LOSS OF AN. ENGLISH SLOOP. 117 
made with their knives only; and in short every thing they 
Our adventurers arrived safe at Archangel on the 28th of 
September, 1749, having spent six years and three months 
in their dreary solitude. The moment of their landing was 
near proving fatal to the loving and beloved wife of Alexis 
Himkofl^ who being present when the vessel came into port, 
immediately knew her husband, and ran with such eagerness 
to his embrace, that she slipped into the water and very nar- 
rowly escaped being dro\^med. 
All three on their arrival were strong and healthy, but 
having lived so long without bread, they could not reconcile 
themselves to the use of it, and complained that it filled them 
with wind ; nor could they bear any spiritous liquors, and 
therefore never drank any thing but water afterward. 
LOSS OF AN ENGLISH SLOOP 
On the Coast of the Island of Cape Breton, in 1780. 
The man of true courage, even in the most desperate situa- 
tions, invariably finds resources within himself Of this the 
journal of Captain Prenties, of the 84th regiment of foot, af- 
fords the reader a striking example. 
Being charged, says that ofiicer, with the despatches deli- 
vered to me by General Haldimand, commander in chief in 
Canada, for General Clinton, I embarked on the 1 7th of No- 
vember, 1780, in a small sloop bound from Quebec to New- 
York. We set sail in company with a brig destined for the 
same place, and carrying a duplicate of the despatches. Hav- 
ing descended the St. Lawrence to the harbor called St. Pa- 
trick's Hole, we were detained in that port by a contrary 
wind, which continued six days. The winter began to set 
in, and ice, of considerable thickness, was soon formed on the 
banks of the river by the intenseness of the frost. Would to 
heaven it had continued a few days longer ! By absolutely 
preventing us from proceeding it would have saved us those 
misfortunes, the narrative of which begins with that of our 
navigation. 
Before we reached the mouth of the river it was discovered 
that the sloop had sprung a small leak. We had scarcely 
