466 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. HOSS. 
mariner could cling 1 , the dreadful thought intruded itself, that 
they would be obliged to winter in the country, for, at that 
season of the year, the hope was vain of falling in with a whaler, 
as those ships were by that time on their homeward passage; 
and, therefore, a dreary prospect of nearly nine months of mi¬ 
sery and destitution was before them. 
Steadily was the eye fixed upon the vessel, as the tide flowed 
round her; and deeper and deeper was the anxiety, with which 
the mark was regarded, which indicated the altitude of the tide. 
It was now three quarters tide, and still the Victory was sta¬ 
tionary. The water had risen above the numerical mark on her 
rudder; and therefore, unless she was actually jammed in be¬ 
tween two rocks, the confidence amounted almost to a certainty, 
that she would float before the water had reached the high water 
mark. It was one of those trying moments of human life, which 
description cannot reach, and which, imagination in the wildest 
of her flights, can scarcely approach. It was the moment of de¬ 
cision, perhaps, between life and death—between a long and 
dreary period of misery and want, in the utmost extreme, of human 
suffering, and a safe return to their country and their home. 
Gradually, and as it were with the imperceptible growth of 
the tide, the water gurgled round the Victory. It was a breath¬ 
less expectation, depictured in its strongest features, on the 
countenances of the anxious mariners; and, as the ship first 
heaved with the wave, that came rolling towards her—the watch 
on the bows shouted, “ she floats, she floats.” The sound passed 
from the foremast to the mizen: and Hope, the tutelar deity of 
the sailor, whispered her inspirations into every breast. The 
tide was not yet at its height; but although the ship was afloat, 
it was impossible to take any advantage of her being at liberty ; 
for as the stores, and in fact the entire cargo of the Victory, were 
on the beach, it would have been the extreme of bad manage¬ 
ment, and perhaps the means of deranging the whole of their 
future proceedings, if they had attempted to move from the 
position, in which they then lay. It was, however, considered 
an act of prudence to get her into deeper water, and she was 
therefore moved as far as possible further to the northward. 
