y, bringing with them beaver-skins; but
the inquietude caused in our minds by the loss of two boats' crews, for
whom we wished to make search, did not permit us to think of traffic. We
tried to make the savages comprehend, by signs, that we had sent a boat
ashore three days previous, and that we had no news of her; but they
seemed not to understand us. The captain, accompanied by some of our
gentlemen, landed, and they set themselves to search for our missing
people, in the woods, and along the shore N.W. of the cape. After a few
hours we saw the captain return with Weeks, one of the crew of the last
boat sent out. He was stark naked, and after being clothed, and
receiving some nourishment, gave us an account of his almost miraculous
escape from the waves on the preceding night, in nearly the following
terms:--

"After you had passed our boat;" said he, "the breakers caused by the
meeting of the wind roll and ebb-tide, became a great deal heavier than
when we entered the river with the flood. The boat, for want of a
rudder, became very hard to manage, and we let her drift at the mercy of
the tide, till, after having escaped several surges, one struck us
midship and capsized us. I lost sight of Mr. Aiken and John Coles: but
the two islanders were close by me; I saw them stripping off their
clothes, and I followed their example; and seeing the pinnace within my
reach, keel upward, I seized it; the two natives came to my assistance;
we righted her, and by sudden jerks threw out so much of the water that
she would hold a man: one of the natives jumped in, and, bailing with
his two hands, succeeded in a short time in emptying her. The other
native found the oars, and about dark we were all three embarked. The
tide having now carried us outside the breakers, I endeavored to
persuade my companions in misfortune to row, but they were so benumbed
with cold that they absolutely refused. I well knew that without
clothing, and exposed to the rigor of the air, I must keep in constant
exercise. Seeing besides that the night was advancing, and having no
resource but the little strength left me, I set to work sculling, and
pushed off the bar, but so as not to be carried out too far to sea.
About midnight, one of my companions died: the other threw himself upon
the body of his comrade, and I could not persuade him to abandon it.
Daylight appeared at last; and, being near the shore, I headed in for
it, and arrived, thank God, safe and so