648 Newfoundland Adventures. JuNE, 



very slowly. Our people speak of their researches in the interior as ( an 

 unlucky kind of fishing/ and won't repeat them. My female pupil would 

 wear out the patience of the seven sages. She will attend to nothing : 

 in fact, she is still a savage. I need not assure you that she is treated 

 kindly (indeed more like one of my family than a stranger), but nothing 

 seems to efface the memory of the scene she witnessed on the bank of 

 the River of Exploits. I sometimes endeavour to interest her on that 

 subject, but though I am confident she understands our language to a 

 considerable extent, I cannot yet prevail on her to speak a word of it. 

 She is shrewd and observing at times, but wants either the will or the 

 power of fixing her mind on any subject requiring continued attention. 

 It seems that the Esquimaux shot by Simon was a chief, and her hus- 

 band; that she has left a child with her tribe; and that they recognized 

 Paul as a former enemy by his dress. Ursa (the name given to her in 

 jest by a young midshipman of the admiral's party, and since univer- 

 sally adopted by the fishers, who don't trouble their brains about deriva- 

 tions,) has a most powerful propensity to steal ; but her thefts are con- 

 fined to materials of dress or minor articles of apparel, which, when dis- 

 covered in her possession, are always found transformed into baby- 

 clothes. She understood something of sewing when taken prisoner, and 

 it continues to be her only occupation when she thinks she is unobserved. 

 Her bear-skin cloak with the cradle-hood is still stretched on a frame in 

 one of my rooms, which it has completely taken possession of, for none 

 of us can tolerate the effluvia it still retains and dispenses, though the 

 room is well ventilated, and a year has elapsed since the airing process 

 was begun. She evinces a strange apathy to music. The finest airs 

 have been delightfully played and sung in her presence, but she appears 

 as if she heard them not ; though the howling of a dog will attract her 

 attention at any time, for she is quick enough in her perceptions of things 

 that have habitually interested her. When left to herself she is at times 

 lively in her motions ; if interrupted, very irritable ; indeed she seems 

 incapable of either long concealing or long entertaining the feeling of 

 anger; and all her fits of passion generally terminate in a prolonged la- 

 mentation for herself or her absent child. 



" Our threats availed nothing to check the petty thefts that Ursa's 

 maternal feelings continually prompted, so we brought her one day to 

 see a thief flogged in the market-place, and to explain the cause of his 

 punishment. She screamed violently, and in the course of the next week 

 made an attempt to escape, evidently anxious to avoid a similar infliction, 

 which she seems conscious of meriting ; but watchful Simon caught her, 

 and brought her back. He frequently inquires after her proficiency, 

 and is astonished to hear that she does not know her alphabet yet. He 

 recommends me to start her with a rope's end, once or twice a day, and 

 is affronted because I will neither employ it myself nor allow him to use 

 it. He says I am like the dog in the manger. He has never forgotten 

 our difference of opinion respecting Cabot's soul, and shortly after your 

 departure joined the congregation of a rival of mine, a methodist preacher 

 who was formerly a Jersey agent on the island, and is now also a fisher 

 and a schoolmaster. I find it impossible to induce my poor parishioners 

 to pay cheerfully my stipulated fee of one shilling per head per annum ; 

 and as I don't admire quarrelling, I shall very likely make an exchange 

 of parishes shortly; but not before I do all that is possible . for Simon 



