330 CAPTAIN CARTWRIGHT'S 



'' are much at your service; or, if you please, 

 *' you shall have them both; and, when I return 

 ** next year, if you do not like either one or the 

 ** other, I will take them back again." I thanked 

 him for his extreme politeness and generosity, and 

 told him, that I could not think of depriving him 

 of his good wife and two children, but Avould be 

 contented with the bad one. '' You shall have 

 '' her," said he, '' but before we proceed any far- 

 ** ther in this business, I wish you would mention 

 ^' it to her relations, and obtain their consent." 

 Her father being dead, I sent for her mother and 

 two uncles, who readily gave their consent, and 

 expressed great pleasure at the honor of the alli- 

 ance. I then communicated my wishes to the 

 young lady, but she no sooner understood wdiat 

 they were, than she began to knit her brows, and 

 the instant I had concluded my speech, in which 

 I expatiated on the pleasure, elegance, and afflu- 

 ence which she would experience as my wife, to 

 what she enjoyed in her present state, she con- 

 temptuously replied, " you are an old fellow, and 

 " I will have nothing to say to you." So there 

 ended my courtship; and how polite soever any 

 future refusal may be, yet I must understand the 

 literal meaning to be, as above expressed. 



Friday, July 21, 1786. A number of the Esqui- 

 maux are ill of most violent colds, which they are 

 very subject to; it carries off great numbers of 

 them. The disorder^ being infectious Mr. Col- 



1 Influenza or la grippe is at the present day a very serious and fatal 

 disease among the Labrador Eskimos. 



