260 A PRIMITIVE TREATY. 



hut, andj bleeding from a mortal womid, had been 

 dragged out and buried in the stones and snow, where 

 the cold and ^he hurt together soon terminated as 

 well his life as his mischief 



Death had made fearful ravages among his people 

 since I had seen them five years before, and he com- 

 plained bitterly of the hardships of the last winter, in 

 consequence of a great deficiency of dogs, the same 

 distemper w^hich swept mine off having attacked those 

 of his people. Indeed, the disease appears to have 

 been universal throughout the entire length of Green- 

 land. But notwithstanding this poverty, he under- 

 took to supply me with some animals, in return for 

 which I was to make liberal presents ; and, as a proof 

 of his sincerity, he offered me two of the four which 

 composed his present team. From Tattarat I after- 

 wards purchased one of his three, and for a fine knife 

 I obtained the fourth one of that hunter's team, the 

 property of Myouk, and the only dog that he pos- 

 sessed. 



The hunters were all well pleased with their bar- 

 gains, for they went away rich in iron, knives, and 

 needles, — wealth to them more valuable than would 

 have been all the vast piles of treasure with which 

 the Inca Atahuallpa sought to satisfy the rapacious 

 Pizarro, or the lacs of rupees with which the luck- 

 less Rajah Nuncomar strove to free himself from the 

 clutches of the remorseless Hastings. And we had 

 made a treaty of peace and friendship, and had rati- 

 fied it by a solemn promise, befitting a Nalegak and a 

 Nalegaksoak. The Nalegak was to furnish the Nale- 

 gaksoak with dogs, and the Nalegaksoak was to pay 

 for them. This exceedingly simple treaty may at 

 first strike the reader with surprise ; but I feel sure 



