228 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. VII. 



current, with what sail she could carry, to Hudson's 

 Bay, or to continue a direct course for England. 

 In consulting his officers what they considered best 

 to be done, they individually answered that, de- 

 prived as the ship was of anchors and much of her 

 stores, with the little reliance to be placed on the 

 compasses, they thought the best to be done would 

 be to return to England without further delay : a 

 course was shaped accordingly. 



The voyage along this eastern coast of North 

 America has been tried many times, and always 

 found more or less disastrous. It is a route utterly 

 void of interest in the best of ships, in the best of 

 weather, and in the best part of the season. Parry, 

 with his two well-equipped ships, was teased and 

 hampered with the floating ice, the fogs, and the 

 currents, which the state of his compasses also made 

 still more embarrassing. But of this harassing 

 navigation, in the present instance, nothing more 

 need be said, as nothing further occurred on the 

 return passage that requires any notice, unless it be 

 the intercourse they had in the lower part of the 

 Welcome with a party of Esquimaux, whose cha- 

 racter, so different from that generally of this mild 

 and quiet race, is no doubt truly explained. 



" I could not but compare the boisterous, noisy, fat 

 fellows who were alongside, in excellent canoes, with well- 

 furnished iron-headed weapons, and handsome clothing, 

 with the poor people we had seen at Southampton Island ; 



