176 INTERCOURSE WITH ARCTIC HIGHLANDERS. 



its shores. His account of them, though containing several errors, 

 is given in perfect good faith, and due allowance must of course be 

 made for mistakes of interpretation. 



After an interval of just two centuries, Captain John Boss fol- 

 lowed Baffin into the " North "Water," and was the first European 

 who had intercourse with the inhabitants of its shores — whom 

 he called " Arctic Highlanders." They came off to his ships over 

 the ice, in small parties, between the 9th and 16th of August, 

 1818, and he took much pains to obtain all possible information 

 from them, through his Eskimo interpreter, John Sackheuse ; 

 but he did not land to examine their huts. Sackheuse evidently 

 understood their dialect very imperfectly, and he told Eoss strange 

 stories about a mountain of iron, a king called Tuloowah, who 

 lived in a large stone house, and other marvels. But all that 

 Sir John saw with his own eyes, respecting the dress and appear- 

 ance of his visitors, their sledges and implements, he describes 

 with truth and accuracy. 



Sir John Eoss led the way into the *' North Water," and he 

 was followed during many years by a fleet of whalers who, doubt- 

 less, occasionally communicated with the " Arctic Highlanders ; " 

 but we have no record of these visits, if any such took place. In 

 1849-50 the North Star (store-ship) wintered in W r olstenholme 

 Sound, and her crew had most friendly l-elations with the natives 

 throughout the period of their stay; and in August, 1850, H.M.S. 

 Assistance (Captain Ommanney), with her tender, the Intrepid, 

 communicated with the natives at Cape York. The Intrepid also 

 went into Wolstenholme Sound ; and we took on board a young 

 Arctic Highlander, of whom I shall have more to say presently, 

 as he afforded an excellent opportunity of forming a judgment of 

 the characteristics of this interesting people. The other discovery 

 ships of 1850-51 {Lady Franklin and Sophia, under Captain 

 Penny ; Prince Albert, under Captain Forsyth ; and Felix, com- 

 manded by Sir John Eoss) also had intercourse with the natives 

 at Cape York. In August, 1852, H.M.S. Besolute (Captain Kellett) 

 touched at Cape York; and in the same year Captain Ingletield, 

 in the Isabella, visited the natives of the Petowak glacier, and at 

 a settlement about twenty miles from Cape Parry. Dr. Kane did 

 not see them until his schooner was frozen in for the winter on 

 the eastern shore of Smith Sound, bat he afterwards formed most 

 intimate relations with them during 1853-54-55. One of his 

 officers, Dr. Hayes, was living amongst them for seveial months, 

 and they saved the lives of Kane and his whole crew. Sir Leopold 

 McClintock, in the Fox, communicated with eight natives off Cape 



