempted to get back by the way they had come. 

 On the 26th, with great exertion, they had so far 

 succeeded as to reach the western side of Ice- 

 haven' but it had nearly been to them a fatal suc- 

 cess ; for, in this dismal spot, " we were forced,'' says 

 De A'ecr, " in great cold, povertie, miserie and 

 griefe, to stay all that winter." 



The prevailing north-easterly winds brought into 

 the bay such prodigious quantities of ice, that the 

 ship, had she even sustained no previous damage, 

 could by no possibility have been moved out of the 

 bay that season : but, lifted up as she was betwe.en 

 heaps of ice, bruised and bilged, with her rudder 

 torn off, very little hope remained that she would 

 ever again be got afloat. The unhappy crew, 

 therefore, determined at once to abandon the ship, 

 and to prepare for passing the winter in this cold 

 and dreary spot ; and luckily for them they found, 

 at jio great distance, a sufficient quantity of drift- 

 wood, not only to build them a capacious house, 

 but also to serve them for fuel. The party, thus 

 doomed to the melancholy fate which awaited 

 them, amounted to seventeen persons, of whom 

 one, who could least be spared, the carpenter, died 

 the first week, and another was taken ill. They 

 contrived, however, to build their house, but, De 

 Veer says, it was so dreadfully cold " that, as wee 

 put a naile into our mouthes, (as carpenters use to 

 do,) there would ice hang thereon when wee tooke 

 it out againe, and make the bloud follow." The 

 journal of the proceedings of these poor people 



