The long-boat being near finished, some of our company were selected to go out in the barge, in order to reconnoitre the coast to the southward, which might assist us in the navigation we were going upon. This party consisted of Mr. Bulkely, Mr. Jones, the purser, myself, and ten men. The first night, we put into a good harbour, a few leagues to the southward of Wager's Island; where finding a large bitch big with puppies, we regaled upon them. In this expedition we had our usual bad weather, and breaking seas, which were grown to such a height the third day, that we were obliged, through distress, to push in at the first inlet we saw at hand. This we had no sooner entered, than we were presented with a view of a fine bay, in which having secured the barge, we went ashore; but the weather being very rainy, and finding nothing to subsist upon, we pitched a bell tent, which we had brought with us, in the wood opposite to where the barge lay. As this tent was not large enough to contain us all, I proposed to four of the people to go to the end of the bay, about two miles distant from the bell tent, to occupy the skeleton of an old Indian wigwam, which I had discovered in a walk that way upon our first landing. This we covered to windward with sea-weed; and lighting a fire, laid ourselves down, in hopes of finding a remedy for our hunger in sleep; but we had not long composed ourselves before one of our company was disturbed by the blowing of some animal at his face, and upon opening his eyes, was not a little astonished to see, by the glimmering of the fire, a large beast standing over him. He had presence of mind enough to snatch a brand from the fire, which was now very low, and thrust it at the nose of the animal, who thereupon made off: this done, the man awoke us, and related, with horror in his countenance, the narrow escape he had had of being devoured. But though we were under no small apprehensions of another visit from this animal, yet our fatigue and heaviness was greater than our fears; and we once more composed ourselves to rest, and slept the remainder of the night without any further disturbance. In the morning, we were not a little anxious to know how our companions had fared; and this anxiety was increased upon tracing the footsteps of the beast in the sand, in a direction towards the bell tent. The impression was deep and plain, of a large round foot, well furnished with claws. Upon our acquainting the people in the tent with the circumstances of our story, we found that they too had been visited by the same unwelcome guest, which they had driven away by much the same expedient. We now returned from this cruise, with a strong gale, to Wager's Island; having found it impracticable to make farther discoveries in the barge, on so dangerous a coast, and in such heavy seas. Here we soon discovered, by the quarters of dogs hanging up, that the Indians had brought a fresh supply to our market. Upon enquiry, we