DEPARTURE FROM ICY HAVEN. 4?* 
ferocious enemy, the bear. The weather was however too bois¬ 
terous and inclement to admit of any operations being’ executed, 
in order to effect their emancipation from their icy imprison¬ 
ment, but with the advance of the season, and the increase of 
the solar power, they looked forward with the most joyous 
expectation for a termination of their sufferings. Dreadful how¬ 
ever was the certainty, which now burst upon them, that their 
ship had received so much damage from the pressure of the ice, 
and its protracted exposure to the rigour of the climate, that 
every prospect must be abandoned of again taking her to sea, as 
no personal exertion, under their present disheartening circum¬ 
stances, accompanied also with a total want of the necessary 
materials for repair, could ever place the ship in a condition to 
effect her passage through the ice, or to contend against the 
storms which prevail in the northern latitudes. Under this try¬ 
ing dilemma, their only chance of delivery from impending 
death lay in their boats, but these also stood in need of repair, 
and even then it became a matter of the greatest doubt, whether 
they could be made sufficiently seaworthy, as to stand the wear 
and tear of the floating ice, and other obstacles, which they 
would have to surmount. The boats however were their only 
resource in this alarming emergency, but it was the beginning 
of June before they could commence the repair of them, and on 
the 13th, their task was so far completed, as to enable them to 
commence the operations for their departure. Previously to quit¬ 
ting their desolate habitation, Barentz drew up a statement, 
which he committed to writing, of the misfortunes and suffer¬ 
ings, which they had endured, adding a list of the names of the 
crew, and other particulars, which, on the supposition of their 
inability to effect their passage homeward, or their being totally 
lost, might be the means of conveying to their country some in¬ 
telligence of their melancholy fate. This written document be 
deposited in the hut, and on the 14th June they left Icy Haven ; 
a faint gleam of hope cheering them on, but fear and despair 
holding dominion over them. 
The health of Barentz had been for some time on the decline, 
disease preying upon a frame already exhausted by fatigue 
