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118 THIRD VOYAGE OF THE DUTCH
On the eighteenth they unloaded the veffels, and having drawn them on the ice, they
dragged them over it toa place where water was open. Afterwards they carried the
cargo there, that is to fay, for more than a thoufand paces; a fatigue under which
they had nearly funk. They then again fet fail, and navigated till half paft four in the
afternoon, when they were again entangled in the ice: and it was neceflary to draw
their veffels over as they had already fo many times. ‘They there hada diftin& view of
the Ifle of Croffes from which they computed they were at the diftance of a league.
On the nineteenth while the veffels and the crew were on the ice, feven men paffed at
fix in the morning into the Ifland of Crofles, whence they beheld a confiderable fpace
of water open to the weft, which gave them great joy, and occafioned them to haften
to bear this good intelligence to their companions, Neverthelefs they took time to
colle& a hundred eggs, which were cooked as foon as they arrived, and diftributed.
At two in the afternoon they laboured to put the veffels into the water. It was neceflary
to drag them for more than two hundred and feventy paces, but this was performed
with a cheerfulnefs which much alleviated the pain, in the hopes that it would be the
laft of that kind of fatigue they fhould undergo. As foon as the veflels were in the
water, they fet fail, and made fuch good way, that at fix in the evening they were
beyond the fle of Croffes and immediately afterwards they faw no more ice, or at
Jeaft the little they beheld gave them no uneafinefs. They bore to the W. and
by S. with a good fteady wind, blowing from the E. and E.N. E.: fo that according
to their computation they failed at the rate of eighteen leagues in twenty-four hours :
which infpired them with frefh courage, and with the hopes by the blefling of God of a
happy return.
On the twentieth at nine in the morning they doubled the Black Cape, and at fix in
the evening obferved Admiralty Ifle which they paffed at midnight. They there be.
held nearly two hundred fea cowson a bank of ice, about which they were feeding,
and they attacked them, of which they had occafion to repent; for this {pecies of marine
montters poffeffing an extraordinary ftrength, they all f{wam towards the veffels, as if
with a defign to attack them, and to revenge the injury they had fuftained ; and they
made all round a dreadful noife as if they had threatened to deftroy every thing. ‘The
frefhnefs of the wind which forced the veffels along, relieved them from a peril which
they could well have avoided if they had been willing, and into which a want of pru-
dence alone had drawn them.
On the twenty-firft they doubled the Capes of Plancio and Laugenes. On the twenty-
fecond as they were clofe to Cape Cant, the crew of Gerard de Veer landed to feek for
eggs and birds. They did not find any ; but afterwards about noon, feeing a rock
covered with birds, they fteered towards it, and throwing ftones they knocked down
and took twenty-two birds, and one of the crew having landed on the rock brought
away twenty-three eggs.
About three in the afternoon, they came to another cape where they took nearly a
hundred and twenty-five birds, taking the greater number by the hand in their aefts ;
for they were not alarmed at the fight of the men, and no doubt were only afraid of
the foxes and other wild bea{ts, to fecure themfelves from which, they built their nefts
on thofe high and fteep rocks, where they could not afcend. As for the men, if the
fight of them had frightened the birds, they might eafily have efcaped from their
hands, for they could not go to take them in their own nefts, where they feemed to
await being taken, without danger of breaking their legs or arms, or of perifhing, and {till
more in defcending than in mounting. Befides, there was only one egg in each neft,
and it lay on the bare rock; without straw or feathers, or any thing which could giveiit
2 warmth ;
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