CREW TRAFFIC WITH THE ESQUIMAUX. 39 



dealings, habits, and manners, more especially as 

 respects stealing, they fully verified the various 

 accounts that have already appeared in print : 

 for, though sentinels were posted at different 

 parts of the ship purposely to prevent pilfering, 

 and not one of them was allowed to come on 

 board, yet so dextrous were they that, in spite 

 of all our vigilance, they contrived to cut away 

 two or three fathoms of rope from alongside the 

 ship. When the crew had purchased what they 

 required, wearied with their incessant clamours, 

 I ordered the men on board, and bade our noisv 

 visiters leave us. Some, and among them the 

 women, obeyed, but many, principally young 

 men, lingered for some time about the ship, 

 singing, laughing, and shouting according to 

 their several fancies. 



Having passed the island and opened the 

 North Bluff, a number of smaller and lower 

 islands became visible above the ice, showing the 

 place where Baffin had been in 1665. The wind 

 fell as it had done for some days past, at the com- 

 mencement of the ebb, about 3 h p. m., but the 

 ship still going slowly a-head, without losing 

 ground or being obliged to make fast to ice, 

 cheered us with the hope of a satisfactory 

 progress. The night was cloudy and calm, with 

 sometimes a high flow of wind from different 



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