rn or guide the mariner.

The evening was well upon us when we saw the rocks off Cape Charles
rising from the water, dismal, and dark, and forbidding. All day the
rain had been falling, and all day the wind had been blowing a gale,
lashing the sea into a fury. Our little ship was tossed about like a
cork, with the seas constantly breaking over her decks. Decidedly our
introduction to Labrador was not auspicious. Battle Harbour, twelve
miles north of Cape Charles, was to have been our first stop; but there
are treacherous hidden reefs at the entrance, and with that sea the
captain did not care to trust his ship near them. So he ran on to
Spear Harbour, just beyond, where we lay to for the night. The next
day I made the following entry in my diary:

"Early this morning we moved down to Battle Harbour, where Mrs. Hubbard
left us to return home. It was a most dismal time and place for her to
part from her husband, but she was very brave. It was not yet six
o'clock, and we had had no breakfast, when she stepped into the small
boat to go ashore. A cold, drizzling rain was falling, and the place
was in appearance particularly dreary; no foliage nor green thing to be
seen--nothing but rocks, cold and high and bleak, with here and there
patches of snow. They pointed out to us a little house clinging to the
rocks high up. There she is to stay until the steamer comes to take
her home, to spend a summer of doubts and hopes and misgivings. Poor
little woman! It is so hard for those we leave behind. I stood aside
with a big lump in my throat as they said their farewell." Up there in
the dark wilderness for which we were bound Hubbard talked with me
frequently of that parting.

On July 6th, the day after we left Battle Harbour, the captain informed
us for the first time that the boat would not go to Rigolet on the way
up, and gave us the option of getting off at Indian Harbour at the
entrance to Hamilton Inlet or going on to Nain with him and getting off
at Rigolet on the way back. Hubbard chose the former alternative,
hearing which the customs officer came to us and hinted that nothing
could be landed until we had had an interview with him. The result of
the interview was that Hubbard paid duty on our entire outfit.

The next morning, Tuesday, July 7th, we reached Indian Harbour. Amid a
chorus of "Good-bye, boys, and good luck!" we went ashore, to set foot
for the first time on Labrador soil, where we were destined