OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
127 
Our theatrical entertainments took place regularly once a fortnight, and 1819. 
continued to prove a source of infinite amusement to the men. Our stock of 
plays was so scanty, consisting only of one or two volumes, which happened 
accidentally to be on board, that it was with difficulty we could find the 
means of varying the performances sufficiently ; our authors, therefore, set 
to work, and produced, as a Christmas piece, a musical entertainment, ex- 
pressly adapted to our audience, and having such a reference to the service 
on which we were engaged, and the success we had so far experienced, as 
at once to afford a high degree of present recreation, and to stimulate, if 
possible, the sanguine hopes which were entertained by all on board, of the 
complete accomplishment of our enterprise. We were at one time ap- 
prehensive, that the severity of the weather would have prevented the 
continuance of this amusement, but the perseverance of the officers over- 
came every difficulty ; and, perhaps for the first time since theatrical en- 
tertainments were invented, more than one or two plays were performed, 
on board the Hecla, with the thermometer below zero on the stage. 
The North Georgia Gazette, which I have already mentioned, was a source 
of great amusement, not only to the contributors, but to those who, from 
diffidence of their own talents, or other reasons, could not be prevailed on 
to add their mite to the little stock of literary composition, which was 
weekly demanded ; for those who declined to write were not unwilling to 
read, and more ready to criticise than those who wielded the pen ; but it 
was that good-humoured sort of criticism that could not give offence. The 
subjects handled in this paper were, of course, various, but generally ap- 
plicable to our own situation. Of its merits or defects it will not be necessary 
for me to say any thing here, as I find that the officers, who were chiefly 
concerned in carrying it on, have agreed to print it for the entertainment of 
their friends ; the publisher being at liberty, after supplying each with a 
certain number of copies, to dispose of the rest. 
The return of each successive day had been always very decidedly marked 
by a considerable twilight for some time about noon, that on the shortest 
day being sufficient to enable us to walk out very comfortably for nearly two 
hours*. There was usually, in clear weather, a beautiful arch of bright 
* It will, perhaps, give the best idea of the power of 
the sun’s light afforded us on this day, to state, that 
we could at noon read, with tolerable e^se^ the same 
sized type, as that in which this note is printed ; but 
this could only be done by turning the book directly 
towards the south. 
