dened by
seeing far off, with the hull yet hidden below the horizon, a ship under
full sail, steering northward. At first the Dean, who had been so often
cheated, thought it might be an iceberg; but it was clearly a ship that
we saw this time. From fear that it might be an iceberg, we passed now
to fear that it might hold off from the land, and not discover us, which
would be even harder to bear.

"By and by the hull of the ship was plainly to be seen, and after a
while we discovered that the ship was not alone, but that another was
following only a few miles behind it; and directly two more were seen,
making four, and then a fifth hove in sight some hours afterward. We
knew this must be part of a whaling fleet that annually visits the
Arctic seas, and we rejoiced greatly at the prospect of our deliverance.

"You will see how fortunate it was for us that there were so many of
these ships; for, as we had feared, the first ship held so far away from
the land that it was hopeless to think of being seen from her. But the
lead through which this first ship had sailed off from the land was
closed up before the others could enter it; and now these other ships
were forced to come nearer to us. Seeing this, we hastened to the white
hillside I have spoken of before, all the savages accompanying us, and
we all began running up and down; but the next ship was still too far
away to discover us. And the same with another and still another. Thus
had four ships gone by without any soul on board being aware that two
poor shipwrecked boys were so near, calling to them, and praying with
all their might that they might see or hear.

"But there was yet a fifth ship, a long way behind all the others, and
we still had hope. If this failed us, all was over, and we must be
content to live with the savages. We had observed one thing which gave
us great encouragement. Each ship that had passed us came a little
nearer to the land; and this we saw was in consequence of the ice
drifting steadily in before the wind. Indeed, by the time the last ship
came along, the ice had pushed in ahead of her, and had touched the
land, while the other ships had run through just in time.

"When the people on board saw what was ahead of them, and that they
could not pass, they tacked ship, and stood away from us; but we saw
clearly enough, from our elevated position on the hill, that they were
not likely to get through in that direction,--which was, no doubt, a