348 
PROJECTED WITHDRAWAL. 
And now came the question of the second winter: 
how to look our enemy in the face, and how to meet 
him. Any thing was better than inaction; and, in spite 
of the uncertainty which yet attended our plans, a host 
of expedients were to be resorted to, and much Robinson 
Crusoe labor ahead. Moss was to be gathered for eking 
out our winter fuel, and willow-stems and stonecrops 
and sorrel, as antiscorbutics, collected and buried in 
the snow. But while all these were in progress came 
other and graver questions. 
Some of my party had entertained the idea that an 
escape to the south was still practicable; and this 
opinion was supported by Mr. Petersen, our Danish 
interpreter, who had accompanied the Searching Expe¬ 
dition of Captain Penny, and had a matured experience 
in the changes of Arctic ice. They even thought that 
the safety of all would be promoted by a withdrawal 
from the brig. 
“August 21, Monday.—The question of detaching a 
party was in my mind some time ago; but the more 1 
thought it over, the more I was convinced that it would 
be neither right in itself nor practically safe. For my¬ 
self personally, it is a simple duty of honor to remain 
by the brig: I could not think of leaving her till I had 
proved the effect of the later tides; and after that, as I 
have known all along, it would be too late.—Come 
what may, I share her fortunes. 
“But it is a different question with my associ¬ 
ates. I cannot expect them to adopt my impulses; 
and I am by no means sure that I ought to hold them 
