126 LOSS OF AN ENGLISH SLOOP* 
was frozen too hard and too deep to yield to those instru- 
ments. 
All these losses, which reduced our company to fourteen 
persons, gave us but little concern, either on their account or 
on our own. Upon considering our dreadful situation, death 
appeared rather a blessing than a misfortune ; and when a 
sentiment of nature revived Avithin us the love of life, each 
individual regarded his companions as so many enemies 
armed by hunger to deprive him of his subsistence. In fact, if 
some had not paid the debt of nature, we should soon have 
been reduced to the horrible necessity of perishing of hunger, 
or of murdering and devouring each other. Without being 
brought to this dreadful alternative, our situation was so mis- 
erable that it seemed impossible for any new calamity to be 
capable of augmenting its horrors. The continual sensation 
of excessive cold and pressing hunger, the pain of the frost 
wounds irritated by the fire, the complaints of the sufferers, 
the neglect and filth which rendered us objects of disgust both 
to ourselves and others, all the images of despair collected 
around us, and the prospect of a slow and painful death, in 
the midst of a desolate region, far from the consolations of 
relatives and friends ; such is an imperfect representation of 
the pangs our minds endured every moment of the tedious 
days and eternal nights. 
The mate and I often went abroad to see if vre could disco- 
ver any vestiges of habitations in the country. Our excur- 
sions were not long nor attended with any success. We re- 
solved, one day, to penetrate farther into the country, keeping 
along the banks of a frozen river. We observed, from time 
to time, traces of elks and other animals, which caused us. 
sincerely to regret being unprovided with arms and powder to 
shoot them. A ray of hope, for a moment, illumined our 
minds. Following the direction of some trees, cut on the 
sides with a hatchet, we arrived at a place where some Indians 
must shortly have resided, since their wigwam was still stand- 
ing, and the bark employed for that purpose appeared quite 
fresh ; an elk's skin, which we found very near, suspended 
from a pole, confirmed our conjectures. We anxiously tra- 
versed all the adjacent country, but, alas ! without success. 
We, however, derived some satisfaction from reflecting that 
this place had had inhabitants or visitors, and that they might 
soon return. Struck with this idea, I cut a long pole, which 
I stuck upright on the bank of the river, fastening it to a piece 
of birch bark, after cutting it into the figure of a hand, with 
