28 CAPTAIN CART WRIGHT'S 



Being at that time arrived off Cape Quirpon, we 

 lay to till midnigiit, and then made sail across the 

 straits of Belle Isle; notwithstanding there was a 

 very thick fog, and the wind dead on the Labrador 

 shore. 



Saturday, July 28, 1770. At five o'clock this 

 morning we found ourselves almost in the break- 

 ers, and to the westward of York Point. We were 

 very near running on shore, once or twice after- 

 wards; but at last we contrived to find our way 

 into Pitt's Harbour in Labrador. 



We found lying here the Nautilus and the Otter 

 Sloops of War; the former commanded by Cap- 

 tain Williams, and the latter by Captain Morris. 

 Mr. Lucas and I went on board of both the ves- 

 sels, to pay our respects to the captains; one of 

 whom had brought twenty stands of small-arms 

 for my use; which I was informed Sir Edward 

 Hawke, now first Lord of the Admiralty, had or- 

 dered Commodore Bvron/ the Governor of New- 

 foundland, to furnish me with, fearing lest I 

 should not have a sufficiency for my defence 

 against the Esquimaux;* but being already sup- 

 plied with enough of our own, I declined accept- 

 ing them. I then went on shore to York Port to 



1 Nicknamed by the sailors " Foul-weather Jack," grandfather of Lord 

 Byron, who refers to him in his " Epistle to Augusta: " — 



" A strange doom is thy father's son's, and past 

 Recalling as it lies beyond redress 

 Reversed for him our grandsire's fate of yore, 

 He had no rest at sea, nor I on shore." 

 * I should be ungrateful not to mention, that Sir Edward, with whom 

 I had not even the honor of a personal acquaintance, ordered this supply 

 without any application on my part. 



