220 WEST INDIES VERSUS SPITZBERGEN. 



conditions. They were taken out in one of 

 the whalers, and a hut was erected for their 

 winter quarters ; but when the fleet was about 

 to depart, and they saw the awful gloomy hills, 

 already white with the early snows, and 'felt 

 the howling gales of north-east wind, their 

 hearts utterly failed them, and they entreated 

 the captain who had charge of them to take 

 them back to London and let them be hanged, 

 in pursuance of their original sentence, rather 

 than leave them to perish in such a horrible 

 country ! The captain seems to have had more 

 of the " milk of human kindness " in him than 

 his philanthropic employers, for he acceded to 

 their request, and took them back to London. 

 As hanging them would not have been of any 

 pecuniary benefit to the company, they were 

 then good enough to procure a pardon for the 

 men. 



This story reminds me of a conversation 

 which I once heard some of my yacht's crew 

 holding together. They were discussing the 

 respective merits of hot and cold countries — 

 the West Indies versus Spitzbergen; and one 

 fellow was urging, that, although "neither rum 

 nor tobacco grew in Spitzbergen," still the 

 continual '^ blow-out " of fat reindeer which 



