233 



an opportunity of feeing one of them. I 

 have fpoken with many Frenchmen who 

 have feen them, and had them on board 

 their own veflels. I (hall here give a brief 

 hiftory of them, according to their unani- 

 mous accounts. 



THE Efquimaux are entirely different 

 from the Indians of North- America, in re- 

 gard to their complexion and their language- 

 They are almoft as white as Europeans, and 

 have little eyes : the men have likewife 

 beards. The Indians, on the contrary, are 

 copper-coloured, and the men have no 

 beards. The Efquimaux language is faid to 

 contain fome European words. f Their 

 houfes are either caverns or clefts in the 

 mountains, or huts of turf above ground. 

 They never fow or plant vegetables, living 

 chiefly on various kinds of whales, on feals,* 

 , and walruffesj. Sometimes they likewife 



'^.W^ir-priT ,^uwr 



fr The Moravian brethren in Greenland, coming once over 

 with fome Grttnlanders to Tetra Labrador, the Efquimaux ran 

 away at their appearance ; but they ordered one of their 

 Grtenlanders to call them back in his language. The Efqui- 

 maux hearing his voice, and underftanding the language, im- 

 mediately ftopped, came back, and were glad to find a coun- 

 tryman, and wherever they went, among the other Efquimaux t 

 they gave out, that one of their brethren was returned. This 

 proves the Esquimaux to be of a tribe different from any 

 uropean nation, as the Greenland language has no fimilarity 

 with any language in Europe. F. 



* Phoca vitulina. Linn. 



' J rricbechw re/maw. Linn. 



catch 



