In the concussion which took place her foremast was carried away and otherwise seriously damaged; besides, being near to land, and on a lee shore, it was impossible to save her.
From the position in which we found a portion of her remains, it seemed that, after she was abandoned, she must have beat over a ledge of rocks that stretches across the mouth of the river, and by the force of the gale driven up the river to the distance of nearly ten miles.
We visited the wreck with the natives, who directed us to the spot. We saw a part of her quarter deck, with the ice piled up around it. We saw, also, upon the shore, close by, some of her timbers and broken casks partly covered up with huge masses and blocks of ice.
It was doubtless the report of this wreck which reached us in our winter quarters. But how far it was east of us, or the circumstances attending the wreck, how many were saved or lost, or whether all were lost, we obtained no satisfactory information from the natives at that time. Nor did those natives who went with us to the wreck know any thing about the fate of the crew. As they had never seen any of them, nor heard of their being in any of the settlements near by, we naturally inferred that all on board were lost, or that they were immediately taken off of the wreck or from the shore by some accompanying ship.
The night before we left this settlement, and where we were well used, another party of our men arrived. We passed on to another collection of huts, about fifteen in number.
The head man of this settlement, and in whose hut we happened to stop, was one of the most crabbed, savage-like fellows with whom we had met in all our past acquaintance with native life. He appeared to take real delight and satisfaction in degrading and mortifying us all he could. He would cut the meat or blubber, whatever it might be, into small pieces, and reach them to us on the end of a stick, for us to take them, or bite them off as a dog. Indeed, we were treated by him in the same line of courtesy as he treated his dogs.
We quietly submitted to all manner of such ill behavior on his part, simply for the sake of peace and safety. We were completely in his power, and he could use us as he saw fit; and the least we said about it the better. This head man was an exception to all whom we saw among the natives for real ugliness. He was a regular savage. We were glad to be off.
We shortly left this settlement, and passed on towards East Cape, following the direction of the sea coast, which from the river is nearly, as laid down in the chart, in the form of a half circle. We observed that the huts and settlements increased as we came farther south; and sometimes, in course of a day or two, we would pass through several small settlements.
When we became wearied and exhausted by traveling, though it was difficult to make very rapid progress in the snow, or when we were hungry, we would stop, rest ourselves, get some blubber to eat, and then travel on again.
Generally we found the natives ready and willing to help us with what they had. We had nothing to give them in return. We were a company of beggars. They saw our destitution and poverty, and therefore their kindness to us must be attributed to the dictates of human sympathy or pity, which in some way or other shows itself in the most barbarous and uncivilized forms of society.