164 NINE BRITISH SEAMEN SUFFER. 



again in the vessel which brought them out ; and 

 we are told that the company afterwards obtained 

 their reprieve. 



It happened that this experiment, which no 

 reward could induce any person to attempt, was 

 shortly doomed to undergo a trial by a party 

 of British seamen, consisting of nine persons, 

 who were left behind in this miserable country 

 by a whaler, and all of whom were found dead 

 the following year, with their bodies cruelly 

 disfigured and torn by bears and foxes.* In 

 1630 also, some little time after this melan- 

 choly occurrence, it was again fated to be 

 tried. The master of the same whale vessel 

 happened to send a boat on shore, at a place 

 near Black Point, famous for the numerous 

 herds of deer which frequented it, with orders 

 to procure a supply of venison, and return on 

 board. The party, consisting of eight persons, 

 landed, and, with the assistance of two dogs, 

 succeeded in taking fourteen of these animals ; 

 being then overcome with fatigue they determined 

 to pass the night on shore, and return to their 

 vessel on the following day. It, however, un- 

 fortunately happened, that a change of wind 

 occurred in the course of the night, and brought 

 down such a quantity of ice, that the vessel 

 * Churchill's Collection, vol. iv. 



