Note 796 — THE THIRD VOYAGE NORTH-WARD TO THE KINGDOMES OF CATHAIA and China, in Anno 1596.
Reading edition
The 17 of July, about the south south-east sunne, 5 of our men went againe to the nearest island to see if there appeared any open water, for our long staying there was no small griefe vnto vs, perceiuing not how we should get from thence; who being halfe way thither, they found a beare lying behind a peece of ice, which the day before had beene shot by vs, but she hearing vs went away; but one of our men following her with a boate-hooke, thrust her into the skinne,796 wherewith the beare rose vp vpon her hinder feet, and as the man thrust at her againe, she stroke the iron of the boat-hooke in peeces, wherewith the man fell downe vpon his buttocks. Which our other two men seeing, two of them shot the beare into the body, and with that she ran away, but the other man went after her with his broken staffe, and stroke the beare vpon the backe, wherewith the beare turned about against the man three times one after the other; and then the other two came to her, and shot her into the body againe, wherewith she sat downe vpon her buttocks, and could scant797 runne any further; and then they shot once againe, wherewith she fell downe, and they smot798 her teeth out of her head. All that day the wind was north-east and east north-east.