Two jumped into the canoe; the other four
separated, and, concealing themselves in the willows, fired as fast
as they could reload. They struck him several times, but, instead of
weakening the monster, each shot seemed only to direct him towards the
hunters, till at last he pursued two of them so closely that they threw
aside their guns and pouches, and jumped down a perpendicular bank of
twenty feet into the river: the bear sprang after them, and was within
a few feet of the hindmost, when one of the hunters on shore shot him
in the head, and finally killed him. They dragged him to the shore, and
found that eight balls had passed through him in different directions.
The bear was old, and the meat tough, so that they took the skin only,
and rejoined us at camp, where we had been as much terrified by an
accident of a different kind.
"This was the narrow escape of one of our canoes, containing all our
papers, instruments, medicine, and almost every article indispensable
for the success of our enterprise. The canoe being under sail, a sudden
squall of wind struck her obliquely and turned her considerably. The man
at the helm, who was unluckily the worst steersman of the party, became
alarmed, and, instead of putting her before the wind, luffed her up into
it. The wind was so high that it forced the brace of the square-sail
out of the hand of the man who was attending it, and instantly upset the
canoe, which would have been turned bottom upward but for the resistance
made by the awning.
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