Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/75

56 my aim. The seal went off, much to our vexation, as we had nothing on shore to eat except the two ducks. We again saw the seal, but were unable to kill it; therefore we returned to the "ghost," and this time were able to enter her hull. After some trouble I succeeded in procuring about two and a half buckets of hard coal, and having had an old stove placed in my boat when I left the ship to leave on Whale Island, the present acquisition made it very serviceable. In the evening Sharkey and ten more Innuits returned without any success in procuring food. Thus we had a large company now here, and nothing to eat except the two ducks. True, I had a barrel of sea-bread, about twenty pounds of salt pork, a ninety-pound can of pemmican, ten pounds of coffee, two gallons of molasses, one pound of tea, and half a pound of pepper, all of which, excepting the pemmican, I procured at the ship by exchange. But this stock was for my Frobisher Bay expedition, not for consumption here. Unfortunately, my right-hand man Ebierbing was now very sick, but I was in hopes I should bring him round again in two or three days. I had taken from the vessel my case of medicines, and with these I hoped to do him some good. I took one more look at the ship. There she was, still endeavouring to get out of the bay, but with no wind to help her. I thought she would, perhaps, be out of sight before the morning. Farewell, then, I said in my heart, gallant ship, and may good luck attend you. Good-night to all. I then retired to my Innuit bed, among my honest, kind-hearted Innuit friends. On Wednesday, July 31st, hardly awake, and still on my sleeping-couch, I heard an exclamation of surprise from Tookoolito, who had gone outside the tupic. The wind was blowing a gale, with rain. Tookoolito's cry was, "Ship coming back!" Up I got, and, on rushing to the skin doorway, true enough, there was the George Henry nearly up the bay. I watched her. She advanced still higher up, and presently dropped anchor northwest of us, some two or three miles off. The return of the George Henry was wise, for the gale had become furious, and, had she continued on, it might