44 M'Keevor's Voyage to Hudson's Bay. 



Mankind are then taught to connect the idea of happiness 

 with those of dress, equipage, affluence, and all the various 

 amusements which luxury has invented ; thence they become 

 slaves to a thousand imaginary wants, which become the 

 source of envy, discontent, fraud, injustice, perjury, and vio- 

 lence. Thus man becomes the author of moral evil. 



To conclude I may remark, that every kind of life has its 

 peculiar advantages as well as evils. The vices of civilized 

 countries, though more numerous are less terrible. Artificial 

 wants extend the circle of our pleasures ; luxury in the rich, 

 promotes industry and the arts, and feeds and clothes the la- 

 bouring poor, who would otherwise starve ; thus we derive 

 advantage not only from the follies J>ut the vices of each other, 

 Whether, therefore, we pass our life in the rustic simplicity 

 and ignorance of an Esquimeaux Indian, or in the endless plea- 

 sures of refinements and luxury, we shall arrive at the same 

 end, and, perhaps, with an equal portion of happiness, as far, 

 at least, as it depends on external enjoyments, abstracting only 

 the miseries of real want and disease. However various the 

 conditions of mankind may be, the distribution of happiness 

 and misery in life is far from being so unequal as is generally 

 believed ; good and evil are indiscriminately mingled in the 

 Cup of Being: the monarch in his purple, and the beggar in 

 his rags, are exposed to their respective cares and afflictions. 

 Agreeable objects, by possession and familiarity, lose their 

 aptitude and capacity for pleasing, nnd, in every state of life, 

 hope ends in disappointment, and enjoyment in satiety. 



August 4th. The ice beginning to loose for a considerable 

 distance around the ship, we took in our anchors and made 

 sail ; during this day we got several very severe knocks from 

 the ice, in consequence of which we were obliged to keep the 

 pumps going day and night. 



On the 6th we were again visited by the Esquimeaux. 

 Many of the women had their faces tattoed in a very curious 

 manner; one of (hem, whose entire face was almost completely 

 covered with these marks, had her hair collected into large 

 bobs, from which hung several bears-claws. Their principal 

 articles of traffic consisted of dogs, whalebone, and bones of 

 the sea-horse dried, and of a beautiful white colour ; a few 

 had small bags, containing mosses, lichens, and a few other 

 cryptogamous plants. 



The dogs were for the most part white ; some, however, 

 were spotted, and others of a black colour. Their ears are 

 short and erect, and the whole body is covered \vith long hair; 

 their legs and feet resemble very much those of the bear. 

 They do not bark, but make a growling kind of noise. Some- 



