56 THE SIEGE OF THE NORTH POLE 



event, I gave the Esquimaux mother the benefit of this 

 conventional suspicion, and brought them both aboard, 

 with their baby and their tent and all their household 

 goods. The old woman and bright-eyed boy cried to be 

 taken along ; but I had no further room, and we had to 

 leave them to the care of the remainder of the tribe, who, 

 about twenty in number, had discovered the vessel, and 

 came shouting gleefully over the hill. After distributing 

 to them some useful presents, we pushed off for the 

 schooner. 



" Hans was the only unconcerned person in the party. 

 I subsequently thought that he would have been quite 

 as well pleased had I left his wife and child to the pro- 

 tection of their savage kin ; and had I known him as well 

 then as, with good reason, I knew him afterwards, I would 

 not have gone out of my way to disturb his barbarous 

 existence.'" 



Cape Alexander, at the entrance to Smith Sound, was 

 reached without any special difficulty. Standing over 

 towards Cape Isabella on the opposite side of the sound, 

 there seemed a good prospect of being able to reach it, 

 but soon a heavy pack was met with, and a furious gale 

 coming on compelled Hayes to run back to the coast 

 for shelter. On the 31st August, during this gale, the 

 schooner dragged its anchors. What followed is thus 

 described by Hayes : " McCormick managed to save the 

 bower, but the kedge was lost. It caught a rock at a 

 critical moment, and, the hawser parting, we were driven 

 upon the bergs, which, as before stated, had grounded 

 astern of us. The collision was a perfect crash. The 

 stern boat flew into splinters, the bulwarks over the star- 

 board-quarter Avere stove in, and, the schooner's head 

 swinging round with great violence, the jib-boom was 

 carried away, and the bowsprit and foretopmast were 

 both sprung. In this crippled condition we at length 



