CAPTAIN PHIPPS** EXPEDITION. 
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by which time the number of the English was very greatly re¬ 
duced, and those that were living seemed very unhealthy. Ac¬ 
cording to the account given by the Esquimaux, they were then 
very busily employed, but about what they could not easily 
describe; probably in lengthening the long boat, for at a little 
distance from the house, there was now lying a great quantity of 
oak chips, which had been made most assuredly by carpenters.” 
“ A sickness and famine occasioned such havock among the 
English, that by setting in of the second winter, their number 
was reduced to twenty. That winter, 1720, some of the Esqui¬ 
maux took up their abode on the opposite side of the harbour to 
that on which the English had built their houses, and frequently 
supplied them with such provisions as they had, which chiefly 
consisted of whales’ blubber, and seals’ flesh, and train oil. 
When the spring advanced, the Esquimaux went to the conti¬ 
nent, and on their visiting Marble island again in the summer of 
1721, they only found five of the English alive, and those were 
in such distress for provisions, that they eagerly ate the seals’ 
flesh, and whales’ blubber, quite raw, as they purchased it from 
the natives. This disordered them so much, that three of them 
died in a few days, and the other two, though very weak, made 
a shift to bury them. Those two survived many days after the 
rest, and frequently went to the top of an adjacent rock, and 
earnestly looked to the south and east, as if in expectation of some 
vessels coming to their relief. After continuing there for some 
time together, and nothing appearing in sight, they sat down 
close together and wept bitterly . At length one of the two died, 
and the other’s strength was so far exhausted, that he fell down 
and died also in attempting to dig a grave for his companion. 
The skulls and other large bones of those two men are now lying 
above ground close to the house. The longest liver was, accord¬ 
ing to the account of the Esquimaux, always employed in work¬ 
ing iron into implements for them, probably he was the armourer 
or smith.” 
The great question of the discovery of the north western pas¬ 
sage ceased for some time, on account of the great improbability 
of its existence having been so strongly expressed by Capt. 
