TO RADACK. 67 



ready for flight at the slightest grunting. Langin, 

 the most fearful of all, would not venture so 

 near, but climbed along the ropes up the mast, 

 and so looked down upon them. They were al- 

 ready so familiar with my little dog. Valet, that 

 they began to play with him ; but if, in his play, he 

 began to bark, their friendship was at an end, and 

 all my guests were in an instant in the shrouds, 

 and they could not accustom tliemselves to his 

 liveliness during my stay there. They were more 

 pleased with another dog on account of his phleg- 

 matic temper, which I had purchased in Beeiing's 

 Straits ; it was of the kind used in Kamtschatka, 

 for drawing sledges ; his coat resembled that of an 

 ice-bear j being born in a cold country, he could 

 not support the heat, and died of convulsions. 

 After the eyes of the savages were in some de- 

 gree satisfied with objects of luxury, the iron at- 

 tracted their attention ; a piece, for example, as 

 large as an anchor or a cannon, seemed to them a 

 prodigious treasure, and, with the constant cry of 

 Moll ! Moll! they examined every thing with the 

 greatest attention. I gave them all presents to 

 their entire satisfaction, but particularly, besides 

 the two chiefs, to Lagediack, to insinuate myself 

 more and more into his friendship. He was obliged 

 to sit next to me, and I called up all my know- 

 ledge of the language to ask him, whether, besides 

 this group of islands, he was acquainted with any 

 others. My speaking and pantomime were long in 



