134 LOSS OF AN ENGLISH SLOOP. 
sacrifice to the hunger of his executioners. Some of us had 
already agreed to commit the selection of the object to the 
blind decision of the lot. Fortunately the execution of this 
dreadful design was deferred till the last extremity. 
While my companions were employed in clearing the boat 
of the sand with which the tide had filled her, and in stopping 
the crevices by pouring water upon the tow and leaving it to 
freeze, I walked along the shore with the mate in quest of 
oysters, of which we perceived a great quantity of shells scat- 
tered up and down. Unfortunately none of them were full. 
We should have considered it the height of good fortune to 
have met with some carcasses of wild beasts half devoured 
by birds of prey; but all these were now buried under the 
snow; there was nothing that could afford us even the vilest 
food. It was not sufficient that fate should have thrown us 
upon a desert coast, but to crown our misery, it had chosen 
the most dreadful season, when not only the earth refused its 
productions for our subsistence, but likewise when the ani- 
mals inhabiting the two elements which nourish mankind had 
fled to their retreats to preserve themselves from the intense 
cold which desolates these inhospitable climates. 
I should be afraid to excite too painful sensations in those 
minds which our situation till the present moment has in- 
spired with tender com.passion, if I were to paint in all their 
horror the miseries we had to suffer during the following days. 
Reduced for oar only nourishment to dry fruits of sweet brier, 
dug up from beneath the snow, and a few tallow candles, 
which we had reserved for a last resource; oppressed with 
fatigue at the least exertion ; checked in our navigation by 
the ice, the rain, or the winds ; som.etim.es animated with a 
faint hope, to be plunged soon afterward in the abyss of de- 
spair ; overwhelmed with the painful sensations of all these 
distresses combined to crush us with their insupportable 
Aveight every moment both of the day and of the night; such 
was our state till the 17th, when, completely exhausted, we 
landed for the last time, resolved to perish on the spot if hea- 
ven should not send us some unexpected relief. To place our 
boat in safety on the beach would have been an undertaking 
too far beyond our. power. She was abandoned to the fury 
of the waves after we had sorrowfully taken out our imple- 
ments and sail which served to cover us. Our first efforts 
were employed in clearing the snow from the spot we had 
fixed upon, to raise ]t all round in a sloping direction, for the 
purpose of fixing in it branches of trees, intended to form a 
