1531. THOMAS JAMES. 245 



ing, left her hanging by the middle, and she fell 

 over to such a degree that they could not remain 

 on her. *' Having now done," says James, " to 

 the best of our understandings, but to little pur- 

 pose, we v/ent all upon a piece of ice and fell to 

 prayer, beseeching God to be merciful unto us." 

 The flowing tide brought her upright and floated 

 her off; " then was our sorrow turned to joy, and 

 we all fell on our knees, prasing God for his mercy 

 in so miraculous a deliverance." The ice, how- 

 ever, continued to increase to such an extent on all 

 sides, that they were unable to see from the mast 

 head the space of an acre of open sea; but a 

 change of wind dispersed it, and after many diffi- 

 culties and dangers, and much wailing, tliey reached 

 Salisbury Island on the 5th of July, and on the 

 15th, still much pestered with ice and imagining 

 " a thousand times that the ship had been beaten 

 to pieces," they got between Nottingham and 

 Di2:2:es's Islands. 



It would be tedious as well as useless to follow 

 Captain James in his slow progress to the south- 

 westward in Hudson's Bay. From his own utter 

 io'iiorance, and that of all hands on board, of tlie man- 

 ner of conducting a ship among ice, she was almost 

 constantly beset, and frequently remained unmova- 

 ble with all her sails spread. It was not to be won- 

 dered, therefore, that the i)eople began to murmur 

 and to fancy that they were likely to pass the 

 winter in the midst of fields of ice and snow; 



R 3 



