M'Keevor's Voyage to Hudson's Say. 37 



About ten o'clock they left us; the greater part of them made 

 towards the shore, to which they were directed by the placid 

 light of a full unclouded moon. We gazed after them for a 

 considerable time, until at length they were lost in the dark 

 and shadowy line of land which lay before us. Those who 

 remained about the ship, slept on the ice the entire night, with 

 merely the interposition of a few seal-skins. Before retiring 

 to rest, I observed them take from their canoes some raw 

 seal's-flesh and bags of blubber, on which they appeared to 

 feast very sumptuously. 



I remarked, that one of them kept watch in turn during 

 the entire night; he walked about on the ice with a harpoon 

 in his hand. *" This I fancy was more from a dread of being 

 attacked by the bears, than from any apprehension they bad 

 of being attacked by the Europeans. A few of us remained 

 on deck until a very late hour; at one time watching every 

 motion of our northern friends, at another, gazing with asto- 

 nishment and delight on the brilliant and impressive scenery 

 with which we were surrounded. While thinking on the 

 miserable condition of the squallid inhabitants of this dreary 

 inhospitable climate, I was forcibly reminded of the following 

 beautiful lines of Cowper : 



" Within the enclosure of your rocks 



Nor herds have ye to boast, nor bleating flocks ; 



No fertilizing streams your fields divide, 



That show, revers'd, the villas on their side: 



No groves have ye ; no cheerful sound of bird, 



Or voice of turtle, in your land is heard ; 



No grateful eglantine regales the smell 



Of those that walk at evening, where you dwell." 



With regard to the diseases to which these poor savages are 

 subject, I must be very brief. From personal observation I 

 learned but little, and from enquiry still less. I may here remark, 

 that I did not observe any appearance whatever of small-pox 

 among them ; neither had the children or parents any marks 

 or deformity of any kind. Indeed, it is said, that they put to 

 death those children that are born hunch-backed, blind, or 

 defective in any limb ; and, in proof of this, it is advanced, 

 that when they have been formed into societies, and that the 

 vigilance of their rulers prevents such murders, the number 

 of the deformed is greater than in any country in Europe. 

 I may remark, however, that this account is denied by very 

 respectable authorities. The only diseases which fell under 

 my observation, if diseases they could well be called, were the 

 affection of the eye-lids, of which I have already spoken ; 

 *pistaxis, or bleeding from the nose, and hypochondriaris ; the 



