﻿252 VISIT OF ESKIMOS. August, 



boats when the tide rose, and would find a pas- 

 sage out to sea at a point on which their winter 

 houses stood, — or, as they invariably termed such 

 stations in their own language, Iglulik. They 

 had not seen any white men on their coast, but 

 with a ready flattery expressed their aff'ection for 

 them. Having been very liberal to my visitors, 

 not only in purchasing all the small articles of 

 traffic they had to offer, but also by making them 

 some useful presents of files, hatchets, and knives, 

 with a considerable quantity of beads, I became 

 tired of their company and of the constant vigi- 

 lance required to prevent them from pilfering, and 

 therefore requested that they would go away, 

 since 1 would give them nothing more. Their 

 smiling countenances and deferential manner pre- 

 vented me from using any threat, but I had to re- 

 peat my request several times, and, at length, from 

 the urgency with which I spoke, one of the women 

 seemed to think that I was afraid of their using 

 violence, and opening the hood of her jacket, she 

 showed me that there was a little naked infant in 

 it. She then explained that when they went to 

 war they left the children behind, and that she and 

 the other women had brought their young ones as 

 a pledge of their pacific intentions. I prevailed 

 upon them at length to go, by assuring them that 

 I would part with nothing more at that time, but 



