THE SEARCH FOR THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE 237 



their experience with the Eskimos, and presents us with a graphic 

 description of these people, one well worth repeating. "They are,'' 

 he says, "of the color of a ripe olive. They are men very active and 

 nimble. They are a strong people and very warlike, for, in our 

 sight, upon the tops of the hills, they would often muster themselves 

 after the manner of a skirmish, trace their ground very nimbly, and 

 manage their bows and darts with great dexterity. They go clad 

 in coats made of the skins of beasts, as of seals, deer, bears, foxes, 

 and hares. They have also some garments of feathers, being made 

 of the cases of fowls, firmly sewed and compacted together. In 

 summer they use to wear the hair side of their coats outward, and 

 sometimes go naked for too much heat; and in winter, as by signs 

 they have declared, they were four of five fold upon their bodies, 

 with the hair for warmth turned inward. These people are by 

 nature very subtle and sharp-witted, ready to conceive our meaning 

 by signs, and to make answer well to be understood again; and if 

 they have not seen the thing whereof you ask them, they will wink 

 and cover their eyes with their hand, as who would say, it hath 

 been hid from their sight. If they understand you not whereof you 

 asked them, they will stop their ears. They will teach us the name 

 of each thing in their language which we desire to learn, and are 

 apt to learn anything of us. They delight in music above measure, 

 and will keep time and stroke to any tune you shall sing, both with! 

 their voice, head, hand, and foot, and will sing the same tune aptly 

 after you. They will row with our oars in our boats, and keep a 

 true stroke with our mariners, and seem to take great delight 

 therein." 



Frobisher was quickly followed by another notable navigator, 

 John Davis, who made three voyages between 1585 and 1587 in 

 search of a northwest passage, discovering the strait which bears 

 his name and advancing as far as the ?2d degree of north latitude. 

 His remark that he found himself "in a great sea free from ice, 

 neither was there any ice toward the north, but a sea free, large, 



