On the 15th of January 1805, about midnight, I was thrown into considerable alarm, in consequence of an eclipse of the moon, being awakened from my sleep by a great outcry of the inhabitants. On going to discover the cause of this tumult, I found them all out of their houses, bearing lighted torches, singing and beating upon pieces of plank; and when I asked them the reason of this proceeding, they pointed to the moon, and said that a great cod-fish was endeavouring to swallow her, and that they were driving him away. The origin of this superstition I could not discover. [Illustration: INDIAN CHIEF'S GRAVE (TEMP. 1863).] Though, in some respects, my situation was rendered more comfortable since my marriage, as I lived in a more cleanly manner, and had my food better and more neatly cooked, of which, besides, I had always a plenty, my slaves generally furnishing me, and Upquesta never failing to send me an ample supply by the canoes that came from Ai-tiz-zart; still, from my being obliged at this season of the year to change my accustomed clothing, and to dress like the natives, with only a piece of cloth of about two yards long thrown loosely around me, my European clothes having been for some time entirely worn out, I suffered more than I can express from the cold, especially as I was compelled to perform the laborious task of cutting and bringing the firewood, which was rendered still more oppressive to me, from my comrade, for a considerable part of the winter, not having it in his power to lend me his aid, in consequence of an attack of the rheumatism in one of his knees, with which he suffered for more than four months, two or three weeks of which he was so ill as to be under the necessity to leave the house. This state of suffering, with the little hope I now had of ever escaping from the savages, began to render my life irksome to me; still, however, I lost not my confidence in the aid of the Supreme Being, to whom, whenever the weather and a suspension from the tasks imposed on me would permit, I never failed regularly on Sundays to retire to the wood to worship, taking Thompson with me when he was able to go. On the 20th of February, we returned to our summer quarters at Nootka, but on my part, with far different sensations than the last spring, being now almost in despair of any vessel arriving to release us, or our being permitted to depart if there should. Soon after our return, as preparatory to the whaling season, Maquina ordered me to make a good number of harpoons for himself and his chiefs, several of which I had completed, with some lances, when, on the 16th of March, I was taken very ill with a violent colic, caused, I presume, from having suffered so much from the cold, in going without proper clothing. For a number of hours I was in great pain, and expected to die, and on its leaving me, I was so weak as scarcely to be able to stand, while I had nothing comforting to take, nor anything to drink but cold water.