SHORES OF THE POLAR SEA. 237 



the immediate approach of a gale ; and we 

 had scarcely landed before it came on with 

 violence, and attended with so much swell 

 as to compel us to unload the boats and 

 drag them upon the beach. 



" The whole party having been exhausted 

 by the labour and anxiety of the preceding 

 twenty-four hours, two men were appointed 

 to keep watch, and the rest slept until eleven 

 o'clock in the morning, when we began to 

 repair the damage which the sails and rig- 

 ging had sustained from the attempts made 

 by the Esquimaux to cut away the copper 

 thimbles. We were thus employed when 

 Lieutenant Back espied, through the haze, 

 the whole body of the Esquimaux paddling 

 towards us. Uncertain of the purport of 

 their visit, and not choosing to open a con- 

 ference with so large a body in a situation 

 so disadvantageous as our present one, we 

 hastened to launch the boats through the 

 surf, and load them with our utmost speed ; 

 conceiving that when once fairly afloat, we 

 could keep any number at bay. We had 

 scarcely pulled into deep water before some 



