February 



OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 101 



While wc were engaged in examining every part of their huts, thoir whole '8-2-2. 

 behaviour wa^ in the highest degree orderly, respectful and good-humoured. 

 They eagerly received the various articles that were given them, either in ex- 

 change for their own commodities, or as presents, but on no occasion impor- 

 tuned us for any thing, nor did the well-known .sound of " pilletay " once 

 escape from them. We had also great reason to believe that these people 

 possessed, in no ordinary degree, the quality of honesty, a quality the more 

 desirable to us, as we had on shore, besides the house and observatory, all 

 our boats and other articles, which, had they been disposed to pilfer, it 

 would have required all our vigilance to guard. If we dropped a glove or 

 a handkerchief without knowing it, they would immediately direct our at- 

 tention to it by pointing, and if the owner had left the hut before they disco- 

 vered it, would run out after him to return it. Numberless instances of a 

 similar kind occurred in the course of our subsequent communication with 

 them, .some of which I shall hereafter have an ojjportunity of relating. 



After remaining with them a couple of hours, and proposing to spend the 

 following day amongst them, we set out on our return to the ships. Being 

 desirous of trying their disposition to part with their children, I proposed to 

 buy a fine lad, named Tooloouk, for the very valuable consideration of a handsome 

 butcher's knife. His father, apparently understanding our meaning, joyfully 

 accepted the knife, and the boy ran into the hut to fetch his mittens, which 

 seemed to be all that he cared for in leaving his home. He then set off with us 

 in high spirits, and at first assisted in drawing a sledge we had purchased to 

 carry our things ; but as he began, by our additional signs, more clearly to 

 comprehend our true meaning, he gradually relaxed in his zeal to accompany 

 our party, and being afterwards overtaken by a number of his companions, 

 he took an opportunity to .slink off among some hummocks of ice, so that 

 when we arrived on board Toolooak was missing. 



. On our reaching the ships, these people expressed much less surprise and 

 curiosity than might naturally have been expected on their first visit, which 

 may, perhaps, in some measure be attributed to their being in reality a less 

 noisy kind of people than most of the Esquimaux to whom we had before 

 been accustomed. Quiet and orderly, however, as they were disposed to be, 

 this first visit shewed them to be as fond of merriment as their countrymen 

 are usually considered ; for, on Captain Lyon's ordering his fiddler up on the 

 Hecla's deck, they danced with the men for an hour, and then returned in 

 high glee and good humour to their huts. 



