PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES 



would apparently suit the Eskimo quite as well as the Indians, 

 but as we do not know from whence the whole is derived, it is 

 not easy to form an opinion as to which people is really referred 

 to in the description. The remarkable statement that the na- 

 tives are at first white, but turn brown through the cold, will 

 hardly suit the Indians, but might apply to the Eskimo, who at 

 an early age have a very fair skin, perhaps quite as light as the 

 Portuguese. 



What is said of the natives in the letters of Pasqualigo and 

 Cantino seems, on the whole, to suit the Eskimo better than the 

 Indians; typical Eskimo features are: that they had boats 

 covered with hides (it is true that Cantino says stags' hides, 

 i.e., reindeer hides, but this must be a misunderstanding) ; ^ also 

 houses (i.e., tents) of long poles covered with fish skin (i.e., seal- 

 skin) ; that the color of their skin was rather white than any- 

 thing else, that they laughed a good deal and showed much cheer- 

 fulness. It may seem somewhat surprising that the Eskimo 

 should be " a little bigger than our countrymen " (i.e., the Ital- 

 ians), but, in the first place, it may have been particularly good 

 specimens of the race that were exhibited, and in the next place 

 the Eskimo are a race of medium stature, and, perhaps, on an 

 average, quite as tall as Italians and Portuguese. That they were 

 naked with the exception of a piece of skin round the loins an- 

 swers to the indoor custom of the Eskimo. Pasqualigo's descrip- 

 tion, that they were clothed in the skins of various animals, mostly 

 otter, and that the skins were unprepared and not sewed 

 together, but thrown over the shoulders and arms as they were 

 taken from the animals, conflicts with the words of Cantino, and 

 is, no doubt, due to a misunderstanding; it does not sound prob- 

 able. If it is correct, Pasqualigo and Cantino must have seen 

 different natives. 



It is probable that there were Eskimo in the north-east of 

 Newfoundland at that time, and that the natives may have been 

 brought from thence or from southern Labrador. 



iWe do not know that the Indians of Newfoundland had hide-boats; but 

 it is not impossible. 



