Page:Narrative of the extraordinary adventures of four Russian sailors (1).pdf/6

 their vessel such provisions, ammunition, and other necessaries, as might better enable them to winter on the island —I leave my readers to figure to themselves the astonishment and agony of mind these poor people must have felt, when, on reaching the place of their landing, they saw nothing but an open sea, free from the ice, which, but a day before, had covered the ocean. A violent storm, which had arisen during the night, had certainly been the cause of this disastrous event.

But they could not tell whether the ice which had before hemmed in the vessel, agitated by the violence of the waves, had been driven against her, and shattered her to pieces; or whether she had been carried by the current into the main, a circumstance which frequently happens in those seas. Whatever accident had befallen the ship, they saw her no more; and, as no tidings were ever afterwards received of her, it is most probable that she snnksunk [sic], and that all on board of her perished.

This melancholy event depriving the unhappy wretches of all hope of ever being able to quite the island, they returned to the hut from whence they had come, full of horror and dispair. Their first intention was employed, as may eaisily be imagined, in devising means of providing subsistance,