Honest Records. 433 



notes say : " Nothing- but an experience of years could enable me to 

 control such untamable eagles," Unquestionably, the known presence 

 of the whalers in Eepulse Ba}' had much to do with his maintenance 

 of authority, and next to this was his ability to supply the wants of 

 the natives when suffering ; and yet, perhaps, above both of these 

 must be placed his politic concession to their low prejudices and his 

 self-control. Very frequently in the journals appear proofs of his hasty 

 judgments, and of suspicions of evil intended against himself by the 

 whaling captains as well as by the Innuits ; but as frequently appear 

 also proofs of his repressing such feelings, and recording his regrets at 

 his having given place to them in his notes or in his heart. The nu- 

 merous delays experienced by his restless spirit from the indolence and 

 especially from the superstitions of the natives — delays at- critical 

 times too — were trying to his temper. They were placed to the 

 wrong account when they gave room for his imagination to credit 

 them to purposes of evil design. But his feelings were naturally 

 stirred Avith something besides pity when he found himself unable to 

 obtain proper subsistence in the hut or move forward on a journey, 

 l)ecause the Innuits would neither eat nor suffer others to eat a certain 

 kind of food on a given day, or work until a certain time had passed : — 

 To estimate all of which aright, Hall must be thought of as a single 

 white man, alone among the degraded and habituating himself to 

 such degraded modes of life with them as can be excused only in the 

 light of his subordinating everything to his one purpose, and the 

 necessity of his so living in order to avoid the visits of scurvy.* 



* In confirmation of the opinions just expressed, as derived from Hall's journals, the follow- 

 ing extracts are given, by permission, from the journal of Mr. William Craue, jr., of Baltimore, 

 Md., who in the summer of 1867 visited Hall from the Era, commanded byCapt. George E. Tyson. 



" Thuksday, August 15, 1867. — At 12 m., took in sail and ran in under jib and foresail into a 



S. Ex. 27 28 



