MARBLE ISLAND. 203 



■excited to ask them some questions concerning the above ship and 

 sloop, which we were the better enabled to do by the assistance of an 

 Eskimo, who was then in the Company's service as a linguist, and 

 annually sailed in one of their vessels in that character. The account 

 which we received from them was full, clear and unreserved, and the 

 sum of it was to the following purport : 



" When the vessels ariived at this place (Marble Island), it was 

 very late in the fall, and in getting them into the harbour, the largest 

 received much damage; but on being fairly in, the English began to 

 bnild the house, their number at that time seeming to be about 

 fifty. As soon as the ice permitted in the following summer (1720), 

 the Eskimos paid them another visit, by which time the number of 

 the English was greatly reduced, and those that were living, seemed 

 very raihealthy. According to the account given by the Eskimos, tliey 

 were then very busily employed, but about what, they could not easily 

 desci-ibe, probably in lengthening the long-boat, for at a little dis- 

 tance froin the house there is now lyings a great quantity of oak 

 chips, which have been most assuredly made by carpenters. 



" Sickness and famine occasioned such havoc among the Eiiglish 

 that by the setting in of the second winter their number was reduced 

 to twenty. That winter (1720) some of the Eskimos took up their 

 abode on the opposite side ot the liarbour to that on which the English 

 had built their houses, and frequently supplied them with such pro- 

 visions as they had, which chiefly consisted of whales' blubber and 

 seals' flesh and train oil. (I, Hearne, have seen the remains of 

 those houses several times ; they are on the west side of the harbour 

 and in all probability will be discernable for many years to come). 

 When the spring advanced, the Eskimos went to the continent, 

 and on their visiting Marble Island again in the summer of 

 1721, they found five of the English alive, and those were in such 

 distress for provisions that they eagerly ate the seals' flesh and 

 whales' blubber quite raw, as they purchased it from the natives. 

 This disordered them so much that tliree of theni died in a few days, 

 and the other two, though very weak, made a shift to bury them. 

 Tliose two survived many days after the rest and frequently went to 

 the top of an adjacent rock and looked earnestly to the south and 

 east, as if in expectation of some ves.sel coming to their relief. After 

 continuing there a considerable time together, and nothing appearing 

 in sight, they sat down close together and wept bitterly. At length 



