30 THE JEANNETTE ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



Corwin, was ordered on a trip northward to search for 

 tidings of the missing vessels. He Avas also instructed to 

 cruise in the waters of Alaska for the enforcement of the 

 revenue laws, to visit St. Lawrence Island, where many 

 natives had died of starvation, and to endeavor to suppress 

 the traffic in whiskey, which was the principal cause of so 

 much misery. 



Captain Hooper sailed from San Francisco, on his mission 

 of good-will, May 22d, 1880. After touching at Ounalaska, 

 June 9th, the Corwin met heavy ice pitching and grinding 

 along the edge of the pack, and found refuge in a good 

 harbor on the north coast of Nunivak Island, off a native 

 settlement. 



" The inhabitants," says Captain Hooper, " all ran away 

 to the hills as we approached, but on the next day we suc- 

 ceeded in capturing them one man, three women, and three 

 children. They were very much alarmed, and evidently 

 thought they were to be killed. A present of some tobacco 

 soon quieted their fears, and the man was persuaded to 

 come on board, and seemed very much interested in all he 

 saw. A looking-glass astonished him more than all the 

 rest. At first he was alarmed at it, and then, after over- 

 coming his fears, was greatly amused. He did not know 

 the taste of brandy or whiskey, and when offered some 

 made a wry face and spat it out in evident disgust. Hav- 

 ing lived away from civilization, his tastes had not been 

 educated to such a degree. He put his hands upon the 

 stove, and seemed astonished that it burned him, and even 

 tried it a second time to make sure. The houses of the 

 settlement, ten in number, were built of mud and all con- 

 nected by a subterranean passage. They were arranged in 

 a circle, with a common entrance to the passage in the 

 center." 



Following the track of the Jeannettc, Captain Hooper 

 next visited St. Michaels, June 22d, where he met Messrs. 

 Newman and Nelson, two Americans residing there. " These 

 gentlemen," wrote Hooper, "live quite comfortably. They 



