, they observed four whales
in a neighboring bay.

The clerk was now very ill, and died on the 16th, whereupon the
surviving mariners invoked Heaven to have mercy on his soul, and also
on themselves, for they suffered severely. No fresh provisions
whatever were left, and they daily grew worse, partly from want of
necessary articles, and partly from the excessive cold. Even when in
health they could scarce keep themselves in heat by exercise; and when
sick, and unable to stir from their huts, that remedy was at an end.
Disease made rapid progress among these unfortunate people, so that on
the 23d not more than one individual could give an account of the
rest, which is done in these words of his journal: "We are by this
time reduced to a deplorable state, none of my comrades being able to
help himself, much less another; the whole burden, therefore, lies on
my shoulders, and I shall perform my duty as well as I am able, so
long as it pleases God to give me strength. I am just now about to
assist our commander out of his cabin; he thinks it will relieve his
pain, for he is struggling with death. The night is dark, and wind
blowing from the south."

Meantime the Dutch, who repaired in the summer season to Greenland,
became impatient to learn the fate of the seven men left in the Isle
of St. Maurice. Some of the seamen got into a boat immediately on
their arrival, on the 4th of June 1634, and hastened towards the huts.
Yet, from none of the others having come to the sea-side to welcome
them, they presaged nothing good; and accordingly found that all the
unfortunate men had breathed their last. The first, as has been seen,
expired on the 16th of April 1634, and his comrades, having put his
body in a coffin, deposited it in one of the huts. The remainder were
conjectured to have died about the beginning of May, from a journal
kept by them, expressing that, on the 27th of April, they had killed
their dog for want of fresh provisions, and from its termination on
the last of this month.

Near one of the bodies stood some bread and cheese, on which the
mariner had perhaps subsisted immediately preceding his decease; a box
of ointment lay beside the cabin of another, with which he had rubbed
his teeth and joints, and his arm was still extended towards his
mouth. A prayer-book, which he had been reading, also lay near him.
Each of the men was found in his own cabin.

The Commodore of the Greenland fleet having got this melancho