elcher, who was wintering in Wellington
Channel. Now, shortly after our captain's departure, Captain Pullen
reached his ship. If he had only come back before Captain Inglefield
had left! Lieutenant Bellot, fearing that our captain's absence might
be a long one, and knowing that the Admiralty despatches were
important, offered to carry them himself. He left the two ships under
Captain Pullen's charge, and left August 12, with a sledge and an
india-rubber canoe. He took with him Harvey, quartermaster of the
_North Star_, and three sailors, Madden, David Hook, and me. We
thought that Sir Edward Belcher would be somewhere near Cape Beecher,
at the northern part of the channel; hence we made for that part in
our sledge, keeping on the east bank. The first day we encamped three
miles from Cape Innis; the next day we stopped on the ice nearly three
miles from Cape Bowden. During the night, which was as bright as day,
land being only three miles distant, Lieutenant Bellot determined to
go and camp there; he tried to reach it in the canoe; a violent
southeast breeze drove him back twice; Harvey and Madden tried in
their turn, and with success; they carried a rope, and with it they
established communication with the shore; three objects were carried
across by it; but at the fourth attempt, we felt the ice moving away
from us; Mr. Bellot shouted to his companions to loosen the rope, and
we (the lieutenant, David Hook, and I) were carried to a great
distance from the shore. Then a strong southeaster was blowing, and
snow was falling. But we were not in any great danger, and he might
have been saved, since the rest of us were saved."

Johnson stopped for a moment, and gazed at the ill-fated shore, then
he went on:--

"After losing sight of our companions, we tried at first to shelter
ourselves under the cover of our sledge, but in vain; then with our
knives we began to cut a house in the ice. Mr. Bellot sat down for
half an hour, and talked with us about the danger of our situation; I
told him I was not afraid. 'With God's protection,' he said, 'not a
hair of our heads shall be hurt.' I then asked him what time it was.
He answered, 'About quarter past six.' It was quarter past six in the
morning of Thursday, August 18th. Then Mr. Bellot bound on his books,
and said he wanted to go and see how the ice was moving; he was gone
only four minutes, when I went to seek him behind the floe which
sheltered us; but I did not find him, and,