TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 141 



force acting on any given race from without, but by internal necessity, and the 

 pressure of population ; by peaceful, not by hostile force ; by prosperity, not by 

 misfortune. I believe that of old, as now, founders of new colonies were men of 

 energy and enterprise ; animated by hope and courage, not by fear and despair ; 

 that they were, in short, anything but mere outcasts of the human race. 



The Duke relies a good deal on the case of America. " Is it not true," he asks, 

 " that the lowest and rudest tribes in the population of the globe have been found 

 at the furthest extremities of its great continents, and in the distant islands which 

 would be the last refuge of the victims of violence and misfortune ? ' The New 

 World ' is the continent which presents the most uninterrupted stretch of habitable 

 land from the highest northern to the lowest southern latitude. On the extreme 

 north we have the Esquimaux, or Inuit race, maintaining human life under 

 conditions of extreniest hardship, even amid the perpetual ice of the Polar Seas. 

 And what a life it is ! Watching at the blow-hole of a seal for many hours, in a 

 temperature of 75° below freezing-point, is the constant work of the Inuit hunter. 

 And when at last his prey is struck, it is his luxury to feast upon the raw blood 

 and blubber. To civilized man it is hardly possible to conceive a life so wretched, 

 and in many respects so brutal as the life" led by this race during the long lasting 

 night of the arctic winter." 



To this question I confidently reply. No, it is not true ; it is not true as a general 

 proposition that the lowest races are found furthest from the centres of continents ; 

 it is not true in the particular case of America. The natives of Brazil, possessing 

 a country of almost unrivalled fertility, surrounded by the most luxuriant vegeta- 

 tion, watered by magnificent rivers, and abounding in animal life, were yet 

 unquestionably lower than the Esquimaux *, whom the Duke pities and despises so 

 nuicht- More, indeed, I think than the case requires. Oiu- own sportsmen 

 willingly undergo great hardships in pursuit of game ; and hunting in reality pos- 

 sesses a keen zest which it can never attain when it is a mere sport. 



" When we rise," says Mr. Ilillf, " twice or thrice a day from a fuU meal, we 

 cannot be in a right frame either of body or mind for the proper enjoyments of the 

 chase. Our sluggish .spirits then wants the true incentive to action, "which should 

 be hunger, with the hope before us of filling a craving stomach. I coidd remem- 

 ber once before being for a long time dependent upon the gun for food, and feeling 

 a touch of the charm of a savage life (for every condition of humanity has its good 

 as well as its evil), but never till now did I "fully comprehend the attachment of 

 the sensitive, not drowsy Indian." 



Esquimaux life, indeed, as painted by our Arctic voyagers, is by no means so 

 miserable as the Duke supposes. Capt. Parry, for ins"tance, gives the following 

 picture of an Esquimaux hut. " In the few opportunities we had in putting their 

 hospitality to the test we had every reason to be pleased with them. Both as to 

 food and accommodation, the best they had were always at our service ; and their 

 attention, both in kind and degree, was everything that hospitality and even good 

 breeding could dictate. The kindly offices" of drying and mending our clothes, 

 cooking our provisions and thawing snow for our drink, were performed by the 

 women with an obliging cheerfulne.ss which we shall not easily forget, and which 

 demanded its due share of our admiration and esteem. While thus their guest 1 

 have passed an evening not only with comfort, but with extreme gratification ; for 

 with the women working and singing, their husbands quietly mending their lines, 

 the children playing before the door, and the pot boiling over the blaze of a cheer- 

 ful lamp, one might well forget for the time that an Esquimaux hut was the scene 

 of this domestic comfort and tranquillity ; and I can safely affirm with Cartwright 

 that, while thus lodged beneath their roof, I know no people whom I would more 

 confidently trust, as respects either my person or my property, than the Esquimaux." 

 Dr. Rae§, who had ample means of judging, tells us that "the Eastern Esquimaux 

 " are sober, steady, and faithful Provident of their own property and 



* See Martius, p. 77. Dr. Eae ranks the Esquimaux above the Eed Indians (Trans 

 Ethn. Sec. 18Q6). 



t When the Duke states that " neither an agricultural nor pastoral life is possible on the 

 borders of a frozen sea," he forgot for the moment the inhabitants of Lapland and of Siberia. 



+ Travels in Siberia, vol. ii. p. 288. § Trans. Ethn. Soc. 1866. p. 138. 



