﻿240 INTERVIEW WITH ESKIMOS. August, 



of his property as poetical justice for his want of 

 firmness. The umiaks, not being suffered again to 

 approach our boats, soon pulled towards the shore, 

 but the majority of the kaiyaks continued to keep 

 company with us, the men conversing and begging 

 as if nothing unpleasant had occurred. At length, 

 as we had been drawing away from the shore all the 

 morning, we totally lost sight of the land ; and the 

 kaiyaks assembling together, the men held a short 

 consultation, and then paddled towards their en- 

 campment, being guided in their course by a dense 

 column of smoke, which their families on shore had 

 raised. Four or five of them continued to follow us 

 for a short time, after the great body had gone 

 away, evincing their boldness, even when much 

 inferior in numbers, but they, also, went off on 

 receiving some presents, which we could then make 

 to them without fear of misconstruction. 



Our inquiries were directed chiefly to obtaining 

 information of the Discovery Ships, but the Es- 

 kimos, one and all, denied having ever seen any 

 white people, or heard of any vessels having been 

 on their coast. None acknowledged having been 

 present at the various interviews of their coun- 

 trymen with white people in 1826, and perhaps 

 the circumstances attending those meetings might 

 have deterred them from confessing that they 

 were relatives of the parties that assailed Sir John 



