LOSS OF AN ENGLISH SLOOP. 133 
in bailing out, we at first ran four miles an hour with the as- 
sistance of our oars, and soon afterward five with our only- 
sail. About two o'clock in the afternoon we were full in 
view of an elevated cape, which we calculated to be only- 
three leagues off But its prodigious height deceived us with 
regard to its distance, for it was almost dark before we reached 
it. After doubling it, our course took a different direction from 
what it had done, so that we were obliged to lower our sail and 
to take to our oars. The wind then began to blow from the 
shore. Our efforts to make head against it were very feeble, 
and had it not been for a current from the northeast, which 
assisted us to make some opposition, we should have run the 
risk of being carried irrecoverably into the open sea. 
The coast being lined with rocks, was here too dangerous 
to attempt to land ; we were obliged to row along the rocks, 
amidst a thousand dangers, in the dark, till five o'clock in the 
morning. Being then incapable, from our exhausted state, of 
any longer exertion, our eyes were shut to the dangers of 
landing, and heaven crowned our attempt with success, with- 
out any other accident than having our boat thrown, half full 
of water, upon the shore. The beginning of the wood was 
at no great distance, yet we had great difficulty to crawl to it, 
and make a fire to thaw our limbs and dry our clothes. 
Such, was the drowsiness into which fatigue and watching 
had plunged us, that it was impossible to refrain from sleep 
when our fire began to light. We were obliged to rouse each 
other alternately in order to keep it up, fearing lest it should 
go out while we were all together asleep, and we should be 
frozen to death in this lethargic state. 
When I awoke I had occasion to convince myself, by the 
observations I made on shore, of the truth of what I had sus- 
pected by the way, namely, that the elevated point of land 
which we had just doubled was Cape North, in the island of 
Cape Breton, which, with Cape Roi on the island of New- 
foundland, marks the entrance of the gulf of St. Lawrence. 
The pleasing certainty that we were on an inhabited island 
would have flattered us with the hope of at last meeting with 
assistance by continuing our voyage, if we had had any thing 
to subsist upon during the time that it might last. Our pro- 
visions were nearly exhausted, and this prospect filled us Avith 
despair. Nothing but ideas of a speedy death, or the most 
horrible means of deferring it, presented themselves to our 
minds. When we cast our eyes upon one another, each seem- 
ed read}'' to point out the victim whom it was necessary to 
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