and all retired to take a little rest: the crew, above all, had great
need of it. We were fortunate to be in a place of safety, for the wind
rose higher and higher during the rest of the night, and on the morning
of the 25th allowed us to see that this ocean is not always pacific.

Some natives visited us this day, bringing with them beaver-skins; but
the inquietude caused in our minds by the loss of two boats' crews, for
whom we wished to make search, did not permit us to think of traffic. We
tried to make the savages comprehend, by signs, that we had sent a boat
ashore three days previous, and that we had no news of her; but they
seemed not to understand us. The captain, accompanied by some of our
gentlemen, landed, and they set themselves to search for our missing
people, in the woods, and along the shore N.W. of the cape. After a few
hours we saw the captain return with Weeks, one of the crew of the last
boat sent out. He was stark naked, and after being clothed, and
receiving some nourishment, gave us an account of his almost miraculous
escape from the waves on the preceding night, in nearly the following
terms:--

"After you had passed our boat;" said he, "the breakers caused by the
meeting of the wind roll and ebb-tide, became a great deal heavier than
when we entered the river with the flood. The boat, for want of a
rudder, became very hard to manage, and we let her drift at the mercy of
the tide, till, after having escaped several surges, one struck us
midship and capsized us. I lost sight of Mr. Aiken and John Coles: but
the two islanders were close by me; I saw them stripping off their
clothes, and I followed their example; and seeing the pinnace within my
reach, keel upward, I seized it; the two natives came to my assistance;
we righted her, and by sudden jerks threw out so much of the water that
she would hold a man: one of the natives jumped in, and, bailing with