Awaking at four A.M. on the
17th, I found that the weather had moderated and cleared up, and the
ships soon after appearing in sight, we called our boat's crew up, and
sent one of the Esquimaux round to the other tents to inform Captain
Lyon of our setting out. Several of the natives accompanied us to our
boat, which they cheerfully helped us to launch, and then went round to
another part of the beach for their own canoes. A thick fog had come on
before this time, notwithstanding which, however, we managed to find the
ships, and got on board by seven o'clock. Five canoes arrived soon
after, and the wind being now light and variable, we lay-to for an hour
to repay our kind friends for the hospitable reception they had given
us. After supplying them abundantly with tin canisters, knives, and
pieces of iron hoop, we hauled to the northeastward to continue our
examination of the state of the ice, in hopes of finding that the late
gale had in this respect done us some service.
Finding that a farther examination of the eastern lands could not at
present be carried on, without incurring the risk of hampering the ships
at a time when, for aught that we knew, the ice might be breaking up at
the entrance of the strait, we stood back to the westward, and, having
fetched near the middle of Igloolik, were gratified in observing that a
large "patch" of the fixed ice[002] had broken off and drifted out of
sight during our absence.
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