Edwards, the ship's doctor.
He had much opportunity for practising his art, both among the Colonists
and the employees.
At times Miles Macdonell endeavored on shipboard to drill his future
servants and settlers, but he found them a very awkward squad--not one
had ever handled a gun or musket. The sea seemed generally too
tempestuous in mood for their evolutions. As the ships approached York
Factory the interest increased. The "Eddystone" was detailed to sail to
"Fort Churchill," but was unable to reach it and found her way in the
wake of the other vessels to York Factory. It seemed as if the
sea-divinities all combined to fight against the Colonists, for they did
not reach York Factory, the winter destination, until the 24th of
September, having taken sixty-one days on the voyage from Stornoway,
which was declared by the Hudson's Bay Company officers to be the
longest and latest passage ever known on Hudson Bay. Then settlers and
employees were all landed on the point, near York Factory, and were
sheltered meantime in tents, and as they stood on the shore they saw on
October 5th, the ships that had brought them safely across the stormy
sea pass through a considerable amount of floating ice on their homeward
journey to London.
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