262 
GREENLAND VOYAGE. 
entanglement, the particulars of which have been 
detailed. And on this apparently casual circum¬ 
stance, it was, subsequently, most satisfactorily 
proved, depended the ultimate sitccess of our 
voyage and probably our safety also. For it is very 
certain, that, had I remained five minutes longer 
below, or had any part of the great exertion we 
made been reglected, our future success would 
have been prevented, and our safety highly en¬ 
dangered. I do not scruple to attribute this cir¬ 
cumstance so important to us, (for we must be 
permitted to consider that of importance which 
effectually furthered us in the chief object of the 
voyage), to a providential influence on the mind; 
my principles, my feelings, and my consciousness, 
all forbid me to call it accidental. Neither do I 
consider it right to omit this reflection, which 
arose out of the subsequent events of this week: 
for I conceive it would be a blameable and weak 
concession to the opinions of those who do not 
think with myself, to shrink from the acknow¬ 
ledgment of those superior influences, of a provi¬ 
dential nature and tendency, when so many re¬ 
marks of a nautical or philosophical kind, and 
some of these for the connection of events neces¬ 
sarily of an uninteresting description, are, with¬ 
out scruple, admitted ; and when no other obser¬ 
vation, that has any claim to importance, is ever 
