398 FURTHER EXPERIENCES OF DR. HAYES 



The dogs and the harpoons of their drivers must soon finish the murderous 

 work. Petersen was, however, resolved that Sip-su or Kalutunah should 

 pay the penalty of his treachery, if at any moment within range of the rifle." 

 It proved, however, that the Eskimos were not brave enough to make the 

 assault, so Petersen and Godfrey escaped. 



Later, Dr. Hayes writes: 



"November loth. Again the Eskimos appear to us more as our good 

 angels than as our enemies. Under extraordinary temptation, and, doubt- 

 less, at the evil instigation of a bad leader, these poor savages had proposed 

 the death of Petersen and his companion ; but this day two of them, Kalutunah 

 and another hunter, came to us, and threw at our feet a large piece of walrus- 

 beef and a piece of liver. The latter was not yet frozen ; and the animal from 

 which it was taken had, therefore, been recently caught. 



"We were talking about them, in no spirit of love, when they arrived; 

 and, as they came up the hill, various were the expressions of opinion as to 

 what ought to be done with them. One said that we should detain them, 

 and hold them as hostages until their people should have performed their 

 promises ; and that their dogs should be seized, and used in the interval ; but, 

 apart from any consideration of justice, such a proceeding would scarcely 

 have been safe. Another hinted that fourteen dogs would save us from 

 starvation; for, if we should not succeed with them in the hunt, we could 

 kill and eat them. Again, apart from any question how far our necessities 

 overruled the old law of meu7n and tiiimi, it was certain that such a step, 

 whatever its immediate advantages, would bring us ultimately into open, 

 and probably, to our party, fatal hostility with the entire tribe. Perhaps, as 

 the present of food seemed to indicate, we had not exhausted all of our means 

 of negotiation; and, until driven to the last resort, we could not justifiably 

 use the strong hand upon our neighbors' property. Great allowances were 

 obviously to be made for the tribe, upon whom we had no claims except upon 

 grounds of humanity too general for their uninstructed minds." 



It was through these savages that Dr. Hayes and his comrades were able 

 at last to return to the ship, for the food they furnished made new men of 

 the party. They started back late in November. 



"Our movements," says Dr. Hayes, "were like those of men returning 

 from a long journey rather than beginning one. The insufficient food upon 

 which we had been subsisting during the last few days, had so much reduced 

 us that, at the end of the first hour, many of us were more fatigued than we 



