‘In the Arctic Regions. 415 
us with much caution, halting when just within 
speaking distance, until they had been assured of our 
friendship, and repeatedly invited by Augustus to ap- 
‘proach and receive the present which I offered to 
them. Augustus next explained to them in detail the 
purport of our visit, and told them that if we suc- 
ceeded in finding a navigable channel for large ships, 
a trade highly beneficial to them would be opened. 
They were delighted with this intelligence, and re- 
peated it 1o their countrymen, who testified their joy 
by tossing their hands aloft, and raising the most 
deafening shout of applause I ever heard. 
After the first present, I resolved to bestow no more 
gratuitously, but always to exact something, however 
small, in return ; the three elderly men readily offered 
the ornaments they wore in their cheeks, their arms, 
and knives, in exchange for the articles I gave them. 
Up to this time the first three were the only kaiyacks 
that had ventured near the boats, but the natives 
around us had now increased to two hundred and fifty 
or three hundred persons, and they all became anxious 
to share in the lucrative trade which they saw estab- 
lished, and pressed eagerly upon us, offering for sale 
their bows, arrows, and spears, which they had hither- 
to kept concealed within their canoes, I endeavored 
in vain, amidst the. clamor and bustle of trade, to ob- 
tain some information-respecting the coast, but finding 
, 
