It was within half an hour of sunset when we entered the first wood, and a little after sunset when we came into the plain. We met with nothing in the first wood, except that in a little plain within the wood, which was not above two furlongs over, we saw five great wolves cross the road, full speed one after another, as if they had been in chase of some prey, and had it in view; they took no notice of us and were gone out of sight in a few moments.
Upon this our guide, who, by the way, was a wretched, faint-hearted fellow, bade us keep in a ready posture, for he believed there were more wolves a-coming.
We kept our arms ready, and our eyes about us, but we saw no more wolves till we came through the wood, which was near half a league, and entered the plain. As soon as we came into the plain, we had occasion enough to look about us. The first object we met with was a dead horse, that is to say, a poor horse which the wolves had killed, and at least a dozen of them at work, we could not say eating of him, but picking of his bones rather, for they had eaten up all the flesh before.
We did not think fit to disturb them at their feast, neither did they take much notice of us. Friday would have let fly at them, but I would not suffer him at any means, for I found we were like to have more business upon our hands than we were aware of. We were not half gone over the plain, but we began to hear the wolves howl in the woods on our left in a frightful manner; and presently after we saw about a hundred coming directly towards us, all in a body, and most of them in a line, as regularly as an army drawn up by experienced officers. I scarce knew in what manner to receive them, but found to draw ourselves in a close line was the only way; so we formed in a moment. But that we might not have too much interval, I ordered that only every other man should fire, and that the others who had not fired, should stand ready to give them a second volley immediately, if they continued to advance upon us; and that then those who had fired at first should not pretend to load their fusils again, but stand ready, with every one a pistol, for we were all armed with a fusil and a pair of pistols each man; so we were, by this method, able to fire six volleys, half of us at a time. However, at present we had no necessity, for upon firing the first volley the enemy made a full stop, being terrified as well with the noise as with the fire. Four of them, being shot in the head, dropped; several others were wounded, and went bleeding off, as we could see by the snow. I found they stopped, but did not immediately retreat; whereupon, remembering that I had been told that the fiercest creatures were terrified at the voice of a man, I caused all our company to halloo as loud as we could, and I found the notion not altogether mistaken, for upon our shout, they began to retire and turn about: then I ordered a second volley to be fired in their rear, which put them to the gallop, and away they went to the woods.
This gave us leisure to charge our pieces again, and that we might lose no time, we kept going; but we had but little more than loaded our fusils, and put ourselves into a readiness, when we heard a terrible noise in the same wood on our left, only that it was farther onward the same way we were to go.
The night was coming on, and the night began to be dusky, which made it the worse on our side; but, the noise increasing, we could easily perceive that it was the howling and yelling of those hellish creatures; and on a sudden, we perceived two or three troops of wolves on our left, one behind us, and one in our front, so that we seemed to be surrounded with them; however, as they did not fall upon us, we kept our way forward as fast as we could make our horses go, which, the way being very rough, was only a good large trot; and in this manner we only came in view of the entrance of the wood through which we were to pass, at the farther side of the plain; but we were greatly surprised, when, coming near the lane, or pass, we saw a confused number of wolves standing just at the entrance.