tribe derived from their intercourse with the white people. I
told Augustus to put their sincerity to the test by desiring them to
bring back a large kettle and the tent, which they did, together with
some shoes, having sent for them to the island whither they had been
conveyed. After this act of restitution, Augustus requested to be
permitted to join a dance to which they had invited him, and he was, for
upwards of an hour, engaged in dancing and singing with all his might in
the midst of a company who were all armed with knives, or bows and
arrows. He afterwards told us that he was much delighted on finding that
the words of the song, and the different attitudes of the dances, were
precisely similar to those used in his own country when a friendly
meeting took place with strangers. Augustus now learned from them that
there was a regular ebb and flow of the tide in this bay, and that when
the sun came round to a particular point there would be water enough to
float the boats, if we kept along the western shore. This communication
relieved me from much anxiety, for the water was perfectly fresh, and
from the flood-tide having passed unperceived whilst we were engaged
with the Esquimaux, it appeared to us to have been subsiding for the
preceding twelve hours, which naturally excited doubts of our being able
to effect a passage to the sea in this direction.

The Esquimaux gradually retired as the night advanced; and when there
were only a few remaining, two of our men were sent to a fire which they
had made, to prepare chocolate for the refreshment of the party. Up to
this period we remained seated in the boats, with our muskets in our
hands, and keeping a vigilant look out on Augustus, and the natives
around him. [Sidenote: Saturday, 8th.] As they had foretold, the water
began to flow about midnight, and by half past one in the morning of the
8th it was sufficiently deep to allow of our dragging the boats forward
to a part where they floated. We pulled along the western shore about
six miles, till the appearance of the sky bespoke the immediate approach
of a gale; and we had scarcely landed before it came on with violence,
and attended with so much swell as to compel us to unload the boats and
drag them up on the beach.

The whole party having been exhausted by the labour and anxiety of the
preceding twenty-four hours, two men were appointed to keep watch, and
the rest slept until eleven o'clock in the morning, when we