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The ship now gradually righted, and with the aid of a storm-sail in her mizzen rigging, for her top-sail had been torn into shreds, her head was got to the wind. In that latitude gales of this kind are of short duration, generally; and in half an hour from the time it struck the ship there was a calm, smooth sea, and all hands were engaged repairing damages.
The highest point of latitude we reached in our course, was 62° 44' longitude 74° 16', and when off Cape Digges we parted company with the Prince of Wales, as bound to James's Bay. We stood on direct for York Factory, and when about fifty miles from Cary Swan's Nest, the chief mate pointed out to me a polar bear, with her two cubs swimming towards the ship.
In this voyage he discovered Newfoundland, coasted Labrador to the fifty-sixth degree of north latitude, and then returning, ran down southwest to the Floridas, when, his provisions beginning to fail, he returned to England. But vague and scanty accounts of this voyage exist, which was important as including the first discovery of the northern continent of the New World.
The 21st, being in lat. 18° N. we had a counter-sea from the north, having in the same latitude, on our last voyage, encountered a similar sea from the south, both times in very calm weather. The 24th we had sight of Cape Verd, and next day had a great hollow sea from the north, a common sign that the wind will be northerly, and so it proved.
On the 9th January, Bellinghausen reached 70 degrees S. lat., and the next day discovered, in S. lat. 69 degrees 30 minutes, W. long. 92 degrees 20 minutes, an island, to which he gave the name of Peter I., the most southerly land hitherto visited. Then fifteen degrees further east, and in all but the same latitude, he sighted some more land which he called Alexander I.'s Land.
Thus it sometimes snows, though seldom, at Naples, at Lisbon, and even at Malaga, consequently as low as the 37th degree of latitude: and, as we have just observed, snow has been seen to fall at Mexico, the elevation of which is 1173 toises above the level of the ocean.
The advance into Smith's Sound was by no means easy, and several times the ships had to return to the latitude of Kane's winter quarters. About this time the Alert was nearly crushed by an iceberg, but got clear, and the crew made the mountain tow the vessel by grappling it.
I named the river from the northward the "Wilton," after the Rev. Mr. Wilton of Newcastle, who kindly favoured my expedition. Its latitude was about 14 degrees 45 minutes. About three miles above the junction of the Wilton with the Roper, we again encamped on the steep banks of the latter, at a spot which I thought would allow our horses and cattle to approach in safety.
When he went below, figured out his observation, and then returned on deck and announced our latitude and longitude, there was an authoritative ring in his voice that was new to all of us. But that was not the worst of it. He became filled with incommunicable information.
But what Dick Sand was ignorant of, what he could not even discover, was that the "Pilgrim" was already in higher latitude that is to say, more to the south than he supposed.
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