1830.] Newfoundland Adventures 649 



and his comrades by fair means, to render their prize worthy of the 

 admiral's premium, fa yet she is altogether ungovernable and useless. 



" My rival manages his congregation admirably. He prays and 

 preaches gratuitously, but makes a respectable charge per head for teach- 

 ing the little sinners their A, B, C. His flag is flying while I write, to 

 summon the elect to his class meeting ; and I see Simon and Sebastian 

 moving on with the rest to luxuriate in his outpourings. He and Simon 

 have struck an average of opinions on the subject of our schism. He 

 admitted, that ' if it pleased Heaven, Cabot might have had a soul :' but 

 Simon insists on this version ' Cabot may have a soul, if it pleases Hea- 

 ven ;' and the preacher thinks it prudent to acquiesce in the amendment. 



" I am informed that two more Esquimaux women have lately been 

 caught by another exploring party in the interior, and are now under the 

 admiral's care at St. John's." * * * 



* * * * * * 



Home business still prevented my return to Newfoundland, but our 

 Jersey fishers at last brought me the following letter from Mr, English, 

 dated two years after his first communication. 



" Toulinguet, 12th August, 1820. 



* * * * * * 



" The admiral visited us during his rounds last month, and appeared 

 much disappointed at the continued intractability of my pupil Ursa. 

 Excepting her increased knowledge of the English language, she is very 

 little altered for the better. He observed that she possesses the same air 

 of distrust, anxiety, and occasional abstraction, which marked the wan- 

 dering character of her mind when first captured, and which is also 

 common to her two countrywomen. They are to be sent back to the 

 interior (well furnished with proofs of British liberality) on his return 

 to St. John's. 



" He endeavoured to interest Ursa respecting the condition of her own 

 people, for whom he had brought presents of some value, and which she 

 was to be intrusted with ; but whatever kindly feelings his generosity 

 excited, were still shrouded beneath the same restless uneasiness, indi- 

 cative of some powerful train of feelings whose source lay in the past, and 

 which engrossed her whole being. Fear and sorrow were evidently up- 

 permost, and are almost the only emotions she has of late exhibited. 

 Once, and but once, I beheld her moved to sympathy. 'Twas by the 

 sight of an infant in the arms of an Irish lady who came on a visit at the 

 house. She gazed on the child with an absorbing earnestness, that moved 

 the anxiety of the mother for its safety : but there was nothing to fear. 

 Ursa with tears in her eyes explained to her in broken English, that she 

 had left an infant of a similar age with her tribe when she was captured, 

 for whom she had never ceased to grieve. 



" On the first of this month, I embarked with Simon and his five com- 

 rades to convey this poor creature to the district where we had found 

 her three years ago, and where we hoped to fall in with some of her 

 countrymen, on whom the sight of her wealth, and the account she could 

 give of her good treatment, might produce their natural effect on a race 

 so needy, and at the same time so distrustful, as the Esquimaux. Her 

 cloak was now delivered to her along with the admiral's gifts ; and even 

 her baby-clothes were restored, that no unfavourable impression might 

 remain on her memory. The greater part of the voyage she was obsti- 



M. M. New Series. VOL. IX. No. 54. 4 O 



