We harpooned a couple of seals and shot a bear, which afforded us abundance of food. We were standing along the shore one evening when, under a cliff, what was our astonishment to see a light. The Esquimaux were inclined to avoid the place; for, pulling away, evidently alarmed, they assured us that the spot would not afford comfortable camping-ground.
We, however, were anxious to ascertain by what the light was produced, feeling certain that some person must be on the shore who was making a signal. At last we persuaded them to turn the boat’s head towards the beach.
As we approached, what was our astonishment to see a man standing at the mouth of a cave, and holding a torch which, in his eagerness, as we drew near, he flung into the air.
“Who are you?” shouted Ewen.
“An Englishman,” was the answer.
We quickly leaped on the beach, and the stranger, advancing to meet us, stretched out his hands.
“Thank Heaven you have come, for I was very near perishing,” he exclaimed. “My powder and shot were expended, and I had consumed the last remnant of the meat of the last deer I had killed.”
I replied that we had sailed in the Hardy Norseman, that she had been lost on the ice, and that we had been separated from our companions.
“Why, that ship belonged to Dundee, the port I sailed from in the Barentz.”