15th/3rd
September, the vessel was again pressed so, that the deck at times was
bent to the form of a vault. On the 19th/7th September, von Krusenstern
called the crew together that they might choose from their number three
persons to advise with the commander on the best means of making their
escape, and two days after the vessel was abandoned, after a meal at
which the crew were literally offered all the house afforded. They then
broke up for a journey to land, which was exceedingly difficult on
account of the unevenness of the ice. They were soon obliged to leave
the boat, which they had at first endeavoured to drag along with them
over the ice, and take the most indispensable of the provisions on their
own backs. On leaving the ship a sailor had secretly got possession of
so much brandy, that during the first day's march he had the opportunity
of drinking himself dead drunk. To carry him along was not possible, to
wait was not advisable. He was left therefore to sleep off the drink;
and in order that he might do so as soon as possible they took off his
clothes and left him lying upon the ice with only his shirt on. Next
day, however, he got up with his comrades after following their track in
the darkness the whole night. Open places were often met with, which the
travellers had to cross on pieces of drift-ice rowed forward by
boat-hooks. Once when the shipwrecked men were ferrying themselves over
upon a piece of ice which was already fully loaded, six walruses were
seen in the neighbourhood. They showed a disposition to accompany the
seafarers on the piece of ice, which in that case would certainly have
sunk, and it was only after a ball had been sent through the leader's
head that the animals gave up their plan for resting, which gave
evidence of a gregariousness as great as their want of acquaintance with
mankind. After Krusenstern and his companions had for several days in
succession drifted backwards and forwards on a piece of ice in the
neighbourhood of land, and traversed long stretches by jumping from one
piece of ice to another, they at last reached the shore on the 28/16th
September. In the immediate neighbourhood they found an encampment,
whose inhabitants (Samoyeds) gave the shipwrecked men a friendly
reception, and entertained them with the luxuries of the reindeer
herd--raw and cooked reindeer flesh, reindeer tongues, reindeer
marrow--raw fish and goose-fat. After the meal was finished the
exhausted wan