Chambers' Papers for the People (Volume 2) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1872. Excerpt: ... part, we were forced to melt it in the fire, which we shared every second day about halfe a pint for a man, wherewith we were forced to sustayne ourselves; and at other times wee dranke water, which agreed not well with the cold, and we needed not to coole it with snow or ice; but we were forced to melt it out of the snow.' Sometimes, while they sat at the fire, 'and seemed to burne on the fore-side, we froze behind at our backes, and were all white as the countreymen use to bee when they come in at the gates of the toune in Holland with their sleds, and have gone all night.' It might indeed seem that no room remained for hope; yet under date December 19 we read, 'wee put each other in good comfort, that the sunne was then almost halfe over, and ready to come to us againe, which wee sore longed for, it being a weary time for us to bee without the sunne, and to want the greatest comfort that God sendeth unto man here upon the earth, and that which rejoyceth every living thing.' They kept Twelfth-Night also, and 'made pancakes with oyle, and every man a white bisket, which we sopt in wine: and so, supposing that we were in our owne countrey, and amongst our friends, it comforted us as well as if we had made a great banquet in our owne house: and wee also made tickets, and our gunner was king of Nova Zembla, which is at least 200 miles long, and lyeth between two seas.' On the 24th January they saw the sun again, a sight that reanimated their sinking spirits, confined as they had been with no light but that of the fire, and often prevented by heavy snow from going out of their dwelling for many days in succession. Several of the party were sick--one died: a grave seven feet deep was dug in the snow; and then, as is mournfully recorded, 'after that we had rea...