August, IS66.] Hall Endeavors to Hire Men from the Whalers. 285 



On this first visit, intent on tlui one |)iu'|)oso of renewiiiii- Iiis ('X])]o- 

 rations, he expressed his desire to secure from these vessels the five wliite 

 men needed to accompany him ; but he met with httle encourag-ement, 

 for the ships having their bare complement, could hardly be expected 

 to spare a man with justice to the objects of their voyage and their 

 obligations to the owners. This difficult}^, however, Hall at once pro- 

 posed to overcome by securing for the ships as many Innuits as the 

 white men he asked for, and Captain Kilmer then engaged that if his 

 ship could return home in the month of September following, with a 

 full cargo of oil, he would leave the men who might be engaged by 

 Hall, and whatever provisions he would need. 



During the whaling season, assistance was rendered to all the 

 whalers, both by Hall's personal efforts and by his influence with 

 the natives. He made observations for time, and was gratified to 

 learn that the rates which he had given to the ships for their chro- 

 nometers on the previous year, had proved correct. He offered advice 

 as to which whaling-grounds promised the best success ; he sent out 

 his own parties in the hunts to supply the ships with deer-meat ; and 

 for a time nursed in his own tuplk one of the sailors who had the 

 scurvy. 



The captains were much exercised as to their success in whaling, 

 finding it necessary to make several cruises in different directions, and 

 yet without satisfactory results. Morgan, of the Pioneer, before com- 

 ing into the bay had attempted to get down Frozen Strait, but was 

 prevented by the ice. Cruising next west, and then to the southeast 

 down the Welcome, he had found what seemed a passage there into 

 the Duke of York's Bay, but only looked into it, fearing it was shallow, 

 and finding the bay yet filled with ice. Parry's chart was found by 



