2il6 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC IIEGIONS. 



nine sail were collected together ; and about theSlOtli, 

 after sustaining a dreadful storm, and being subject- 

 ed to an immense pressure of the ice, which accumu- 

 lated around them twenty or thirty feet high, two 

 of the ships were wrecked. Two more were wreck- 

 ed four or five days afterwards, together with two 

 others at a distance from them. On the 24th, Ice- 

 land was in sight ; some of the ice was in motion, 

 and two ships seemed to escape. Another was lost 

 on tlie 7th of September ; and, on the 13th, the 

 Wilhelmina \vas crushed to pieces, by the fall of an 

 enormous mass of ice, which was so unexpected, 

 that those of the crew who were in bed, had scarce- 

 ly time to escape on the ice, half naked as they were. 

 One ship now alone remained, to which the crews 

 of four, and the surviving part of the crew of a fifth, 

 (that was wrecked on the 30th September,) repair- 

 ed. By the beginning of October, they had drift- 

 ed to the latitude of 64"; and on the 11th, the last 

 ship was overwhelmed by the ice and sunk. Thus, 

 between three and four hundred men were driven 

 to the ice, and exposed to the inclemency of the 

 weather, atmost destitute of food and raiment, and 

 without hut or tent to shield them from the pier- 

 cing wind. 



On the 30th of October, the miserable sufferers 

 divided. The greater part betook themselves to the 

 land, and attempted to travel along its rugged 

 shores, while the rest remained on a field of ice, un- 

 til it drifted as far a,s Staten Hook, and then pro- 



