Intellectual Character of the Esquimaux. 317 
community ; and one of them named Toolemak learned him- 
self to draw very fairly. So it was with Augustus, Sir John 
Franklin’s interpreter; and Sacheuse, who filled the same 
office in Sir John Ross’s expedition to Baffin’s Bay in 1818, 
became sufficiently master of the art as to make a drawing of 
the first interview of the exploring party with the Esquimaux 
of Regent's Bay, which, from its value, was engraved as an 
illustration to the narrative of that expedition. 
We have the strongest evidence that their geographical 
knowledge is as perfect as the most civilized being could pos- 
sibly attain, unassisted by nautical instruments. Iligluik, and 
a native man of the same tribe with herself, drew the coast- 
line from Winter Island to Igloolik, and pointed out the ex- 
istence of the Fury and Hecla Strait, “ with peculiar intelli- 
gence and extraordinary precision ;’’* and two natives of Re- 
gent’s Inlet, named Ikmallik and Tiagashu, were no less ac- 
curate in the delineation of that extraordinary neck of land, 
the Isthmus of Boothia.t+ 
The art of domesticating animals, and turning them to ac- 
count, is no mean proof of intellectual power; an art which 
we find in perfection amongst these people in regard to the 
dog, the only animal they can turn to account in the inhospi- 
table regions they inhabit. Further, if we agree with the 
eminent historian Robertson, that tact in commerce, and cor- 
rect ideas of property, are evidence of a considerable progress 
towards civilization, we must give the Esquimaux credit for 
great intelligence. More of this hereafter. Again, the neat 
mode of arranging their hair and dress, and the women being 
required to labour less than the men—the very reverse of that 
which is generally the case with uncivilized tribes—is further 
proof of intelligence. 
As a test of intellectual power, it is both interesting and 
important to study the first impressions of the uncivilized, 
relative to the arts of civilization. A favourable opportunity 
to watch this trait of character occurred in two men, with 
eachawife and child, natives of Labrador, brought to England 
* Parry’s Second Expedition. 
+ Ross’s Expedition in the Victory. 
