Being faire wether, I caused my nephew to
prepare himself, with 3 men, to carry Provisions & Brandy unto our french
men & to the English men at the fort of the Island.
The Ice began to bee
dangerous, & I see that it was not safe hazarding to goe over it after this
time; therefore I said to my nephew that hee would doe well to proceed
farther unto the Indians, unto whom hee promis'd to give an account how wee
did, & to inform them also that wee had conquer'd our Ennemys.
After my nephew's departure on this voyadge, there hapned an unlookt-for
accident the 22 or 23rd of Aprill, at night. Having haled our vessells as
far as wee could into a litle slip in a wood, wee thought them very secure,
lying under a litle Hill about 10 fathom high, our Houses being about the
same distance off from the River side; yet about 10 o'clock at night a
hideous great noise rous'd us all out of our sleep, & our sentinill came &
told us it was the clattering of much Ice, & that the floods came downe
with much violence. Wee hasted unto the river side & see what the sentinell
told us, & great flakes of Ice were born by the waters upon the topp of our
litle Hill; but the worst was that the Ice having stop't the river's mouth,
they gather'd in heaps & were carry'd back with great violence & enter'd
with such force into all our Brooks that discharg'd into the River that
'twas impossible our vessells could resist, & they were stay'd all to
peeces. There remained only the bottom, which stuck fast in the Ice or in
the mudd, & had it held 2 hours longer wee must have ben forst to climbe
the trees to save our lives; but by good fortune the flood abated. The
river was cleer'd by the going away of the Ice, & 3 days after, wee see the
disorder our vessells were in, & the good luck wee had in making so great a
voyadge in such bad vessells, for myne was quite Rotten & my Brother's was
not trunnel'd. This accident put us into a great feare the like mischief
might bee hapned unto the New England shipp; the Indians telling us that
the River was more dangerous than ours, & that they beleev'd the vessell
could not escape in the place wher shee lay. But mr Bridgar having
heertofore related unto me alike accident hapned in the River Kechechewan
in the Bottom of the Bay, that a vessell was preserv'd by cutting the Ice
round about her, I took the same cours, & order'd the Ice should bee cut
round this vessell quite to the keele, & I have reason to thank mr Bridgar
for this advice; it sav'd the vessell. Shee was only driven ashore by the
violence of the Ice, & there lay without much dammadge. Whilst the waters
decreas'd wee consulted upon which of the 2 bottoms wee should build us a
shipp, & it was at last resolv'd it shold bee on myne.
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