﻿1848. INTERVIEW WITH ESKIMOS. 239 



skirts of his jacket ; and performed other various 

 aggressive acts, evidently with the view of as- 

 certaining to what lengths they might proceed 

 with impunity. The umiaks, which had been kept 

 aloof from the foremost boats, made a push for 

 the third one, and one of them running across 

 her bows, the men and women it contained in- 

 stantly began to plunder the boat, and to struggle 

 with the crew, who^ being only six in number, 

 would have been soon overpowered. Immediately 

 on hearing the reports of the muskets, which were 

 fired in the air merely as signals, I wore my 

 boat round amid the shouts of the Eskimos who 

 were hovering near us, and who thought that I 

 was about to comply with their urgent requests 

 that we should land and encamp in their neigh- 

 bourhood. Hauhng up under the stern of Clark's 

 boat, I declared that I would immediately fire upon 

 the assailants if they did not desist, and my crew at 

 the same time presenting their muskets, the attempt 

 was at once quelled. I found, on subsequent inquiry, 

 that nothing had been carried away but a small 

 box on which the cockswain sat, which contained 

 his shaving apparatus, and some other trifling ar- 

 ticles belonging to himself, together with the boat's 

 ensign. Though vexed at the loss of the latter, I 

 could not but be glad that he was the only one of 

 the crew who sufi'ered, and I looked upon the theft 



