DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70303#0483
ADVENTURES OF THE CREW OF THE WAGER. 445
Findins' ourselves to be in continual danger, we de-
termined to make another push for Buenos Ayres, and
provided stores, jackets, and knapsacks of seal skins.
The weather was set in fair. We divided therefore into
two parties, four to kill seal,, and four to hunt. It was
my lot with Cooper, Andrews and Duck, to go to the
rocks. Seal being generally killed with stones or clubs,
we never carried musquets. We had killed three, and
in the evening, within a stone’s cast of our hut, I per-
ceived our dogs very busy at a small distance wagging
their tails in a very fondling manner. I passed on with-
out much regarding it, thinking they had lighted on a
dead colt. But when I came to the hut, I was quite
confounded, it being rifled, and all our necessaries gone.
I ran back to my comrades, where I left the dogs. They
cried out, “ what’s the matter Isaac?” I told them, “ Ay,”
said they, “ and something worse has happened; for yon-
der lie poor Guy Broadwater and Ben. Smith murdered!”
It was a most shocking sight; one had his throat cut, the
other was stabbed, and they were hardly cold; so we
thought the murderers could not be far off. At the hut
we found our powder, ball, musquets, and till gone,
and the fire extinguished. Whither to go or what to do
we knew not.—-At last we came to a resolution of going
to the next sandy bay, about a mile distant, and to take
Up our quarters there for that night. There we found
not so much as a cliff to lie under, so were obliged to
return to our old abode.
Next morning the dogs of our comrades stood on the.
top of the cliff barking at us, nor would they come down
though we called them by their names, and with difficul-
ty called them down in the evening. It seemed most
probable that the Indians had carried off Clinch and
Allen. We buried the other two bodies in the sand.—-
The only expedient now was immediately to quit this
place,
Findins' ourselves to be in continual danger, we de-
termined to make another push for Buenos Ayres, and
provided stores, jackets, and knapsacks of seal skins.
The weather was set in fair. We divided therefore into
two parties, four to kill seal,, and four to hunt. It was
my lot with Cooper, Andrews and Duck, to go to the
rocks. Seal being generally killed with stones or clubs,
we never carried musquets. We had killed three, and
in the evening, within a stone’s cast of our hut, I per-
ceived our dogs very busy at a small distance wagging
their tails in a very fondling manner. I passed on with-
out much regarding it, thinking they had lighted on a
dead colt. But when I came to the hut, I was quite
confounded, it being rifled, and all our necessaries gone.
I ran back to my comrades, where I left the dogs. They
cried out, “ what’s the matter Isaac?” I told them, “ Ay,”
said they, “ and something worse has happened; for yon-
der lie poor Guy Broadwater and Ben. Smith murdered!”
It was a most shocking sight; one had his throat cut, the
other was stabbed, and they were hardly cold; so we
thought the murderers could not be far off. At the hut
we found our powder, ball, musquets, and till gone,
and the fire extinguished. Whither to go or what to do
we knew not.—-At last we came to a resolution of going
to the next sandy bay, about a mile distant, and to take
Up our quarters there for that night. There we found
not so much as a cliff to lie under, so were obliged to
return to our old abode.
Next morning the dogs of our comrades stood on the.
top of the cliff barking at us, nor would they come down
though we called them by their names, and with difficul-
ty called them down in the evening. It seemed most
probable that the Indians had carried off Clinch and
Allen. We buried the other two bodies in the sand.—-
The only expedient now was immediately to quit this
place,