228 NEWS OF FRANKLIN'S PEOPLE. Chap. XIV. 



Petersen questioned the woman closely, and she seemed 

 anxious to give all the information in her power. She said 

 many of the white men dropped by the way as they went to 

 the Great River; that some were buried and some were 

 not ; they did not themselves witness this, but discovered 

 their bodies during the winter following. 



We could not arrive at any approximation to the numbers 

 of the white men nor of the years elapsed since they were 

 lost. 



This was all the information we could obtain, and it was 

 with great difficulty so much could be gleaned, the dialect 

 being strange to Petersen, and the natives far more inclined 

 to ask questions than to answer them. They assured us we 

 should find natives upon the south shore of King William's 

 Island only three days' journey from here, and also at 

 Montreal Island ; moreover they said we might find some 

 at the wreck. For these reasons I did not prolong my 

 stay with them beyond a couple of hours. They seemed 

 to have but little intercourse with other communities, not 

 having heard of our visit to the Boothians two months 

 before : one man even asked Petersen if he had seen his 

 brother, who lived in Boothia, not having heard of him 

 since last summer. 



It was quite a relief to get away from these good- 

 humoured, noisy thieves, and rather difficult too, as some 

 of them accompanied us for miles. They had abundance of 

 food, were well clothed, and are a finer race than those who 

 inhabit North Greenland, or Pond's Inlet : the men had 

 their hair cropped short, with the exception of one long, 

 straggling lock hanging down on each side of the face ; like 

 the Boothians, the women had lines tattooed upon their 

 cheeks and chins. 



We now proceeded round a bay which I named Latrobe, 

 in honour of the late Governor of Victoria, and of his 





