Page:Aristopia (1895).pdf/38

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

shore the savages gathered on the banks with demonstrations of furious hostility, but in a little while became very friendly. The water found there was muddy, warm, and brackish, and far from refreshing. However, the party filled their water-vessels with it and set off to visit some small islands in the bay.

Again a violent storm burst upon them with such a gust of wind that their sail was rent and their mast carried overboard. Managing with difficulty to land on one of the little islands, hardly more than a mud bank, they were forced by a remarkable succession of storms to remain two days. Smith called the little group of islands "Limbo," as being something between purgatory and the infernal regions. Such a name applied by an old campaigner inured to all hardships is very suggestive of what the party endured during those two days. They utilized the time to some extent by patching up their sail with such parts of their shirts as they could spare with least inconvenience.

Sailing back to the mainland on the eastern shore of the bay, the party entered the little river Cuskarawaok. There they found the natives so persistently hostile that Captain