Publishers Preface 



to communicate with them otherwise than by signs, 

 as the printed vocabularies and grammars, with 

 which he had been supplied, proved to be inac- 

 curate and practically valueless. 



His house finished and no scholars being forth- 

 coming, he proceeded one day to capture a native 

 lad whom he found on the beach, and, leading him 

 home, taught him several letters of the alphabet and 

 then baked him a cake. This system of rewarding 

 attendance with something to eat rapidly brought 

 other scholars. Older visitors followed, and he 

 soon had a school in active operation and then a 

 lecture-room. 



Prior to Dr. Driggs's arrival, the experiences 

 which the natives had had with the whites had not 

 been universally satisfactory. Outside of rare meet- 

 ings with the officers and crews of the government's 

 revenue cutters, their white acquaintances had been 

 pretty much confined to the class known as " beach- 

 combers," or deserters from the steam-whaling 

 fleet. These are described as a rough, unscrupulous 

 set of fellows, too worthless to obtain better em- 

 ployment in San Francisco, where they are enlisted. 

 Some of these undesirable visitors had already ap- 

 peared at Point Hope and had outrageously abused the 

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