10 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 
plan of our route, and still more circumspectly to 
the prospect of return. Such caution on the part 
of the northern mariners forms a singular contrast 
with the ready and thoughtless manner in which 
an English seaman enters upon any enterprise, 
however hazardous, without inquiring, or desiring 
to know where he is going, or what he is going 
about. 3 , 
The brig Harmony, belonging to the Moravian 
Missionary Society, and bound to their settlement 
at Nain, on the coast of Labrador, was lying at 
anchor. With the view of collecting some Esqui- 
maux words and sentences, or gaining any infor- 
mation respecting the manners and habits of that 
people, Doctor Richardson and myself paid her 
a visit. We found the passengers, who were 
going out as Missionaries, extremely disposed to 
communicate ; but as they only spoke the Ger- 
man and Hsquimaux languages, of which we 
were ignorant, our conversation was necessarily 
much confined: by the aid, however, of an Esqui- 
maux and German Dictionary, some few words 
were collected, which we considered might be 
useful. There were on board a very interesting 
girl, and a young man, who were natives of Disco, 
in Old Greenland ; both of them had fair com- 
plexions, rather handsome features, and a lively 
manner; the former was going to be married to 
