THE ARCTIC DISASTERS 267 



in condition to receive on board ourselves and crews for transit 

 to some civilized port, feeling assured that our Government, 

 so jealous of its philanthropy, will make ample compensation 

 for all your losses. We shall commence sending the sick and 

 some provisions to-morrow. With a small boat, and near 

 seventy miles for the men to pull, we shall not be able to send 

 much provisions. 



"Feeling confident that you will not abandon us, 



''We are, respectfully, yours, 



''Henry Pease, Jr. 

 "With thirty-one other masters." 



They packed food, clothing, and bedding into the boats, load- 

 ing them nearly to the gunwales (they had raised the gunwales to 

 make the boats more seaworthy) ; and they destroyed all liquor 

 on board the vessels, lest, in the joyous abandon of a drunken 

 spree, the natives burn, smash, or sink whatever they could 

 set a torch to or lay hands on. Then on September 14th, 

 they set out, rowing and sailing down the long thread of open 

 water. 



As night was falling, they camped among the dunes by the 

 beach. On the bleak shore a tent or two for the women and 

 children rose in the dusk, and fires for cooking and warmth 

 flamed high, but a howling wind came up and drove rain in 

 sheets across the ice-fields and the sands. 



The refugees — they numbered, to be exact, 1,219 — had come 

 thus far in whaleboats heavy-laden with necessary food and 

 clothing. The seven vessels, which lay beyond them in the 

 open ocean miles away, where a gale of wind was blowing 

 and heavy seas were running, dared come no nearer. Thither, 

 in their open boats, the refugees must go as best they could. 

 The prospect was not one to make a man, much less a woman 

 with children, rest easier in a driving Arctic storm. 



Day broke and the rain ceased, but the wind continued. 

 They ate breakfast beside their camp-fires scattered along that 

 exposed and icebound shore; then went on, past Blossom Shoals 

 and round a long point of ice ten miles farther down the coast. 



