another winter. We were perhaps,
indeed, indebted for our escape to a strong westerly breeze, which blew
for several hours on the 17th, when, the ice being sufficiently close to
allow our men to walk to the assistance of the Hecla, we succeeded,
after seven hours' hard labour, in forcing her into clear water, when
all sail was made to the eastward, and our course shaped for the Trinity
Islands in a perfectly open sea.

We thus finally made our escape from the ice after having been almost
immoveably beset in it for twenty-four days out of the last twenty-six,
in the course of which time the ships had been taken over no less than
one hundred and forty leagues of ground, generally very close to the
shore, and always unable to do anything towards effecting their escape
from danger.

We made the Trinity Islands on the 18th, and ran down Hudson's Strait
with a favourable breeze, reaching the Orkneys on the morning of Oct.
9th. It can scarcely, perhaps, be imagined by those who have not been
similarly situated, with what eager interest one or two vessels were
this day descried by us, being the first trace of civilized man that we
had seen for the space of seven-and-twenty months. The breeze increasing
to a fresh gale from the southward in the course of the night, with a
heavy sea from the same quarter, rendering it impossible for us to make
any progress in that direction, I determined to put into Lerwick in the
Shetland Islands, to procure refreshments, and await a change in our
favour. We accordingly bore up for that harbour early on the morning of
the 10th, and at thirty minutes past ten A.M. anchored there, where we
were immediately visited by a great number of the inhabitants, anxious
to greet us on our return to our native country.

I feel it utterly impossible adequately to express, the kindness and
attention we received for the three or four days that we were detained
in Bressay Sound by a continuance of unfavourable winds. On the first
information of our arrival the bells of Lerwick were set ringing, the
inhabitants flocked from every part of the country to express their joy
at our unexpected return, and the town was at night illuminated, as if
each individual had a brother or a son among us.

On the 13th, a breeze springing up from the northward, we took leave of
our kind and hospitable friends, deeply sensible of the cordial and
affectionate reception we had experienced; and, being still favoured by
the wind, we