Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/159

140 the whole coast that terminates Frobisher Bay. I embraced that as the last opportunity I would have of linking together, by the use of my survey instruments, many important places in that locality. Some of the observations I there made for relative geographical positions include the following points: the Great Gateway; Hazard's Banks, place of fifteenth encampment; Peale Point; place of twelfth encampment, by Sylvia Grinnell River; place of fourteenth encampment; place of thirteenth and sixteenth encampments; island "Frobisher's Farthest;" and a long line of coast down on the Kingaite side.

Having accomplished my purpose, we then quickly returned to the boat. Again we made sail; but hardly had we started, when, in an instant, we were aground. Out jumped Koojesse, who, with two or three good "heaves," cleared the shore, and once more away went. But soon—ahead, here, there, everywhere—shoals appeared. Koojesse, however, now showed himself to possess much of the daring and fearlessness of a skilful sailor. He was the wild spirit guiding us safely through many dangers. His skill, however, could not save us from a peril into which we now ran, and out of which we escaped only by the care of a merciful Providence. The tide proved too strong for us, and we found ourselves, near nightfall, driven on a small rocky island of the harbour by our sixteenth encampment. We at length made our slow and tedious way in the midst of a strong gale, among dangerous shoals and threatening waves. At times, driven out of our course by the force of the wind, we would lose all the ground we had gained, finding ourselves really farther from home than when we started; and at last we were on the point of giving up in despair of reaching our encampment that night, when the tide turned. Even, with this favouring us, we sped along in imminent peril; and now, while I write, the thought of that moment comes to me with a thrill of excitement. As we flew over a rocky bottom that almost kissed our keel, I exchanged looks with my companions that expressed more than words could have said; and as now and then our boat would ride with a shock upon some boulder in its course, all