next day by a third ship, which afterward proved
to be, as we conjectured, the Lord Wellington, having on board
settlers for the Red River.

The ice being rather less close on the morning of the 16th, we
made sail to the westward at 7.45 A.M., and continued "boring" in
that situation the whole day, which enabled us to join the three
strange ships. They proved to be, as we had supposed, the Prince
of Wales, Eddystone, and Lord Wellington, bound to Hudson's Bay. I
sent a boat to the former to request Mr. Davidson, the master, to
come on board, which he immediately did. From him we learned that
the Lord Wellington having on board one hundred and sixty settlers
for the Red River, principally foreigners, of both sexes and every
age, had now been twenty days among the ice, and had been drifted
about in various directions at no small risk to the ship. By the
Prince of Wales we sent our last letters for our friends in
England.

Proceeding slowly to the westward, we had reached at noon on the
21st the lat. of 61 deg. 50' 13", long., by chronometers, 67 deg. 07' 35".
In this situation several islands were in sight to the northward
and westward, and, among the rest, a remarkable one called
Saddle-back on account of its shape. The wind backing to the
westward in the afternoon, we anchored the ships to the largest
floe-piece we could find, there not being room to beat to the
windward. While thus employed we heard voices in-shore, which we
soon knew to be those of some Esquimaux coming off to us. Shortly
after, several canoes made their appearance, and seventeen of
these people came alongside the Fury. Having hauled their _kayaks_
(canoes) upon the floe, they began to barter their commodities,
consisting of seal and whale blubber, whalebone, spears, lines,
and the skins of the seal, bear, fox, deer, and dog. Our first
endeavour was to procure as much oil as possible, of which, as we
had been informed by the Hudson's Bay ships, several tons are thus
almost annually obtained from these people. We soon found that
they had been well accustomed to bargain-making, for it was with
some difficulty that we could prevail on them to sell the oil for
anything of reasonable value. They frequently gave us to
understand that they wanted saws and harpoons in exchange for it,
and as these were articles which we could not spare, it was not
without trouble that we obtained, in the course of the evening,
two barrels of blubber in exchange for sever