where in sight. At five in the morning, the pilots having expressed a wish to get, if possible, farther out, the ships companies were set to work, that they might cut away the ice, and warp through the small openings to the westward. They found the ice so very deep, that they were often obliged to saw through pieces twelve feet thick; and, after toiling in this manner the whole day, with all their utmost efforts, had not been able to move the ship above three hundred yards to the westward, through the ice. They had, in the mean time, been driven, with the ice field itself to which they were fast, to the north-east and eastward, by the current; which had also forced the loose ice from the westward between the islands, where it became what the Greenlandmen call packed, or one piece thrown up above another to a considerable height, and as firm as the main body.

On the 4th, it was quite calm, till the evening; when they were flattered with a light air to the eastward, which produced no favourable effect.

On the 5th, the probability of getting the ships out appearing every hour less, and the season being already far advanced, some speedy resolution became necessary for the preservation of the people. As the situation of the ships prevented them from seeing the state of the ice to the westward, by which, their future proceedings must be in a great measure determined, Captain Phipps sent Mr. Walden, one of his midshipmen, with two pilots, to an island twelve miles off, since distinguished, in the charts, by the name of Walden's Island, to see where the open water lay.

On the 6th, in the morning, Mr. Walden and the two pilots returned; with an account that the ice, though close all about the ships, was open to the westward, round the point by which they had got in. They also remarked that, on the island, they had the wind very fresh to the eastward, though it had been almost calm the whole time where the ships lay. This circumstance considerably lessened the hopes, hitherto entertained, of the immediate effect of an easterly wind in clearing the bay. Having now only one alternative; either patiently to wait the event of the weather on the ships, in hopes of getting them out, or to betake themselves to the boats. The ships had at this time driven into shoal water, having only fourteen fathom; and, should either the ships, or the ice to which they were fast, take the ground, they must be inevitably lost, and probably overset. The hopes of getting the ships out, however, were not hastily to be relinquished; nor, on the other hand, obstinately persisted in, till all other means of retreat were cut off. After a due consideration of the various difficulties which presented themselves in this perilous state, Captain Phipps thought it proper to send for the officers of both ships, and to inform them of his intention to prepare the boats for going away. They were, accordingly, hoisted out, and every precaution taken to make them secure and comfortable; which, however, would necessarily occupy some days. In the mean time, the water shoaling, and the ships driving fast towards the north-east rocks, a man was sent, with a lead and lines, from the Racehorse, to the northward, and another, from the Carcass, to the eastward, to sound, wherever they found cracks in the ice, that notice might be obtained before either the ships, or the ice to which they were fast, took the ground; as, in that case, they must, as before observed, instantly have been crushed or overset.

On the 7th, in the morning, Captain Phipps set off in the launch, which hauled much easier than was expected. After getting it about two miles, he returned with the people for their dinner; and, finding the ice rather more open near the ships, he was encouraged to attempt moving them. The wind, though little, being easterly, they set the sails, and got both ships about a mile to the westward. They moved, indeed, very slowly; but were not, now, by a great deal, so far to the westward as where they were beset. In the mean time, all the sail was kept on them, that they might force through whenever the ice in the smallest degree slacked. Though the people behaved very well in hauling the launches, and seemed reconciled to the idea of quitting the ships, having the fullest confidence in their officers; yet, as the boats could not, with the greatest diligence, be got to the water-side in less than a week, it was judiciously resolved to carry on both attempts together: moving the boats constantly, but without omitting any opportunity of getting the ships through.

On the 8th, Captain Phipps got his launch above three miles; but the weather being foggy, and the people having worked hard, he returned on board in the evening, and found the ships had moved something through the ice, while the ice itself had drifted still more to the westward.

On the 9th, in a thick morning fog, they moved the ships a little through some very small openings; and, in the afternoon, on it's clearing up, were agreeably surprised to find the ships had driven much more to the westward than they could have expected. Thus encouraged, they laboured hard all day; but got very little to the westward, through the ice, in comparison to what the ice itself had drifted. Having passed the launches, a number of men were sent to get them on board. Though the people were much fatigued, the progress which the ships had made through the ice was a most favourable event; and, notwithstanding the drift of the ice was an advantage which might be as suddenly lost as it had been unexpectedly gained, by a change in the current, they began again to indulge hopes that a brisk gale of easterly wind might soon effectually clear them.

On the 10th, the wind springing up, in the morning, to north north-east, they set all the sail they could, and forced through a great deal of very heavy ice. The ships, it is true, often struck excessively hard; and the Racehorse, with one stroke, broke the shank of the best bower anchor; but, about noon, they had the unspeakable happiness to get through all the ice, and were safely out at sea.

Accordingly, on the 11th, they came to an anchor in the harbour of Smeerenberg, where they were comfortably refreshed after their dreadful fatigues. The island where they lay is called Amsterdam Island, the westernmost point of which is Hacluyt's Headland. Here the Dutch once attempted to make an establishment, by leaving some people to winter, who all perished. The Dutch, however, still resort thither for the latter season of the whale-fishery; and it afforded a very excellent retreat to our adventurers, who remained there till the 20th.

After this, they made a few feeble attempts, but they were without hope of being able to penetrate farther. The summer had proved uncommonly favourable for the purpose; and, having enjoyed the fullest opportunity of repeatedly ascertaining the situation of that wall of ice which extends for more than twenty degrees, between the latitudes of eighty and eighty-one, without the smallest appearance of any opening, they were sufficiently satisfied of the impracticability of effecting any passage to the Pacific Ocean, and agreed on immediately returning to England.

In steering to the southward, they soon found the weather grow more mild; or, rather, as Captain Phipps expresses it, to their feelings, warm.

On the 24th of August, they perceived Jupiter; and the sight of a star was now become almost as extraordinary a phenomenon to them, as the sun at midnight had appeared on their first getting within the Arctic circle. For some part of their voyage back, the weather was very fine; but, from the 7th of September, when they were off Shetland, till the 24th, when they made Orfordness, they had hard gales of wind, with little intermission. In one of these violent gales, accompanied by a heavy sea, they lost three of their boats, and were obliged to throw two guns overboard.